Vitals

What people are doing, seeing believing

A Nation of Immigrants
A wave of immigration to the United States began in 1965. In the ’60s, the U.S. received approximately 330,000 immigrants per year. This number more than doubled in the ’80s to 735,000 per year. Since 1990, the U.S. has received more than one million immigrants every year. Today, approximately 37 million immigrants call the U.S. home. The bottom line, 12.3% of the U.S. population is comprised of refugees and immigrants. That translates to one out of eight people in the U.S. being foreign-born. Chances are you have neighbors or co-workers who weren’t born in this country. Take some time this week to ask them about their homeland and culture. It may even lead to an opportunity to share Christ.
Source: Phillip Martin, “Global and U.S. Immigration: Patterns, Issues, and Outlook,” Center for Latin American Studies, University of California, Berkeley, March 2008

Afghans in America
A conservative estimate of the Afghan population in the U.S. is 60,000, based on figures provided by the U.S. Census Bureau. More recent estimates put the population at more than 300,000, with 40,000 in the San Francisco Bay area alone. Northern Virginia is the second largest community, with about 20,000 people. There are some 10,000 in the Los Angeles area, and there are other communities in New York, Georgia, Oregon, and Texas. The most active community is in the San Francisco Bay area; it supports eight mosques and many cultural organizations and businesses. Currently, there are on-going minstry efforts among Afghan people groups, but there is still a need to start churches among this people.
Source: 2006 American Community Survey, U.S. Census Bureau and Embassy of Afghanistan, Washington, D.C.

Cyber Mission Trip
Nearly 2,000 teens have signed up for a new kind of mission trip—the virtual kind. The “Online Missions Trip” plans to take the gospel into social networking sites online. “This is a two-week opportunity for all of us to saturate Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, whatever social places you go to online, with the gospel of Jesus Christ,” explains Tim Schomoyer, the organizer of the mission trip. Dozens of churches worldwide have signed up for the “trip.” Like physical mission trips, this online one includes two weeks of training before youth launch their mission. Organizers say the goal is to use online conversations to springboard face-to-face discussions and church event invitations.
Source: Crosswalk, January 16, 2009

Mission trips: what's in it for you?
Three-quarters of mission trip-goers report that the experience changed their life in some way. The most common areas of personal growth that people recall—even years later—include becoming more aware of other people’s struggles (25%), learning more about poverty, justice or the world (16%), increasing compassion (11%), deepening or enriching their faith (9%), broadening their spiritual understanding (9%), and boosting their financial generosity (5%). Others mentioned the experience helped them feel more fulfilled, become more grateful, develop new friends, and pray more.
Source: Barna Group

By the numbers
Immigrants coming to the United States reflect growing religious diversity. A 2001 study showed the religious background of new legal immigrants arriving from outside the U.S.:

    35%    are Catholic
    13%    are Orthodox Christians
    15%    are Protestants
    12%    are Muslims
    12%    have no religious affiliation
    7%    are Hindus
    5%    are Buddhists
    1%    are Jews

Losing my religion
67% Americans who say religion is losing its influence on American life.

50% Americans who said this in April 2005

       24% Americans who said this in December 2001

The percentage of people who call themselves “Christian” has dropped more than 11% in a generation (from 86% in the ‘90s to 77% today), according to the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS). But the number of people who claim no religion has nearly doubled since 1990 (8% to 15%). This category (the “Nones”) now outranks every other major U.S. religious group except Catholics and Baptists. Much of the non-religious population now resides in Northern New England, the study found. “The ‘Nones’ are the only group to have grown in every state of the Union,” said Ariela Keysar, associate director of Trinity’s Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture.
Source: Crosswalk.com, Christianity Today, March 2009 and Gallup

Digital Generations
A recent study by the Barna Group found that 45 million Americans are “going digital” to acquire sermons and teaching content. In all, one out of every 4 adults (23%) said they downloaded a church podcast in the last week. Another surprising finding was the fact that sermon podcasts cut across generational lines with older adults just as likely as younger adults to listen in.
Source: Rev! magazine, November/December 2008

Digital Edition

Connect With Us

Vitals