Hi, it's Justin Briley from Think Faith here, bringing you an update on some significant and

arguably disappointing news that came out last week, the withdrawal of the Quiet Revival Report

by Bible Society. And I want to share just a few

thoughts about what's happened and what it means for my own surprising rebirth thesis in light of

this news. Is the rebirth real? Well, like many others, I greeted the news of a quiet revival with

enthusiasm when Bible Society published its data in April last year.

The report, based on UGov polling data between 2018 to 2024, contained remarkable statistics

about rising church attendance in the UK, especially among 18 to 24-year-olds.

After years of depressing statistics about the decline of church-going

and religiosity, this felt like a long-awaited good news story for the church. The results of the

report were shared far and wide in both Christian circles and mainstream media. As the creator

of a book and podcast series titled The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God, the data

was especially pertinent to my thesis that we are seeing a renewal of interest in faith in the

secular West. And the report's data was referenced frequently in our second season of the

podcast and our responding to the Rebirth Conference. However, that data was soon being robustly challenged

by both secular campaigners and some religious journalists too. They were concerned that the

opt-in nature of UGov's polling could produce unreliable data. They pointed out that these

statistics did not reflect actual attendance numbers reported by church denominations,

and the release of the 2025 British Social Attitudes Survey seemed to directly contradict the data,

showing a continued decline in church attendance across all age profiles.

The picture was evidently complicated.

In my public speaking, I chose to caveat any references

...