Five hundred people from around 45 churches packed in to our “Quiet Revival – what’s going on?” event on Sunday evening. There is clearly a huge appetite to explore and respond to the increasing evidence of an upturn in people investigating Christianity in the UK. Justin Brierley “zoomed” in live to give us a big picture of the demise of new atheism and the rise of a new conversation about faith https://justinbrierley.com
Robin McLelland of SU talked about what we are seeing happen on the ground in Scotland, including 25% increase in attendance at Magnitude Youth conference this summer.
And the crowd piled in with a deluge of questions and comments.
“What kind of churches are seeing this growth?” they asked
Traditional liturgical and Pentecostal was Justin’s answer. Churches that take the reality of encounter with God seriously and offer something more than stark secularism.
“How can we respond?”
Jesus-curious people are seeing past glitzy religious entertainment and are looking to understand the bible and find community. Five passionate young people were interviewed, and they brilliantly encouraged us to keep it simple: help people understand the message.
Robin McLelland urged us to respond by building unity and prayer amongst churches and to welcome what God is doing, especially where it may conflict with our experience or expectation.
Justin Brierley has often referred to three responses to “welcome the returning tide of faith”
“Keep Christianity weird”: as historian Tom Holland has put it. Don’t dumb things down or ape culture to be relevant. Bring to people all that is distinctive about Christianity: the unique message, the good news of living connection with God, the present power of prayer.
Build communities that don’t cancel people. In the new moral minefield where it’s more than easy to misspeak create community where it’s ok to be different and disagree.
Embrace reason and imagination: uphold the place of reasoned debate and conversation and open eyes to what is beautiful in the world.
My personal take-away is that our response is about posture more than it is about programme. In particular, that each of us may have more faith to step into conversations believing that there are people around who are open to conversations about faith and Jesus and to be prayed for. That we should expect and welcome people into our church gatherings people who are unfamiliar with what we do and what we say.
So let’s continue to be challenged about the changes in our culture and to pray that God would move and we would act in bold faith.
Habakkuk 3:2
Lord, I have heard of your fame.
I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord.
Repeat them in our day,
in our time make them known.
in wrath remember mercy.