For the last 11 years Professor Voas’ work has been used to underpin much Church policy, or that of lobbies like STP. It is therefore all the more striking that he has decided to speak his mind – on the Sunday programme with William Crawley last weekend, and now in this article – about the real state of Church attendance. We are being told repeatedly that there is this thing called a ‘Quiet Revival’, as if the base metal of mere moronic repetition will, by some miracle of rhetorical alchemy, transmute into the glimmering gold of a genuine revival. It… Read more »
Unfortunately we don’t have enough children’s workers to cope with number of children currently attending our Sunday school so the number of children attending have to be capped sadly, despite the fact that we run two Sunday schools each Sunday morning having recently increased the number of congregation from 1 to 2. Pray to the Lord of the harvest!
It’s also not clear what a quiet revival actually is …
We are called to be the light of the world, a city built on a hill, our good deeds bringing glory to God. So if the revival is real, in time it will become a lot more luminous.
Anglican in Exile
21 days ago
‘Heck’ is the operative word, being slang for ‘Hell’. Sadly, in its current and historical structures, too often the Church of England has created a vision of hell on Earth rather than a vision of heaven. I’d suggest good oversight requires a very careful and intentional balance of the power dynamic present in each of the qualities listed by Mark Clavier, maybe something like this: Authority – Accountability Unity – Humility Apostolic Mission – Servanthood Teaching – Tending I don’t see enough sign of this at present in the Church of England, and while the selection of bishops and archbishops… Read more »
John Davies
20 days ago
I’m definitely not a statistician – indeed didn’t even get maths O level – but do wonder if there isn’t more to this survey business than may be measured in ‘official’ figures. (Who was said “there are lies, damned lies and statistics”?) So the surveys cover the ‘Big 4’ denominations, but what about all the others? Do the ‘new churches’, house churches such as Riverside and Vineyard (here in Birmingham) keep figures, or submit them to the statisticians? That could mean a lot of heads not being counted for a start. Young people are more likely to attend such churches… Read more »
I think the important thing about statistical surveys is that full details of the data and methodology are made available. Maybe a robust methodology was used, maybe not.
Bias, confounding and other basic flaws are endemic.
I hate intensely the phrase ‘actionable insights’, but what are the actionable insights from the Bible Society survey?
Normally yes, but is Froghole going to the churches (particularly Pentecostal and Roman Catholic) which are seeing most of the ‘quiet revival’? The CofE isn’t the only show in town.
Mark Bennet
20 days ago
Part of the issue with research, and particularly “quantitative” research (ie figures) is that it is used in politics as well as in the Church of England for PR purposes. Sometimes the questions are not as neutral as they should be, and sometimes the interpretations are stretched to serve a desired public narrative. We need research that does not have confirmation bias built in. The demise of the research unit of the Church Army is a real loss – research is cheap in the big picture, especially if we allow ourselves to be confronted with the truth. The Biblical tradition… Read more »
For the last 11 years Professor Voas’ work has been used to underpin much Church policy, or that of lobbies like STP. It is therefore all the more striking that he has decided to speak his mind – on the Sunday programme with William Crawley last weekend, and now in this article – about the real state of Church attendance. We are being told repeatedly that there is this thing called a ‘Quiet Revival’, as if the base metal of mere moronic repetition will, by some miracle of rhetorical alchemy, transmute into the glimmering gold of a genuine revival. It… Read more »
Unfortunately we don’t have enough children’s workers to cope with number of children currently attending our Sunday school so the number of children attending have to be capped sadly, despite the fact that we run two Sunday schools each Sunday morning having recently increased the number of congregation from 1 to 2. Pray to the Lord of the harvest!
It’s also not clear what a quiet revival actually is …
We are called to be the light of the world, a city built on a hill, our good deeds bringing glory to God. So if the revival is real, in time it will become a lot more luminous.
‘Heck’ is the operative word, being slang for ‘Hell’. Sadly, in its current and historical structures, too often the Church of England has created a vision of hell on Earth rather than a vision of heaven. I’d suggest good oversight requires a very careful and intentional balance of the power dynamic present in each of the qualities listed by Mark Clavier, maybe something like this: Authority – Accountability Unity – Humility Apostolic Mission – Servanthood Teaching – Tending I don’t see enough sign of this at present in the Church of England, and while the selection of bishops and archbishops… Read more »
I’m definitely not a statistician – indeed didn’t even get maths O level – but do wonder if there isn’t more to this survey business than may be measured in ‘official’ figures. (Who was said “there are lies, damned lies and statistics”?) So the surveys cover the ‘Big 4’ denominations, but what about all the others? Do the ‘new churches’, house churches such as Riverside and Vineyard (here in Birmingham) keep figures, or submit them to the statisticians? That could mean a lot of heads not being counted for a start. Young people are more likely to attend such churches… Read more »
I think the important thing about statistical surveys is that full details of the data and methodology are made available. Maybe a robust methodology was used, maybe not.
Bias, confounding and other basic flaws are endemic.
I hate intensely the phrase ‘actionable insights’, but what are the actionable insights from the Bible Society survey?
I should be far more inclined to trust what Froghole actually sees rather than what others just hear about.
Normally yes, but is Froghole going to the churches (particularly Pentecostal and Roman Catholic) which are seeing most of the ‘quiet revival’? The CofE isn’t the only show in town.
Part of the issue with research, and particularly “quantitative” research (ie figures) is that it is used in politics as well as in the Church of England for PR purposes. Sometimes the questions are not as neutral as they should be, and sometimes the interpretations are stretched to serve a desired public narrative. We need research that does not have confirmation bias built in. The demise of the research unit of the Church Army is a real loss – research is cheap in the big picture, especially if we allow ourselves to be confronted with the truth. The Biblical tradition… Read more »