Saturday, June 04, 2005

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In the same regions of - say - Western Europe, the Christian faith has an image of something traditional or even outdated.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?

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