The Quiet Revival – one year on and withdrawal

Many people were very excited when the Bible Society Published its report “The Quiet Revival” a year ago. It’s findings of growth in church attendance, especially among the young, and analysis of data gathered by YouGov research organization, seemed to offer hope of church growth and a ‘turning of the tide’ of decline.

It also chimed well with anecdotal evidence we hear across the diocese of people ‘wandering’ into church without really knowing what drew them there.

However, last month, the Bible Society withdrew the report after YouGov confirmed that they had made an error in collecting the data and it could no longer be relied upon to be statistically valid. This was entirely a fault of YouGov, which they have admitted, and was caused by a failure of their online systems to prevent multiple entries, entries from outside the country, etc.

It is worth noting that this doesn’t mean the figures are wrong, simply that we do not know if they are right or wrong.

The Bible Society is re-doing the research over the next 2 or 3 months, plus adding some other surveys of different styles from other providers so that they can have more confidence in the validity of the results, so watch this space!

At a recent webinar by the Bible Society, they were quietly confident that the broad thrust of the previous results would be repeated this time round. A broad range of traditions spoke of a renewed interest (hunger?), especially among young people, and this seems to echo our experience across the diocese.

However, there are still questions. Perhaps most importantly, this interest isn’t yet translating into significant church growth (although numbers are overall up from last year). It is also (anecdotally) not just young people that are being prompted to attend church, but across the age range.

Perhaps the most important lesson through all this is that it is not our job to convert people, but respond in a Christ-like way to the people God puts in our path. If we, as individuals and as churches, are welcoming, open and willing to talk about our experience of God in our lives, then those who are seeking will indeed find, and God’s Kingdom will grow. And that’s something we can all do!

You can find out more about the Bible Society’s take on this at: https://www.biblesociety.org.uk/the-quiet-revival

John Hellewell - Mission Adviser

John helps churches as they look to grow in the first two marks of mission. He helps them to be intentional in making and growing disciples of Jesus Christ, talking to church leaders and PCC’s and running training events.

T: 01928 643 432 EXT: 235 M: 07874 295510 E: john.hellewell@chester.anglican.org