Facing Decline With Faith

I read somewhere that we cannot choose the times in which we minister. There are eras of great faith, but also periods of unbelief. These span decades or centuries, rather than the weeks and months we focus on today. Contrast, for example, ‘The Great Awakening’, from the late eighteenth to early nineteenth centuries, with the twentieth century, which has witnessed mass apostasy: ‘The Great Falling Away’.

Notwithstanding temporary blips, like the Jesus Movement of the late sixties and early seventies, when I was converted during its overspill into Lancashire, the trend has been continuous, despite many initiatives, like the Decade of Evangelism, Mission to England, and J. John’s London Mission last year. I remember Graham Cray saying that, when he started in ministry, it took a particularly bad pastor to close a church down, but now it takes an exceptionally good pastor to grow a church.

Sociologists call this secularisation. It’s often taken to mean that religion, especially Christianity, has died; but it really represents the individualisation and the pluralisation of religion. That is, faith has become a matter of personal preference, rather than a socially imposed, normative, ideology; and therefore a matter of consumer choice between alternative options, of any or no religion. For a time, the Global South provided a different vision, with rapid church growth. But this is now stalling, as education, urbanisation and technological advance take hold. 

In addition, there has developed increased indifference, or active hostility, to institutional religion. Often, this is for understandable reasons: like the prejudice of churches towards various marginalised groups, and our failure to actively care for those who are suffering. We stand accused of hypocrisy. To this extent, the decline may represent God’s judgment on the church; not a cause but the consequence of judgment, as God withdraws his protective, providential, hand, and allows people to choose their fate.

Among some churches, this has led to a failure of nerve. Liberal progressives have abandoned historic Christian beliefs, on doctrine and ethics, hoping it will help them appeal to the changing cultural landscape. But this merely eviscerates the faith, leaving an empty religious shell. On the other hand, many conservatives retreat into a sub-cultural redoubt, maintaining their orthodoxies without trying to connect with an unbelieving society. 

Paradoxically though, the situation actually gives us great freedom to experiment, to try things, to take risks. Although some churches seem to have the knack of numerical growth through conversion, most of us are scrambling around for what to do. Many of our strategies seem to fail. But this is an opportunity. Tom Peters, the management writer, suggests that ‘whoever tries the most stuff wins’. This is because, on a natural level, most initiatives by entrepreneurs fail, until they discover their singular success. So we need to keep trying stuff.

This, however, doesn’t entail a feverish activism; rather a sensitive discernment of where the Holy Spirit is moving, so that we can align ourselves with him, as he hovers over the face of the culture.