The dilemma in church attendances is forcing some denominations to consider merging or closing places of worship because either buildings have become no longer financially viable, or congregations have become too small in numbers to sustain a church.
Some denominations, too, are facing a shortage of people wanting to become ordained clerics or join holy orders, leaving numerous places of worship vacant or having to rely on retired clerics to conduct services.
Just as working class loyalism feels a disconnect with the pro-Union political parties, do many communities feel some places of worship remain aloof from their potential flocks, with some congregations preferring instead to have churches become holy huddles or selective social clubs?
The bitter medicine which many places of worship will have to face is that if they wish to still be functioning in 10 years’ time, they will have to resort to traditional door to door evangelism which was a major hallmark of Christian witness in the 1950s.
The photo with this article is a handbill for my late dad when he was an evangelist in his early outreach days in that 1950s witness era. These handbills were distributed during door to door visits around the homes to encourage folk to attend the missions.
Numerous Christian Church prayer meetings will talk about the need for a spiritual revival similar to the famous Ulster revival of 1859 when tens of thousands of people became born again believers.
Given the perception that Northern Ireland is becoming an increasingly secular and pluralist society, if the Christian Churches genuinely want such an 1859-style spiritual revival, they will have to do the physical spade work and embark on an intensive campaign of door to door evangelism.
Holding traditional tent and church evangelical missions is all very well, but if the folk are not attending, then those missions are not having a tremendous spiritual impact.
Put bluntly, if people will not come to the pews, then the church folk will have to go out into the communities and visit families in their homes.
Look at how the so-called church cults, such as the Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses work. They regularly have their missionaries travel around homes doing door to door work. So why can’t the established evangelical Christian denominations embark on such an outreach programme?
Is one reason for this lack of enthusiasm because places of worship do not want to get tarred with the same brush as ‘tub thumpers’ or ‘bible bashers’ because of the methods used by a small number of so-called street preachers who use loud public address systems and prefer the Puritan ‘hell fire and brimstone’ form of communication?
This has fuelled the debate on what constitutes effective Christian evangelism - the polite door to door witness of ‘what can we as a church do for you’ approach, or the shock tactics of yelling in your face, commonly branded as the ‘turn or burn’ method.
Five years on from the Covid pandemic when lockdown forced all places of worship to shut, the Christian Churches can no longer hide behind the excuse of not working in their communities because of Covid restrictions.
Likewise, there is also the perception that many folk who are church-going are quite content to sit in the pews and not get actively involved in evangelism. This has again fuelled the belief that in some churches, 10 per cent of the folk are doing 90 per cent of the work, and anyway, that’s the role of the clergy to do the evangelism!
Just as there is a perception that potential voters only see political representatives at their doorstep when an election is looming, the same question is being asked of places of worship - when do we see the church folk calling at our doors to either invite us to worship, or see if there is anything we can do to help the families facing the cost of living crisis?
Of course, numerous places of worship now that we are in the summer school holiday period will point to their annual holiday Bible clubs and summer schemes which they run.
Many of these take place in the communities in which the churches are located, but once September comes and the children are back in class, the churches physically vanish from those communities until next year’s summer programme.
The churches also need to shatter this perception of being ‘one-week wonders’ along with traditional Christmas nativities and Easter services.
If individual churches do not have the physical manpower to organise a door to door evangelism programme, then perhaps the time has come for denominations to pull their resources and work together in terms of Christian witness.
To make such a united programme of evangelism work practically, some denominations and places of worship may have to park contentious theological debates about the role of women in churches, dress codes for worship, the type of music in Christian praise, and which translations of the Bible to use in church.
Perhaps what is concerning some folk, who whilst recognising the need for and the use of door to door evangelism, is that they do not want to be involved in such a programme of Christian witness for fear of being verbally abused on the doorsteps.
Ask any political activist or wannabe elected representative about the door to door electioneering and many will tell tales of doors being slammed in their faces or verbal abuse heaped on them.
The phrase ‘ you’re not getting my vote’ could become ‘I’m not setting foot in your church’ for wannabe door to door evangelists.
Like it or not, the bitter reality which many places of worship will have to face is that if they want a spiritual revival or even an increase in numbers at Sunday services, they will have to get out of the pews and go meet the people in their homes.
Door to door evangelism is the only solution to avoid the dilemma of places of worship descending into holy huddles for the few, or convenient cliques in churches.
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| Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter John is a Director for Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. |
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