What we should do about the decline in church attendance?
This is the text of an article I wrote for Premier Christianity web log last week.
New figures accept been released showing that attendance at Church building of England services dropped below ane 1000000 for the first fourth dimension in contempo history in 2014. Although the effigy is a little arbitrary (not least because the population of the country is changing), information technology seems to many like something of a landmark.
Earlier jumping to besides many conclusions, there are some details worth begetting in mind. Firstly, there has been a change in the way that the figures are calculated (measuring attendance is more than complex than you might imagine), and then the modify from the previous figures (of 2013) is probably not that meaning. The more than important outcome is the trend—which does appear to exist standing downward, as it has for the last 100 years.
Secondly, it is worth remembering that this measure is of Sunday attendance. I commentator (in the Spectator) scoffed at the idea of including attendance at weekday events—but with changing patterns of work, and more and more other things happening on Sundays, wed events in churches are becoming increasingly important.
Thirdly, equally recent analysis in the Economist has highlighted, it is no longer realistic (and hasn't been for some time) to measure the Christian presence in our country by looking at Church building of England attendance alone. The C of E remains the largest single denomination, only 'new' churches and Christians amongst the immigrant are growing in importance in the national scene. Aslope this, the shape of the Church of England is also changing; as one person put it, 'We are non seeing the end of Christianity in this state, just we are perhaps seeing the end of nominal Anglicanism.'
Perhaps the most important affair to call back is that there is nix sudden about this decline—it is part of a long, complex procedure in the context of massive changes in British culture. And information technology is function of Western secularisation; church omnipresence is diminishing in every part of the wealthy West. There are profound changes taking place in the way in which British people are thinking, believing and behaving, and no-one really knows where this is leading.
Then what should exist done by the church? There is a strong vocalisation arguing that we demand to close the cultural and creedal gap between Church building and culture. The Church is out of step with gild (so the argument goes) and that makes it harder for those outside the Church to take it seriously. The principal problem with this approach is that all observers are agreed that, in important ways, contemporary civilisation is 'less Christian' than it has been in the by. Then keeping in step with culture is never going to be a long-term solution.
Within the C of Eastward, at that place is a push to make improve use of management controlling in thinking about planning, grooming and selection of leaders, and strategy. That'due south probably not a bad idea. One of the greatest challenges facing the Church building is the decline in clergy numbers, and that has come about through non much more than than very poor planning. But this arroyo on its own is mostly most fugitive mistakes rather than delivering growth—yous cannot treat the Church as if information technology were a religious retail company.
Others think that at that place is skilful grounds for focussing on the distinctives of Christian organized religion. Historically, the church building has grown when it stands out from club, rather than blending in. Then, the argument goes, we shouldn't really be concerned about how others see us or whether we are being 'effective'. We should simply focus on being what God called us to be, and trust him to do the rest. Perhaps we should even finish analysing attendance figures at all.
But this raises two bug. Start, didn't Jesus say 'I volition build my church'? If nosotros are not growing, if we are not reaching people with proficient news, then something has gone wrong somewhere. And taking detect of numbers offers important feedback. Christians announced to be as good as anyone at deluding ourselves and avoiding facing upward to reality—and taking a good long look at the numbers gives u.s.a. reality in spadefuls!
Healthy plants grow—they cannot help it. They don't demand to be told to abound, just they do need assistance to keep good for you. If we are not growing, and so it is important to enquire whether our churches are as healthy as they should be. In the get-go days of the church, the believers met together, attended to the apostles' educational activity, shared their lives together, blessed others, and when asked gave a good reason for the promise that they had. Strategies, planning and management techniques will accept their identify, just I am not sure much will change without our practising the same things as these early followers.
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