This is the next instalment of the serialisation of my book – The Teeth of our Exertions – full details of which can be found here.
Both places and people
As we press into the statistics further, it becomes clear precisely the kind of people we are reaching. The 2015 Talking Jesus research commissioned by the Evangelical Alliance, Church of England and HOPE found that 81% of practising Christians hold a university degree or higher.[1] This contrasts with the 2011 Census figures that show only 27% of the population holds a university degree.[2] Whilst participation in higher education has undoubtedly increased in recent years, there can be no denying the disproportionate number of Evangelicals with a university education compared to the wider UK population. The more recent 2022 Talking Jesus research states:
The people who are least likely to know a practising Christian are those who do not have a university or higher education. In fact the more highly educated a person is, the more likely they are to know a practising Christian. This follows into socio-economic grade where those who are DE professions are also least likely to know a practising Christian; 42% don’t know a practising Christian.[3]
Further, Tom Bassford offers some statistics outlining the prevalence of FIEC and Gospel Partnership churches in both affluent and deprived communities. He notes:
Overall, about half (50.2%) of FIEC churches are located in the poorer half of the country, while slightly fewer (46.3%) Gospel Partnership churches can be found in these areas. And if you live in an area within the most deprived 10% of the country, it’ll be harder for you to find a congregation linked to the Gospel Partnership as this is where they have the fewest churches (7.8%).[4]
However, the data also highlights that the largest proportion of FIEC churches are sited in the 80-90% least deprived wards. In his own follow up blog post, John Stevens acknowledges that ‘the churches in the poorer communities are generally smaller, so that an analysis of numbers attending would reveal a much greater disparity’.[5]
What these figures generally tell us is that Evangelicalism – particularly Conservative Evangelicalism – is largely centred on the South, particularly the South East, and is overwhelmingly made up of the university educated. To put it in other words, we are essentially a middle-class movement that has been highly ineffective at reaching the working classes and urban poor.
Both effective and uneffective
Conservative Evangelicals have been reasonably effective at reaching the educated, often finding fruit amongst university students and organising themselves well through groups such as UCCF. They have also been extremely keen to plant churches in affluent areas populated by the very middle class graduates they have been so effective in reaching. There are, no doubt, multiple reasons for this and there have been shifts in emphasis over recent years from planting in leafy market towns to focusing on the gentrified suburbs of major cities. But what has not changed is our overarching aversion to planting and revitalising churches in deprived communities. As Tim Chester puts it, ‘churchgoing in the UK is a middle-class pursuit’.[6]
If we are to be serious about reaching the whole of our nation for Christ, then we need to begin focusing our attention on church in deprived communities. This will include resourcing existing churches in such places as well as planting new ones where there is currently no gospel-preaching church. There are some who have begun to recognise this need. There have been a few moves to effect change and some – such as 20 Schemes in Scotland and Medhurst Ministries in England – have made real progress in planting churches in deprived areas. With a wider, more concerted effort, there is every reason to believe that socially left behind places that have been spiritually bereft could have a strong, gospel presence in their midst if we are willing to rise to the challenge of making it happen.
We will shortly consider what a deprived community is, the things that stop us going and what Jesus himself thinks of such places and the people who live there. At this point, however, it will suffice for us to look at the raw figures. The data suggests we are failing deprived communities in that few of us are going, gospel churches in these areas are scarce and whole towns and boroughs are heading for a lost eternity because of it. We must, as a matter of urgency, wake up to this reality or we will condemn areas such as Burnley and Blackpool, Stoke and Smethwick, Gainsborough and Great Yarmouth, Clacton and Jaywick and places like them to their fate outside of Christ.
[1] Macdonald, C., ‘The UK Church and the Problem with Class’, Evangelical Alliance, 19th February 2016, accessed at http://www.eauk.org/culture/friday-night-theology/the-uk-church-and-the-problem-with-class.cfm
[2] Office for National Statistics (2011), ‘2011 Census: Key Statistics for England and Wales, March 2011’, accessed at https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/keystatisticsandquickstatisticsforlocalauthoritiesintheunitedkingdom/2013-12-04#qualifications
[3] Jordan-Wolf, R., Talking Jesus Report, 2022, p.14
[4] Bassford, T., Op Cit., (2017)
[5] Stevens, J., ‘Gospel Inequality: If We Want To Reach Poorer Communities We Have To Fight The Temptations Of Affluence & Respectability’, Dissenting Opinion, 27th November 2017, accessed at http://www.john-stevens.com/2017/11/gospel-inequality-if-we-want-to-reach.html
[6] Chester, T., Unreached: Growing Churches in Working Class and Deprived Communities, Inter-Varsity Press, (Nottingham, UK 2012)., p.10