Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB), one of the flagship evangelical churches in the Church of England, has issued a rallying cry for struggling churches, as well as providing practical tips on how to turn a declining congregation into a revival.
Sarah Jackson, co-pastor of HTB and CEO of Revitalise Trust, is asking any church that is considering closing down for good to get in touch first to see if HTB can help.
Speaking to Outreach Magazine, she said, “Our vision is to reverse the decline in the Church of England … We don’t want our denomination to close one more church without first offering it to us to send a team to revitalize it.”
She added, “We’ve lost at least one generation, and we don’t want to lose more.”
The Revitalise Trust began in 2017 and has led to the birth or rebirth of 184 churches. Around a third of those were revitalisations of existing churches that had almost dwindled out of existence.
HTB is well known as the birthplace of the Alpha Course, pioneered by the church’s previous vicar, Nicky Gumbel.
The Alpha Course has been praised as a key component in bringing revival to churches as well as individuals and has been adopted by churches all over the world. It is believed that last year alone over two million people worldwide began exploring faith via the Alpha Course.
Jackson shared some valuable advice for churches wishing to see revitalisation, including making use of retired church members and welcoming them into ordained ministry.
With significant life and faith experience already, Jackson said that if 8,000 such people could be mobilized over the next decade the decline in church attendance might be reversed.
She also suggests raising leaders from underrepresented ethnic, social or educational backgrounds, and that churches “demonstrate justice” in their local communities.
“Quite a lot of them [Gen-Z] come to our homeless shelter or our food bank to volunteer because they’re justice-driven," said Jackson.
"At some point they ask, ‘Why do you guys do this?’ We respond by inviting them to an Alpha course, where many of them come to faith.”
