You may have been given wrong information when it comes to church decline, says Gareth Russell
Considering it was a positive news story about the Church, the backlash from Christians was surprising.
Three years ago, we ran a story with the BBC based on a Savanta study that had found young people were more likely than their older peers to pray.
We run a communications agency, so we understand what is and isn’t newsworthy. Because of the surprising nature of the findings (that were based on a robust, nationally representative sample), we thought it might generate an interesting headline.
We were not prepared for the backlash which came from Christians who simply did not believe it.
Reading through Twitter, there were folks stating that the headline didn’t reflect their reality, doubting the validity of the story, and questioning the methodology - to the point that the BBC had to bring in the CEO of the polling agency in order to justify the findings.
Many Christians have bemoaned much of the media’s tendency to focus on negative stories about the Church. So why, when a positive countertrend was offered was it not believed?
I suspect the answer to that is complex and multifaceted. But I believe one factor is that our perception of the health or otherwise of the Church has been shaped heavily by a mainstream media narrative, rather than the actual data.
For example, last year, The Times ran a headline that stated the UK Church was in decline. Most people would accept this as read. However, when looking at the detail, I realised the data behind the headline was only from the Church of England.
The Church of England may be in decline. But that does not mean the Church in general is in decline. The headline was innacurate.
I have a good relationship with the journalist, so I challenged him on this. He relented, and made the edit.
teenagers overall have a positive opinion about Jesus and are open to his teaching
I wonder if Christians have fallen foul of a trend noted by Hans Rosling in his popular book Factfulness. Rosling says that most of modern society perceives our world to be getting worse and worse. This happens in a number of areas such as education, wealth distribution and mental health. But, he argues, when you look at the data - when you actually analyse the facts, the world is in a much better place in almost every measure than it was 100 years ago!
I am not suggesting that the whole of the Church in the UK is necessarily growing. But I am observing that where there are growth areas, these are rarely included in the official metrics. For example, streams such as Newfrontiers, Vineyard, New Testament Church of God, Elim or Redeemed Church of God are not included in the government’s official church attendance figures. Yet other studies have suggested they are growing. These denominations represent hundreds of churches and thousands of Christians across the UK. They have many positive stories to tell.
There’s more good news too. Other studies have found that people are twice as likely as they were ten years ago to be open to spirituality. A study of 25,000 teenagers worldwide conducted by Barna found that teenagers overall had a positive opinion about Jesus and were open to his teaching.
Influencers on Instagram and TikTok are becoming increasingly bold in talking about their faith (see one recent example here).
There are signs of hope and openness.
In the UK, there is no getting around the fact that we live in a post, post Christian context. We are living in the second generation of families who have never been to church.
But this also presents us with an opportunity. Families who have never been to church have also never been hurt by church, they have never been taught dubious theology, they are open to spirituality, and they are looking for purpose when post modernism and rampant individualism has proved unsatisfactory.
While we should be realistic about the context in which we live, we also need to be discerning about who and what is shaping our view of the Church. We need to balance a realistic understanding of the Church’s struggles with a willingness to embrace signs of hope and growth when they appear. If we let data, not preconceived narratives, shape our perceptions, we might find more reasons to celebrate - and more opportunities to share the good news with a world that is still searching for meaning.
