Street Prophets

Just Another Struggling Christian Denomination

Fri Feb 01, 2008 at 08:21:01 AM PDT

Here's a good one for you. Which denomination is referred to below?

Recent reports about the age of messengers to the XXX have alerted some to the “graying” of the convention. Specifically, the percentage of XXXs aged 18-39 dropped from a high of 35.9 percent in 1985 to a low of 16.1 percent in 2005.

Strictly speaking, this is not news, and it is certainly not unique to the XXX. Across the Protestant world this age range has been shrinking. A little more surprising is that Illinois’ XXX Church, once thought to be the hope of the Church’s future, is now experiencing its own malaise. According to a study at XXX, roughly one quarter of its congregants are “stalled in their spiritual growth” or are so dissatisfied they are considering leaving.

Take the poll before you go below the fold.

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Surprise: it's none of the above, but the Southern Baptist Convention. But the typical smear is that only "liberal" denominations are in decline while conservative Evangelical outfits like the SBC are booming.

In fact, everybody's stalled out except the Pentecostals.

So put that in your pipe and smoke it - and then go read the excellent short piece it's excerpted from. My Consistory installed airbags, tell you what.

(Cookies to Dallas Morning News religion blog.)

Poll

Which church do you think is stalled out?

18%26 votes
10%15 votes
12%17 votes
9%13 votes
19%27 votes
7%11 votes
22%32 votes

| 141 votes | Vote | Results


Tags: Church, Southern Baptist Convention (all tags)

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