This year’s diocese-wide Church Growth Conference saw around 600 people from over 100 parishes gather at Welcome Church Woking, to explore the Quiet Revival. It featured inspirational talks from Pete Grieg, founder of the worldwide prayer movement, 24-7 Prayer, and Rachel Jordan-Wolf, Executive Director of Hope Together, as well as sung worship led by the Youth Catalyst team and intentional prayer.
The Quiet Revival which has been the focus of significant mainstream media attention, describes the phenomenon of a growing number of people, especially young adults with limited or no church background, turning to faith. Today’s Generation Zs are half as likely to describe themselves as atheist than their parents.
Bishop Andrew, who was at the College of Bishops in Liverpool, opened the conference with a video message. In it, he described a genuine spiritual awakening and how he and Bishop Paul have had the pleasure of confirming a number of these new believers.
Speaking on the exciting development of the Quiet Revival, Pete Greig, spoke of how this is the moment the Church has long been praying for, and how all Christians need to be ready to respond. He also described the Quiet Revival as “young and messy” and that this church growth doesn’t always manifest itself in expected ways. He gave a range of striking examples, including a former heroin addict who came to faith after hearing God’s voice, and a young Grime artist who after asking God for a sign, was then told that ‘Jesus loved him’, by an elderly passerby.
Pete said that studies show that many of the people who are becoming more open to Christianity, are looking for experiential faith, and that they need church leaders who offer confidence and clarity in their beliefs- “not waffle”. He likened the revival to a great wave sent by God and said that, if churches, like surfers, are to catch this wave, we need to be praying hard and paddling hard, ensuring, for instance, that we are running courses for those wanting to explore faith, and have our surfboards pointing in the right direction. You can watch Pete’s full talk and Q&A.
The second part of the day was led by Dr Rachel Jordon-Wolf. She shared insights and practical tactics that churches can use to seize the opportunities of this increased openness to faith. She told the conference that most people are looking online to find out about Jesus, so churches need to ensure their websites makes it easy for people to find out about how Jesus is at work in their community. She also urged people to seek encouragement in the fact that “God is doing an amazing thing through many, many small things.” Hope Together is offering a wide range of resources, some of which we hope to customise for use in our parishes. You can watch Rachel’s full talk and Q&A.
Speaking to a number of delegates, it’s clear that the Quiet Revival is a reality on the ground.
The Revd Thom Jee, vicar of Emmanual Stoughton said he had a 20-year-old wandering into the church recently after being “discipled by his Instagram algorithm”, while other young people with no church background have started attending after reading the Bible.
Similarly, The Revd Graham Shaw, Rector of St Saviour’s Guildford described a number of people “walking off the streets into the church, looking for hope”. He acknowledged that the challenge is now building a team to respond to this.
Poppy Paxon aged 19 from Howell Hill shared how she managed to get 10 of her friends from school to come to church because there is much more openness to faith. Her own mother became a Christian by attending the local church toddler group and then doing Alpha when Poppy was child. Subsequently several members of her family also became Christians. Poppy now wants to reach even more of her Gen Z contemporaries through an internship in youth ministry.
Hannah Senior, also aged 19 from Howell Hill spoke about how in the last year she has become more active in her faith, and she described that Christians should not be afraid to evangelise. She said, “the situation is urgent, and people need to ask themselves, if you love this person, why wouldn’t you tell them about God?”
David Senior from the Mission Enabler Team, the organiser and main compere of the conference said: “This, our fifth and largest ever Church Growth Conference, was a joyous coming together of the whole diocesan family: clergy, LLMs, PCCs, parish staff and congregations of all church traditions. The presence of God was palpable and the atmosphere was amazing. God is undoubtedly on the move across our diocese, and we will do whatever it takes to help our parishes to seize this opportunity.”
The conference also included opening prayer from Peter Harwood as he departs his role as Director of Mission at the Diocese, and closing prayer led by Mat Ineson, now Acting Director of Mission. John Valentine, Dean of the Local Ministry Programme (LMP), looked ahead to the launch of the soon-to-be-named, St Martha’s College, encouraging everyone to make the most of the wide range of flexible lay and ordained courses now available, and inviting attendees to contact him in the first instance.