Deliver us from statistics...

“What’s your take on the ‘quiet revival’?” I am asked repeatedly in person and online. The Quiet Revival Report itself has been withdrawn; so are there really more young people becoming Christians and joining churches, and if so in what numbers? What will the revised survey later this year reveal? I am no statistician, so instead of number-crunching, here are my observations of four unhelpful – then four helpful – responses to the debate and the contested data.

1. Over-reliance on statistics. Statistics are very interesting and can be encouraging or discouraging, but our faith is not in them. The gospel isn’t more true if millions believe it, or if we think we are the only one left. Likewise, the gospel of Christ isn’t validated by numbers, but by His resurrection from the dead. Our faith is only ever in Jesus – not in results.

2. Cynicism. Some Christians have become professional cynics and seem to want to pour scorn on any evidence of God at work today. Their operating assumption is that any church reporting growth must be attracting crowds by appealing to their flesh and entertaining them – and that it can’t be a genuine work of God. This is a lack of faith in the power and goodness of God and saps away our confidence in both prayer and proclamation.