What's Missing from Ch--rch?

Every so often I'll see a sign or a facebook post asking "What's missing from ch--ch?" The answer? "U R" (you are). It's a mildly humorous attempt to encourage people to come back to church, or to start attending for the first time.

And yet there is something more than people missing from many churches in Scotland. What's often missing today is what the Reformers described as the "marks" of the church. Men like John Knox identified three marks of the church: the preaching of the gospel, the pure administration of the sacraments, and the exercise of church discipline. In other words, a church is not just an organisation that calls itself a church, it must have the marks of the church. Certainly, there are other attributes of healthy churches, but these three were singled out because they are visible as well as foundational. A church missing these marks may still meet, it may still organise lots of activities — but it may not be a true church. It may once have been a true church. It might not have been turned into a restaurant or flats or a carpet showroom. People may still meet there on Sundays, sing hymns, and listen to someone speak from the front — but it may no longer Biblically qualify as a church.

These three marks weren't just randomly plucked from the air: they were drawn from Biblical passages such as Acts 2:42 where we're told that the first Christians "devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers".

The Reformers agreed that the foundational mark of the church was the right preaching of the gospel. Just because someone speaks from a pulpit does not mean they are preaching the gospel. The Bible is often used to give moral lessons — along the lines of Aesop's fables. But men, women, boys and girls are not confronted with their need, as Jesus himself put it, to be "born again" — "to repent and believe in the gospel". One place where the lack of true gospel preaching is often seen is at funerals. The Christian hope in the face of death is wrongly applied to those whose lives demonstrated that they had no interest in Jesus Christ. Those present are left with the impression that everyone will get to heaven in the end. It might not have been said in so many words, but the heresy of universalism has been proclaimed. An opportunity to graciously and lovingly preach the gospel to (perhaps) hundreds of people is missed.

The Reformers identified the second mark of the church as the right administration of the sacraments. They began by identifying two (and only two) sacraments — baptism and the Lord's Supper. But these sacraments had to be rightly administered: baptism is not to be given to everyone who asks for it — it is only for believers and their children. Likewise, the elders of the church are to exercise oversight as to who comes to the Lord's Table. Yes, a person is to examine themselves (1 Cor. 11:28), but the elders also have the responsibility to "purge the evil person from among you" (1 Cor. 5:12).

This brings us to the third mark of the church: the exercise of church discipline. It has been said: “When discipline leaves a church, Christ goes with it". "Discipline" can sound scary, but we tend to recognise that it's not a good thing for children to be brought up without it. In the church it's simply part of pastoral care — the recognition that every sheep needs a shepherd. A shepherd who cares for you so much that if you go astray, they'll come after you, rather than leaving you to wander. Or if you get hurt by someone, they'll come alongside you.

For this mark to be present, the church needs elders who meet the biblical qualifications set down in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. Tragically, however, eldership in many Scottish churches has become a way of honouring people who've been around for a while — or been given to those who are respected in the community — irrespective of whether they have faith in Jesus. Someone once told me that their elders had never talked to them about the Bible. When it gets to the point that most of the elders shouldn't even be church members, it's clear that this mark was lost long ago.

So what's missing from church? Often the reason that people have deserted a congregation is due to the missing marks. For example, if people don't hear anything different on a Sunday than they could hear on the news or from a self-help book, why go? If public sin goes unchallenged, why invest your energies? The lack of these three marks has very practical consequences. The Reformers weren't motivated to talk about “true” and “false” churches by ego or arrogance, but by a sincere desire for the spiritual health of God's people and their communities — and his glory.

Certainly, there can be true Christians in churches where these marks are missing. But God himself would say to them, "Come out of her, my people" (Rev. 18:4).

Published in the Stranraer & Wigtownshire Free Press, 9th July 2026

NOTE: James Bannerman identifies a progression from “the somewhat loose and popular definitions of the Church visible, commonly given at the Reformation, to the stricter and more scientific definitions of the seventeenth century”. He makes a distinction between things which are necessary for the church’s existence, and its well being. It is, he argues: “apostolic doctrine which alone marks out a Church of Christ".

Something special in danger of being lost

I’ve just about calmed down after Stranraer’s extra-time play-off win. Billed as the most important match in the club’s history, there were plenty of nervy moments across the two legs. Everyone in the ground that day is still asking how João Baldé’s two chances – towards the end of normal time and extra time respectively – stayed out. If they had, it would have been hard to see a way back into the tie – and a way back into the SPFL. Sam North (‘Footy Adventures’ on YouTube) summed it up with the title: ‘150 Years of History Saved in 120 Minutes’. The club were on the brink – but came back.

As a minister, I couldn’t help but apply it to churches. We live at a time when many churches – often older than 150 years – are closing. When it comes to a football club, it’s fairly obvious why its loss would be a bad thing for a community. But do we lose anything when churches close?

Many would say ‘no’. They belong to a different era, and there’s no need for them in modern society. Others mourn the loss of architecture, or of a building with which many memories are associated – or of a place where they hoped their funeral would take place.

But can a case be made for the closure of churches being a net loss for a community? Perhaps surprisingly, I would argue that the closure of a church is not a loss in every case. When the Bible’s message is no longer proclaimed, and a church is functioning out of mere traditionalism, there’s little point in it still existing. In fact, it’s worse than that. If those looking for hope happen to come in, all they will find are counsels of despair: ‘be a nice decent person and you’ll earn your way to Heaven’. Self-improvement is the message of every religion except Biblical Christianity.

It's also worth pointing out that a building closing and a church closing are not the same thing. In the New Testament, ‘the church’ is the people, not the building. A church building is simply where the people meet to worship. Sadly, by the time a building closes, the church has often long since stopped being what it was meant to be – a worshipping community of diverse people who genuinely love one another because of the Holy Spirit’s work in their lives.

But what about when Bible-believing churches close? To put it another way: what does a post-Christian Scotland look like? We value things like compassion, freedom, equality, and consent – but as Glen Scrivener demonstrates in his book ‘The Air We Breathe’, these are fundamentally Christian values. When churches close, it’s not as if these things disappear overnight. But when the foundations on which they’re built disappear, we discover they aren’t as self-evident as we once thought. Just ask the Romans. 

It was reported last week that for the first time, most people in Scotland say they are not religious. Yet a non-religious society still has the concepts of guilt, sin and shame – but without the redemption which Christianity offers. Many thought that as Christianity disappeared, society would become less moralistic. The opposite has proved to be the case. People have a keen sense of morality – recycle, don’t eat meat, reduce your carbon footprint. Those who fail to support the ‘right’ cause feel the wrath of cancel culture. Our society has as keen a sense of morality as ever – but no place for forgiveness.

If Stranraer had gone down, the effects would have been instant and obvious: Civil Service Strollers and Heart of Midlothian ‘B’ visiting Stair Park, smaller crowds, a vastly reduced budget. The closure of gospel-preaching churches may not have such an immediate impact, but a post-Christian Scotland may not be the utopia many expect. Jonny Cash sang: ‘They say they want the kingdom, but they don't want God in it.’ And as Scrivener puts it: ‘The kingdom without the King is not a place of liberation so much as a place of judgment’. 

Above all the church is important because it is ‘through the church that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known’ (Ephesians 4:10). That wisdom was seen above all at the cross of Jesus Christ – where God’s justice and mercy shone out so clearly. Stranraer fans could sing ‘We are staying up’, because of what those on the pitch had done. In the same way, the believer looks at the cross, and sees that, because of Jesus, a place in God’s family is now ours, and the door of Heaven itself has been opened. 

Published in the Stranraer & Wigtownshire Free Press, 30th May 2024

Churches closing - a sign of the times?

As our town faces the closure of another church building, someone remarked that it’s ‘a sign of the times’. It would certainly be easy to reach that conclusion. If you can remember all the churches in a particular area thriving, and then over a number of decades you have seen attendances dwindle and churches close, surely it is ‘just another sign of the times’ (to quote the Blood Brothers song). But is that the whole story? Is it the case that churches are closing right across the theological spectrum, regardless of what they believe? Or are certain types of churches more likely to close than others?

While it would be foolish to make assertions about why any one particular congregation might have closed, are there any general trends we can point to? In Canada, a five-year peer-reviewed study looked into exactly that question. Their findings were summarised by the Washington Post headline: ‘Liberal churches are dying as conservative churches thrive’. Or as the Guardian put it: ‘Literal interpretation of Bible “helps increase church attendance”’. In other words, churches that still believe in key doctrines such as creation, the virgin birth, miracles, the bodily resurrection and Jesus as the only way to heaven aren’t dying; quite the opposite – they’re thriving. But on the other hand, churches which have erased those doctrines in order to try and remain relevant to the modern world are the ones closing.

For example, the study found that 93 percent of ministers and 83 percent of worshippers from growing churches agreed with the statement ‘Jesus rose from the dead with a real flesh-and-blood body leaving behind an empty tomb.’ This compared with 67 percent of worshippers and 56 percent of ministers from declining churches.

Furthermore, all ministers of growing churches and 90 percent of worshippers agreed that ‘God performs miracles in answer to prayer’, compared with 80 percent of worshipers and a mere 44 percent of ministers from declining churches. Tellingly, 71 percent of ministers from growing churches read the Bible daily compared with 19 percent from declining churches.

If the study is right, then the big reason churches die isn’t because people no longer have time for their message – but because churches which have changed their message now have nothing to attract people. (With those who worship there only doing so because they always have). If the message you’re hearing from the pulpit is no different to what you’re hearing on TV, why go?  

Other studies, both nationally and internationally, have reached the same conclusions. Kevin DeYoung, who spent most of his life in a mainline US denomination before leaving, put it like this: ‘We have no guarantee that faithful churches will thrive. But after almost 60 years of constant mainline decline, we have a pretty good idea of how churches die’.

Dr John Hayward, a mathematician at the University of South Wales, has spent the last thirty years studying the growth and decline of UK denominations, and his work was featured in the Times last month. His summary of the current situation is that ‘All the evangelical [ie Bible-believing] denominations are growing, except for the Brethren. By contrast, all the mixed denominations are declining, with the liberal ones declining the most’. The Church of Scotland, he predicts, will be extinct in twenty years.

If these studies are correct then far from arresting its decline, the national kirk’s decision last month to allow same-sex marriage will only hasten its demise. Or in fact, if we believe Romans 1, it doesn’t actually change anything, but simply shows that the Rubicon was crossed long ago.

The studies are unanimous in their conclusions, but what are the reasons for liberal decline and evangelical growth? Hayward suggest that ‘evangelical beliefs on judgement, salvation and Jesus as the only way [to God] drive their members to seek converts’. Liberal Christians, however, ‘have insufficient theological reasons to want to spread their faith’.

That’s certainly a very practical explanation, but is there a supernatural one? The Bible itself tells us in Revelation 2:5 that the main reason churches close is because the risen Lord Jesus comes and removes their lampstand. That’s not to deny the realities of rural depopulation etc, but if he sets an open door before a congregation, no-one will be able to shut it (Revelation 2:8).

And that is our great hope. The Lord Jesus promised ‘I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it’. Decline is only inevitable if the Bible is sidelined.

Published in the Stranraer & Wigtownshire Free Press, 9th June 2022

Dumfries & Galloway: Lowest % church attendance in Scotland

According to the latest UK Church Statistics report (2020), Dumfries and Galloway currently has the lowest percentage church attendance of any Scottish council area. In 2016, 4.6% of the population here attended church, second only to East Lothian (4.5%). However by 2025 Dumfries and Galloway’s church attendance is forecast to drop to 2.8% by 2025 - with the next worst being Clackmannanshire at 3.1%.

For Scotland as a whole, the figure was 7.2% in 2016, forecast to drop to 5.5% by 2025.

Of course, the percentage of the population attending a Bible-believing church will be much lower.

We have previously discussed the closure of churches in Stranraer and Wigtownshire, while Stephen also contributed an article for the Free Press pointing out that even in churches that remain open, the Bible has long since been stolen from unsuspecting churchgoers.

We have recently begun a new series in church on the book of Nehemiah examining both how we got here and where we go from here, as we pray and work to see the church of Jesus Christ revitalised both in Stranraer and throughout Scotland.

Church buildings in Wigtownshire

Our church building features in a 2016 publication entitled Church Buildings in Wigtownshire, by John R. Hume.

In a helpful introduction to the book, Hume notes the pivotal role of Wigtownshire in the Christianisation of Scotland, with physical evidence of early Christianity at Kirkmadrine and Whithorn (where there used to be an RP church). He also notes that in the 20th and 21st centuries rural depopulation has continued, and with it the number of active places of worship, with only a handful of new church buildings constructed since 1945.

It could be added that even in Stranraer itself, church closures and mergers are a constant feature. And while socio-economic factors are doubtless part of it, the Bible alerts us to the fact that there may be another reason for the closure of churches - the Lord Jesus Christ coming and removing lampstands (churches) when they lose their first love (Revelation 2:5). Even in churches which remain open, the Bible has long since been stolen from unsuspecting churchgoers. Against this background we’re grateful that God has preserved us as a congregation to bring the good news about Jesus Christ to 21st century Stranraer.

The book is available from the Stranraer and District Local History Trust for £4.50.