Towards the end of last year, Chris started communicating with 7 different churches in Dublin and Limerick. Nearly all of these evangelical churches have an attendance size of between 50-70 people. As a Pastor in Dublin put it “if you’re a church of 80, you’re a mega church”.
When we first reached out to them, all we wanted ask was how we could be praying for them. This simple quick email set off a chain reaction of correspondence from these Pastors that shocked both of us.
These mighty men were yearning, desiring, asking God for someone to be praying for them and with them. Evangelical churches in the Republic of Ireland are few in number, compared to Northern Ireland (which is a part of the UK).
In 2017 George Barna released a book called “Finding Faith in Ireland”. We have not only found this research to be incredibly helpful and scary at the same time, but when I shared some highlights with the Irish Pastors they not only agreed but said that the results presented were “generous, to say the least”.
Ireland is globally recognized for its long history of Christianity. There is debate over when people in Ireland first became Christian in large numbers, but most sources agree that Christianity had made inroads by the early 5th century AD, during the lifetime of Augustine of Hippo. Over the centuries, Ireland’s religious reputation was further formed by its monasteries, missionaries and Roman Catholicism.
The Republic of Ireland emerged during the 20th century as one of the most Catholic countries in Western Europe.
Religion in Ireland is changing, however, as a global shift toward secularism gradually and inevitably makes an imprint on a population where Christianity has long been the dominant religion. One example. “Regular mass attendance has fallen simnifically since the early 1980’s, when some parishes recorded rates of up to 90 percent,” reports the Irish Times. “In some of the poorest areas of Dublin, it has fallen as low as 2 percent, while in more middle class areas it is between 30 and 40 percent.”
Barna has observed similar phenomena in studies conducted on primary faith segments in England and Scotland. While many remain very and sincerely engaged with the majority religion, other maintain it merely as a social or nominal faith meaning, in the context of Ireland, a large body of Irish Christians are Catholic in name only.
John, who Pastors a church plant in the heart of Dublin wrote to me and said “Our nation really needs prayer at this time, as does all of Europe. We are believing for revival, but we face many challenges including the spread of Islam, secularization and a church that is in many instances either dead, spineless or asleep. I would appreciate prayer for our church and my family as we are in a battle for our heart and soul of this nation. We are believing to grow to over 1,000 people this year. This will take God, but like D.L.Moody said “If God is your partner, then think big!””
We’re thinking and claiming big with him.
On Friday Chris called Pastor Mark in Dublin. Through the course of the conversation with Mark he mentioned that his church is bringing on staff a couple who will be their newly appointed church planting residents.
Mark’s church has 60-70 people on a weekly attendance. Though only a church plant himself, he sees beyond what’s right in front of him and has a vision of multiplication in spreading the gospel through church planting.
We look forward to be sharing pictures, video and more stories with you before and after our vision trip.