Posts by John Hayward
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The “Twitter Mob” and Free Speech – A Systems Perspective
Some Thoughts on the Christmas Message of David Robertson, Free Church of Scotland Recently David Robertson, Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland, delivered a Christmas message where he said society was becoming a monochrome culture where genuine diversity was being […]
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Church Decline Caused By Lack of Revival
In my last blog [1], I showed that the primary cause of decline for the Presbyterian Church of Wales (aka Calvinist Methodists) in the 20th century was due to a large drop in conversions to the church. Additionally, there was […]
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Church Decline Caused by Lack of Conversions
In my last blog, Closing Rural Churches [1], I said that no strategy to reverse church decline would work unless it deals with the root cause of decline, the church’s failure to recruit sufficient people to counteract its losses. In […]
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Closing Rural Churches
Is This the Way to Church Growth? Recently in an article for the Guardian newspaper, Giles Fraser suggested the Church of England should do to its churches what Beeching did to the railways, close its underused rural parishes. He further […]
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Communicating The Gospel
Effective communication of the gospel is essential if those who do not believe in Jesus are to come to faith. How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? Rom 10:14. However, if the message is unintelligible, […]
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Cowboys for Jesus
Recently my wife and I spent a month in the USA, firstly at a conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts, then a few weeks touring Utah and Colorado. We have been to the States many times and really enjoyed the scenery, places […]
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Anglican Church Decline in the West – Possible Reasons
In the previous blog, I looked at attendance and membership data of four Anglican churches: the Church of England (C of E), the Church in Wales (C in W), the Scottish Episcopal Church (SEC), and the Episcopal Church of the […]
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Anglican Church Decline in the West – The Data
The Anglican Church, once a key institution in the English-speaking world, has suffered decline for over half a century. Although in both the UK and North America there are many examples of growing and lively Anglican churches, as national denominations, […]
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Limits to Church Growth – Part 2
The Reproduction of Enthusiasts In a previous post, I investigated two barriers to church growth. Firstly, the lack of the supply of religion by the church. Secondly, the a lack of demand for religion in society [1]. For those barriers […]
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Institutionalism and Church Decline
In a recent post, Gillan Scott, deputy editor of the Archbishop Cranmer blog, suggested that the Church of England might be more interested in managing decline than engaging in mission [1]. He quotes Peter Broadbent, Bishop of Willesden: “Unfortunately, there […]
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Nagaland Revival 1976-1982
Nagaland, an Indian state bordering Burma, saw dramatic growth in the number of Christians during the 20th century [1]. Composed of 16 separate tribes with different languages, the Naga people use English as their predominant language, which has undoubtedly helped […]
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Limits to Church Growth – Part 1
All churches want to grow. It is part of the mission of the church to spread the faith, to make converts, to see new people come to Christ. For that mission to be fulfilled, congregations become larger or new congregations […]
In 1904-5, Moriah chapel was the centre of massive church growth in Wales through a God-sent revival.