Transformed and transforming

‘We don’t try to get people involved with church; we try to get church involved with people,’ says Mark Stirling from the Cornerstone Community Church in St Andrews. He adds that they equip people ‘to live where they are and to carry out God’s mission wherever God has planted them.’

His is one of the voices heard in a research report published last week. Transforming Scotland: the state of Christianity, faith and the Church in Scotland was produced by the American Barna Group, commissioned by Transforming Scotland, a committee of influential Scottish Christian leaders.

Against the background of declining church attendance in Scotland, the researchers questioned 1019 Scottish adults on their views of Christianity and the church, and their beliefs about Jesus and the Bible. They also surveyed groups of Christian leaders; they focussed in depth on the leadership and practices of a small number of churches seeking to identify common factors among those which were growing.

They found that while 55% of all Scots have a ‘very’ or ‘fairly’ favourable impression of Christianity, only 16% say that faith has ‘greatly transformed me.’ 21% of all Scots see Christianity as ‘judgmental’; 20% as ‘hypocritical’; 20% as ‘out of touch with reality.’

Yet where churches focus on factors such transparent leadership, prayer, life-related Bible teaching, the church as a nurturing community, engagement with the outside world, there is encouraging evidence of growth. In particular there is evidence (though sample sizes were small) that among 18-30 year olds generally there is a resurgence of interest in, and openness to the Bible and Christian faith.

I welcome the research, but I have a few caveats.  In the first place, it has been shaped by a particular group within the Christian Church. The participating leaders and churches seem to come overwhelmingly from within the evangelical tradition.

The researchers used answers given in the public survey to define how evangelical the respondents were in terms of their beliefs about the Bible, the significance of Jesus’ death, the need for conversion and for the active living and sharing of faith. They divided the 51% of Scots who identified as Christians into three groups: ‘Legacy Christians’ for whom Christianity is part of their Scottishness with little impact on their lives; at the ‘other end of the belief spectrum’ ‘Evangelicals’; and in between folk who aren’t thoroughly evangelical, but who have a personal commitment to Jesus.

This is surely suspect. Many Roman Catholics (and that Church is not mentioned in the research report) might find it difficult to accept the evangelical terminology used in the survey. Where do committed Catholics and liberal Christians find a place in this dubious ‘belief spectrum’?

Evangelical are often zealous, loving, God-focussed people – I know and dearly love many. But surely the research is wrong to imply the superiority of one particular expression of Christian spirituality?

The implication is that if only we all became evangelicals, Scotland would be transformed. We hear nothing of good practice in sharing faith among the liberal and Roman Catholic communities.

I struggled for years to be thoroughly evangelical before I realised it’s OK to be the kind of Christian I am, that God has called me to this. And so I much prefer to be defined by what I am – a struggling believer with a conversion story, glimpses of glory, and struggles with doubt – than in terms of my falling short of an evangelical ideal.

Second caveat: the research notes that 86% of Christians who no longer attend church were at one time church-goers. But it shows no awareness of research by Steve Aisthorpe of the Church of Scotland (Investigating the invisible church 2014) which identifies significant numbers of Christians who feel called to disengage from church, and find fellowship and nurture in other ways in order to be free to live for God in their own environment. This surely is another significant factor in transforming Scotland.

Final caveat:  the research mentions ‘the on-going work of the Holy Spirit in the world and in the people of Scotland’. But how does God work? Just in churches with a particular theology and view of spirituality? Surely not! Surely God works in the lives of all Scots, prompting us towards goodness and light; the God who is ultimately behind every act of love and goodness whether or not the person involved recognises it. Our lives as Scots are transformed spiritually to the extent that we open ourselves up to the Love who is God, the love we see in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Personal question: is each of us willing to confront the needs in our lives and communities, and whatever our theology seek by prayer, through action and in dependence on the Father to be both transformed and transforming?

(Christian Viewpoint column from the Highland News, dated 10th September 2015)