ABSTRACT
Chapter one outlines the narrative methods, and postmodern approach to the research. It outlines the concept of social currencies that frames the research, and introduces its main arguments: that churches need to consider the internal rather than external factors in youth decline; that they need to connect with social concerns; and that the discourse they adopt in response to decline affects their longevity, particularly in terms of whether this is a discourse of social action or moral superiority. It also outlines the context of religious change in twentieth-century England, particularly in the 1960s, when the shift to postmodernity meant that churches assuming a moral absolutism became at odds with an increasingly relativist and plural culture.
