Rumors of the Quiet Revival

Walking under a London bridge near Waterloo, covered with artful graffiti, I spot a Bible reference verse amidst the vibrant urban colors. 

John 14:6 

No verse attached. Just the reference. For those who have eyes to see and hearts to explore, the reference is the famous claim and invitation of Jesus in John's gospel. 

"I am the way, the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me."

The quiet, yet unmistakable truth claim amidst the graffiti speaks of a deeper movement afoot across the UK and Europe. They are calling it The Quiet Revival. 

The UK Bible Society was the first to coin the phrase after ground breaking research data released a few months ago that church attendance in the UK was experiencing a drastic up-swing. 

Co-author of The Quiet Revival report, Dr Rhiannon McAleer writes, "The Quiet Revival shows that the most dramatic church growth is among young adults, particularly young men. In 2018, just 4 per cent of 18–24-year-olds said that they attended church at least monthly. Today, says The Quiet Revival, this has risen to 16 per cent, with young men increasing from 4 per cent to 21 per cent, and young women from 3 to 12 per cent.  

The report shows that what people believe about Church decline is no longer true. ‘These are striking findings that completely reverse the widely held assumption that the Church in England and Wales is in terminal decline. While some traditional denominations continue to face challenges, we’ve seen significant, broad-based growth among most expressions of Church – particularly in Roman Catholicism and Pentecostalism. There are now over 2 million more people attending church than there were six years ago." (the whole article here The Quiet Revival)

Here in the USA, at least in the circles that I run in, the rumors of the Quiet Revival abound. Some are skeptical. Many abound. I was curious to see what it felt like being on the ground as we visited the UK this past month. We spent 10 days investing in around 50 churches from 13 different UK and European nations. 

Here are 8 signs that the rumors are not an exaggeration.

1. I saw young men walking the streets of London carrying Bibles. I’ve never seen that before in the 30 years I’ve been visiting here. We know that Bible sales are on the up, but the boldness to carry a Bible publicly seems remarkable.

2. Every church we were with said that their Alpha courses (exploring Christianity) were better attended than ever and Christians were more bold in inviting people to church and sharing the gospel.

3. We witnessed a growing hunger for God in prayer, especially prayer between churches. In our Advance Movement family of churches 85 leaders from about 20 churches travelled from Wales, N. Ireland, Scotland and all over England for two days of prayer and fasting.

4. Regular testimonies of salvation and healing. We saw one lady at a @newgroundchurches conference arrive on crutches and leave carrying them. No smoke and mirrors. Her friends vouched for her. She had been healed by Jesus.

5. A significant increase in cultural diversity in churches and leaders from different cultures being raised up.

6.Churches were all leaning freshly into multiplication: of disciples, leaders, meetings & churches.

7. Churches taking big steps to serve their cities through compassion with favor from civic leaders

8. Worship was unpolished, passionate, participative, not performative. A genuine hunger for God’s presence.

May the quiet revival spread deeper and wider and spill over into the nations!