Sunday 23 June 2019

Peter Brierley on Church Decline and Growth in the UK


Peter Brierley has a piece in Christianity Today‘Churches Outnumber Pubs in the UK’ – the standfirst for which notes that ‘while the big denominations continue their downfall, certain Pentecostal movements, from black churches to Hillsong, see a surge in attendance’.

According to recent figures from the National Churches Trust, there are now more church buildings than pubs in the UK. However, ‘the number of churches overall is falling too, just not as fast’.

While attendance in major denominations is declining, ‘there is actually substantial growth among certain types of churches in the UK... many of which have a Pentecostal bent, ranging from immigrant-founded denominations to Hillsong campuses’. Even so, as Brierley notes, ‘their increase, although significant, is unfortunately not enough to compensate for the drop among the bigger churches, but has moderated the overall decline’.

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