Turning from the Lord to ‘Saint Jordan’?

The results of the 2021 Census in Australia showed, as expected, continual decline in the number of those who state that their religion is Christian.

Although Christianity is still the largest religious grouping at 43%, this has shown a decline of some 1 million in the past decade. The largely middle-aged white liberals who inhabit most of Australian media were quick to proclaim this as being the result of young people leaving the church.

The irony is that, counter intuitive as it may seem, precisely the opposite is the case. The most recent research according to the 2021 Australian Community Survey (2021 ACS) by NCLS Research shows that 1 in 3 young adults aged 18 to 34 (32%) say they attend religious services at least once a month. Those aged 65 and over, and those aged 35–49 are both at 19% – with the lowest rate of attendance being in the 50–64 age group – where only 1 in 10 attend. I have written a more extended analysis of this here.

A great illustration of the hunger for meaning amongst the young in Australia was seen in Jordan Peterson’s latest tour of Australia. He drew sell-out crowds in every city – including 13,000 in Melbourne and 9,000 (twice) in Sydney. I was at one of the Sydney events and was astonished at the diversity in the audience. The majority were younger men, although I would estimate that about 40% were women. What astounded me was that for almost two hours Peterson spoke and answered questions on the Bible, philosophy and life – and almost nobody left. The encouraging thing was the interest – the frustrating thing was that whilst Peterson is brilliant on the analysis of society and the human condition, he ultimately had no hope! When asked about where the postmodern Woke progressives were leading us, his reply was basically if you think Hitler and Stalin were bad you ain’t seen nothing yet!

Walking back along the Sydney waterfront and through the city centre, the place was packed with thousands of again mainly young people, looking for satisfaction in the modern Vanity Fair that is Sydney on a Saturday night. It was heartbreaking to think that the following day only a small percentage of the thousands who were seeking for answers from Peterson, or the thousands who were seeking meaning from pleasure, would be in church in the city centre.

Pray for the nation of Australia. There is a hunger and thirst amongst many. But the church is struggling to connect with those who are seeking. It’s not a problem that is unique to the Australian church – but it is one that also offers tremendous opportunities. If we can find the open doors and have the courage to walk through them.