Church Growth And Blogging As A New Trend

According to the 2006 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches, the three fastest growing churches in The United States are the Assemblies of God at 1.81 percent growth rate, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) at 1.74 percent, and the Roman Catholic Church at 0.83 percent.

It will be interesting to compare that statistic to the ones provided at General Conference this year to see if there are any differences in the reported growth rate. Still, it's good to know the Chruch is growing--even though it is not the "fastest" growing Church in the United States. (Can we bear to think of the Church as coming in second place in the growth race?) Come to think of it, the General Conference statistics will be world wide, not just the United States. Does anyone know if the Church's statistics are broken down further by country?

The other interesting aspect of this article on trends in American denominations is the use of blogs in spreading the word:

This year’s findings also spotlighted a new trend among churches and pastors. Blogs – online journals – are an increasingly popular medium used by the emergent churches. Examples of EC pioneers are Brian McLaren, founder of Cedar Ridge Community Church near Washington, and Spencer Burke, founder of The Ooze (http://theooze.com), "dedicated to the emerging Church culture."

"Blogs are particularly well-suited to communicating a nuanced religious viewpoint and fostering thoughtful conversation," said the Rev. Dr. Eileen W. Lidner, editor of the 89-year-old annual publication since 1998.

Of course the Church doesn't have an official blog--though perhaps it should? I don't know. It's an interesting thought. Would it have to be correlated and approved as are the other official publications? It might not make for good blogging. But, we do have the bloggernacle which I think fills a similar purpose for the LDS community as do the blogs utilized by the other American denominations. We do serve that purpose right--communicating a nuanced religious viewpoint and fostering thoughtful conversation?