IT IS a common assumption that churches will continue their inexorable decline with each generation being less religious than the previous. This may not be as true as many would like to believe.
Continuous Decline
Since 1858, a high point in the mid-Victorian era, Christian adherence in Britain has been in near-constant decline. The short period of growth following the Second World War petered out with the arrival of the Swinging ‘60s. At the last national census in 2021, only 46.2 per cent described themselves as Christian. For the first time less, than half the British population identified as Christian. Church attendance in Great Britain in 1980 was 11.8 per cent of the population; by 2015, it had dropped to 5 per cent. It is safe to assume that most of the 46.2 per cent self-identifying as Christians are nominal, cultural Christians lacking any real understanding of the faith, and aren’t involved in the life and worship of any church. Unfortunately, cultural Christianity just doesn’t cut it.
It is clear that mainline denominations, despite dreading the demographic collapse of ageing congregations, are failing to reach people with the gospel. The general expectation, although rarely admitted, is that the British church is in terminal decline.
An Understated Revival
A recent study by the Bible Society indicates this may be in reverse. YouGov surveyed more than 13,000 people, repeating similar research in 2018. The comparison of these surveys on church attendance other than at baptisms, weddings and funerals, seem to show that Britain is experiencing what the Bible Society describe as a ‘Quiet Revival’. We don’t find masses of people queuing up to get into popular churches, rather it is many local churches having a few more in the congregation.
The most dramatic increase in churchgoing is among young people, particularly young men. In 2018, just 4 per cent of 18–24-year-olds said they attended church at least monthly. Today, this has quadrupled to 16 per cent, with young men increasing from 4 per cent to 21 per cent, and young women from 3 per cent to 12 per cent. 18–24-year-olds are now the second most likely age group to attend church regularly.
Churchgoing Christians now make up 12 per cent of the population, up from 8 per cent in 2018. Overall, 13 per cent of men and 10 per cent of women are likely to attend church. The Quiet Revival shows that the accepted picture of Christians at worship as being feeble, grey and female may not be accurate.
There are other indicators of growing interest in Christianity. In the 11 years between 2008 and 2019, Bible sales increased by just over £277,000. In the five years between 2019 and 2024, UK Bible sales went from £2.69m to £5.02m – an increase of £2.33m.
A Reaction to Chaos
What is driving this turning to Christ and His church? There have been no large revival meetings with demonstrations of spiritual power, the faltering evangelistic endeavours of the mainline denominations continually sink in the quicksand of secularism.
The primary impetus for the quiet revival is the increasingly chaotic secular world itself. Having abandoned the concept of truth and certainty, the secular world cannot offer hope. With a prime minister and establishment who didn’t know what a woman was until they were told by the Supreme Court, is it any wonder that thinking young people would search for definite truth, and find it in the source of truth Himself (John 14:6)?
In the midst of cultural chaos, what Jonathan Haidt describes as ‘the anxious generation’ has found a path to peace and security. Disillusioned with woke culture, young people are seeing the shallowness of secularism and are searching for and finding truth.
Where Growth is Occurring
The primary beneficiaries of this revival are the Roman Catholic and Pentecostal churches, both groups which speak with certainty and assurance about their faith. Catholics have increased from 23 per cent of total churchgoers in 2018 to 31 per cent today, and Pentecostals from 4 per cent in 2018 to 10 per cent today. In contrast, Anglicans have dropped from 41 per cent to 34 per cent.
Where growth happens in Protestant churches, it is often amongst the more conservative evangelical congregations. Membership of the Church of Scotland is vanishing like snow off a dyke, and it is in the process of selling more than 500 ‘surplus’ buildings. Meanwhile, the much smaller, more conservative and Calvinistic Free Church of Scotland looks like succeeding in its ‘30 by 30 Project’ which aims to plant 30 viable new congregations by 2030, many in areas without their presence for a century.
Cultural Reaction of Spiritual Renewal?
Some question whether this is a real revival. We are used to stories of crowds flocking to church and hundreds miraculously changed as the Holy Spirit blows through an area, as happened in Wales in 1904-05, or in Lewis in 1949-53. What is happening today is much quieter and motivated by cultural factors. Jonathan Edwards, America’s greatest native-born theologian and leading preacher during the Great Awakening (1720s-1740s), wrote that it is not the outward, even remarkable, expressions of faith which mark a true revival, but the fruit of the lives touched by the faith. The Great Awakening was itself a reaction against the increasing secularization of society.
Today’s new churchgoers may be turning to the Church for cultural reasons. This is not to be scorned, but it lays a heavy responsibility on the Church. What should the Church do to enable these new attenders to become faithful fruit-bearing Christians? The Church must do precisely what the mainstream liberal Church failed to do: have the confidence to speak out clearly.
People don’t need the preacher’s political or social thoughts. They need what God says in His Word to be directed to their lives. This may mean saying things which challenge the congregation; if lives are to be truly changed, people sometimes need to hear uncomfortable and difficult things. In the midst of a fragile world, young people on the verge of adulthood are looking for something on which to build their lives. Only Christ and His word give a rock-solid foundation, all else is sand (Matthew 7:24-27).
It’s not only in the pulpit that the Church needs to speak clearly. 34 per cent of non- churchgoing 18–24-year-olds say they would attend church if invited by a friend or family member, and 25 per cent say they would be interested in discovering more about the Bible. Paul asks in Romans 10:14 how can people turn to God unless someone speaks of Him? The most effective form of evangelism is simply ordinary Christians living out their faith and talking naturally about Jesus.
