More craft ale, vicar? Welcome to hipster Christianity

On the fourth floor of the Hackney Picturehouse in a dimly lit auditorium, around 50 young people, mostly in their twenties, stand and sing in unison while a band blasts out stirring soft rock. They’re dressed in denim jackets, checked shirts, ironic hats and geeky glasses. They look like any other gig-going audience you’d find at the Troxy down the road. Only this isn’t a gig, it’s a service. And the crowd isn’t an audience, it’s a congregation.

It’s a Sunday afternoon and I’m at Fellowship London, a new non-traditional church in the East End. It began holding services at Shoreditch Town Hall last November before moving to a nearby bar, Cargo, and then, last month, to Hackney Picturehouse. Since launching, membership has grown from 40 to 130. Its leader is Elijah Kirby, a skinny-jean-wearing 26-year-old former youth worker. The congregation comprises an eclectic mix of local artists, designers and media types. It’s Christianity — the hipster version. Hipstianity, if you will. ‘There can be the perception that if you’re a Christian, you’re very serious, walking around in sandals and white socks, carrying a big leather Bible,’ says Kirby. ‘But we’re young and we enjoy music — why not worship in a way we like?’

Do they worry about hipster Christianity trivialising things? ‘No, I don't,’ says Wolf. ‘I’m just happy that people want to know who Jesus was and what he was up to. The Church has always been a place for cultural creativity.’

Cool Christianity? Sounds like an oxymoron. But the Christian faith is having a moment. It’s not only the new ‘alternative’ services offered by the likes of Fellowship or Hillsong Church, a similarly youth-oriented Pentecostal megachurch, which began 15 years ago and pulls in crowds of several hundred to worship at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and Bermondsey’s Warehouse Project, the Church of England is enjoying a spot in the sun, too. According to a recent FT report, attendance in the capital rose 16 per cent from 2006 to 2012 and there has been a boom in the membership of inner-city churches. St Paul’s Shadwell, for instance, has gone from a congregation of a dozen elderly locals to 350; largely young professionals and families.

As for Catholicism, the Pope has never been more popular. Thanks to his displays of modesty (carrying his own suitcase, eschewing the Papal palace in favour of the simple Casa Santa Marta guesthouse) and relatively progressive views on homosexuality (‘Who am I to judge?’) and women in the Church, Pope Francis has won over the liberal media. Time magazine pronounced him its Person of the Year in 2013 and the American gossip site Gawker hailed him as ‘our cool new pope’. He has more than four million followers on Twitter.

There are popular Christian music festivals: Greenbelt, held over the August bank holiday, attracts a crowd of 20,000; this year’s festival in Northamptonshire will include performances from Sinéad O’Connor and the folk band Stornoway. Florida has hosted the world’s first Christian Fashion Week and Christian dating websites are booming everywhere: one of the biggest, Christian Connection, has more than 40,000 UK members.

Williams says: ‘The challenge for us as a church is about keeping the message the same, but communicating it across different platforms, such as social media.’

Viewers of all religions, meanwhile, are lapping up biblical-themed films. Since its release in March, Darren Aronofsky’s Noah, starring Russell Crowe and Emma Watson, has made $359 million (£213 million) worldwide. In October we’ve got Left Behind, starring Nicolas Cage as a pilot attempting to guide a plane to safety after the Rapture. Next year will see the release of Mary, Mother of Christ, with the Israeli actress Odeya Rush playing the Virgin. And Ridley Scott is to deliver two Christian-themed blockbusters: Exodus: Gods and Kings is out at Christmas and stars Christian Bale as Moses. It will reportedly be followed by David, about the biblical King of Israel. There’s even a Christian version of Fifty Shades of Grey in the pipeline. Old Fashioned is due to be released for Valentine’s Day 2015 — the same date as the film of EL James’ bestseller — and will tell the story of ‘a former frat boy’ and ‘a free-spirited woman’ as they attempt an ‘old-fashioned courtship in contemporary America’.

But today’s Church is also increasingly business-minded. The boom in inner-city attendance has been driven by a strategic ‘church planting’ system, which sees established congregations sending representatives into poorly performing parishes. St Paul’s Shadwell’s revival was kick-started when 100 Holy Trinity Brompton members began worshipping there in 2005. There’s also been a deliberate effort to attract a broader range of attendees by using social media. Williams, Wolf and Kirby are all active on Twitter or Instagram. Last month, the Diocese of London held its first ‘Tweetup’ for Christian bloggers and social media users. Informal lunchtime or evening gatherings are increasingly common.

But maybe it’s not just the Church that is changing. Wolf believes that society as a whole is more comfortable with spirituality: ‘One or two generations ago, there was an awkwardness around discussing religion. People felt it belonged to their parents. Now we’ve got to the point where there’s an acceptance that the era of Christendom has gone and no one’s trying to resurrect that. There are conversations between the Church, atheists and Muslims, and a bigger openness to spiritual issues.’