[Pete]

No wonder the "evangelical" movement has peaked and is now experiencing a downturn in membership.

In his upcoming book, THE NEW CHRISTIANITY, American church growth researcher and author Jim Rutz describes the astonishing increase in growth rate of evangelical Christianity.

"In the mid-80's, evangelical Christianity experienced a strong upward turn. Prior to 1985, the growthrate was 2% per year, slightly higher than the growth of the world population; today it is around 7.5% per year. If the current growth continues, the entire world would be followers of Jesus Christ in 2041..." he says.

Year    Christians (millions)    % Growth rate
1970            272
1985            366               2   (1970-85)
1990            445               4   (1985-90)
1995            596               6   (1990-95)                        
2000            836               7   (1995-2000)
2001            899               7.5 (2000+)

In comparison, the growth rates of the most important religious groups:

                      % Growth rate
Catholics                 1.2
World population          1.3
Buddhists                 1.7
Hindus                    2.3
All "Christians"          2.6
Moslems                   2.7
All Protestants           2.9
Evangelicals              7.5

Evangelical Christians include charismatic and Pentecostal Christians, as well as a growing number of Christians outside traditional churches."

Source

[ArrogantBustard]

Your post displays a misuse of statistics which is, at best, ignorant. Are you sufficiently educated in that discipline to understand how, or shall I spell it out for you? (I realise that you didn't write it.)

[stands2reason]

Hey! Don't let facts get in the way of a good bias!! ;-)

[Zon]

The bigger they are the harder they fall.