UK evangelical churches in a time of ‘growth and opportunities’

Evangelical churches in the UK are in a season of growth, a new survey by the Evangelical Alliance has suggested.

Commissioned to monitor the state of the evangelical church five years on from the Covid pandemic, the ‘Changing Church 2025’ report found an average increase in church attendance of 13 per cent since January 2020.

It surveyed 305 church leaders and nearly a thousand individuals, finding that churches are seeing twice as many people approaching them with questions about the Christian faith, and reported twice as many people making first-time commitments to follow Jesus compared to 2021.

‘Growth and opportunities’

The report concluded: “The overall picture for evangelical churches in the UK is of growth and opportunities. Churches are seeing more people commit to follow Jesus and more openness to exploring the Christian faith.”

However, it noted that church growth is “a very mixed picture” – the “largest half of churches are growing, and with more growth among children than adults”, whilst smaller churches have been decreasing in size.

Danny Webster, Head of Advocacy at the Evangelical Alliance, said: “While we found that habits of engaging with churches and church activities had changed, for example, people attend slightly less frequently, in most areas, church life has bounced back since the Covid shutdown.”

He added: “One key trend identified in the research is the different experience for large and small churches; this has an inevitable knock-on effect, so smaller churches are more likely to report struggles with income and volunteering.”

‘Spiritual openness’

The Christian Institute’s Ciarán Kelly welcomed the report, saying: “It’s wonderful to hear that more people seem to be turning to Christ as their Lord and Saviour. It is perhaps not surprising that, as some attempt to remove God from society, younger people in particular looking to understand their place in the world are not finding answers in secular humanism.

“It is notable too that while church attendance has been on the decline for many years among some churches, those that hold fast to the truth of Scripture are seeing the fruit of their faithfulness.“