Speaker

Ade Birkby

7 talks from Ade Birkby.

27 September 2026 · Ade Birkby

The Parable of the Talents and the Comparison Trap

Ade Birkby joins Crowd from North Wales to explore the Parable of the Talents and what it says about comparison culture. Drawing on a 2023 UK study, where 93% of young people felt pressure to compare themselves online, he shows that the third servant's failure started not with laziness but with a single sideways glance. Even one talent was worth around £780,000, so the size of our assignment was never the point, the way we steward it is. God prefers messy, risk-taking faith over safe, buried faith. It's not what you've got, it's how you use it.

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Psalms
9 August 2026 · Ade Birkby
When Mindfulness Isn't Enough
Ade Birkby takes on the question of why peace stays out of reach even when we do the sensible things. He looks honestly at what mindfulness, green space, close friendships and digital boundaries genuinely achieve, and where they run out. Then he turns to Psalm 16, a psalm David wrote while he was being hunted, and draws out three moves David makes. Choosing a stronghold to stand in, accepting the reality he has actually been given, and resting on a future that is already settled. Along the way, a useful distinction. Happiness needs a good day. Joy does not.
Jesus the Revolutionary
19 July 2026 · Ade Birkby
When Helping Someone Costs You Something
Most of us are happy to help people. What we are less keen to do is help when it is going to cost us something. In this talk from the Jesus the Revolutionary series, Ade Birkby takes us on a journey through the Good Samaritan, walking the Jericho road that people called the Path of Blood, explaining why the priest and the Levite had a genuinely good reason to keep walking, and tracing the nine hundred years of hatred that made a Samaritan hero unthinkable. Ade, along with Dan Orange and Mike Harris, then explores why receiving help can be so much harder than giving it.
Jesus the Revolutionary
31 May 2026 · Ade Birkby
When Having Everything Isn't Enough
Ade Birkby explores what success is actually for, using the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19 as his guide. Zacchaeus was the most powerful, wealthy man in Jericho — and the most isolated. Jesus called him by name, went to his house, and something shifted. The community unpacks why honest, hard-earned success is not unbiblical, but why its purpose is generosity and community, not accumulation. With honest conversation about discipline, desire, and the cost of real giving, this is a talk for anyone who's wondered why having more hasn't made them feel like enough.
Easter Messages
29 March 2026 · Ade Birkby
Facing the Unfaceable
What do you do when life hits hard and God doesn't step in the way you expected? Ade Birkby takes us to the Garden of Gethsemane — an industrial olive press, not a peaceful park — and shows us a Jesus who was honest about his anguish, cried out to God with everything he had, and then chose to walk towards the cross when escape was right there. This Easter talk explores why God isn't a shelter from hardship but promises to be with us through it, why unmet expectations drive people from faith, and how community and one-day-at-a-time trust can carry us through.
Christmas Message
14 December 2025 · Ade Birkby
The Nativity's Unsung Hero
What can the most overlooked character in the nativity story teach us about service, success, and what really matters? Ade Birkby makes the case for the Christmas donkey—faithful, hardworking, and content to step back once the job was done. In our age of main character syndrome, these might be exactly the traits we need to rediscover.
Sacred Rhythms
10 August 2025 · Ade Birkby
Ancient Wisdom for Modern Chaos (Sacred Rhythms Part 2)
Feeling overwhelmed by constant negative news and global uncertainty? Ade Birkby explores how biblical wisdom offers a completely different approach to chaos than our anxiety-driven culture. Through personal experience with his wife's chronic illness, discover three ancient principles that bring peace without denying reality - viewing uncertainty through eternal perspective, choosing what shapes your mind, and embracing simple rest over complex holidays.

Ade Birkby

The Parable of the Talents and the Comparison Trap

When Mindfulness Isn't Enough

When Helping Someone Costs You Something

When Having Everything Isn't Enough

Facing the Unfaceable

The Nativity's Unsung Hero

Ancient Wisdom for Modern Chaos (Sacred Rhythms Part 2)