Rotherham: you may have never heard of it, this small ex-steel works and mining community in the heart of South Yorkshire. Or maybe you are familiar with the stories of grooming gangs, child sexual exploitation, racial tension and riots. But maybe you are not aware of the revival that is taking place in Rotherham and South Yorkshire, that is an echo of what God is doing across the whole of our nation.
God’s light always shines the brightest in the darkest of places. Within a mile of the infamous hotel that once hosted asylum seekers and was the focus of racial hatred, is the beautiful Manvers Lake.
I serve as the Senior Leader of Liberty Church in Rotherham and we have a vision to plant a Church in every postcode area of the town. Our 4th church plant was established in the Boathouse at Manvers Lake in 2024.
When reading through the ministry of Jesus we can easily imagine that at least 75% of his ministry took place besides a lake.
As we met in the Boathouse, at the Lake, every Sunday, our location Pastor, Michael Olofin, began to dream of seeing a public baptism in Manvers Lake.
On 31 August 2025, we held our first United public baptism with 55 people getting baptised.
On the day we had 11 first time commitments to Christ, 6 of whom were baptised on the day.
The lake itself was created in 1997, at the location of an old coal mine, and last year I had the privilege of meeting an old Christian miner - who had prayed for his colleagues, and for the location, for a mighty move of God in the area.
There was a prophecy spoken many years ago that said “God will set on fire the communities that once mined coal” and we believe the fires are truly kindled.
Just 25 miles from Manvers Lake is the River Trent - where we find the old river ford at Littleborough.
In 628 AD St Paulinus was sent to re-evangelise the English - after a hugely successful mission, he took his new converts to the River Trent and there in the presence of King Edwin, he held a mass baptism. In fact mass baptisms feature prominently in the historical writings of the Venerable Bede across the North of England.
We have believed and prayed for many years that what the Lord did then, he will do again - that the rivers and lakes of this nation will once again host mass public baptisms.
A number of local churches started to meet together once a month for fellowship, friendship and prayer - and together they began to believe and plan for the next United public baptism.
On Sunday 12 July 2026 we hosted our second United public baptism - where we saw 80 people go through the waters of baptism.
Twenty local churches gathered together to take part in the event and many other churches just came along to support and to join the celebrations.
The event really reflected the beautiful diversity of the Church in South Yorkshire - from a wide variety of denominations and cultural and national backgrounds.
We had worship teams from Asian, African, Caribbean, Eastern European, as well as British and multicultural churches.
The weather was perfect - wall to wall blues skies - 25 degrees and a lovely gentle breeze. There was a free community BBQ, youth and children's activities.
Manvers Lake is a very popular place for a Sunday afternoon stroll and we saw over 2,000 people in and around the event on the day.
The prayer tent was very busy with people giving their lives to Jesus - recommitting themselves to him and receiving prayer for healing and restoration.
Psalm 133 speaks of how unity amongst the believers is a catalyst to see the blessing of God break out on our community. We believe that revival fires are burning and many churches are growing, and the days are coming when the hills and valleys of apathy in Yorkshire will echo again with praise of Jesus - making his name famous throughout the land.
Someone once said a rising tides lifts all boats and it is our heart, not for one church to grow at the expense of others, but for each and every church to grow and flourish as the spiritual tide turns in our nation.
The message translation of Matthew 5 says this: “You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill."
If ever there was a time for the church to stop hiding and start going public on this, it is now!
Adrian Dexter is Senior Pastor of Liberty Church Rotherham.
