Australian Christians are no longer in the majority. Is it time to panic and push out the lifeboats? Or are we fundamentally misunderstanding the data?
SHOW NOTES
In 2016, following trends in many Western countries, a majority of Australians identified as Christian 52.1%. Five years later, that was down to 43.9%. Christianity is still the most common religion in the country, but for the first time no longer in the majority.
Moreover, 38.9% of people now identify themselves as having no religion – a jump of almost 10%.
Megan Powell du Toit and Michael Jensen ask what this really means. And, more particularly, what should Christians do about it?
The WADR team talk to Prof Ruth Powell of National Church Life Survey Research, which has been doing research into Australians and faith.
Then Megan and Michael discuss what this seismic shift in faith means for the gospel, before finishing up with a look at Brides of Christ, an Australian TV mini-series which looks at another time of change for faith in the 1960s.
Less aggro, more conversation.
Is it even possible to have a deep discussion without it descending into chaos? Michael Jensen and Megan Powell du Toit think yes, and want to show the rest of us how to do it.
There’s plenty of things they disagree on: free will, feminism, where you should send your kids to school and what type of church you should go to. But there are also plenty of other things that they have in common. They want to talk about all these things with conviction. But they also want the conversation to be constructive. Tune in to find out if that’s possible.
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