This is fascinating.
“And you look around the world – that isn’t true. It’s true of Western Europe and it’s true of Australia, but it’s not true of most of the world. Most of the other areas of the world, religion is doing very well, and very much following the American model.
If you want a brilliant example of that, one of Rudd’s favourite countries, got to China. It’s close to 100 million Christians now, compared to 70 million members of the Communist Party. It’s a big change and it’s symbolic of what’s been happening around the world.”
“JOHN MICKLETHWAIT: One reason is the Government has cleverly hit on the one formula to make religion grow. It’s something the ancient Romans did to Christianity, and it was a brilliant way inadvertently to cause religion to grow. The Chinese have set a limit on the number of people that can meet in a place, basically 25. Once you reach 25 people meeting in one of these house churches, which take place in somebody’s home, once it’s at that level the church has to split and start again. Automatically it’s almost a formula for amoeba-like growth.”
Source
What this means for us….churches grow when they are forming, starting.
We need to find ways to keep our churches changing and growing. I don’t think small is the answer, I think change, desire, prayer is.