How do adults come to faith in Jesus in Britain today? It is one of the most important questions the church can ask — and now there is new research to help answer it.

Fresh Streams, a network within the Baptist Union of Great Britain, is partnering with the Evangelical Alliance to host a series of Equipping Days for church leaders, built around new research titled Finding Jesus: Identifying pathways to faith in adulthood. The research, announced on 10 March 2026, surveyed nearly 300 adults who have recently converted to Christianity, exploring the experiences, relationships, and moments that led them to faith.

The findings are both encouraging and challenging. They suggest that personal relationships remain the most significant factor in adult conversion — that people come to faith not primarily through programmes or events, but through sustained, authentic friendship with Christians who live out their faith naturally. They also highlight the importance of belonging before believing: many new believers describe feeling welcomed and included in a Christian community before they had made any personal commitment to faith.

For church leaders, the implications are significant. The Equipping Days are designed to help leaders reflect on what these findings mean for how they lead their churches — not just their evangelism programmes, but their culture, their welcome, and the quality of their community life.

'We want to help churches become the kind of places where people naturally encounter Jesus,' said a Fresh Streams spokesperson. 'That means thinking carefully about everything from how we greet newcomers to how we talk about faith in everyday conversations.'

The Equipping Days are open to church leaders from across denominational traditions. Details of dates and locations are available on the Baptist Union website.