Dour-faced and miserable, Rikki Fulton’s Rev. IM Jolly and his dreary “Last Call” message from the Kirk is the stuff of comedy legend.

Sending up the church’s strait-laced, ‘thou shalt not’ and strict Presbyterian image, the gloomy cleric merely had to sigh, slowly lift his head and utter a gloomy ‘hullo’ to have television audiences in stitches.

But while a generation of Scots raised on Late Call - Scottish Television’s 1980s five minutes of bedtime religious thought - laughed along, the joke quickly wore thin with those he was so brilliantly lampooning.

So much so, that the comic’s creation is being partly blamed for leaving Scots with a haunting image of the Kirk, its ministers and their Sunday services as glum, boring and out of synch with modern lives.

One of the Kirk’s own ministers says the ghost of the Rev. Jolly combined with controversial moves to downsize its church properties which pitted congregation against congregation, are at the heart of its modern problems.

In a new book which examines the thorny issues affecting the Kirk – collapsing membership numbers, its ‘dour’ image and fears for its future – and how to fix them, Perthshire minister Rev Neil Glover has urged a radical reboot of how the Church of Scotland presents itself and delivers its Christian message.

Rev Neil Glover says the Kirk has to shed its dour image to attract new members Rev Neil Glover says the Kirk has to shed its dour image to attract new members (Image: Andrew O’Brien/Church of Scotland)

Instead of dwelling too much on regurgitating the scriptures and closures, he suggests the Kirk should focus on re-inventing itself, and even adopt a life coach style role to help modern Scots ‘find themselves’.

That would mean less emphasis on encouraging congregations to devote efforts to helping others and – perhaps surprisingly – more on bettering their own lives.

He has also urged the Kirk to follow another ‘cleric’ inspired name, pop band Deacon Blue and its leader Ricky Ross, who he says went on a journey of rediscovery before successfully relaunching to a new audience.

“For ten years he worked hard to try to work out who they were and what mattered to them, to find that sound that was authentic to who they are and that spoke to contemporary Scotland,” he says.

“That's the process we have got to do. We've got to go deep within ourselves, deconstruct and then reconstruct, persevere, make mistakes and find good people to work with.”

The Church of Scotland has around 280,000 members – significantly down from a 1.3million peak in the late 1950s.

The number of people worshiping in person on a Sunday is around 60,000 compared to 88,000 pre-pandemic. Growing numbers are said to be opting to worship online or in other ways.

The collapse in membership plus costs of caring for ageing buildings led to a massive downsizing exercise. The church is in the process of shedding around 30% of its buildings, with up to 400 likely to close over the next few years.

Earlier this year, the Church of Scotland sold off its only church in Gibraltar, bringing to an end two centuries of worship, while closer to home dozens of church buildings, some in stunning locations, are on the market.

However, the process has been bloody with congregations pitched against each other in the fight to save their church premises, fury over the loss of churches at the heart of communities for centuries and dismay over the loss of stained glass, organs and even the sound of church bells ringing.

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While concerns for the future grow: writing in the Kirk’s magazine, Life and Work, The Rev Dr Richard Frazer, minister of Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh, recently told of fears there will be no Church of Scotland left within “a generation or two”.

Dr Frazer, who is also chaplain to the University of Edinburgh, said candidates for the ministry have raised concerns that 'it feels like we are being formed to administer palliative care'.

Although it’s a similar experience for many churches around the world, Rev. Glover, who covers Aberfeldy, Dull and Weem, Grantully, Logierait and Strathtay parish churches, feels a major reason for the steady decline here lies with the Kirk’s ‘dour’ image.

“We are a bit dull some of the time,” he says. “For many generations of Scots, the church and the image of the Church of Scotland minister is of Rev. IM Jolly.

Rev Neil Glover's book, Finding Our Voice, argues the Kirk has spent too much energy on closing churchesRev Neil Glover's book, Finding Our Voice, argues the Kirk has spent too much energy on closing churches (Image: Andrew Milligan/PA Scotland)

“Getting rid of that Rev I. M. Jolly image is harder than you think: you can take out the pews and play guitars and think that will make a difference, but it doesn’t.

“People do think that the church is boring.

“People’s expectations of church is that it’s distant, emotionally cold and if you step inside you’ll be told you’re a bad person and to start looking after other people and forget about yourself.

“We were putting lots of energy into closing and merging churches and we have been missing the point,” he adds.

“People are less likely to believe in God, but they still want to be part of organisations and groups, and they have a sense of discovery about their own growth and how they are going to flourish as an individual.

“Mainstream churches like ours are often not thinking like that.

“We are good at thinking about how do we help others, but when we start asking how do we look after ourselves we worry that it is self-indulgent, a bit precious and maybe it’s bit ‘Scottish’ to not do that.  

“But it’s like being on a plane, and you’re told you should put your own oxygen mask on first.

“We have to learn to be places that inspire people and give them a sense of becoming a better version of themselves,  and should not to be shy of that.”

Rev Glover,  a minister for 20 years, says church services of the future might be more relaxed, held outside the traditional Sunday morning timeslot when families often have other commitments, and could involve eating together and sharing stories.

But he warns: “One temptation is to try to copy successful churches, particularly those in North America.

“We should be ourselves, grounded in what it is to be Scottish, to fight for justice, faith in Christianity and rooted in local community.

“Too often the message we have sent is that we are closing churches.

"Amalgamations, building closures or reform of our structures are not the things that are going to spark renewal in the Church of Scotland, and yet that is where we are spending a lot of our energy."

He likens his book, Finding Our Voice, to a manifesto for change. However, he remains optimistic that the church can survive for generations to come.

“It’s a huge challenge but the church has always relished huge challenges,” he adds.

“Many periods in Scottish history where it has been felt that the church was on the brink of disappearing and it has renewed, and often the renewal is just after it looked most desolate.

“Some remarkable things have happened before, and they will happen again.”

Finding Our Voice: Searching for Renewal in the Mainline Church is published by St Andrews Press