The
Scottish Church Census takes place on Sunday 8 May. Every one of the 4,000
local churches in Scotland will be invited to take part. If you are a corps
leader, hopefully you’ll have had the forms by now.
This
is the fourth such census, and like those in 1984, 1994 and 2002 it is a
comprehensive survey of all denominations and every local church in Scotland.
It will measure trends in churchgoing, and also explore certain factors which
are thought to lie behind some of the recent changes in churchgoing patterns.
With
this in mind you may be interested in a recent article from FutureFirst – a bulletin produced by
Brierley Consultancy, which is also administering the church census. The
article is based on UK church statistics and has been adapted for this blog.
Churches are
Growing (from FutureFirst, April 2016)
Although
church decline is a common experience, some churches are growing. Which kind of
churches are these? There are three broad types, and they mostly involve people
under the age of 40.
The
first type is Fresh Expressions (including Messy Church). These tend
to be groups of people meeting informally, not always on a Sunday and not always
in a church building. They may meet in a school or village hall, and often
include parents and children. They are usually very friendly and give families
in particular a sense of belonging. A warm welcome is part of what they are
about as well as a time of worship.
For
41% who attend, it is the only church they have ever attended. Such groups have
been initiated by churches of various denominations, including The Salvation
Army. Resources are being published by the Bible Reading Fellowship especially
for Messy Churches (http://www.brf.org.uk/messychurch).
Then
there are church plants. Some churches are starting new congregations
that tend to be more formal than fresh expressions or messy church. These
church plants will often meet in a hall or school or in a church, usually at a
different time from the main services, and thus can be more convenient for
those who have jobs or other responsibilities on a Sunday morning.
Some
of these infant churches have quite robust congregations, while others are
fairly small. Size doesn't seem to matter, but the age of the person leading
the new congregation generally is under 50. It is very hard work starting a
church like this, and it requires much dedicated effort, support and
determination to keep on going.
The
third area of growth is growing Sunday congregations. Larger
churches seem better able to grow in this way than smaller churches. The main reason
for their growth is the quality of the preaching (so say 91% of newcomers to
larger churches), which is frequently relevant to their life and very helpful
in explaining what the Bible means on various topics. Worship and welcome are
especially important here also — some churches have two coffee queues after the
service, free for newcomers, donation please from existing attendees!
Has
there been a corresponding increase in church membership? Some denominations
are definitely growing such as the Orthodox, Independent, New and Pentecostal
churches, all of which have seen a membership increase since 2011.
The
population generally continues to increase, some of whom would indicate as
being ‘Christian’ in a poll. Does all this mean that the church overall is growing?
Sadly no, it doesn't, because the number of people dying with a church
background in an ageing population is very large. Some 7,000 church people die
every week, across all denominations, and the number of new people joining a
church by any of the ways given above is collectively probably only a fifth of
that number, so numbers continue to decrease. But that doesn't stop your church
doing something new!
