Paul said to the Athenians “I can see that you are very religious” (Acts 17:22). There are parts of the world where people are aware of the spiritual realm, where talk about God and prayer and salvation does not cause embarrassment, where organized communal worship is a regular feature of people’s lives. If it’s Islam then Gospel work can be hard, but in places with other religious systems evangelism can reap abundant rewards and churches grow rapidly. Of course in such places there are also massive problems – untrained pastors, syncretistic practices and often serious poverty and deprivation – but the people are “very religious”. Where faith in Jesus has taken root, communities of poor uneducated people are relying on Him for their daily needs, experiencing daily answers to prayer and sharing faith as well as bread with those around them.
There are other parts of the world where the language and practice of religion are not part of the culture in the same way. Like the Stoics and Epicureans of Acts 17, people are not open, and evangelism is difficult. While in parts of Latin America or Nigeria a street preacher can regularly lead 20 people to make a decision for Christ in half an hour, in France or Britain even Christians will hurry past a street preacher, embarrassed, and the brave speaker may be more likely to get arrested than make a convert. In Port Elizabeth, South Africa, I saw new churches being planted almost every week, sometimes in the same street as, and of different style to or even in opposition to, existing churches, and all would be growing. In Northampton, England, many churches struggle to maintain numbers, and it’s a cause for celebration if a new church is planted by any denomination in a year.
In secularized Britain, church-planting and church growth has been a particular challenge in poorer urban areas and newly built housing estates. People in such areas are “not religious”, and increasingly so. Churches work hard to earn a hearing through community service and pastoral care, but at some point there has to be talk about God, which people find incomprehensible. Its not that ordinary people don’t believe in God (hence the “new atheism” is not the real enemy as it’s rarely found outside intellectual circles) – rather people see no relevance or interest for their lives. That means that evangelism and church planting is difficult, long term work. Also public discourse on issues which take for granted a religious framework, such as marriage, and spiritual basis for social service (such as the Girl Guides,
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