Lead Pastor
As we approach this year’s missions conference, I am reminded of a trip I took to the UK in 2017. After four years of serving as the pastor of mission and vision here at LMPC, I was able to visit England and Scotland on a ten-day trip with the UK Partnership.
My time in the UK proved to be invaluable. Not only was I able to visit our supported missionaries and former LMPC staff members, Robbie and Lydia Sweet, but I was also able to meet with Reformed church planters working in large cities like Manchester, Glasgow, and Leeds.
One of the first things I noticed was the sheer size of the cities we were visiting, with Manchester now home to more than 2.7 million people, and London with an astounding 8 million people. The UK as a whole is home to more than 66 million people, with 70% of the population growth between 2001-2011 coming from foreign-born immigration. Its streets, schools, and even churches are filled with people from all over the world.
As I walked through the busy streets, immersed in the UK’s incredible diversity and burgeoning secularism, I couldn’t help noticing the darkness around me. The UK is a land that has grown cold to the Gospel.
Consider Leeds in the county of Yorkshire where we partner with church planter Jonty Rhodes at Christ Church Central. In Reflections on the Church in Great Britain, Don Carson writes: “In Yorkshire, the percentage that goes to church once a month or more is .9 percent; evangelicals account for only .4 percent. Both figures are still falling. This is comparable to the state of affairs in, say, Japan.”
In Manchester, where we partner with City Church Manchester led by Ralph Cunnington and Matt Waldock, only 4.7% of the population attends church, and less than 1% of those are at a Gospel-centered church.
A church planter in London described it to us this way: “Christianity is not even make-believe to people here in the United Kingdom. It is completely alien.”
These statements may seem like a depressing report on the bleak, hard spiritual winter in the UK, but seasons are changing. Spring is coming. The thaw is happening.
To see this, you have only to look at what has happened at City Church Manchester over the last four years. They have grown from 27 to 118 members, and their worship attendance, at 280, is at capacity. They have held 19 baptisms, now have 60 students attending their worship service, and have an astounding 163 people involved in their midweek connect groups. Additionally, 100 people are involved in their one-on-one and prayer groups. These are the drips and drops of renewal and revival.
Winter is becoming spring in Manchester, Leeds, London, Edinburgh and St. Andrews. Rejoice! Come, listen, and learn from the men and women serving in the UK at our 2019 World Missions Conference. Join us in praying for the spiritual thaw in the land of the UK and that the rivers of spring will flow freely and swiftly throughout the land.