The Wilko of Religions

Way back in 1867 Matthew Arnold wrote: ‘The sea of faith was once, too, at the full … But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar.’ The tide has been going out ever since and the withdrawing roar has become a whimper until today Christianity in the UK is, according to many, fading away like the Cheshire cat.

According to the Office of National Statistics, the Christian population in England and Wales fell from 59.3% in 2011 to 46.2% in 2021. Meanwhile, in the same decade the Muslim population grew from 4.9% to 6.5%, and the Hindu population grew from 1.5% to 1.7%. 37% of respondents said they followed no religion at all.

Scotland is no better. A YouGov study found that in 2011 53% of people in Scotland identified as Christian, by 2022 that had dropped to 33%. Even those identifying as Christian have a somewhat tenuous grasp of key Christian beliefs with only 28% of those who claim to be Christian saying they ‘believe that Jesus was a real person who died and came back to life and was the son of God’, and only 18% attending church services.

today Christianity in the UK is, according to many, fading away like the Cheshire cat.

It would appear that mainstream Christianity in the UK is the Wilko of religions, soon to go bust, desperately searching for rescue. Poundland and discount store B&M may save a few Wilko outlets, but what will save the mainstream denominations?

Management solutions

Nervous church leaders don’t want this to happen, certainly not whilst they are in control - it would look bad for them. Frightened by the undeniable statistics of remorseless decline, they cast about for a solution, any solution. Being very modern, not to say, progressive Christians, they turn to the methods of the secular world for a recovery plan.

Step forward the ecclesiastical management consultants trying to revive a failing corporate entity. They turn their attention to the remedies which work in the secular world; focusing on what the ‘customer’ wants, setting sales targets and pressuring the sales team for ever greater productivity, ruthlessly closing down unprofitable outlets, getting management to organise think tanks which specialise in ‘blue sky thinking’ and making them responsible for bringing forward plans for new ways of ‘doing Church’.

Step forward the ecclesiastical management consultants trying to revive a failing corporate entity

Yet, if there is a God – and there certainly is – this amounts to nothing more than what Shakespeare described as ‘a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.’ So busy running around like headless chickens chasing ever new and ‘innovative’ solutions to old problems, those leading our mainstream denominations fail to grasp that while much of biblical doctrine may be unpopular today, that does not make it any less true, any more than popularity makes a doctrine true. As Christian philosopher E.J. Carnell remarked, ‘You don’t find truth by counting noses’.

The Search for relevance

Having abandoned reliance on truth, they turn to ‘relevance’ as the solution to the malady affecting the modern Church. Unfortunately, the cure only worsens the disease. By relevance the mainstream Church means aping the world, which only makes it more irrelevant and hastens the decline. Why would anyone wish to join, or remain in, a Church which served up increasingly woke moral strictures, only with added incense?

Helter-skelters in Norwich Cathedral, or perhaps Rochester Cathedral’s crazy golf course down the aisle, maybe like Peterborough Cathedral you could host a Star Wars exhibition, anything to get the customers over the threshold. No matter how hard they try, those controlling the activities and events being shoehorned into church buildings only succeed in making the Church a laughing stock. Competing with the world in making the Church attractive to prospective customers will always fail, if for no other reason than that the world is so much better at it.

The world looks at these events pretty much in the same way youngsters look at middle aged overweight bald guys dressing like the teenagers they once were – with at best derision, at worst contempt. As Bob Monkhouse said, ‘Growing old is compulsory, growing up is optional’. Too many Church leaders don’t want to grow up.

Competing with the world in making the Church attractive to prospective customers will always fail, if for no other reason than that the world is so much better at it.

When it comes to doctrine, the Church will not be saved by adopting ever more worldly values. In a recent poll conducted for The Times, it emerged that more than two thirds of CofE priests support a ban on conversion therapy, which could include the prohibition of praying with people unhappy about their sexuality. A majority backed the blessing of same sex marriage whilst more than a third supported assisted suicide. The Bishop of Dorchester, the Right Rev Gavin Collins, enthused that the survey had uncovered ‘a wealth of really helpful, inspiring and challenging data’ for the Church.

The Uniqueness of the Church

To slip into management jargon, the Church has a USP, or unique selling point, which the mainstream Church has too often neglected, and this is something vastly more precious than anything the world has to offer. The message that God exists and He cares about us, so much so that out of His love He came among us to rescue a fallen and hurting humanity from its brokenness, to remake shattered lives and set us on the way home again.

To abandon this in a futile chase for bums on seats shows just how far the mainstream Church has fallen. It reveals a body which has lost all confidence in what makes it distinctive and special.

The Church is going through a difficult time, but our job in difficult times is to hold fast to and ‘contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints’ (Jude 3). To say our prayers, to join with brothers and sisters in worship and the sacraments, to look after the fellowship and to live day by day in faith. 

The Church is not a place for trendiness, it is a place for serious people to confront the reality of their own lives and the society in which they live, regardless of the cost to follow.

Faithfulness to God and his Word, rather than frantically casting about for innovation, is our task. The Church is not a place for trendiness, it is a place for serious people to confront the reality of their own lives and the society in which they live, regardless of the cost to follow.

Alexander Ogorodnikov, a Russian Christian who suffered torment for years in a Soviet prison for his faith, said that people need ‘something to live for, a conception of hope’. The unvarying truth of God is that something.

The Rev. Dr Campbell Campbell-Jack is a retired Church of Scotland minister; now a member of the Free Church of Scotland. Check out his many incisive articles on his blog, A Grain of Sand.