This week a national tour has commenced looking to equip the Church to engage with modern society’s increasing interest with spirituality. The tour will be led by Church Army’s Researcher in Evangelism to Post-Christian Culture, Steve Hollinghurst, and the Chaplain for Evangelism at Coventry Cathedral, Yvonne Richmond.
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The tour entitled ‘Equipping your Church in a Spiritual Age’ will travel across 12 different venues in the UK throughout October and November hoping to respond to society’s modern obsession with spirituality.

This coming weekend from 30 September till 2 October, Hollinghurst will speak for the first time at the 10th Mind, Body, Spirit Festival being held in Manchester’s G-Mex Centre. The Church Army expert will give a presentation directed at ‘Discovering Meditation with the Christian Mystics’.

Hollinghurst has in the past experienced great success in training and equipping churches to engage with the spiritually seeking communities, and was even a key member of ‘Elemental’ at this year’s Glastonbury Festival, where he led many spiritual explorers in fellowship and guidance.

The Church Army researcher, who is also an ordained Anglican minister, commented that “Spiritual shopping” is really in at the moment. He continued, “For me it is about connecting with the large group of people who are actively seeking some satisfaction and meaning from the spiritual things in life, and to provide them with a safe space where they can explore spirituality within the Christian tradition and hopefully be moved on in a journey with Christ from wherever they are starting.

“I never felt either fulfilled or in a real relationship with God through the teaching and rituals I experienced in Church. When I turned my back on church I didn’t turn my back on God, but wanted to see if I could find Him through another route other than Christianity. I quickly found that I replaced one set of rituals with another, albeit different set, but things still lacked meaning for me.

“One day, I felt God calling me back to Christianity and read through the whole of the Gospel of Luke at one sitting and fell in love with the person of Jesus and knew He was what I was looking for. Over a period of about two years I shifted from my occultism to full, Christian commitment and eventually became ordained. This background gives me a valuable insight into those who seek enlightenment through alternative spiritualities and this is why I know the church has to take this issue seriously.”

|QUOTE|Hollinghurst points out that statistics are revealing that increasingly New Age ideas or modern Paganism are quickly becoming major influences on the mainstream of the UK culture, and this is an area that needs to be seriously addressed.

Statistics revealed in a Church Army press release show that in the UK 70% of the population say they pray, yet shockingly just 6% or fewer attend church regularly. These statistics as well as an increasing trend in modern society towards New Age ideas and Paganism have concerned many evangelicals.

Stating his worries, Hollinghurst stated: “We live in a country where there are more alternative therapists than GP’s and nearly half of those who believe in life after death believe in re-incarnation. Almost 50% of the population believe that life is determined in such a way that one can use fortune telling to understand it and around 20% of the population say that they actually use fortune telling to help live their lives and take important decisions.

He added, “For me, it is this upsurge in spirituality amongst people with no church backgrounds that is both the main opportunity and challenge today’s church needs to face if it is to have a future tomorrow. As those on the fringes of the church, or with understanding of the Christian message, decline in number over the next few years this new spiritual but un-religious group will become the mainstream in our country. This is even being reflected in our religious broadcasting with the BBC’s Heaven and Earth Show just as likely to feature paganism and new age spirituality as Christianity.”

Hollinghurst’s dedication and expertise to his field of work has allowed him to work within the Group for Evangelisation, which is a co-ordinating group of Churches Together in England, and also as a specialist researcher post in evangelism to post-Christian culture at Church Army’s Sheffield Centre.

A new workbook has been released specifically to help churches understand the issues for mission and evangelism with contemporary spiritualities entitled, ‘Equipping Your Church in a Spiritual Age’. It aims to give many practical ideas to suit every type of church, and provides examples of authentic Christian responses to different cultures and mission challenges.

Hollinghurst testifies the church resource stated that, “The church has been used to engaging with those who doubt God’s existence and feel science has replaced religion. Today a far more spiritual nation is open to many gods and is posing different questions. The Church desperately needs to be equipped for this new spiritual age and our workbook aims to help them achieve just that.”

The national tour will visit many cities in the UK including, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Nottingham, Newcastle, Bristol among others and will also visit the Salvation Army’s Headquarters in mid-November.

For more information please visit:
www.churchinaspiritualage.org.uk
www.ciasa.org.uk
www.mindbodyspirit.co.uk