ABSTRACT
If the story of mainstream religion in England and Wales in the last century has generally been one of falling congregational numbers and declining membership, evangelicalism, it has been widely suggested, constitutes a significant (and successful) site of social and cultural resistance to the currents of secularization. The global explosion of evangelical Christianity is seen as proof positive of its power to generate new converts (Edwards, 1987; Martin, 2001). Nearer to home, the apparent success of the Alpha Course has received widespread publicity and captured the imagination of many religious professionals (Hunt, 2001). Statisticians of UK church growth and decline regularly suggest that evangelical churches constitute a success story in a receding sea of faith (Bible Society, 1997; Brierley, 2000), while some sociologists also see in evangelicalism the most likely future for organized religion in the UK (Bruce, 1995; 2002). In a nutshell, evangelical belief and practice appear to have become synonymous with effective recruitment and church-growth strategies. There is no shortage of literature relating to church growth (McGraven and
Wagner, 1990; Gill, 1994; Bible Society, 1997) or to the activities of evangelical congregations (Hunt et al., 1997), but there is little or nothing written in a critical vein about the introduction of evangelical ideas and practices into mainstream congregations. For example, underlying much of the current widespread publicity and high-profile endorsements surrounding the Alpha Course is the uncritical assumption that ‘one size fits all’, even if the evidence on the ground suggests otherwise (Hunt, 2001). Empirical studies of congregational life remain thin on the ground, despite the fact that they offer the best means through which to critically approach these questions. This chapter seeks to redress this situation through a case study of a traditional working-class Anglican parish where, over a period of thirteen years, two successive evangelical incumbents sought to impose an evangelical ethos, with what might be considered less than positive outcomes for the congregations in question. The material is drawn from a three-year research project which examined diverse strategies for church growth in a Welsh city (Chambers, 2000) and builds theoretically on ideas developed in a previous set of
congregational studies (Chambers, 1997). Particular emphasis will be placed on the social character of religion, including congregational identity, social networks and the surrounding social, economic and cultural conditions within which congregations operate.
