In 2017, King’s Community Church Southampton, the church I lead, hosted a Luther 500 conference to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. It was a wonderful time celebrating the great truths that Luther rediscovered, such as justification by faith alone, the authority of Scripture, and the priesthood of all believers. We enjoyed great contributions from people such as Glen Scrivener, Michael Reeves, and Andrew Wilson. We also ate lots of bratwurst, drank German beer, and watched a powerful one-person dramatization of Mark’s Gospel.

Tyndale 500 promises to take my Reformation celebrations to a whole new level. The event will, of course, mark the 500th anniversary of the publication of William Tyndale’s New Testament, the first-ever translation of the Scriptures into English from the original Greek. Tyndale, who was martyred for his faith and his translation work in 1536, is unquestionably the most important influence on English evangelicalism in the Reformation period. His New Testament not only changed Christianity in the English-speaking world but also had a hugely important influence - arguably even greater than Shakespeare’s - on English culture.

Speakers at the conference will include Glen Scrivener, Andrew Wilson, John Stevens, John Risbridger, Natalie Williams, and myself. Other highlights will include a virtual tour of the Reformation by Ben Virgo of Christian Heritage London and a brand-new performance by Stefan Smart, who gave us Mark’s Gospel in 2017. For the last couple of years, Stefan has been committing the Acts of the Apostles to memory, and he will be performing it for the very first time at the conference.

There will also be two interviews and book launches at the conference. I will be interviewing Terry Virgo, the founder and elder statesman of Newfrontiers. I have recently written an authorised biography of Terry, which will be launched at the event. We will also be launching a 21st-century Toposa equivalent of Tyndale’s English New Testament. My friend Simon Fry has been working in South Sudan for the last 20 years. When he began, the Toposa tribe was an unreached people group with only a handful of believers. Not any more - today there are thousands of Toposa believers and, at Tyndale 500, we will be celebrating the publication of the first-ever Toposa New Testament, translated by James Lokuuda, a local pastor who has worked faithfully over many years with the Tyndale Bible translators.

Five hundred years after Tyndale, his work continues. Jesus promised that the gospel would be preached to every people group, and then the end will come (Matthew 24:14). I would love you to join us and be part of our celebrations on 5th and 6th November at King’s Community Church. We are one minute from Junction 7 of the M27. You can book here.