The Profile

Is there such a thing as a Calvinist comedy writer? Yes, there is! And his name is James Cary. The 42 year old self professing sit-com geek has worked on the BBC’s Miranda , My Family and Bluestone 42 . He’s written plays including A Monk’s Tale and most recently A Turbulent Priest . He is also member of the Church of England’s general synod. In this in-depth conversation with Premier Christianity...

Premier’s Lady T meets the woman who has been dubbed “Britain’s godmother of gospel". Karen Gibson is the founder and director of The Kingdom Choir, which is best known for performing ‘Stand by Me’ at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. In this in depth conversation, Karen shares her story and recounts what it was like to be involved in such a momentous occasion. The Profile is brought...

Premier’s Ian Britton sits down with the Christian author and international speaker Simon Ponsonby on this week’s show. Growing up, Simon was aware of a strong spiritual heritage and can remember attending Exclusive Brethren church services. Later in life, he “lost the plot” and turned away from God. “My most intense prayers were the girls I’d slept with wouldn’t get pregnant”, he remembers. In th...

Imagine authoring a book that sells millions of copies around the world. Then imagine receiving messages, years later, from people who say they were deeply damaged and hurt by your work. What would you do? Joshua Harris was just 21 when  I Kissed Dating Goodbye  was released. His book warned that dating could cause irreparable emotional damage. The solution was to embrace courtship – where couples...

Dr Phil Fernandes is Senior Pastor of Trinity Bible Fellowship and president of the Institute of Biblical Defense. As a Christian apologist, he has engaged in debates with sceptics across the USA for decades. In this edition of the show he sits down with Justin Brierley for a live audience conversation at Quilcene Bible Church. GET THE PODCAST - via  iTunes  or  Podbean Listen to more of Dr Phil F...

In part one of this week’s show, Premier Christian Radio’s Rachel Adebiyi meets Casey J, the Atlanta-born gospel singer best known for her hit song "Fill Me Up". She talks about her heart for serving other Christians and why this comes before other labels such as “artist”. She also reveals why she’s nervous about releasing her second album  The Gathering . In part two, Sam Hailes meets three of th...

It’s a double bill of The Profile this week. In part one, YCW’s Ruth Jackson interviews Dan & Jo Watson, the youth and young adults pastors at Hillsong Church UK. They speak openly about the challenges of ministering together as a husband and wife, where the line is between publicly talking about struggles and leading well and why Hillsong has attracted so many young people. In part two, Sam Haile...

In his early years as a marriage counselor, Dr Gary Chapman noticed how couples would voice similar complaints regarding their marriage. One would say, "I feel like he doesn’t love me." The other would protest, "I don’t know what else to do! I’m doing everything I should be doing." Recognising a pattern, Dr Chapman asked himself, “When someone said, ‘I feel like my spouse doesn’t love me,’ what do...

Brian Broderson is the senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa in California. He speaks to Justin Brierley about his conversion as a young surfer dude and his ministry with wife Cheryl in the USA, UK and Eastern Europe. After his father-in-law Chuck Smith (the founder of Calvary Chapel) passed away in 2013, Brian took over leadership of the flagship church in Costa Mesa and the Calvary Chapel N...

The 105th Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby took office nearly six years ago. He quickly rose through the ranks of the Church of England after becoming a Priest in his late 30s. His appointment as Archbishop married his strategic skills as a former oil executive with a full bodied faith, nurtured as a member of Holy Trinity Brompton, one of the UK's leading charismatic evangelical churches. Si...

Life completely changed for Simon Edwards in September 2009 when he became a Christian in his prison cell. Up until then, he had been in and out of prison, caught up in burglary, drug dealing and violence. He had received threats to his life from drug gangs. His crimes culminated in a life sentence, with a minimum of six years, for armed robbery. At his lowest point he attempted suicide, but then...

Music can go to a lot of places where the preachers can't go. That's one of the things Tim Jupp discovered while touring the world as part of the band Delirious? Whether he was playing in front of the Pope, or touring Asia with Joyce Meyer, Tim was  able to interact with Christians of all backgrounds and denominations. In this in-depth interview, he reminisces about his 17 years playing keyboards...

Francis Chan left his thriving US megachurch, turned his back on the fame that ministry had brought him and moved his family to a developing country. But whatever you do, don’t call him a radical. Sam Hailes hears the full story. Read this interview in the latest issue of Premier Christianity magazine. Request a free copy    

Dr John Dickson is an Australian Bible scholar, Anglican minister and writer. He is the founder of The Centre for Public Christianity (CPX) in Australia and the author of books such as The Doubters Guide to Jesus . He tells Justin Brierley about how he found faith, life in an an evangelistic rock band, helping Hillsong write their song 'The Creed', making the case for Jesus to sceptics, and his ne...

It's a double bill on The Profile this week. In the first part of the show, Premier's Eno Adeogun sits down with Don Moen - the writer of many classic worship songs including 'God will make a way', 'Give thanks' and 'Our Father'. The pastor, producer and former president of Integrity Music explains how in his early ministry, he would play 1,000 concerts a year. This relentless touring schedule con...

Phil Loose is the managing director of one of the biggest Christian music labels in the world. In this in-depth interview, the managing director of Integrity Europe shares what he's learned from working as a church leader, a session musician and most recently, a record label boss.  Premier Christianity 's Sam Hailes puts a selection of tricky questions to Phil including, "Why do some worship songs...

Jackie Pullinger’s classic autobiography  Chasing the Dragon  remains a best-seller among evangelicals, despite being released more than 30 years ago. It tells the story of how this plucky young woman from Croydon boarded a ship with nothing but a £10 note and a prayer that God would show her where to get off. When the boat pulled into Hong Kong in 1966, God ordered her to disembark and Pullinger...

It's a double bill of The Profile this week. In the first part of today's show, Alex Williams interviews Jack Philips about the much-discussed 'gay cake' case. The Colorado baker cited religious reasons when declining to make a cake for a gay couple. He was taken to court over the decision and the case reached the USA's supreme court, where Phillips won. In this interview, the Christian opens up a...

US Messianic Jew, author and radio host Michael Brown joins Justin Brierley to tell his conversion story in a wide ranging interview covering the hot-button issues Michael engages in. As a Jewish kid into rock music, Michael became addicted to hard drugs, but had a radical conversion to Christ. Today he debates with Jews and LGBT proponents, defends Charismatic Christianity, runs a popular broadca...

"I'll punch your face in, mate". That's what Mez Mcconnell said to a fellow student while he was at Bible college. "I guess the guys weren't ready for that kind of discourse," he says, looking back. Mez was involved in violent crime from the age of 14. He committed fraud, spent time in prison and describes his teenage years as "manic" and "wild". So when he became a Christian, a lot had to change....

You know you’re famous when you have a Wikipedia page, and Tim Alford's band achieved that (and more!). The four-piece Christian rock band known as [dweeb] was founded by Tim in 2002 and after nine years of success, including multiple EPs, albums and tours - in both the Christian and mainstream worlds - they split. Tim has since gone on to do schools work, and has become the head of Limitless, the...

Many Christians are wary of engaging with anything remotely spooky, but Baptist minister Rev Peter Laws takes a different approach. Born with "the spooky gene", Peter is fascinated by the macabre. From his early life before coming to faith, to his time as a youth worker and now ordained minister, Peter has always been interested in Halloween, witches, ghosts and horror films. In his conversation w...

Don't assume a generation can only be touched through walking into a Church building. That's Martin Smith's message in this in-depth interview. The former Delirious? frontman is more convinced than ever that God can work miracles through the music that's played in pubs and clubs (and the Almighty isn't reliant on that music carrying a 'Christian' label in order for him to work supernaturally). The...

For more than three decades Rick Warren has been an incredibly influential Christian leader in the USA. Saddleback Church, planted from scratch by a 26-year-old Warren and his wife Kay in 1980, quickly grew in size as the fledgling pastor’s down-to-earth sermons drew increasingly large crowds. Today more than 20,000 people attend weekend services at the multi-site church in Orange County, Californ...

The writer of one of the bestselling works of Christian fiction of all time drops by the studio this week for a chat with Claire Musters. Redeeming Love has sold millions of copies and been translated into over 28 languages. Francine Rivers has won countless awards for her writing, but many of them are in a cupboard in her garage! "In the Christian world we shouldn't be raising one above the other...