Christianity's been on the decline in the United Kingdom since 1851 (yes, 1851).  Although 70% of people nominally claim to be ‘Christian’, less than 10% are making even the most basic expression of that commitment (i.e. going to church). The average age of church-goers is already over 45, and set to rise further.

I found an article online on CBN.com (yes, I am quoting CBN.com and no, I do not regularly surf their site) that quotes a Belgian pastor as saying the following:   

  "In the United States, people would more quickly turn toward, at least Christ-in-general, and Christianity, because it's still somewhat part of the culture in general.  Here in Europe we have gone beyond that point, and people do not expect anything from religion' apart from some very abstract hope that there is something after this life. [They think] for this life there is no hope to be found in the church."  

The article goes on to say, "They [Europeans] no longer believe that Christian hope is the answer to anything." A poll conducted in 2002 found that while 61% of Americans had hope for the future, only 42% of U.K. residents had that hope. On the European continent it was even worse, with only 29% of the French saying they have hope for the future, and only 15% of Germans.  Those statistics all sound so missionary-like, don't they?

CPR for the Church

While all of those statistics are piling up and churches in Europe continue to lose members pretty much daily, I can't ignore what God is doing in England and beyond.  Because underneath all of those nice scientific polls, God has been quietly breathing life back into the dead Body of his Church.  It's so easy to start talking about the Church as a general body of believers, but really, each individual that I know (myself included) has gone through such a revolution of the soul - you may be experiencing this yourself. It is wrenching and beautiful at the same time when God draws you from what you were used to, but not satisfied with, into the unfamiliar, but fulfilling. 

You follow Jesus wherever you are.  Living for Him is not a separate part of life.  Wherever you go, you live for Him and you're free to be yourself. Yet the tensions in relationships and life do not ease up any at all. All the while you're pressing in to Jesus harder and understanding more about Him, the way He works and seeing the world through His eyes while moving in His power and His love.  The drive to know Him for yourself and the drive to explore in action what God really means in saying, "love one another" grows in you and you know now that there really is no other way. 

"And he said to me, Be a prophet to the wind, be a prophet, son of man, and say to the wind, The Lord has said: Come from the four winds, O wind, breathing on these dead so that they may come to life."- Ezekiel 37:9.  

Truth is, people may be leaving organized religion in droves -- but God is resurrecting those of us who are wounded and broken. We are beginning to realize that He really is here, that He really can raise the dead and heal the sick, that He really does have a plan for our lives, and so much more. Because of this realization, we are beginning to pray like believers instead of just participators in a ceremony.

And the lost...

They will be found by the One who loves them more than He loved His own life, and by His Body- who will learn what it means to truly love them more than ourselves.  He's breathing into us- the lost and the found.  He's on the move. Stay tuned! Because in the days and years to come we will fill these pages with testimonies of God's love and power. We're stepping over the brink soon. The one that we've all longed to step over. The one that we've all bet our lives on actually exists. He's alive (when you whisper that to yourself, doesn't it amaze you?!?)!