In his blog, Bishop David has responded to recent blogs from John Hayward’s Church Growth Modelling research project which predict the demise of the SEC by 2043, and offer some explanation:
“The statistics make sobering reading. I think I understand why they reach the conclusion they do. I don’t believe that the church will be extinct in 2043. But it will almost certainly look very different.
“Most of our clergy and people recognise the challenge we face … there comes a point beyond which it is simply very difficult to grow back because the existing congregation doesn’t have enough contact across the spectrum of age in its own community.”
Alison has asked us all to read David’s blog, to follow the links, and to prayerfully consider our response as we look towards the future and how we support and nurture the young within our congregations. For the key area of making contact across the spectrum of age, we might ponder the analogy from the picture above, which shows three ways of making links between communities: all are valid, all work (or will work), but the newest of the three has real and as yet untapped potential – time to do things differently, perhaps?