Blackburn Bishop Philip North Calls Lancashire Churches to Prepare for Growth as Joyful Followers Launches

Two churches told Bishop Philip North the same story, a few Sundays apart. Each year they had presented ten to fifteen Year 6 children for confirmation. This time, ten adults stood beside the children in each church, passionate in their newfound Gospel faith.

North told the Diocese of Blackburn synod that the story is becoming increasingly common across Lancashire.

Rt Rev Philip North, the Bishop of Blackburn, made the appeal during the Diocese of Blackburn’s October 10 synod, Bible Blender reported. He said churches were seeing new families, young adults and people who had first explored Christianity online begin attending services. Adults were also joining children at confirmation services, he said, describing the trend as an increasingly common story across the county.

North’s message was not simply that numbers are rising. It was that churches must be ready for the people who are already arriving. “Do we believe it?

And are we ready for it?” he asked in his presidential address, published in full by the Diocese of Blackburn. He warned that many congregations have become so used to the language of decline that they cannot picture their churches thriving and full.

“Many congregations simply cannot picture their churches being thriving and full of people,” North said in the address. “A mindset of scarcity and anxiety has gripped them.” His challenge to the synod was direct: believe that renewl is possible, and prepare for it, rather than merely maintaining existing activities.

Joyful Followers of Jesus Launches in November

The comments came as Blackburn Diocese prepared to launch Joyful Followers of Jesus in November, Bible Blender reported. The new vision was developed over two years and will focus on helping people know Jesus, inspiring children and young people, sharing the Christian faith and developing Christian leaders.

North confirmed the timetable in his own address. “And that zeal has been demonstrated over the past two years as we have discerned God’s will for our new Diocesan vision, Joyful Followers of Jesus,” he said. “The next time this group of people meets we will be launching that vision at St Michael’s School in Chorley.”

The vision is founded on prayer, North said. “Joyful Followers of Jesus is founded on the basis of prayer and is soaked with prayer in every paragraph,” he told the synod. Parishes are expected to appoint “Prayer Enablers” to help put the strategy into practice, Bible Blender reported, supporting clergy and church councils in growing levels of prayer.

Signs of Renewal in France and in Lancashire Parishes

North connected Lancashire’s reports with signs of renewed Christian interest elsewhere in Europe, Bible Blender reported, including large crowds at events during Pope Leo’s recent visit to France and an increase in adult baptisms. In his address, North gave the France figures in his own words, and they should be read as his account of the visit.

North said 800,000 attended Mass in the Place de la Concorde and nearly a quarter of a million at Lourdes, according to his address. He said 80,000 young people crowded into the Stade de France for a tableau of the French saints, and that so far in 2026 in France, over 21,000 adults have sought and been offered the sacrament of baptism.

Vision 2026 and the End of a Decline Story

The new programme follows Vision 2026, the diocese’s previous strategy, Bible Blender reported. The diocese said the initiative helped create more than 200 new congregations, maintained clergy numbers, expanded ministry among children and young people and secured more than £30 million in national church funding, according to the report, which cited the Lancashire Telegraph’s coverage of the synod review.

North said the earlier vision had brought some people to faith who otherwise might not have encountered Christianity, Bible Blender reported. The diocese is scheduled to launch Joyful Followers of Jesus at its next synod meeting at St Michael’s School in Chorley, setting the direction for the diocese as it moves toward 2027 and beyond.

He cautioned Christians against accepting a narrative of unending decline, Bible Blender reported, and called on churches to welcome people who are seeking faith rather than simply maintaining existing activities. In his address he put it more sharply: Christians have come to inhabit the decline story themselves, and have mocked those who speak of renewal and growth.

Readers following church life in England can see related coverage in 30,000 posters across Germany inviting people back to church, in a report warning the Church of England faces financial disaster, and in Nordic Catholic bishops warning against closed borders.

North closed with a task that reaches beyond a synod hall. “We cannot rest until every single boy and girl, woman and man in Lancashire has heard the Good News and been invited to respond,” he said. “We will not stop until every soul in our care has received an invitation to be a joyful follower of Jesus.”

The launch at Chorley will test whether that ambition survives contact with ordinary parish life. The adults who stood beside the Year 6 children have already arrived. The question for November is whether Lancashire’s churches will be ready with prayer, welcome and leaders when the next family walks in off the street, or whether the old story of decline will still be the one they tell themselves when the door opens.

But the most surprising part of this story is yet to come — keep reading.