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Should We Be Worried About the 2021 Census Christianity Data? || SLP436 · The Speak Life Podcast

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_03: Hello and thank you so much for downloading episode 436 of the Speak Life podcast.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_03: My name is Thomas Thoroughgood, media producer at Speak Life, and today we're asking: should we be worried about the 2021 census Christianity data?
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_03: So the BBC News headline that was doing the rounds recently, less than half of England and Wales' population Christian Census 2021 shows.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_03: And Glenn Scrivener did a video on our YouTube channel responding to that.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_03: How should we respond to that data from a biblical perspective?
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_03: And so that's what you're about to hear.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_03: So I hope you enjoy and find it helpful.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_03: And I will catch you at the end.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_03: Do stay tuned for the end for some very exciting updates.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: What percentage of the population do you think Christians ought to be?
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: In order to do the job that God has for us.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: The results are in and less and less Britons are identifying as Christians.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: What does this mean?
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: The 2021 census details have come out as regards religion, and this the figures show that for the first time in the history of censuses, uh, we have less than 50% of the British population identifying as Christian on the census form.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: Back in 2011, it was 59% and now it's down to 46%.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: What does this mean?
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: And especially for Christians looking around at the world and wondering uh what kind of people we are, what kind of relationship we have to the rest of the world, we're often worried about the numbers.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I want to do a little video here that says to you if you're a Christian, don't be worried about the numbers.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: Instead, open up the book of Numbers, and I think you'll find incredible solace.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: In the book of Numbers, there is a census that happens.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so if you go back to the Old Testament, here we are in the fourth book of the Bible.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: The uh people of God has come out of Egypt, they're heading to the promised land, they're in the wilderness, they have the tent of meeting that they're all camped around, and they decide to do a census.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: They decide to count the fighting men that are among them.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so among the eleven tribes, uh among those that have uh men twenty years or older who are able to serve in the army, uh they count six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty men, and that's the census that they do.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: Fascinatingly, especially for our purposes, they don't count the Levites in that census.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: What are the Levites?
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: The Levites are the priests.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: They are those who minister in the tabernacle, they they minister in the tent of meeting with the Lord, and they do that priestly work of bringing the Lord to the people and bringing the people to the Lord.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: Fascinatingly, in Numbers chapter six, we have this amazing blessing that comes from Aaron, the sort of the head of that tribe.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: And the Lord says to Moses, Tell Aaron and his sons, this is how you are to bless the Israelites.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: Say to them, The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you, the Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: So the Levites have this amazing role of not being a reservoir of God's blessing, but being a river for God's blessing.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: They are these conduits of blessing.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: And Aaron and his sons are to put the name of the Lord onto the people, and so this fountain of blessing comes.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: And notice how the Lord is mentioned in this threefold way.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: There's the Lord who blesses this fountain head of blessing, there's the Lord who makes his face shine upon the people and be gracious to them, and then there's the Lord who turns his face personally to you to give you peace.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: There's the fountain head of blessing, the grace of the Lord, and the one who personalizes that grace and makes it peace for you.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: A very interesting, very suggestive, threefold name of the Lord.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: We'll pick that up later.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: But notice who the Levites are.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: They are a small minority of the nation of Israel, but they have an outsized influence on that nation.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: They surround the tent of meeting, they protect the people.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: Through their ministry, the wrath of God does not fall on the rest of the people.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: Instead, blessing flows to the people, because they are not a reservoir of blessing, they are a river of blessing.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: Interestingly, when they are counted, uh, the number of Levites who actually work in the temple, who are aged between thirty and fifty, and who are actually doing the job, are only about eight thousand.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, eight thousand five hundred and eighty.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: Now, this works out to much less than four percent of the Israelite population.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: Much less than four percent.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: So this tiny group of priestly people are having an outsized influence, shining into the darkness and bringing the blessing of the Lord.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: Now, interestingly, you keep going in the Bible, you get to Psalm 67, and apparently all of Israel are meant to be like the Levites are, but they're meant to be like the Levites to the nations, right?
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: So just as the Levites bring the blessing of the Lord to the rest of Israel, so Israel is meant to bring this Levitical, bring this erotic blessing out to the ends of the earth.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: I love Psalm 67.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us, so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: May the peoples praise you, God, may all the peoples praise you, may the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples with equity and guide the nations of the earth.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: May the peoples praise you, God, may all the peoples praise you.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: The land yields its harvest, God our God blesses us, may God bless us still, so that all the ends of the earth will fear him.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: So here is the nation, and it's kind of being eronic.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's it's blessing the nations, and out it goes to the ends of the earth, and and even the physical world is meant to be blessed in some way by the people of God being priestly.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: Now, roll this through into the New Testament, and here comes Jesus, who is the true priest of God, the eternal, immortal Son of God.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: He rises up from the dead and he gives people the Great Commission.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: And in the Great Commission, he's essentially saying to the church, Yes, you have that aeronic privilege.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: You are to put the name of the Lord onto the nations.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: Notice Matthew chapter twenty-eight, from verse eighteen.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, therefore you go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: Notice it's the name.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: We are to put the name of God onto people, and notice that this name, just as in Numbers, has this threefold character.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: There's the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: So we are like Aaron and his sons.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: We are to go and put the name of God onto people, this threefold name, Father, Son, and Spirit, the blesser, the one who brings grace, and the one who brings peace.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: Just to finish this little Bible study off, in in 1 Peter chapter 2, um, Peter absolutely underlines the priestly character of the church.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: And he says to these bedraggled, this bedraggled mob of exiles, these strangers, these refugees, he says, 1 Peter 2, verse 9, you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy, dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires which wage war against your soul.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: Live such good lives among the pagans, that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: What is Peter expecting about the mission of God?
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: He's expecting that a bedraggled mob of refugees is the chosen people, the royal priesthood, the holy nation.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so as we put the name of God onto people, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit, and teaching people to obey all that Jesus has commanded, so we will be derided in the eyes of the world.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: But on the on the final day, there'll be many who will say, Haha, I didn't have much time for the Christians, but actually I have trusted the Christ they proclaimed, and I'm so glad of it.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: Now, let's ask the question What what percentage of the population do you think Christians ought to be in order to be in order to do the job that God has for us?
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: Do we do we need to be 59%?
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: Do we need to be 46%?
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: What percentage would be a good percentage to aim for in order for us to do the work of the people of God?
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: Well the the Levites were well under four percent and they had this outsized effect.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: They were able to shine the light of Christ into dark places.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, if you're in a dark place, you only need a a very flickering candle in order to have an outsized influence.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: The Church of Jesus Christ should not be worried about the numbers.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: It really shouldn't.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, back in the book of Numbers, that first census did not include the Levites because we're not meant to be concerned about the numbers.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: And if you do count up the numbers of how many Levites there are, you recognize they are a very small minority having a very outsized influence.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: And when I look out at the Church of Jesus Christ in Great Britain, uh I I see a small minority having a very outsized influence into the culture, into the nation, shining the light of Jesus, being that river, not that reservoir of his blessings.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: So do not be discouraged by census figures.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: Or in fact, do not be discouraged by the 2021 census.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: Be very encouraged by the Numbers chapter 1 census, and go back to a biblical vision of priesthood.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: If we understand that we are to be priestly, then it really doesn't matter how big we are.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_03: Well, there we go.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much for listening.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_03: Now I promised you some updates, and the first one is about the podcast, which makes sense to give it here because if you're listening to this, then you're obviously a podcast listener.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_03: Now, you may know that basically all of our podcast episodes are also available as videos because we film our conversations.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_03: And so our main YouTube channel is youtube.com forward slash speaklifemedia.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_03: And so that's where you can find the video of today's podcast.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_03: But we now have a new YouTube channel, and it's called The Speak Life Podcast.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_03: That's right, and you can find it at youtube.com forward slash at the speaklife podcast.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_03: YouTube.com forward slash at symbol the speaklife podcast.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_03: And so that's where where we're gonna upload all our long form content.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_03: So interviews, discussions, everything that we release via the Speak Life Podcast will be available as videos on the Speak Life Podcast YouTube channel.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_03: As for our regular channel, youtube.com forward slash speaklifemedia, that's where we're gonna upload all our shorter videos, kind of videos under 20 minutes.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_03: So they'll be a lot more digestible, and that will be reactions to things in the news, reactions to new movies and popular culture from a Christian perspective, and clips from our podcast.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_03: Do subscribe to both of those YouTube channels if you haven't done so already, and we look forward to making more content that is is easy for you to access.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_03: So that's update number one.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_03: Update number two, if you didn't know already, we have a Discord server.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_03: Discord is a platform that allows you to interact with other Speak Life supporters and the Speak Life team, and we've just opened that up to more people, and you can join it very easily today just by signing up to our mailing list.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_03: So here's some information about that.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_03: It's a little promo that I did with the very wonderful Mattia Hart, who is also on the Speak Life team.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, my name is Matthias, and I'm the speaking and production coordinator here at Speak Life.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_03: Wonderful.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_03: We're here I am the Media Producer I'm Thomas.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_03: I'm the media producer.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: We're here today to tell you all about the Speak Life Discord.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, we are.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_03: Matthias.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: The Speak Life Discord server is an online platform where you can interact with the Speak Life team and other Speak Life supporters.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: To join us on Discord, all you have to do is sign up to our update emails.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: The link to do that is in the description box down below.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but that's not all.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Our ministry is entirely supported by the prayers and generosity of our supporters.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: We would really like to bring you backstage right into the heart of the Speak Life Discord.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: So we've got a members only zone for our regular givers.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_03: Where you'll be able to see early drafts of our videos, uh, you'll be able to give feedback, say what you, yes, you want to see at Speak Life.
• 13:33
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• 13:38
  SPEAKER_03: People can get all that, am I right, for the price of a cup of coffee a month.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_03: Matea, do you buy a coffee a month or other caffeinated beverage?
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I I think I probably do.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_03: Then you could join the member zone of the Speak Life Discord.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_03: We'd be glad to have you.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm already on there, Thomas.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_03: How does one give regularly to the work of Speak Life?
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's really easy.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: You just go to speaklife.org.uk forward slash give.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_03: That actually makes a lot of sense.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_03: Do I have to be techie?
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: All you need is a computer, a tablet, or a smartphone.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: It does need to be a smartphone, Thomas.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_03: Well, it looks pretty smart to me.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_03: Nokia really pulled out all the stops on this one.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: We're really looking forward to welcoming you to the Speak Life Discord server.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_03: So that's the Discord server.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_03: Just to say, Matea did say links in the description.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_03: We will put the links in the description for this podcast, but uh I realise in some podcast providers it's not very easy to click links in the description.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_03: So basically, you can find all the relevant information about the Discord server and how to join at speaklife.org.uk forward slash give, and just scroll down and you'll see a Discord section.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_03: So we look forward to seeing you on the Discord server.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_03: It's a really lively discussion going on there.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_03: Finally, we have another vision evening coming up.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_03: Some of you came along to our vision evening in October.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_03: It was a great success, we really enjoyed it.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_03: And we have another vision evening coming up in January, which we're calling Blue Sky Monday.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_03: So here is Nate Morganlock from Speak Life to explain more.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: Hello, Nate Morganlock here to invite you to our next actually interesting Zoom call.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: We would like to invite you to what many people, that's basically us, are calling Blue Sky Monday.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: Blue Sky Monday, it's January the 16th, and it's often called Blue Monday because apparently it's the most depressing day of the year.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_02: But we're here to change all that.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: We will have the special guest known by her name, Rachel Jordan Wolfe.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_02: And she's going to be talking us through the Talking Jesus survey, which was done in 2022.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_02: And we'll be getting excited about what these statistics show us about evangelism in Britain at this current time.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_02: We'll have games, we'll have giveaways, and we're theming it on blue because of the Blue Sky Monday thing.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so wear something blue, uh, bring something blue, uh, paint yourself like a Smurf or a member of the Blue Man group.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_02: Uh but oh, one more thing.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_02: Why don't you not just come along yourself but invite three, that's three, that's three friends to come with you.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_02: That'd be fun, wouldn't it?
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: You'd be on Zoom, they'd be on Zoom, we'd be on Zoom, a few snacks, uh little bit of uh lighthearted banter.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_02: Join us then January the 16th, Blue Sky Monday.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_03: That's right, thank you, Nate.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_03: And to sign up for that, just go to speaklife.org.uk forward slash vision.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_03: Well, there we go.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_03: I realise that's uh quite a bombardment of uh new information, and you might not be able to keep abreast of all of those things, but we just want to let you know for those of you who would like to get more of an inside track on the work of speak life and and and get involved in the work of speak life, um, those are some ways to do just that.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_03: Well, thank you so much for listening, and I will catch you next week.