Andy Hawthorne

Who is Andy Hawthorne?

Andy Hawthorne, OBE is a British evangelist, author and founder of The Message Trust, a Christian mission organisation based in Manchester, England.

Working for nearly 20 years with young people in the area, his initiatives have been particularly directed at those who are traditionally hard to reach, in prison or from disadvantaged communities. The story of The Message is told in his book, The Message 20 - Celebrating Two Decades of Changed Lives.

In recognition for his services to young people, he was awarded the OBE in 2011.

In the early days of The Message, Andy was a member of the Christian band World Wide Message Tribe who had success in the UK and American pop charts.

He is a popular speaker at New Wine, Soul Survivor, Keswick Convention, and other Christian conferences in the UK. With Mike Pilavachi from Soul Survivor and Roy Crowne of YFC, he was one of the founders of the Hope 08 and subsequent Hope Together initiatives.

Andy is unashamed of his Christian faith and describes it as the 'engine' of all that has been achieved through The Message Trust. On June 21, 2011 he addressed cross-bench parliamentarians at the National Prayer Breakfast at the Houses of Parliament. Invited to speak on the theme of 'Raising the aspirations of young people', he said: ‘The Bible works – and Jesus is the answer ...The message of the Bible raises the aspirations of young people – we ditch it at our peril. The best of our society is built on this precious book ... The more we invest in today’s young people the values that God gave us in this book the better our society will become.’