Many years ago it seemed to me that churches were heading the way of supermarkets! Either large "hypermarkets": stock everything, well staffed, bright but impersonal, or corner shops: local, convenient, potentially connecting personally but limited offering. The struggle is the middle size, not quite one thing but not quite the other. Maybe it feels uncomfortable to speak of churches in such consumer, market driven terms. But for the UK church that is in many ways the reality. These 2 articles, from quite different "tribes", articulate some of the issues this raises: https://www.londonseminary.org/goodbye-local-church/ https://www.baptist.org.uk/Articles/663265/What_would_it.aspx
It is common to think of the UK as "post-Christendom", or even post-Christian. Census and surveys paint a picture of church decline. Faithfully following Jesus, yet alone seeing those from outside the church come to faith can be tough. Daniel Strange describes it this way: "The good news of Jesus is deeply implausible in our culture at the moment...the cultural air they have breathed all their lives has shaped them to assume Christianity is irrelevant, untrue and intolerant" ("Plugged In", p32). Yet the memory of faith lingers, in music, in culture, and beyond in ways that keep popping up. I was recently at a secular event where the crowd participation moment was to get those gathered to join in singing "Come and go with me to my Father's house". It was quite something to hear the room belting out the words of there being joy in the Father's house forever! Did anyone even notice the good news they were singing? This weekend was Glastonb...