Let’s not fool ourselves. The Christian Church in the UK faces a big challenge, but how big is that challenge and how optimistic do we feel about it? I ask this because I have just been watching the television programme, Master Chef: the Professionals. For those who don’t know, this programme features professional chefs who aspire to cook at the highest level. They compete against each other to impress two judges who have exacting standards. On some occasions they cook to order, on others they produce dishes from their own repertoire. Master Chef is of course only one of a whole host of cookery-related programmes that have filled up the schedules in recent years: everything from Ready, Steady Cook to Great British Menu and several shows in between. What is striking though is that as the nation’s appetite for cookery programmes has increased in recent years the same nation’s inhabitants cook less and less for themselves, and when they do an increasing proportion of the meals cooked consist of processed food rather than dishes produced from scratch with raw ingredients.

I think of this situation every time I feel over-optimistic about the spiritual health of the nation. In the face of the Church’s numerical decline and diminishing social influence some people argue that interest in religious matters has not really declined all that much, it has simply migrated to less traditional areas of spirituality. Such commentators point to the growing interest in eastern religions and a whole host of spiritual practices, often labelled as “New Age”. Today’s spiritual seeker, so the argument goes, does not feel tied down to one tradition and is open to explore many different religious practices, sometimes even several at the same time. This large group of the population are spiritually open to the Christian faith if only we can find the argument or attraction that will make them choose our particular brand of religion. Even as I listen to this argument I think of the cookery programmes. Interest in cookery programmes does not translate in to getting into the kitchen and cooking. Interest in religions need not translate into commitment to Christian faith which combines both explicit belief and distinctive lifestyle.

So far, so pessimistic, but it does not have be all bad news. The Christian faith does retain some hold on the popular religious imagination. We are getting close to Christmas, the time when that influence seems strongest. Can we help people translate a sentimental attachment to childhood memories or the Dickensian image of a Victorian Christmas into a sense of deep joy that in Jesus’ birth and life God has stepped into the world we inhabit? At a local level our congregations retain a measure of good will among their many contacts – worshippers, friends, family, users of church hall and participants in church social projects. At a recent Elders Meeting at Billericay URC a quick totting up of people currently in contact with that congregation produced a figure of five hundred and fifty contacts! During the last year we have used material from the URC Vision4life Bible Year and soon we move into the Prayer Year, with the Evangelism Year coming along immediately behind. Perhaps our relationships with the people our congregations already know could form part of our exploration of prayer in 2010 and that in turn can inform our thinking about evangelism in 2011. Let’s hope we can turn our interest in prayer and evangelism into more actual praying and sharing good news in the coming days.