Evangelicals Now
Christian news worldwide
magnifying glass Search archives
home Home check the archives Archives Subscribe Subscriptions Advertising Information & booking of classifieds Adverts Find a local evangelical Church Find a church for the search engines and extremely curious! About us Contact us Site Map
Printable
Version

The Commentary

Doomed?

Britain’s churches are well on the way to extinction, according to a new report, The Future of the Church, published at the beginning of September.

If current trends continue, churchgoing will drop by two thirds in the next 30 years, while Islam will mushroom. The average age of Christian congregations will have risen to 64 as young people react against the church under the catalyst of secularisation. 18,000 more church buildings will have closed. So, if you needed reminding, we are up against it.

Of course, the statisticians’ ‘head count at services’ measure of the church has very little to do with a biblical view of Christ’s church. But having said that, confronted with such figures, we need to do some serious thinking.

Not surprised

To begin with, surely the decline of attendance should not surprise us.

First, we live in the rich Western world. The Bible tells us that wealth will always bring a temptation to forget God (Deuteronomy 8.10-14,17), and arrogantly ask: ‘Who is the Lord?’ (Proverbs 30.9).

Second, in his book The Twilight of Atheism, Alister McGrath makes a case for a connection between the prevalence of ‘tacit atheism’ in a country, and the church being associated with outdated and sometimes corrupt political regimes in people’s minds. The separation of church and state in the USA seems to have been a bulwark against this. Where the church has been seen as a master instead of a servant to its community, people eventually resent it.

Thirdly, we live in a country where secular humanism is preached to the population every day, especially by the national radio and TV stations.

Fourthly, some commentators believe the feminisation of the modern church does not attract men to services, etc.

Given this situation, we need to be challenged again by Jesus’s words concerning witness: ‘You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world…’ Christ indicated that, largely, the world’s reaction to Christians will be negative — persecuted because of righteousness. Hence there is a temptation for us, as Christians, to lower our profile. We can do this either by withdrawing from contact with the world (light under bucket), or becoming like the world (salt losing its saltiness). And, sadly, so much advice about how the church should respond to contemporary society is along the lines of being less distinct in our doctrine, or more accommodating in our morality. But Jesus says it is through being different and distinctive that we best witness for him. Can we really say as we reach out, that our churches are as different from the world as light is from darkness, in truth, and holiness and love?

Assurance

However, as we contemplate the sad decline of church attendance we also need to reorient ourselves. ‘What are you going to do about it?’ these kind of reports say to us, as if the church were a failing business and its very existence depended on our coming up with some new product attractive to customers. Actually, the future of the church is not ultimately down to us. Jesus said: ‘I will build my church’. He has assured us: ‘All that the Father gives me will come to me’. I say this not to make us complacent, but to deliver us from undue discouragement. And all over the world, except in Western Europe, the Lord is building his church massively. If he can build his church in China, India, Latin America and beyond, he will once again build it here when he decides. G.K. Chesterton said: ‘Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it has a God who knows his way out of the grave.’

John Benton