Eclectic Christian

Here is another useful tool for viewing denominational growth. The maps below are from The Association for Religion Data Archives and represent the percentage of the U.S. population in 1980, 1990, and 2000, who belonged to the Christian and Missionary Alliance. The tool lets you zoom in on particular areas and get reports on over 100 denominations and religious groups. You can see at a glance from the maps below that the Alliance had significant growth in the three state area of Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah. (continued below maps…)

The tools can helpful in that a denomination can say, “OK, we are growing in Wyoming. Lets zoom in on Wyoming, and see where in particular that growth is coming from.” Then we can ask the question, “What have we done well over the past twenty to thirty years in that region that has led to that growth? Is it something that can be duplicated elsewhere?”

Go to the ARDA site and compare the Alliance growth with that of the Mormons. The maps above and the related statistics show that the Christian and Missionary Alliance have doubled in the U.S. during this time period. How have the Mormons done? The Southern Baptists?

There are few minor issues with the site. There is no Canadian data, which matters to a Canadian like myself. The North American Baptist Conference is classified under Mainline denominations which is definitely not correct. The Plymouth Brethren were renamed to Christian Brethren (good) but are still in the list with the rest of the “P” letter denominations. This makes certain denominations hard to find.

All in all though, an excellent resource. Check it out.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 4th, 2008 at 11:52 am and is filed under church growth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.