UKPuritan40
Puritan Board Freshman
Greetings Brethren and Sistren,
Edit-I realize having just discussed this with my DH that I'd need to define terms, and because at some point large numbers might be baptized and considered "members" it might be impossible to get anything close to an answer. And the Scottish church would baptize adherents' children if they were "faithful" adherents. Since I have no way of knowing what indicators even exist (ie community headcounts and church attendance rolls, it's pretty hard to pre-define) I do a lot of Scottish genealogy and I can say just from that, the records are sketchy even for marriages and baptisms.
I tried to google my question in several ways and was always rerouted to modern numbers of church attendees/members and so on. I know the Reformers nor the Covenanters had a Barna polling group. My guess is that one has to glean a "sense" but not a number from various church history books and contemporary writers, but surely some of you have done that!
I ask this because in a conversation with a friend who finds so much discouragement in the decline in faithful biblical churches/denominations. I know it is easy to think that the times we so often harken back to as golden ages in my friends case presumed to be the Reformation and the years soon after. I personally note that there was much good theological writing and recorded sermon work in those eras, but that doesn't tell us much about the culture at large. Reading various history books in Scotland during my studies, they seemed to point to a lively and persecution-willing group of saints, but not necessarily a large number of the population percentage-wise. Similarly reading what books I have about Session records in Geneva or Scotland also doesn't necessarily seem to point to what percentage of society at large professed Christ.
I'm not in any way wanting to rain on the historical church, I think they were amazing and much gifted by God, I just want a sense of the folk at street level. My friend and I both note and rejoice over much of the gospel fruit in the broader world today.
Even if you just have a sense, or remember a book that addressed this question "sort of" I'd be glad for the thoughts and recommendations.
With Christian Regards,
Susan Nye Ferrell
Edit-I realize having just discussed this with my DH that I'd need to define terms, and because at some point large numbers might be baptized and considered "members" it might be impossible to get anything close to an answer. And the Scottish church would baptize adherents' children if they were "faithful" adherents. Since I have no way of knowing what indicators even exist (ie community headcounts and church attendance rolls, it's pretty hard to pre-define) I do a lot of Scottish genealogy and I can say just from that, the records are sketchy even for marriages and baptisms.
I tried to google my question in several ways and was always rerouted to modern numbers of church attendees/members and so on. I know the Reformers nor the Covenanters had a Barna polling group. My guess is that one has to glean a "sense" but not a number from various church history books and contemporary writers, but surely some of you have done that!
I ask this because in a conversation with a friend who finds so much discouragement in the decline in faithful biblical churches/denominations. I know it is easy to think that the times we so often harken back to as golden ages in my friends case presumed to be the Reformation and the years soon after. I personally note that there was much good theological writing and recorded sermon work in those eras, but that doesn't tell us much about the culture at large. Reading various history books in Scotland during my studies, they seemed to point to a lively and persecution-willing group of saints, but not necessarily a large number of the population percentage-wise. Similarly reading what books I have about Session records in Geneva or Scotland also doesn't necessarily seem to point to what percentage of society at large professed Christ.
I'm not in any way wanting to rain on the historical church, I think they were amazing and much gifted by God, I just want a sense of the folk at street level. My friend and I both note and rejoice over much of the gospel fruit in the broader world today.
Even if you just have a sense, or remember a book that addressed this question "sort of" I'd be glad for the thoughts and recommendations.
With Christian Regards,
Susan Nye Ferrell
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