The Evangelical Alliance (EA) has recently published the results of a survey carried out among 17,000 Christians attending various festivals held in the UK. It is titled 21st-century evangelicals: a snapshot of evangelical Christians in the UK.
The research was not carried out at the more conservative evangelical conferences. But they did include Spring Harvest, New Wine and the Keswick Convention. If EN is regarded as on the conservative wing, this gives us an idea of the centre ground of today’s evangelicalism. The results are mixed, both encouraging and very worrying.
Much is made in the report of widespread consensus found on some issues. For example, 91% strongly agreed that Jesus is the only way to God; 96% attend church at least once a week; 82% read their Bibles a few times a week; 96% pray; 81% are involved in some kind of voluntary work for the good of their local communities. These things are good
The re-emergence of heavy shepherds
What would you think if you received a letter from your church leaders that read like this? ‘Are church members …