No significant inroads to arresting Church decline

There is an interesting online debate currently underway about the tone of debate between conservative and liberal Christians and the extent to which either is having significant impact. The main articles in this debate can be read here, here and here.

Martin Saunders argues that:

"A 'compelling' voice isn't just wise, radical and intellectually or emotionally stimulating. It's also kind and compassionate. It comes from a place of love, and is characterised by that. Those who argue from a more 'liberal' theological perspective (again, sorry to create 'sides', but it's impossible not to) tend to be good at this. Big ideas, expressed with kindness, have real currency in the modern world.

However, when we turn to the more conservative voices, there's often a very different tone. The big ideas are still there, but the kindness has evaporated, to be replaced with anything from over-confident condescension to discourteous rudeness. John Piper's infamous tweet is one example. David Robertson's article attacking Steve Chalke on this website is, I'm afraid, another. This isn't how you win arguments – it's just how you help both 'sides' become more entrenched in their positions."

David Robertson counters that:

"Biblical Christianity is winning the war because as Jesus says "heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away" (Matthew 24:35). That is why all over the UK there are churches that are growing and developing as the Word of God is proclaimed in the love, joy, power and assurance of the Spirit. Not 'conservative' churches. But radical, Bible-believing, contemporary, Spirit-filled churches of whatever denomination. The battle belongs to the Lord and so victory is his. My call is not to compromise with Christ's enemies, but to win them for Him."

The reality, however, is, as the latest set of Statistics for Mission from the Church of England illustrate, that overall the Church in the UK is consistently declining in numbers. None of the positive developments in either the conservative or liberal, Protestant, Catholic or Orthodox, traditional, emerging or alternative strands of the Church that I have seen over my lifetime have actually made significant inroads to arresting that decline, and this remains the case despite the above debates and assertions. There is much that is of God and of great value in the UK's churches as a whole but it is foolish to kid ourselves that those initiatives and movements of God are currently making a significant impact in terms of Church growth. For that to occur at present something altogether different from what we are doing now seems to be required.

For an alternative view on the significance of the latest set of Statistics for Mission, see Giles Fraser's latest column for The Guardian.

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Barry McGuire - Eve Of Destruction.