Modern ideas help boost congregation

By hthompson holly thompson holly.thompson@essnmedia.co.uk

With most people preferring a lazy lie-in or a spot of shopping on a Sunday morning, it's easy to assume church-going has had its heyday.

But a victorious vicar has seen an influx in his congregation after adapting Christianity to fit modern life.

Gary Jenkins, 50, has been blogging about his faith to get the word out, as well as celebrating Darwin in his sermons, and creating an afternoon service so Christians can snooze on a Sunday.

Reverend Jenkins, vicar at Holy Trinity Church, Redhill, said: "My aim isn't to adapt the message of Jesus, but I think it's important to adapt the way you share it with people.

"A lot of people are turned off Christianity because they think church is still old-fashioned, but what I'm trying to say is you can come to church without getting cold and without getting bored."

Rev Jenkins joined the church nine years ago, and his modernising methods have seen the congregation number rise from 300 to more than 700.

He said: "We live in interesting times.

"A lot of church numbers are declining rapidly, but other church numbers are growing as well.

"People have become more spiritually thirsty in the past year. We tried swapping religion for materialism and it backfired on us. But churches need to change how they communicate with people."

The father-of-two has altered a lot of things to bring Christianity up to date.

He said: "We have to address the life modern people actually lead.

"So I've started an online blog so I can speak to the congregation during the week and that's been very successful.

"We also realised that a lot of people like to lie-in or play sports on a Sunday morning, so we created an afternoon service.

"But we have kept a traditional service as well, with the organ and the choir, because people still like that."

As well as having live bands and Powerpoints during his services, the former biology teacher said he also addresses modern issues.

He said: "We actually had a sermon about The God Delusion (a best-selling book that attacks Christianity) because I thought it was important to address the issues it raised.

"I'm also really into science so spent a month doing sermons about Darwin.

"People seem to think you can only believe in science or religion – not both.

"But that's just not true."