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.
‘The main factor in church decline is the lack of conversions,’ he commented in his report. ‘These churches then get older, and their losses get worse due to higher death rates.’ Conversion rates are at their worst in Welsh and Scottish churches where, warns Dr Hayward, ‘the immediate future looks bleak’.
He said: ‘They need to seriously ask themselves how they have gotten themselves into a situation where extinction is less than 30 years away.’
Dr Hayward warned: ‘If we keep declining, and He is giving few conversions, we must ask, why? Are we offending God? We need to take in the ‘writing on the wall’… Or, as He puts it Himself : If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (2 Chron. 7:14)’
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