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Research Sheds Light on Invisible Church

Thursday March 24

This Easter, the number of people who hold the Christian faith as central to their lives is much greater than church attendance figures suggest, according to new research.

A new study investigating why people stop attending church has discovered two thirds of church-leavers maintain a strong personal faith.  Falling church attendance has been described as ‘a haemorrhage akin to a burst artery’ and this research is the first to make a thorough exploration of the world behind the statistics.  Its findings challenge assumptions that declining numbers of people sitting in pews on Sunday mornings are synonymous with a decline in Christian faith and the Christian community.     
 
“I discovered the number of people who attend church services are the tip of the iceberg of the total Christian community,” says researcher Dr Steve Aisthorpe, whose findings are presented in a new book, The Invisible Church.

“I conducted extensive and rigorous research in Scotland and made a careful study of related research from other parts of the UK and across the Western world. I found that changes in wider society and in the practices of Christian people mean attendance at Sunday morning worship can no longer be seen as a reliable indicator of the health and scale of Christian faith. There is decline in Christian faith in Britain, but it is considerably smaller than previously assumed.”
 
The research, commissioned by the Church of Scotland, suggests Christianity in Great Britain is in transition, rather than decline. Steve’s findings challenge assumptions about the inevitable secularisation of British society. They also pose questions for churches and church members. “Among church goers, I found many previous assumptions about ‘church-leavers’ are at best, generalisations, and at worst prejudices.

"There has been a well-publicised view within the Christian community that those who discontinue church attendance usually do so over trivial issues and it is now clear that this is not true. The evidence also shows that churches which are resistant to change and those which are dominated by a single group are more likely to decline.”
 
Steve (right), a Mission Development Worker for the Church's Mission and Discipleship Council in the north of Scotland, also found common patterns in the reasons people stop attending church. “Every individual’s experience is different but I found five distinct phases people go through before they leave their church. As traditional congregations diminish, there is evidence that small informal gatherings of people coming together to explore their faith, in what have been termed ‘Fresh Expressions’ of church, are experiencing dynamic growth.”
 
Rt Rev Dr Angus Morrison, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland says The Invisible Church is both hopeful and challenging. “This is a major contribution to establishing the place of the church in contemporary society. As a Church we have to take heed of these findings, something we are already doing by investing money and resources in our pioneer ministry programme, which is bringing our Church into the wider community.”

The Invisible Church is published by Saint Andrew Press on April 30. You can pre-order here.

Steve Aisthorpe writes about his research in May's Life and Work.


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