Under Construction

See Denominations for specific data by denomination.


The survey, called "Religious Congregations and Membership: 2000" compared the membership of most U.S. denominations between 1990 and 2000. In that decade the United Methodist Church lost 6.7%, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 11.6%, the Episcopal Church 5.3%, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America 2.2%, the American Baptist Church 5.7%, the Disciples of Christ 1.9%, and the United Church of Christ 14.8%.
During that time the U.S. population increased by over 13%.

Growing churches were conservative: Southern Baptists increased by 5%, the Assemblies of God 18.5%, the Roman Catholic Church 16.2%, the Churches of Christ 18.6%, the Church of God 40.2%, the Presbyterian Church in America 42.4% and the Wesleyan Church 46.9%. ---

A study conducted by the Glenmary Research Center and sponsored by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies., ''Religious Congregations and Membership: 2000,'' found that the fastest-growing religious denomination in the last 10 years was the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with 19% growth from 1990 to 2000. The next highest growth were the conservative Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, with 18.6 percent; the Assemblies of God, a major Pentecostal denomination, with 18.5 percent; and the Roman Catholic Church, with 16.2 percent.

Growth since 1989
Mormon  +300K
Presbyterians -400K
More young people declare themselves atheist.

Source: Trends in Political Values and Core Attitudes: 1987-2007 at Pew Research.

According to Characteristics of the Generations at The Episcopal Network for Evangelism:
In a 1998 survey of 6000 people, with 1300-1500 people in each of the generational categories listed below, the following percentages of each generation identified themselves as Christian.

Generation % Christian
GI and Silent generations - born before 1926, and 1927-45, respectively 65%
Baby Boom - born 1946-64 35%
Gen X (baby bust) - born 1965-76 15%
Older Bridgers (age 17+) - born 1976-81 4%

The U.S. has the highest number of belivers in the developing world. See World Religions.
Korea may have the fastest growing Christian population.

World Missionary Efforts

The main denominations all have international missionary efforts to reach people in developing areas where Christianity is growing at the fastest rate.

World People Groups
People Groups which are distinguished by ethnicity, language, religion, caste and culture are defined in several places. The number of groups ranges from 10,500 to 25,000. For example people groups in the U.S. would include: native american tribes, including eskimos, Creoles in Lousiana and possibly hispanics, and other new immigrants like Chinese who live in Chinatowns where they maintain their language and customs.
Some places where they are designated:
Organization Purpose People Groups Unreached
Groups% of world population
Joshua Project Introducing Christianity 15,971 6,84140%
U.S. Center for World Mission (USCWM) Introducing Christianity 24,00010,00027%
Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship Introducing Christianity 25,0008,00028-40%
The core of the Unreached People Groups (95%) of our world live in a rectangular-shape area on a world map know as the 10/40 Window. It extends from north-west Africa across Asia, between 10 degrees and 40 degrees north of the equator and spans approx. 60 countries. It is the darkest, neediest, and most difficult region to reach on the face of the earth.

There are over 6,800 languages currently spoken; 2,261 have writing systems.

Other Christian Information Pages

See: Description of Christian Churches and a Timeline/History here.
Chritianity at Scouts Faith Guide.

Divisions within Christianity: www.religioustolerance.org/chr_divi.htm#denom
George Konig's Christian Internet Forum (www.konig.org/)
Don French's "The Open Bible" (www.quiknet.com/~dfrench/
Christianity - Beliefs, Consequences, Logical Conclusions of Christianity
Exploring Christianity
ChristianityToday.com
Christianity at adherents.com

Miscelaneous:
Christmas Bible Trivia

Books:
Christian Doctrine, by Shirley Guthrie
"The Life you Always Wanted", by John Ortberg
Books at Why Christianity.

Some popular authors:

See Theology for Medieval authors

Links:

Return to Religion.


last updated 2 Mar 2010