At the instigation of London City Mission (LCM) a comprehensive study of churches in London was carried out last year. The results have now been published and there is much which is encouraging.
The research was carried out by the Brierley Consultancy and LCM were particularly interested to see what information could be gathered which related to the extent and effectiveness of church planting in the capital.
Big increase
The first headline fact is that there has been a 16% increase in church attendance in seven years. The numbers of people going to church in London on a typical Sunday has increased from 620,000 in 2005 to just over 720,000 in 2012. That figure of a 16% rise is against the background that the population of London only grew by 10% in the ten years up to 2011 according to the census. Nowhere in the UK has attendance grown so rapidly. The growth is especially seen in the Black Majority churches, which tend to be Pentecostal, and various immigrant churches.
The sobering statistic is that the total church attendance in London is about a quarter of that for the whole of England. The research found that churches which are already large (200 people or more on a Sunday) tend to be growing. All other churches, more in Outer London than Inner, tend to be declining. It seems that a crowd attracts a crowd.
Areas of growth
Some Black Majority churches have started ‘neighbourhood churches’ in those areas where black people mostly live. These are designed to be within ten minutes’ walking distance from people’s homes. This is seen as a help to growth. Many immigrant churches have started to cater for non-English speakers. It was found that 14% of London churches use a language other than English. The London boroughs which have seen 24% growth and above are Harringey, Newham, Barking and Dagenham, Greenwich, Southwark, Lambeth, Merton and Croydon.
Evangelicals?
Of course, not all churches are biblical, evangelical churches. What we have seen of the survey does not look very deeply into doctrinal matters. But 61% of ministers in London described their church as evangelical. This compares with only 38% across England as a whole. Those who describe themselves as evangelical are the churches which are growing fastest, with numbers up by about 30% between 2005 and 2012. They also have the greatest proportion of younger people.
Gender imbalance
Overall, 44% of those attending congregations in London are male with 56% being female. But in two areas the figures relating to gender were different from what was expected.
First, while those under 20 years old are around 25% of the total of churchgoers, only 24% of this group are female while 29% are male.
Second, though the number of people going to church in London increased by about 100,000 between 2005 and 2012, a staggering 82% of that increase was female. One third of that female increase is among those aged between 20 and 44. This raises once again the ongoing question of how to encourage men to get involved in church.
Age ranges
While Outer London has a greater number of children and older people than Inner London, the really big difference is that those aged 20-29 are more likely to go to church in Inner London. More than half of those going to church in Greater London go to an Inner London church.
Those aged 20 to 44 attending church in London make up 32% of the congregations, while in the rest of England they account for only 20%.
The research also found that smaller congregations have more old people, while larger churches are likely to have a greater percentage aged 15 to 29. The average age of a churchgoer in a congregation of 25 people or under is 50 while for churches with 100 or more people it is 40.
Ethnicity?
Two-fifths of London’s population is nonwhite. This is a proportion four times as great as that prevailing in the rest of England. London has three times more Asians, and six times more black people than the rest of England. Around 9% of London’s population are in church on the average Sunday, but this varies with ethnicity: 4% of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi; 8% of the white population; 16% of the Chinese, Korean and Japanese population; and 19% of the black population. Almost half of inner London’s churchgoers were black in 2012.
Church planting
One London church in seven had started another congregation in the previous 20 years. 93% of these new churches were still meeting five years later. Pentecostals had started the most, followed by Anglicans and then smaller denominations. Two-fifths were started by an individual or a small group, and a third as an off-shoot from a mother congregation. The survey found that the main reason for planting new churches had been to reach out to particular nationalities or to people living in a specific location. Half of the new churches started with a fulltime leadership which was, on average, eight years younger than the leaders of the mother church. The average initial budget was £25,000 and the average initial congregation was 28 people. In the first five years of their existence 45% of these churches doubled in size. 38% of the growth was reckoned to be from people who had not previously been churchgoers. Three-quarters of the new churches said they had become financially self-supporting after five years.
Half the churches have just one service on a Sunday, a third have two services and a fifth have three or more services. 63% of Pentecostal and new churches rent their church premises. Two-fifths of churches share their building with other churches.
