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.