Caution in the face of "The Quiet Revival"

Are we seeing a revival of the Christian faith in the UK? Earlier in 2025 the Bible society released a startling report called The Quiet Revival authored by Dr Rhiannon McAleer and Dr Rob Barward-Symmons, which seems to suggest a turning of the tide. As part of their summary they write:

We found that the Church is in a period of rapid growth, driven by young adults and in particular young men. Along with this, the Church demonstrates greater ethnic diversity than ever before. Both within and outside the Church, young adults are more spiritually engaged than any other living generation, with Bible reading and belief in God on the rise.

Encouragements

There is no doubt that this is encouraging and that the statistics they provide are compelling. Of course statistics only measure what they measure and much that we might want to know will be elusive to any statistical methodology. But the survey supports conclusions that there are more people going to church and specifically that there is growth among men, in ethnic diversity and amongst the young. Furthermore, there is also now greater openness to the Bible and to being asked to come to church.

As someone who has been going to church since the 1970s and has been a Christian since the 1980s, this is new territory for me. From being a teenage Christian all the way through to a middle-aged pastor with my own teenage children, I have felt on the back foot, even though I believe the Christian faith and Jesus, upon whom it rests, are utterly compelling.

Caution

The truth is, that for some of us who have lived through this period, I suspect there will be a natural cynicism. How often have we been told that revival is just around the corner and yet it never came? In this case, as I say, there are definitely things to be encouraged by. However, I do see some reasons for caution. Let me raise just one.

It is that the large growth areas are in Roman Catholicism and Pentecostalism. For many, this will not be a concern. Any turning towards Christianity is a good thing. Broadly I would agree. However, I am neither a Roman Catholic nor a Pentecostal for good reasons. What I want to see is not so much bulging churches, but believing Christians and an increase in these contexts may not indicate that.

Roman Catholicism

In terms of Roman Catholicism, my (fairly standard conservative evangelical protestant) view would be that the gospel promoted by that denomination is not the biblical gospel. Of course there's an argument to be had about that, but it was an argument had in the 16th Century and, while it has been replayed over the centuries, I don't think anything significant has changed. Of course there are Roman Catholics who are true believers, but this is despite what the church formally teaches about the gospel.

The data from The Quiet Revival therefore does require me to ask the question: How happy am I that there are more people going to Roman Catholic Churches? Or to put it more pointedly: Am I happier that they are going to a Roman Catholic Church than not at all?

Any answer will be nuanced, but it's not unalloyed joy.

Pentecostalism

Pentecostalism is, in some ways, more complicated still, because of the great doctrinal variety within that stream of Christianity. We've certainly seen the proliferation of Pentecostal Churches in Rochdale and while I am glad there are more people in the town who would take the name Christian, many of the churches preach at best a seriously flawed version of Christianity.

Again, my (fairly standard conservative evangelical protestant) view would be that the standard Pentecostal teaching about baptism in the Spirit is wrong and sometimes serious, but that Pentecostalism often has a reasonably clear gospel. However, much of the Pentecostalism in our towns is straightforward prosperity gospel teaching and there are non-Christian forms of Pentecostal teaching (e.g. Oneness Pentecostals), both of which are to be avoided as false teaching. Growth across this kind of diversity inevitably brings a more nuanced response than, "this is great!"

There are, of course, charismatic groupings and churches with which I might disagree on some things, but would be very happy to see growth in. As I say, the reality of a response has to be nuanced.

"The Weird"

It is interesting to see that significant growth is to be found in these Christian groupings. The report indicates that vibrant faith is an indicator and I see in other contexts a repeated comment that "weirdness" is actually a positive for growth.

This seems very plausible to me. In the UK, we are coming out of a period of quite barren anti-supernaturalism and as such we have a huge hole in our culture for meaning, significance and the consequent higher power. Join that with what is still essentially quite an experiential generation and a "bells and smells" ritualism or a supernatural gifts of the Spirit Pentecostalism will be attractive. I wonder if "weirdness" is actually something about a tangible experience of the supernatural.

Christianity is undoubtedly supernatural! However, "weirdness" is no guide to faithful Christianity. The Quiet Revival does suggest there are huge evangelistic opportunities, but if it primarily stays with people seeking tangible experiences of the supernatural in Roman Catholic and Pentecostal groupings, there's a risk it will be another false dawn for real Christianity. We should be praying for and seeking a revival in faith in the true gospel.