In Depth:  church

Rebecca Chapman

The ‘fire is rising’ as people in Britain increasingly encounter God in unexpected ways – with evangelical congregations growing, but churches of the ‘mushy middle’ declining.

That was the message from a panel of experts discussing the future of faith in the UK. The annual Theos think-tank event was held at BMA House in central London, and featured a panel of authors, broadcasters and the General Secretary of Churches Together in England, evangelical Mike Royal. It was entitled Does the Future Have A Church?

Milla Ling-Davies

Ferniehill Evangelical Church in Edinburgh finished the year praising God for two big encouragements in 2023 – they moved back into their renovated building and employed their first pastor, Alistair Chalmers.

For over 50 years, Ferniehill Evangelical Church has been faithfully witnessing to the local community in Gilmerton, Edinburgh.

Milla Ling-Davies

A new report from the Bible Society has revealed that the fastest-growing church in the UK is the Chinese Church.

In just the last two years, there has been 29% growth in the Chinese Church in the UK – a large jump from the 7% growth they’d seen in the previous ten years. This is largely due to people emigrating from Hong Kong to Britain.

This November in Malta, after four years of planning, UK Christians in Sport staff will join over 100 leaders in sports ministry, from more than 30 countries involved in competitive and elite sport, for a four-day conference.

The conference includes the release of over 150 brand-new resources in four languages, and an internationally accessible leadership development programme.

Nicola Laver

A growing church plant in the Lake District has been funded by a non-Christian millionaire – but pioneering without a ‘mother church’ is particularly hard work, its minister has said.

Jonny Gios leads Gateway Church, a Free Methodist evangelical church in Kendal, Cumbria. After stints as a youth worker and youth pastor, then a community worker – Jonny began the church plant with the Free Methodists in 2018 (its Articles of Religion are based on the 39 Articles of the Anglican Church).

Christians from 27 countries gathered in Central London on 8–9 September for a conference called ‘Pilgrims and Exiles’, held by Ligonier Ministries. Speakers delivered messages from the New Testament book of 1 Peter, encouraging believers in their calling to live as sojourners in this world and ambassadors for the world to come.

Based near Orlando, Florida, Ligonier is the international discipleship organisation founded by American theologian Dr R.C. Sproul (1939–2017). The September conference played a role in the ministry’s efforts to serve the global church with Biblical and theological teaching and to help Christians stand firm in their faith.

The lack of trainee pastors to replace those who are retiring is an ‘elephant in the room’ which evangelicals are neglecting, a former en editor is warning.

Writing on the London Seminary website, John Benton says: ‘The stark truth is that far fewer men are coming forward to train for the ministry than there are pastors coming up to retirement.

Jim Sayers

What do you do if you are a small church in a large building that is falling apart?

This challenge faced West Ham Baptist Tabernacle (part of the Association of Grace Baptist Churches SE) in Newham, East London. Their building was about a century old and was badly damaged during the Blitz. They had recovered in the 1950s and 60s, then reached a low ebb in the 90s. Reuben Danladi came as pastor in 1999, stepping out in faith to revitalise the church, and while the church grew again, the building rotted and was often vandalised.

A bumper crop of mission initiatives is being highlighted by the the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) as it continues to mark 100 years since its founding in 1922.

‘Back in the spring we asked our churches to tell us about what they are doing to further the mission of proclaiming Christ and His gospel. We hoped 100 might respond and we could share their news; in the end we received more than 170 submissions,’ said Adrian Reynolds, FIEC Head of National Ministries and Chairman of the en Board.

Nicola Laver

A partnership between two independent churches – one in a middle-class southern area and the other on a Yorkshire council estate – is bridging the north-south divide and advancing the gospel.

Banstead Community Church lies 13 miles outside central London in leafy Surrey which, along with Sussex, is the wealthiest part of England according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS). ‘Average wealth’ is said to be £263,000 by the ONS.

Dr Osita Orafu, originally from Nigeria, has been ordained in the Anglican Mission in England (AMiE) at Trinity Church, Scarborough.

AMiE is a network of Anglican evangelical churches outside of and independent of the Church of England.

Nearly 1,000 pastors, elders, women’s workers, youth leaders, and others in church leadership gathered at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool in November for the 2022 FIEC Leaders’ Conference.

It was the first national conference for three years, due to the Covid pandemic, but came just in time to mark FIEC’s 100th anniversary.

Nicola Laver

UK churches are declining and most denominations even face extinction, a Christian mathematician has warned – with the Church of England lasting until the second half of the century.

Dr John Hayward, a mathematician at the University of South Wales, uses church growth models to research the growth and decline of the Christian church. He found that though Christianity has been declining in the UK for more than 60 years – a few groupings are growing, including the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, Newfrontiers, and the Elim Pentecostal Church.

A new church in Chester is getting under way.

On Sunday 5 September, Trinity Church Chester held its first Sunday service, meeting in the Welsh Presbyterian Church building in Chester city centre. There was a congregation of 27, including two passers-by who caught the final five minutes of the sermon, and the service was taken by the Revd Deiniol Williams (see photo).

Most evangelical churches in England and Wales will be worshipping in person by the start of April, according to an en survey.

Of 197 congregations in an online poll, 29% were planning to resume in March – but 39% had not stopped during the latest lockdown and had carried on meeting in their buildings throughout.

Gifted women should be more widely recognised in FIEC churches, a key figure in the network says.

Elisabeth Smyth recently retired after more than 20 years of service with the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC).

A group of churches in West Sussex has launched Chapel Channel whose aim is to connect together the more isolated members of churches in their area.

With mostly older congregations, they found few in the five churches were able to access computers, tablets or mobile phones and most were not confident with online technology. No one chapel felt able to run remote services. The leaders of the chapels decided to pool resources and expertise and to run online services together and thus Chapel Channel was born.

On Remembrance Sunday, while most evangelical churches remained closed in England, a few churches took part in a collective act of civil disobedience, opening their doors for public worship.

This followed a letter signed by 1,500 people urging the government not to close places of worship.