That Happy Certainty - Gospel | Culture | Planting
  • Writing
    • Not in Vain: 1 Corinthians Devotional
    • Explore Lamentations
    • eBook: Good News People
    • eBook: Filtered Grace
    • Gospel Coalition Articles
    • Church Society Articles
    • Threads Articles
    • Explore Ecclesiastes
    • Explore Galatians
    • Evangelicals Now Articles
  • Book Reviews
  • Interviews
  • Join Us
Writing
    Not in Vain: 1 Corinthians Devotional
    Explore Lamentations
    eBook: Good News People
    eBook: Filtered Grace
    Gospel Coalition Articles
    Church Society Articles
    Threads Articles
    Explore Ecclesiastes
    Explore Galatians
    Evangelicals Now Articles
Book Reviews
Interviews
Join Us
  • Writing
    • Not in Vain: 1 Corinthians Devotional
    • Explore Lamentations
    • eBook: Good News People
    • eBook: Filtered Grace
    • Gospel Coalition Articles
    • Church Society Articles
    • Threads Articles
    • Explore Ecclesiastes
    • Explore Galatians
    • Evangelicals Now Articles
  • Book Reviews
  • Interviews
  • Join Us
That Happy Certainty - Gospel | Culture | Planting
Church, Society

'One in 10' attend church weekly…

Christian charity Tearfund has polled 7,000 people, actually not that big a number, and found that ‘1 in 10’ attend church weekly, and ‘1 in 7’ monthly. That actually struck me as quite a high figure. Two-thirds of those polled had not been to church in the last year, except for baptisms, weddings or funerals – the results put the UK among Europe’s four ‘least observant countries’.

Tearfund said 53% of people identified themselves as Christian, compared with almost three-quarters who had in the last census in 2001. But it said that its survey indicated that three million people who had stopped going to church, or who had never been in their lives, would consider attending “given the right invitation”. This could be a personal invite, the chance to accompany a relative or friend, or the offer of help during difficult personal circumstances, it said.

This is encouraging news – that both the term ‘Christian’ seems to be being abandoned by those who ten years ago would have used it to classify anyone white and British, and that still many are open to ‘considering church’. People draw graphs and pie charts and try to work out what ‘the church’ will look like in 10 years, but so what? The Bible teaches and shows that God is faithful and will keep his church from falling, and then on the last day the true church will be revealed as those who are saved by the name of Jesus Christ, for ‘there is salvation in no one else’ (Acts 4.12).

If, as many say, it becomes increasingly harder to proclaim his name, and remain on the right side of UK law, then surely many will leave gospel-believing churches, and yet, as has always been the case, people will hear the word of life and believe, for it is God who will gather his elect. As Joel spoke of our day, ‘it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved’. Great hope, despite whatever trials and tribulations may – no, make that will – lie ahead.

Tearfund’s president, Elaine Storkey, told BBC Radio Five Live that a lot of people would be unsure what to expect if they did visit. “The church for a lot of people is a very strange place these days. They’re not familiar with what’s going on inside the building, with the form of service, with the way people gather, with what they say, how they pray. “So the first thing they have really got to wake up to is that there is this big cultural gap between churched and non-churched.” I’ve no doubt all of that is true. UK churches must seem incredibly weird to someone who hasn’t grown up in that environment. Paul was concerned for the non-believer in the church gathering in 1 Cor 14, and so should we be. We should be only boasting in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; there is the foolishness.

More on the tearfund report here.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)
April 3, 2007by Robin Ham

About Me

Hello, my name is Robin. Welcome to That Happy Certainty, where I write and collate on Christianity, culture, and church-planting. I’m based in Barrow in South Cumbria, England, where my family & I are part of Grace Church Barrow.

‘Not In Vain’ – 1 Corinthians 31-day devotional

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

Top Posts

  • The Sunday Refill - 7 Links for Your Weekend (24/1/21)
    The Sunday Refill - 7 Links for Your Weekend (24/1/21)
  • "We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience"
    "We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience"
  • Learning to Lean in 2021
    Learning to Lean in 2021

Refill on inspiring Christian links each week and join 1,018 other subscribers...

Thank you for subscribing! Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM

Please enter an Access Token on the Instagram Feed plugin Settings page.

“If we could be fully persuaded that we are in the good grace of God, that our sins are forgiven, that we have the Spirit of Christ, that we are the beloved children of God, we would be ever so happy and grateful to God. But because we often fear and doubt we cannot come to that happy certainty.”
- Martin Luther

© 2018 copyright That Happy Certainty // All rights reserved //