And the next thousand - waking up to the future

With this issue of EN, we stand on the brink of the third Christian millennium. To state the obvious, the world is changing and the church will need to change and rise to new challenges as well.

According to Religious Trends No. 2, a new survey published by Christian Research Association (CRA), church attendance in Britain is decreasing and is likely to decrease faster in the next few years. On an average Sunday, 11% of the adult British population were in church in 1980, but now it has dropped to 8%.

Reasons given for this include, on any Sunday, 40% of those who sometimes attend decide not to. 750 leave each week because, they say, they no longer find church meaningful. Another 750 leave each week because they don't like the minister or the people. On top of this, 1,600 churchgoers die each week. On the plus side, it is also true that 1,500 new people come to church every week.

Outreach

Faced with this deterioration, the answer of church planting has presented itself. But, according to the CRA, church planting is less popular than it was. The number of new churches planted in the last few years has dropped by about 60% since its peak in 1985. It may be that the church has lost its nerve, or it may be that the church is seeking to grow in other ways, such as through Alpha and Christianity Explained courses.

Meanwhile, it seems that we have more older people in the church now than 20 years ago. These are net figures not percentages. Those in their 50s in 1979 would be in their 60s in 1989 and nearly all 70+ by now. Some of these would have died, so the numbers should drop. But they go up. This means that more older people come back to church than leave because they die. The church needs to ask itself what it is doing to engage and help these older people.

Generation gaps

With this in mind, the church is faced with an increasingly complex conumdrum concerning the generation gap. Broadly speaking, the adult population can be categorised under four headings: seniors, born in 1926 or earlier, of which there are 4.5 million; builders, the generation born between 1927 and 1945, of which there are 12.4 million; the postwar generation (baby boomers) born between 1946 and 1964 of which there are 15.1 million, and Generation X born between 1965 and 1983 of which there are 14.6 million. These different age-groups tend to think in very different ways and to have quite disparate worldviews and values. The church must ask how it can reach into these different generations and how such diverse generations can worship and work together within a united congregation.

The number of young people in church seems to be decreasing fast. 67% of the decrease in church attendance during the 1980s was of those under 20 years old. 55% of the decrease in the 1990s was from the same age-group. Some churches have taken action to stem this tide by appointing full-time youth ministers, involving young people in leadership or inviting young people themselves to address the problem. These strategies may be useful, but the question needs to be asked, whether by doing so, we are falling into the culture of consumerism by seeking to make our 'product' attractive to our target group. The church ought to be attractive and relevant, but to be attractive with the beauty of Christ and the continual relevance of love.

Statistics from the USA show a chronic absence of men from many of the churches. George Barna in the 1996 Index of Spiritual Indicators, said 'Women are twice as likely to attend a church service during any given week. Women are also 50% more likely than men to say that they are religious and absolutely committed to the Christian faith.' The book The Church Impotent, quotes Protestant pastors as saying: 'Women usually outnumber the men three to one.'

The CRA report says that we need to keep people as well as reach people. In a survey of why people come to church, the enjoyment of worship was put as the leading reason, followed by 'the sense that I belong and have a place there', but 'thanking God and praying for needs' came at the bottom of the list.

Bible knowledge

Though ownership of a Bible remains high in Britain, Bible knowledge is low and many people perceive the Bible as 'boring'. In the church generally in Britain, one churchgoer in three has not read anything from the Bible in the last year. Bible reading was surveyed in one large evangelical church. About 50% of those over 60 years old engaged in daily Bible reading, but less than 20% for those under 40 years old read their Bibles daily. If the Bible is the basis of our faith, how can we help people grow if they are not used to reading it?

The world

Having been given the Great Commission to take the gospel to all people, we need to realise that at the end of the second millennium the world's population is rapidly accelerating. Whereas in 1950 the world population was around 2.5 billion, it is now over six billion and it is projected to become 8.5 billion by the year 2025. In 1950, 33% of the population lived in industrialised countries, but by 2025 it is likely to be only 16%. Further, the great trend is also for people to be moving to the cities. Has the church yet understood how to evangelise vast urban populations? This question surely needs to be given priority.

Dr John Benton

© Evangelicals Now - December 1999
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