Lausanne World Pulse – Pulling Out of the Nosedive in the United Kingdom!
By Peter Brierley
The good news emerging from the 2005 English (United Kingdom) Church Census is that the number of people going to church in England did not drop as much between 1998 and 2005 as it did from 1989 to 1998. Between 1998 and 2005, half a million people stopped going to church; however, between 1989 and 1998, one million stopped attending. Perhaps we are pulling out of the nosedive!
This key finding from the Census, along with many other results, was published in a book called, appropriately enough, Pulling out of the Nosedive, published in September 2006. For those interested in the detailed figures, especially at county and local authority level, there is an associated volume, Religious Trends No 6, 2006/2007, also published in September. Both books are available from Christian Research at www.christian-research.org.uk.
An Excellent Response
In May 2005 there were 37,501 churches in England; information was received from more than half of them. “More new churches than Starbucks” was the headline of a news release issued for the Mission 21 Conference on church planting held in Sheffield in March 2006. Between 1998 and 2005, 481 Starbucks branches started; the organisers knew of at least five hundred new churches which had started in the same period. However, there were actually over one thousand new churches started in this period, when the independent, black and other ethnic diversity churches were included. Behind this headline is an exciting story of growth, even if some 1,200 churches also closed in the same seven years.
Church Attendance Continues to Decline
The actual number of people attending church on a Sunday decreased from 3.7 million in 1998 to 3.2 million in 2005. This covers all denominations, and represents 6.3% of the population, down from 7.5% in 1998. If midweek attendance is included, the proportion increases to 6.9% of the population. If the rate of decline continues, even at a reducing rate, the percentage attending in 2015 is likely to be under five percent.
Why have the numbers dropped? Is no one being converted? Aren’t Alpha and other similar courses working? Yes, they are working and people are coming to faith both inside and outside such courses. Perhaps some 250,000 people came to faith in the seven years ending 2005. There were also some 100,000 babies born to churchgoing parents in the period, giving a rough total of 350,000 people who have started coming to church, equivalent to fifty thousand people a year or one thousand new people every week. That sounds great; however, it is spread across 37,500 churches!
Pages: ALL 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next
|
Dr. Peter Brierley is the Senior Lausanne Associate for Church Research. He attended Lausanne I in 1974 and has been involved with the Lausanne movement since 1984. Formerly a government statistician, he is currently executive director of Christian Research, a UK charity which produces resource volumes like Religious Trends and the UK Christian Handbook. Brierley can be reached at [email protected]. |