A Church for People who don’t go to Church

St John’s Church on World’s End estate in Chelsea has a curious marketing slogan. It is ‘the church for people who don’t go to church’. Well I go to church, so it rules me out, but then, I don’t live in Chelsea anyway.

In 2022, 654,000 Britons attended church each week. Out of a population of nearly 67 million, that is a tiny fraction. St John’s is therefore correct in seeking to draw its congregation from the great multitude of churchless people. Even allowing for some real Christians who attend church infrequently or not at all, the vast majority of people in the United Kingdom are travelling the broad path, not the narrow. Any church which merely targets the religious and the pious is fishing in a shrinking pool; as paganism and godlessness now beset their fourth generation, may our churches seek those who are truly lost. 

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it". Matthew 7:13-15, New King James Version