The Revd Canon Alan Billings is an Anglican priest and a former Director of the Centre for Ethics and Religion at Lancaster University. He previously trained clergy in a number of institutions. His other books for SPCK are Making God Possible (2010); God and Community Cohesion (2009); Secular Lives Sacred Hearts (2004) and Dying and Grieving (2002).

In trying to understand the relationship of the British people to religion - specifically Christianity - we tend to say that people: believe - or do not; attend - or do not. The argument of Lost Church is that the majority of people do not really fit either of these categories. Rather, they 'belong' - in the sense that they feel some affinity to Christianity and the Church; they are not hostile to its ministers; they do not find churches alien places to be, and they turn to the Church and its clergy on specific occasions. But they do not want to attend regularly and their beliefs may be incoherent or even nonexistent, and often flicker on and off like a badly wired lamp. This absorbing and encouraging volume is a call to lay Christians and clergy to take stock of what is happening and to recover an understanding of the Church that will not alienate those who 'belong' but rather enable ministry to them to continue.

Alan Billings

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Author information

Title page

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Dedication

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1. Belonging

2. Attending

3. Believing

4. Reclaiming Lost Church

Note

Bibliography

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In trying to understand the relationship of the British people to religion - specifically Christianity - we tend to say that people: believe - or do not; attend - or do not. The argument of Lost Church is that the majority of people do not really fit either of these categories.

In trying to understand the relationship of the British people to religion - specifically Christianity - we tend to say that people: believe - or do not; attend - or do not. The argument of Lost Church is that the majority of people do not really fit either of these categories. Rather, they 'belong' - in the sense that they feel some affinity to Christianity and the Church; they are not hostile to its ministers; they do not find churches alien places to be, and they turn to the Church and its clergy on specific occasions. But they do not want to attend regularly and their beliefs may be incoherent or even non-existent, and often flicker on and off like a badly wired lamp. This absorbing and encouraging volume is a call to lay Christians and clergy to take stock of what is happening and to recover an understanding of the Church that will not alienate those who 'belong' but rather enable ministry to them to continue.

The book's cover draws you a map of where to find the lost church. With the church at the centre, the wider membership that don't define themselves by the narrow labels of non-beleiver and non-attender that twe sometimes impose, are found at weddings, funerals, baptisms, mothering sundays, remebrance day and carol services. The book helps you look again at your wider church membership:

CONTENTS:

Acknowledgements  
Introduction  
• Belonging  
• Attending  
• Believing  
• Reclaiming Lost Church  
Notes  
Bibliography  
Index

The Rev Canon Dr Alan Billings is an Anglican priest and a former director of the Centre for Ethics and Religion at Lancaster University. He previously trained clergy in a number of institutions: he was Vice Principal of Ripon College Cudesdon; Principal of the West Midlands Ministerial Training Course and acting Principal of Queens College Birmingham. He taught pastoral studies at the College of the Resurrection, Mirfield, He has been Deputy Leader of Sheffield City Council, a member of the Archbishop's Commission Cohesion Panel following the riots of 2001. He contributes regularly to BBC Radio 4’s ‘Thought for the Day’ and is a board member of the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales and the Big Lottery Fund, England Committee. His other books for SPCK are Making God Possible (2010); God and Community Cohesion (2009); Secular Lives Sacred Hearts (2004) and Dying and Grieving (2002).

Alan Billings shares his wide experience to help and encourage you in finding the membership the church hasn’t so much lost as simply overlooked. Alan shows how the majority of the British public still have an affection and distant attachment to the Anglican Church – they just don’t attend on any frequent occasions. But they’re still there, still have an interest and need for God and are the largest section of the Church of England.

In this book of hope and promise, the panel member for Archbishop’s Commission for Social Cohesion, renews your confidence in the Church of England’s historic mission to British society – creating an inclusive, welcoming spiritual home for the broad spectrum of Christian belief, need, searching and expression. This easy to read book does away with the false separation of people into believers and non-believers, attenders and non-attenders, those who belong and those who don’t.

Exploring how even those who rarely or never attend still regard themselves as linked into the Church, the former director of the Centre for Ethics and Religion shows you how to build on those links that already exist and start to cultivate a deeper spiritual awareness in those who, though they might not come on a Sunday, will still come to ‘their church’ for baptisms, marriages, funerals and carol services.

This book is the real repost to those who argue that we live in a secular society of declining church membership. We don’t. But we do live in a country where people define church membership on their own terms – not ours. Learning to understand that and serving people spiritually where they are is your church’s first step to rediscovering its historic mission to British society and enabling your ministry to continue among those whose faith is waiting to be rekindled.

Praise for the author’s ‘Making God Possible’:

“A thoughtful and reflective gem of a book.”

“Alan Billings is well equipped to write a book on the future of the ordained ministry and the work he has produced does not disappoint. His reflections deserve to be read by anyone concerned about the future of Christian ministry in Britain.”

Alan Billings shares his wide experience to help and encourage you in finding true meaning in Church membership.

Les Ellison

The fact is, says Alan Billings, the ministry of the Church is still sought by people in certain circumstances. These circumstances may not occur every week, but they have not disappeared entirely people continue to feel some affinity with the Church (of England) and the faith it stands for and proclaims; they still feel able to ask for ministry in some form and on special occasions. Good news! The Church isn't diminishing in the UK but it is changing in ways that certainly give that impression. But thats because weve invented very narrow and wholly false definitions of what it means to be Christian and to go to church. Read Alan Billings and his observations will prove what many of us have suspected for a long time; the people havent abandoned church, but the Church has ignored the larger part of the people it was created to serve. In ?Lost Church, the author of Making God Possible guides church leaders and laity in re-finding the vast majority of occasional church goers who still turn to their local church in times of crisis and times of celebration. This challenging and yet reassuring book shows how weddings, baptisms, carol services, funerals, mothering Sundays and more can be part of the road map that leads back to church for the very people who were never that far away.

Falling Church Membership: Not So Much Lost as Left Out

Lost Church

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Lost Church

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