HI Guys, as most on this site know, I am from Scotland where I would suggest that the numbers are actually worse than Britain as a whole. In Scotland, less than 3% of the population go to church, over 50% of that number are Roman Catholics.
Now the question was raised, whose fault is that, is it leadership? I think the issue is more complex than that question, but basicly the answer would be yes. Even in the days of Wilberforce, dead denominationalism ruled. In fact he and people like John Newton were called " Enthusiasts." Now one would think that this is a positive word, certainly not in the context it was used for them. It was used to deride them and mock them. Wilberforce wrote in his book " Real Christianity,' that Christianty as a force would die in Britian if religious people did not get truly saved. His prophetic words have come to pass, and now America faces the exact same issue.
When Carter Conlon came to my home town of Greenock two years ago with hundreds of Christians from Time Square church, he admonished the " local church," every night in a very masterful way. He recognized that he was in someones backyard, but that did not stop him from speaking what the Lord laid upon his heart. He told the Christians that if he as an American could come to their home town and go into the high schools and preach the Gospel, why not they? He said " where are those who will go?
Now I know the local church in Greenock and it is a micro-cosm of the church as a whole. Brother Greg can testify that he and I knocked on the doors of church's and tried to get them interested in the solemn assembly, the revival conference that was about to take place. Most were not interesed, one Church of Scotland man dismissed us with this " I am retiring next year."
My mother and father go to a local brethren church. There are 12 attendees, the youngest being in their 60s. They have no minister as do most of the brethren church in Scotland therefore they watch a screen of a man preaching from a central location. The denominations are dying, the darkness is consuming and the Lord is almost at the door. If there was ever a time for brothers and sisters to work together as one Body, it would be now, but alas, they will not. Their doctrinal differences are insurmountable walls. Thier pride in their own theology will be their only comfort as the last beautiful stone church in Scotland is torn down to make way for bingo halls and apartment buildings.
In Scottish tradition, clans that did not like each other would band together to fight a common enemy, typically the English. So it seems that the world has more wisdom than the " church." ............brother Frank
