A new report from Tearfund on churchgoing in the UK has some interesting findings – especially finding more evidence for the need to grow new communities and fresh expressions of church. I have not read it all but the BBC website says the report finds that whilst people find “the church thing a little bit difficult, they are willing to recognise God.” These people are dubbed the “believing without belonging”.
It seems in a post-modern age the “me” generation often find church boring and irrelevant – and it has to be said that they do because often it is! In the foreword of the report Revd. Dr. Steven Croft says: “The research underlines very deeply the need to grow new communities: fresh expressions of church alongside traditional congregations. These fresh expressions of church are beginning in different places as Christians do as Jesus did: going to where people are, listening to their culture, offering loving service, forming new communities, making disciples and beginning church in a different way.”
Many of the issues raised are explored in more detail in a book we are currently reading, called Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture,
If you want to find out more about the Tearfund research try: Tearfund press release / BBC Magazine article on the report / Download the full report
