As new figures reveal attendance at Church of England Christmas services has leapt by 20 per cent in recent years, Rachel Jordan-Wolf says many churches will be looking forward to packed services in the coming days
The Church of England’s latest statistics for mission make for encouraging reading.
There was a 20 per cent rise in the number of people attending Christmas services between 2022 and 2023. Plus, the Church is experiencing year on year growth in the number of people attending services all year round.
The latest figures reveal that for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of regular worshippers in the Church of England has edged above a million.
All-age weekly attendance at Church of England churches is up by 4.7 per cent. And the number of children attending weekly increased by 5.7 per cent.
Christmas 2024 is expected to follow these positive trends, so we can look forward to more growth in this year’s attendance at carol services and nativities up and down the country.
What’s going on? Well, the news fits with other research about the openness to Christian faith in the nation as a whole.
According to our Talking Jesus research from 2022, those who are interested in finding out more about Jesus Christ or experiencing him, often end up in local churches. Non-Christians tend to go to Google first in order to find out more about the Christian faith, but then they visit a local church or read a Bible. And for people who would call themselves Christians but who don’t regularly attend church, the first place they would go to find out more about the Christian faith is a church service.
74 per cent of all parents with a child under the age of 5 are in touch with a church
The same research also revealed a greater hunger in finding out more about the Christian faith following the pandemic. I believe Covid, plus the ongoing unsettled situation of politics and wars have left people hungrier to find spiritual truth.
One group in society which is especially open to the Christian faith right now are the parents of small children. Did you know that 74 per cent of all parents with a child under the age of 5 are in touch with a church (of any denomination)? This means that we could reach two thirds of one generation - the under 5s and their parents through nursery provision, toddler groups, family friendly church, Sunday school and Messy Church. These are often the areas of church life where we are seeing growth. Connecting with parents and children especially at Christmas is an outreach imperative.
This Christmas, the Church has an extraordinary opportunity to offer the hope, light and love of Jesus Christ to the nation again. Many are waiting to find out more or experience Jesus Christ for themselves.
Let’s pray and commit ourselves again this Christmas to sharing with the hundreds and thousands who will come to our churches the good news that Jesus has come to reach them and calls them this Christmas to know him personally.
For evangelism and outreach resources and ideas for your church visit hopetogether.org.uk/christmas
