Weekly Blog - 23 January 2023 - The State of Faith in the UK
The state of Christian faith in the UK
This week both Arise’s weekly blog and weekly action follow the same theme, as we look at the state of Christian faith in the UK. Towards the end of last year the latest set of results from the 2021 census were published. This found that 46.2% of the population of England and Wales identified themselves as Christian, a dramatic drop from 59.3% at the last census in 2011. The largest alternatives of ‘no religion’ grew dramatically from 25.2% to 37.2%, and Muslim from 4.9% to 6.5% during the same period.[1] The findings are very similar to those in the Talking Jesus Report 2022, a major piece of research also published last year, produced by Alpha, the Evangelical Alliance, HOPE Together, Kingsgate Community Church and the Luis Palau Association. This found that 48% of the UK population identified themselves as Christian, down from 58% when the same survey was last run in 2015. Similarly those who had ‘no religion’ had grown from 11% to 26% during the same period, whereas Muslims are now at 4%.[2]
Of course the number of those who identify as ‘Christian’ will include a large proportion with only a very nominal faith. The World Christian Encyclopedia, one of the most authoritative sources of faith statistics in the world, estimates about 1 in 5 of those in the UK who identify as Christians have a living active faith.[3] Alternatively, the Talking Jesus Report indicates it is about 1 in 8 of those who identify as Christians, 6% of the total population, who have an active faith and regularly attend church at least once a month, and pray and read their Bible every week. Whatever the true figure, it is clearly a much smaller proportion of the total number that identify themselves as ‘Christian’.
This picture of Christian faith very much matches the wider situation in other western countries. In most of these countries the number of Christians is declining dramatically, and atheism/agnosticism, and to a much lesser extent Islam, are growing remarkably. It also matches the situation around the world. The future global religious picture is effectively a race between Christianity, Islam and agnosticism/atheism. As Operation World (another of the most authoritative sources of faith statistics), puts it, “Cultural influence, proselytism and birthrates would indicate that global religious dominance will be contested by three main forces – Christianity, Islam and non-religion. All other faiths are limited to a specific region and/or are not growing. Non-religious people tend to have the lowest birthrates, but the trend toward secularisation in many parts of the world has sustained and even swelled their numbers. Proportionately, few convert to Islam, but high birthrates and low apostasy rates have propelled Islam to 22,9% of the human population. Christianity has declined slightly from 34.5% in 1990 to 32.3% in 2010. The precipitous decline of the past 30 years in Europe has been offset by the growth in Asia and Africa.” [4]
As Christians what are we to make of this?
As Christians we should be challenged by these statistics. God wants everyone to know the good news that he loves us so much that he came in the person of Jesus to die for us, that he has forgiven all the things we have done wrong in our lives, and that he wants every one of us to turn around, come back to him, and have a personal relationship with him. As Jesus famously commanded us in the Great Commission at the end of Matthew’s Gospel, “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matt 28: 19 – 20). In the UK this trend is heading in the wrong direction, and indeed globally, whilst a third of the world’s population is Christian, this number has barely changed for over a century. David B Barrett and Todd M Johnson bring this together into a profound challenge for all Christians in their book, World Christian Trends, “In a vast range of secular measures, such as the huge medical endeavour to stamp out disease and epidemics worldwide, or the global attempt to increase literacy to 100% any percentage stuck at 34% for a whole century would be considered an unacceptable failure.” [5]
So where are the signs of hope?
So faced with this major challenge, what can the church and individual Christians do about it? One of the key areas that a major report from Arise, The Arise Manifesto, looks at in detail is the state of the Christian faith globally, and what the Bible shows us, and history teaches us, works best to introduce people to Jesus (Arise Manifesto, pg 21 – 46). The report finds that overwhelmingly the most effective way for people to come to faith in the twenty-first century is through their Christian friends and family speaking with them about Jesus. And a key part of those conversations is inviting people into a welcoming, loving, flexible and relevant local church where they can make friends, experience love, have their questions answered, and make a commitment when they are ready. The evangelist J John quotes survey results in the UK indicating why people who are not yet Christians come to church. These show “1% come because they were visited by Christians, 2% come because of the church programme – they’ve come along to a holiday club, a senior citizens’ lunch, toddler group and so on, 3% come because of bereavement, 3% come because of Sunday school, 6% walk through the door because they see some publicity, 8% come because of some personal contact they’ve had with the minister or church staff, and 77% come because friends or relatives invited them.” [6]
This is also strengthened by the findings of the Talking Jesus Report. This found that 53% of non-Christians in the UK know a Christian (down from 68% in 2015, another huge challenge for the church). When asked about their perceptions of their Christian friends and family members, these were overwhelmingly positive, with words like ‘caring, friendly, encouraging, hopeful, good humoured, generous, and authentic’ getting the strongest responses. Just over half of those people who know a Christian said they had had a conversation with them about Jesus. Some 75% of non-Christians who had these conversations said they felt comfortable during the conversation. As a result of the conversation 33% said they wanted to know more about Jesus, whilst some 36% were open to an encounter or experience of Jesus for themselves.
The report cites one example of Ann who “has lived on the same estate in London for more than 30 years. She’s always believed in God, but never felt connected to God or the church. She was befriended by Shane, a London City Mission (LCM) missionary, and their conversations often turned to life’s bigger questions. One Sunday, Ann took a big step. She decided to give church a go. She received such a warm welcome that she kept coming. Eventually she started reading the Bible with Shane and came to the decision that Jesus went through so much torture, all for her. She felt like he really wasn’t asking much, so she gave her life to him. Now Ann can’t keep quiet about her new life, even on the bus, she’s talking about Jesus.” [7]
What can we do?
So, despite the challenge Christians face in the UK and around the world, we can be encouraged to reach out to our friends and families with the gospel. The good news of Jesus is as attractive as it ever was. Our non-Christian friends and family feel very positively towards us and our local churches, and are very interested in us talking to them about our faith. The challenge is two-fold. Firstly, with only 53% of non-Christians in the UK knowing a Christian friend or family member, we really need to get out there into our communities and spend time and make friends. Then secondly, almost half of those who do know a Christian have never had a single conversation about faith with them. We need to be talking about our faith more regularly and confidently.
Yet so many of us are so busy we aren’t spending time with non-Christian friends and family members, and when we do, we lack confidence, are somewhat embarrassed, and struggle to talk about our faith clearly and naturally. This is why Arise has developed Equipped to Share, a free course of five sessions that can be run in any church. Equipped to Share encourages us to get involved and make many more friends in our communities. It then empowers individual Christians to talk with confidence about their faith in an easy and natural way, releasing us to evangelise in our daily lives. Promoting and running Equipped to Share training in local churches is one of Arise’s three primary campaigns. Many other Christian groups have produced similar excellent training and resources, which we would also encourage Christians to look into. We can all learn to share our faith naturally and confidently with real impact. Ultimately, it is ordinary people, like you and me, sharing our faith powerfully and effectively that will have the greatest impact for the gospel. Let’s embrace the challenge.
Find out more
Find out more about how God is at work in the world, and the role we all have to play in that work, in the Arise Manifesto. This report is Arise’s big picture, researched, Biblical, holistic and practical vision for a better world. It looks at what the Bible says, and what we can learn from the best data and the world’s leading experts on the five major areas of evangelism, discipleship, social justice, development and the environment. It then draws these lessons together into a practical road map for the changes we need to see in our world, which the Arise movement campaigns to achieve.
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[1] New Census 2021 data released for England and Wales, UK Data Service, (5 Dec 2022), https://ukdataservice.ac.uk/2022/12/05/new-census-2021-data-for-england-and-wales/
[2] Talking Jesus Report 2022, Alpha, the Evangelical Alliance, HOPE Together, Kingsgate Community Church and the Luis Palau Association, (Apr 2022), https://talkingjesus.org/2022-research/
[3] Johnson, T. M. & Zurlo, G. A., World Christian Encyclopedia, Third Edition, (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2020), p. 832
[4] Mandryk, J., Operation World, Seventh Edition, (Colorado Springs: Biblica, 2010), p. 21
[5] Barrett, D. B. & Johnson, T. M., World Christian Trends, (Pasadena: William Carey Library, 2001), p.75
[6] John, J., The Natural Evangelism Course, (Chorleywood: Philo Trust, 2014), p. 37
[7] Talking Jesus Report 2022, Alpha, the Evangelical Alliance, HOPE Together, Kingsgate Community Church and the Luis Palau Association, (Apr 2022), https://talkingjesus.org/2022-research/, p. 11