People know the nation of Wales by the three R’s – rugby, rain and
religion. I guess we’re still pretty good at the first, we’ll always
have plenty of the second. But the third R, “Religion”, we’ve all
but lost.
Yet there was a time when the Christian faith shaped the nation
and churches and chapels were vibrant, integral parts of the
community.
But such days have gone as Peter Brierley author of the UK
Christian Handbook Religious Trends observes. In 2006
of the 3 million population in Wales , only 6% attended Church .
1,800 ministers served 4, 300 churches. But that itself represents a
significant national decline in just six years from 2000. 300
fewer churches, 20 fewer ministers, 47,000 fewer members and 44,000
fewer attendees. If that graph continues to slide downwards we have
about a generation, perhaps two at most, before the Christian
church, as we know it in Wales, goes into terminal decline.
I say that because of what’s happened in the last 25 years...
Sunday church attendance in Wales has halved. In
1980 it was 400,000 in 2005 it was 190,000.
If you take just one snap shot of that big picture. It’s this :
half of the churches in Wales have fewer than 25 turning up. And
most would be glad to see 10 people on a Sunday.
Here’s a couple of examples. Pentyrch Mission, north of
Cardiff. Pentyrch. has been one of those churches which the student
programme Revive has been committed to for the past 8 years. Revive
teams take summer missions in places like Pentyrch and help run a
mid week youth club through the year. Only that won’t be happening
for much longer if the Mission Hall in Pentyrch accepts an offer to
sell the property and the land to developers.
Here’s another example of a Church which came out of the great
move of God’s Spirit in 1904- the Rhondda Apostolic Mission
Revive teams have been working there too. But the doors will be shut
for good in a few months.
There was a time when the Apostolics had next door neighbours who
worshipped in the Welsh Congregational tradition. But they sold up
long ago. So the commercial housing sector has taken out of use
not one but two Christian congregations. And yet a 100 years ago
churches couldn’t be built quickly enough to cope with the numbers
of people wanting to come to Christ and be part of a Church
community. Places like the one we’re in today.
In fact the history of the Presbyterian Forward Movement which
Geraint Fielder chronicles in his book Grace Grit and Gumption,
is the narrative of a visionary strategic investment in the gospel
by people who weren’t afraid of taking risks because they believed
in the power of Christian truth. “It began without a following,
in a borrowed tent, on a piece of waste ground. Yet in fifteen years
it built forty eight well equipped centres seating 43,000 people,
had 7,000 born again members, 11,000 Sunday School scholars and
22,000 hearers, (regular attenders)“
Could it happen again ? Well the answer lies in another question-
is the gospel and the power of God still the same? A week last
Saturday we met as a group of leaders in ministry to begin to
explore how Highfields might make a strategic contribution to the re
evangelisation of Wales in our generation.
For that’s what it’s going to take. That doesn’t mean we have to
keep alive at any cost those churches and church buildings who for
whatever reason are sadly struggling. Nor does it mean that
Highfields bears the sole responsibility for the huge task.
We need to work with others in a new coalition of like minded
Christians, who are more committed to Christ than they are
suspicious of each others differences, more persuaded by the needs
of the lost than they are the comfort of the saved, a gospel
partnership in which together we reach, build and send
It’s
our job this year to work out those priorities so that we can make a
strategic difference to the gospel in Wales and the world. And
through all our careful planning and sincere praying which , we
must never forget out motto "Not by ..... "
In Christ alone
Peter