If church leaders will not lead, then the people of God must
by Dr Campbell Campbell-Jack, The Conservative Woman:
WHAT’S going wrong? Scripture speaks clearly of the transformative power of the gospel; we have evidences throughout history of the gospel triumphing even when facing overwhelming odds. Yet look around at the West today, particularly in Europe, and you are confronted with a church in headlong retreat.
In Germany, church membership is in freefall and those remaining seem apathetic. Only 3.2 per cent of the members of the Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, the main Protestant church, actually bothered to attend services in 2018. In one area, attendance reached a new low of 2.2 per cent of members. In the UK in the 50 years up to 2019, 1,138 Church of England churches were converted for other uses and a further 500 were demolished.
This is not confined to Europe. The percentage of US adults belonging to a church or other religious institution has plunged by 20 percentage points over the past two decades, hitting a low of 50 per cent, according to a 2019 Gallup poll.
Christians are meant to have an impact, influencing and drawing others to Christ. Instead of Christians standing out as salt and light in a broken world, we hide our light under a bushel and allow the world’s beliefs and values to influence us. Too often the pronouncements of mainstream Christian leaders reflect priorities little different from those of the secular world.
The recently retired Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, who was the second-highest prelate in the Church of England, praised massed Black Lives Matter demonstrators in Hyde Park who flouted the lockdown regulations as ‘FANTABULOUS’.
At the same time, he was insisting his clergy strictly abide by those same regulations and not enter their church buildings, even to record or transmit virtual Christian services for their parishioners.
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