Christian Research is saying that UK Christianity has 'bottomed out' after years of decline in church attendance, report.
Let me offer six comments:
1. Much of the change is down to the vision, energy and expansion of black majority churches. It's well summed up by a comment from a friend with wide connections in these churches. "There came a time when they decided they should no longer be singing 'Nobody knows the trouble I've seen', but songs looking positively to the future."
2. A mood of corporate depression has lifted. When I came here to UK 30 years ago, if I said, "Do you know they do such and such in church in Australia?" the predictable, weary, reply would be, "That would never work here!" There is a different positive mood about, despite so many critics.
3. UK churches are more confident in themselves. For years churches here lauded third-rate ranters from elsewhere, giving the impression that only the exotic was worthwhile, not sufficiently valuing home grown preachers and teachers. In Alpha UK has a significant export of its own.
4. The penny has dropped that people are in church because they want to be there, not because it's the expected thing.
5. British Christianity has creatively adjusted to changes in the culture in ways that are studied and imitated all over the globe.
6. The tenor of research is more helpful. For years though it did not intend it, major reports by Christian Research seemed to take a perverse delight in saying how according to their projections UK Christianity was "a generation from extinction." It gave every cynic and every poison pen ammunition to bash the churches over the head.
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