British church leaders Steve and Esther Uppal have issued a stark online warning to Western congregations, urging them to adopt a “wartime mentality” and prepare for what they describe as imminent societal disruption and “great shakings.”
The warning is delivered in a recent YouTube video titled Sober Urgent Warning For The Church, in which the couple outline “days of great change and challenge” ahead and speak of “major unrest” and “real disruption” that they believe will particularly intensify around 2027. In an interview with Premier Christianity, Steve Uppal said, “The Church is asleep. We need to adopt a wartime mentality. Trouble is ahead,” and shared his conviction that a combination of factors will lead to civil unrest, though he stopped short of describing it as civil war. The video, highlighted by UK prayer network Call the Nation to Prayer, is framed there as “an honest conversation about what God has been saying, what a wartime mentality actually means, and the five tactics the enemy uses to confuse, distract, disorient, dilute and deter you,” stressing that “it isn’t fear, it’s a wake-up call.”
Steve and Esther Uppal lead All Nations Church, a large evangelical congregation based in Wolverhampton, England, and are increasingly prominent voices in national prayer movements. Steve’s ministry website describes his focus on raising “a generation of burning ones” who live in deep communion with Christ, reflecting a long-standing emphasis on revival and holiness. The Evangelical Alliance profiles him as a key figure in UK-wide calls to prayer and notes that recent initiatives have “spurred [him] on to go again,” suggesting that the current warning is part of a sustained push rather than a standalone message.
Their latest appeal builds on a prayer campaign earlier in the year called “Turn the Battle,” a three-day initiative held from 21–23 January 2026 that invited churches and believers across the UK to fasting and united intercession. In a statement for that event, Steve said he had sensed “a strong and growing conviction that the Church in the UK must be freshly aligned with God’s purposes in this critical hour,” drawing on Isaiah 28:6 and calling the Church to “turn the battle at the gate” through focused prayer. He emphasised that Turn the Battle was “not for a conference or an event, but for a movement of united, intentional prayer,” and spoke of “the beginnings of revival” alongside a recognition of “the battle at the gate — a moment of decision for the Church and the nation.”
Esther Uppal has echoed and expanded this sense of urgency in her own public reflections, particularly through the Turn the Battle team’s messaging. On the team page she writes that she believes “a trumpet sound has been released over our nation — a call to attention, a call to prayer, and a call to worship,” referencing Jeremiah 6:17. She describes the present season as “an Esther moment,” citing Esther 4:8 and calling women and men to petition “the King for mercy” on behalf of the nation. “These are dark days (Isaiah 60), but the Church has been positioned for purpose — to speak up, stand in the gap, and intercede for the nation,” she adds, urging believers to gather to “pray, to fast, and to believe that mourning will turn to celebration,” language that closely matches the tone of the new warning video.
The couple’s concern about upheaval is not new. In their book Gotowi na przebudzenie (“Ready for Awakening”), published in Polish, Steve and Esther write about “significant transformations” in politics, economics and the very structure of society, asking whether the Church will be carried along by the winds of change or become the pioneering community they believe God intends. The book argues that the Christian Church needs reform akin to that seen five centuries ago and challenges readers to be willing to “pay the price” of leaving familiar patterns behind in order to prepare “new wineskins” for what they see as a coming move of God. They conclude that, despite the turbulence, this could be “the most wonderful hour for the Church,” a perspective that underpins their current mixture of warning and hope.