If demography is destiny, Pentecostals are the ecumenical future

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If demography is destiny, Pentecostals are the ecumenical future
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Understandably, the ecumenical focus these days in much Catholic conversation tends to fall on the Anglican Communion, given its present crisis, and on Orthodoxy, given the “preferential option” of both John Paul II and Benedict XVI for the churches of the East. What sometimes fades from view, however, is that by far the largest and most rapidly growing Christian “other” in the early 21st century is Pentecostalism.
There are 79 million Anglicans in the world today and 215 million Orthodox Christians. Pentecostals, however, skyrocketed throughout the late 20th century to at least 380 million, by the most conservative estimate, and perhaps as many as 600 million. Across much of Africa, Asia and Latin America, Pentecostalism has become the de facto “Southern way” of being Christian.
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News this week from the Vatican of new breakthroughs in Catholic/Pentecostal relations, therefore, may well represent the most important ecumenical development of all in a period of towering symbolism related to the Jan. 18-25 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
Fr. Juan Usma Gomez of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, the Vatican official responsible for Catholic/Pentecostal relations, published a piece in the January 27 edition of L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, reporting two new developments that have not as yet garnered wide attention:
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• The Joint International Commission for Catholic–Pentecostal Dialogue will shortly publish a new document: On Becoming A Christian: Insights from Scripture and the Patristic Writings. With Some Contemporary Reflections. Usma Gomez called the document a “true novelty,” because it’s the first time Catholics and Pentecostals have jointly studied the Fathers of the Church.
• After several years of preparation, for the first time the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity will hold “preliminary conversations” this April with leaders of various non-denominational Pentecostal movements, which could lead to the creation of a formal dialogue. Given that the majority of Pentecostals are now thought to belong to independent and unaffiliated grassroots movements, this means that for the first time the Vatican is opening a channel of communication with that sector of the Christian world where, in many respects, “the action is.”
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Having had quite a bit of exposure to Pentecostal christians and charismatic catholics, I’m not sure I agree this is the demographic future. Rather I think it is possible that the Pentecostal churches that seem so strong today are merely the waypoint between historic mainline protestantism and secularism. Pentecostal churches have an enormous dropout rate and while they rack up impressive conversion numbers, their kids don’t embrace their parents faith as often as mainline protestants and catholics do.

Pentecostalism is largely based on emotionalism and enthusiasm. This is not a good basis for faith, which is why it so often doesn’t last. IMO.
 
manualman said:
Having had quite a bit of exposure to Pentecostal christians and charismatic catholics, I’m not sure I agree this is the demographic future. Rather I think it is possible that the Pentecostal churches that seem so strong today are merely the waypoint between historic mainline protestantism and secularism. Pentecostal churches have an enormous dropout rate and while they rack up impressive conversion numbers, their kids don’t embrace their parents faith as often as mainline protestants and catholics do.

Pentecostalism is largely based on emotionalism and enthusiasm. This is not a good basis for faith, which is why it so often doesn’t last. IMO.
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Sources please for those claims?
 
I see Pentecostalism rising out here in my area, so it wouldn’t surprise me. I also know a number of kids who have continued to follow their Pentecostal parents faith. There are dropouts in every faith and there are those who remain faithful.
 
And more accurately it is Islam that is the demographic future - not Pentecostalism.
 
" Islam is growing mainly through reproduction, which is to say by Muslims having large families. Christianity is growing both through reproduction and through conversion."
 
teadough said:
" Islam is growing mainly through reproduction, which is to say by Muslims having large families. Christianity is growing both through reproduction and through conversion."
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Ya, and he also stated that Christianity is “the world’s only religion that is truly universal”.

:rotfl:

Forgive me, he kinda lost his credibility right there. 🙂

So which version of Christianity is he referring to?
 
Kreeft’s quote say a lot of the state of our christian nation.

" Peter Kreeft suggests, in his book Ecumenical Jihad, that “Islam is growing faster than Christianity in America because Muslims want to be saints more than Christians do.” And, of course, the amount of abortion, adultery, fornication, contraception, sterilization and euthanasia practiced in so-called Christian countries is a scandal."
 
Demographically, the West is dying. Look to Christianity from Nigeria, Brazil and missionaries from China to counter Islam. See Philip Jenkin’s The New Christemdom for a superb analysis of where we are going religiously. See Spengler in the Asia Times Online for insightful geopolitical/religious commentary. My favorite quote from Spengler: :In 200 years French and German will be spoken exclusively in Hell.
 
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