CLASS and the Evangelical Church in England

Posted on September 3, 2024 
Filed under Resources

From Church Society:

“Evangelicals in Britain are overwhelmingly white and middle class. Of course, it is always good when any group of people come to know the living God and worship him in church; and it is good that the intense efforts to evangelise the university-educated over the past century have borne fruit.

However, there are problems. When any group is dominant in any setting, it easily assumes that its own way of doing things is normal. The way things are done becomes not just the right way, but the only way. It is very easy in such contexts to be oblivious to the way in which the majority way actually excludes people who come from a different group.

Many evangelicals are aware of this, and in some cases actively fight against it. Yet despite understanding all this, and despite their determination for class not to be an issue, evangelicals seem to have been singularly ineffective in eliminating the boundaries.

Class and the Evangelical Church in England by Kirsten Birkett surveys recent research on this topic and discusses some of its implications. We want to reach the whole country with the gospel: what can we do to prevent class from being a barrier?”

– Ordering details for Kirsten Birkett’s new book here.

She spoke about her research in this Church Society podcast in June 2024.