It is rare that we see faith or religion written about with any degree of regularity. Often when we do read about faith, the story is rather negative. In the summer of 2018 we saw news reports about the Presbyterian Church in Ireland denying communicant membership to people in same sex relationships, and this past decade has seen more light shone on the child abuse scandal in the Catholic Church across Ireland and beyond.

As it is, we rarely see much reflection about what churches see their role as being in society, other than to evangelise, of course. It is fairly common knowledge that church membership in is decline across the western world. Claire Mitchell recently wrote a piece for Slugger O’Toole examining this decline locally.

It is, however, difficult to gauge exact figures for church attendance. We can conduct surveys, but churches do not keep records of how many people attend each service. We do know how many people are members of a particular denomination because those records are kept, but it does not tell the entire story of church attendance in Northern Ireland.

It is often said that, culturally, the UK, Ireland, and perhaps the rest of the EU are around five years behind the United States, and this could well be the case with religion as well. Many new kinds of churches are appearing across the United States and it is a trend that is also developing closer to home, particularly within Protestant denominations.

While it is largely expected that the next census will reveal a further decline in identification with the traditional denominations, it will be worth studying closely the extent of the rise in membership of those defining as ‘Pentecostal’, ‘non-denominational’ and ‘other Christian’. There are new churches appearing all across Northern Ireland – a quick Google search for non-denominational churches in Northern Ireland will show just how many there are.

In the 2011 Census, 41% described themselves as Catholic, 19% as Presbyterian, 14% Church of Ireland, 3% Methodist and 6% ‘other Christian’. These new churches fall under this ‘other Christian’ category. It will be interesting to see if this grows further, and which categories see levels of identification decrease. This will help us gauge whether people are finding faith or simply moving from one church to another. Right now, without an in-depth study, we can only speculate.

Of course, there are some well-known churches that are not affiliated to any traditional denomination, such as Whitewell Metropolitan Tabernacle, Green Pastures or Causeway Coast Vineyard. All of these churches have healthy attendance rates and tend to feel a bit different.

These are the very successful churches. However, many of the newer churches do not yet have a building and instead are hosting Sunday out of schools or retail and business sites – sites that were never built to be a place of worship, but have been adapted to meet those needs.

Being based in such places causes issues, though, especially if that site is a school. Churches, which have their own buildings, tend to have organisations or events running throughout the week. There are churches that are open for something every single day.

Just to give an example in my own church, the Boys’ Brigade meets one night and the Girls’ Brigade another. A different night will host a children’s Bible group and another night a youth club. There is also a bowling club which meets on an evening and morning each week, as well as a community café. As a result, the church leadership is fairly content that there is something on offer for everyone, but this is only possible by having the site used all the time.

It goes without saying that new churches with no buildings of their own may struggle to offer such a community aspect to their organisation, which begs the question: What is their appeal? Why are these new churches being set up and why are people choosing to attend them?

The obvious answer is – and anyone who has studied the history of Protestantism will likely believe it to be – theological differences. Perhaps these new churches simply believe something different to those other denominations out there. Perhaps their theological doctrine is actually rather similar, but they believe in a different focus. Is it possible, for example, to establish a church with the sole aim to evangelise and help more people come to faith, rather than guiding people through their faith journey?

Worship style may also be a big issue. For most people their experience of church worship will be standing up to sing a song led by a choir and organist, sitting down again and standing up later to sing the next song. Worship itself has much variety and, while the organ led worship was the traditional norm, many churches are turning to what has been termed ‘contemporary worship’, with praise led by a band playing blocks of songs. This particular form of worship tends to be popular with younger people, and is perhaps fuelled by the popularity of worship groups, or movements, such as Bethel or Hillsong.

These new churches are offering something different to the traditional denominations we see in Northern Ireland. Different does not necessarily mean good, but it may be that these churches are appearing because there is a demand for something new among Christians in Northern Ireland. There are many reasons why this offer of something new may be appealing.

We are seeing change in the Republic of Ireland too. A decade ago the Church of Ireland was growing across the border, while attendance figures for the Pope’s visit in 2018 were much lower than anticipated. This speaks to a decline in the number of people enthusiastically committed to the Catholic Church, galvanised by a series of abuse scandals. The next Irish census will help give us a better idea of how this trend is playing out.

In short, while we may see declining membership for figures for the traditional and largest Christian denominations on this island, it is also worth paying attention to the growing number of non-traditional churches appearing and those attending them. In a place where religious divisions appear to define so much of our contemporary society, we should explore deeper aspects of faith that stretch beyond our traditional and politically charged ideas of religion.