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!