Why are christian churches so middle class?

[Roseylea]

Following on from a thread about social class...

Why is the church (in all its myriad forms!) so blimmin' middle class? Does being a christian in british culture equate with adopting middle class values, habits, speech patterns etc?

Is it because the assumption exists (wrongly IMO) that being a chrstian requires a certain level of literacy and education? Or is just that this is what the church has made it? (I doubt that all of the disciples would have been able to read and write...)

And how can christians make the church an open and welcoming place for all ergardless of class?

Yeah, that's what I thought it probably meant. I'm just not post-modern enough I guess

RL - I became a Christian when I was 13 too. M y mum in particular was concerned that I would spend too much time at "churchy" things and neglect my school work. She would say things like "God can wait until after your exams".

She didn't quite get the idea that it was a relationship rather than a religion.

But then it's stood me in good stead. I had to read the Bible for myself and listen to Xian music in secret. I would be listening to Michael Card (well he was big in the 90s!) and if I heard my mum coming up the stairs I would switch it over to Nirvana

I read a lot of Xian books and listened to CDs. I heard a lot of good speakers at youth events etc and had a lot of time to make up my own mind on what I would like to experience from being part of a church family.

Even after I'd found a church it took me years to take part in communion. I was terrified of what I thought was a big scary bells and smells ritual. I know it is like that in some traditions, but that didn't sit right with what I'd read in the Bible.

My first communion was at a CU houseparty at uni and it was far more what I'd been looking for. Informal, Biblical and meaningful.

I think I've been looking for that sort of thing in church as a whole. DEfinitely comfortable in our church family here.

My parents are probably surprised that I'm still going through my Christian "phase" almost 20 years on, but it's allowed a lot of interesting conversations over the years.

My mum in particular doesn't hink I go to a real church because it's not in a church building. Even my previous "proper" CofS was in a 1980s building and therefore not a real church.

ROFL at Nirvana being "better".

I was 14!

Because a lot of middle class people are in church to get their kids into a good school.

I think Mungarra's answer is the most likely one, sadly.