Social Characteristics of Evangelicals and Pentecostals

Claude Bovay, the author of the Swiss Census 2000 book entitled "Religionslandschaft in der Schweiz" (Religious Landscape in Switzerland), portrayed the social profile of "small Protestant churches".

Marriages, Divorces and "Living-in"
Forty-nine Percent of Evangelicals and Pentecostals residing in Switzerland who claim to be members of "small protestant churches" are married whereas "just" 1.7% live in with a partner of the opposite sex outside marriage. On the other hand, a striking 11.8% of members of the mainstream "Evangelisch-Reformierte Kirche" live in such a concubinage. 2 - 3% of affiliated members of small protestant churches are divorced. "Living in" and divorces are not encouraged in these churches which are - as far as I know - predominated by "born again Christians" of evangelical and pentecostal sorts. Couples who decide to be members of such churches usually share the conviction of faithfulness "till death them part" along with the church leaders, come what will. Although divorces do happen among their members, in most cases I know, it was the fact that one spouse could not relate to the deep christian conviction of the other that was stated as a main problem in marriage leading to divorce. Already divorced people find a deeper faith and new encouragment in many of these small churches.

Children
It is little surprising to me that the average evangelical or pentecostal woman has a constant 2 children (2.0 to be more accurate) throughout the four census results from 1970 up until 2000 (with meanwhile just 1.35 children per woman being born within the "Evangelisch-Reformierte Kirche"). About 63 - 66% of all Evangelicals and Pentecostals live as intact families in a household with children. This is the case for just 48.5% of the entire population of Switzerland.

Social and Professional Aspects
Members of such communities are more seldom jobless, as Bovay writes in his survey. He adds though that they tend to have a part-time job, especially women. A high portion of them (20%) have jobs in the area of health care or social welfare. About one third is into volunteer work whereas there are barely 13% found in the total population that claim to be volunteers of sorts more or less regularly.

May I add that Evangelicals and Pentecostals tend to be more healthy. But this is another story. On a personal note, I can only but testify that the more I trust in the living God who manifested himself in Jesus Christ, the more I experience my life being restored. This is by the way not primarily influenced by my religious affiliation.

Prayer works!

The members of a church in the USA chose at random 80 names from the telephone directory. Then the leader of the church asked the church to pray for those people for 90 days. At the same time he asked them, to select another 80 names from the telephone directory of the town by random. This second list of names was knowingly put aside and nobody prayed for these people. After 90 days all of these 160 people were contacted personally by phone by members of the church. They were asked, if they agreed that Christians could call round and pray for them. The astonishing (or perhaps not astonishing) result was this: Only one person from the list that was not prayed for was willing to receive the visit. From the list of names who were prayed for during 90 days 69 were willing to receive a visit from Christians. 45 of them even invited the Christians in their house, offered them coffee and were willing to name particular prayer requests.

Aging society? Not among Evangelicals.

An aging society is reported all over the western world.

In the same regions of - say - Western Europe, the Christian faith has an image of something traditional or even outdated. Let's have another look at Switzerland where meanwhile less than 23% of society are children or teenagers versus 31% back in 1970.

This aging process seems to be non-existent in free Christian communities for two main reasons. Firstly, Evangelicals and Pentacostals are family oriented. Secondly, the age group of teenagers proves to be the time to decide about religion coming from a Protestant or Catholic background. So they get their first experience with the living God between 12 and 20 years. An effect of their response to the invitation to accept Christ in their lives is often the change of denomination. This is new blood for free Christian Communities.

Particularly in the '80s, a lot of youth groups formed in churches and Christian communities. The '90s became the decade of consolidation where the same young people founded their own families with children. This again contributed to the regeneration of churches.

Fact is that more than 31% of those who consider themselves members of an Evangelical or Pentacostal church are reported to be less than 20 years old. This figure, which reminds us of the baby boomer youth of the '60s, is quite remarkable. Why? Unlike traditional churches, most of those Evangelical and Pentecostal communities practice baptism ceremonies as testimonies of faith of grown-up people rather than baptism of newborn babies. This 'baptist' concept of faith (to become Christians later in life as an independant step of faith) often kept parents from regarding their children as members of their church when filling in the 'Census 2000' form.

So you may conclude that even more children are found in these growing churches. Why don't you check it out by yourself?

Clearer Christian Testimony in Switzerland

Question: What made Free Christian Communities in Switzerland multiply by a factor of 2.6 x within 30 years? A recent survey of the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (SFSO) called "Religionslandschaft in der Schweiz (Religious Landscape in Switzerland), using data of Swiss Census 2000, came to an answer.

Methodists 8 400 Trend: stagnating or declining

Evangelicals 31 800 Trend: multiplying (slowing down in the 90ies)*

Pentacostals 20 100 Trend: multiplying (slowing down in the 90ies)*

Other 52 700 Trend: stagnating* (e.g. Salvation Army, Baptists)

Total 113 000 Protestants of "Free Christian Communities" (in 2000)

[* These 3 groups were compared with old data from "Operation World" (officially no separate data available from SFSO before year 2000)].

Switzerland is composed of 26 cantons. Each one used to be predominated by either the Roman Catholic Church or the "Evangelisch-Reformierte Kirche". Nowodays, these mainstream denominations no longer monopolize entire regions. The "Evangelisch-Reformierte Kirche" as the main protestant denomination has around 2 400 000 members and contineously loses members.

Official answer of SFSO regarding Evangelical and Pentecostal groups in Switzerland

"An analysis of the past census results (1970 - 2000) brings us to the conclusion that the main reason for the change of the religious landscape is of social rather than religious nature. Two strongly growing groups however seem to stand in contradiction to this general trend. Namely the boom of evangelical (and pentecostal) groups as well as of the Jehovas Witnesses seem to be due to a volantary change of the religious affiliation. In both cases, members of one of the dominating denominations have left their church in order to join a group with a clearer Christian testimony."

Switzerland and its Landscape of Christianity, 1970-2000

The population reached 7.3 M in this country of traditionally mainly Protestant cantons, and others, mainly Catholic ones. 30 Years of liberation of society changed the religious landscape:

• Nominal members of the mainstream « Evangelisch-reformierte Kirche » decreased from 46 to 33% of population.
• Those who claim no religion increased from 2 to 15% (+650%).
• Followers of Free Christian Communities increased from 0.6 to 1.6% (+ 140%), reaching around 113'000 members according to Census 2000 (not including expat churches).

Comment: While members of the State churches usually keep away from Sunday services or even leave their respective denominations, most of the Evangelical and Pentacostal churches grow. Despite their seemingly insignificant portion in the population, more Evangelical and Pentacostal Christians and seekers are observed to turn up for Sunday worship services, than those faithful to the main Protestant denomination.

(Note: Schweizer, a Swiss German Christian who used to be a full-time missionary, currently works at the Federal Statistics Office of Switzerland and is a member of the Christliches Zentrum Buchegg, a Christian church based in Zurich, Switzerland.)

Faith Statistics Blog

In this blogsite, you can find fast facts about the effect of the Gospel in Switzerland. These are nuggets extracted from an analysis resulting from Census 2000, all by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office.

You may also visit the W.W.C.D. (What Would Christians Do) group blogsite at http://christianbloggers.blogspot.com -- a meeting place for Bible-believing Christians from all over the world.

God bless you!