Where we’ve failed to go Pt. 1

This is the next instalment of the serialisation of my book – The Teeth of our Exertions – full details of which can be found here.

In his book, Knowing our Times, John Stevens states:

Whilst a considerable percentage of the population continue to identify with Christianity in the decennial census, most have little or no conception of what Christianity is, still less a personal faith as born-again believers in the Lord Jesus who seek to honour him as Lord in every aspect of their lives. The best statistics would suggest that little more than 3% of the population as a whole are born-again believers who are meaningfully associated with a local church.[1]

What this tells us is that 97% of our country cannot, in any meaningful sense, be considered Christian. The church, particularly the Evangelical church, is not rampant in the UK.

As we home in on my particular constituency of Conservative Evangelicals, it is interesting to note where the spread of churches happens to lie. Tom Bassford, who blogs under the moniker Gospel Data Geek, has mapped the spread of FIEC and Gospel Partnership churches in England.[2] I reproduce his data below:

This data shows 65% of Gospel Partnership churches exist in the South compared to 35% of churches in the North. Similarly, we see 60% of FIEC churches in the South compared to 40% in the North. Whilst it is important to notice that there is some considerable overlap between Gospel Partnership and FIEC churches – many belong to both groups – we can see nearly double the number of churches in the South than the North.

For those who wish to argue that the relative population of different regions ought to be taken into account, Tom has helpfully broken down those statistics for us too: