What Will Really Help Your Church To Grow?
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| DIGC ENUGU |
"Literal interpretation of Bible 'helps increase church attendance'"
The Guardian reports this morning on
the results of a research project which has taken five years and looked
into the growth and decline of Protestant churches in North America.
On one level, it isn't very surprising. Churches which take seriously
Jesus' commandment to make disciples, are likely to end up making more
disciples. There's a bit more to it, though.
Very few churches and denominations actually teach literalism. Much
more likely to be found, especially in American evangelicalism, is the
teaching of inerrancy.
Inerrancy is the pre-eminent position of US conservative evangelicals and was codified by the Chicago Statement on
Biblical Inerrancy in 1978. This was the culmination of discussions and
debates on the topic and summed up the position like this: "Being
wholly and verbally God-given, Scripture is without error or fault in
all its teaching."
UK evangelicals may hold this position or, more likely a position of the infallibility of
Scripture. This means that the Bible's message is true and it presents
God in the correct way – but an infalliblist position wouldn't
necessitate belief in a literal six day creation and worldwide flood (as
posited in the Chicago statement).
Why does any of this matter?
Because it's important that we understand what helps churches to
grow. As the Guardian report goes on to say, "The results of the new
study are likely to fuel anxious debate among church members about the
reasons for decline and what measures or approaches might stimulate
growth."
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