I am getting ready for a missions conference later this month and I am assembling some facts and figuires about our region. In my research, I came across a very troubling statistic in regards to New England.
Acccording to the ARDA, American Religious Data Archive, the national average of evangelical churches in 2000 is 14%. Roughly 1/7 of the population of the US attends an evangelical church. In the Bible belt, you have 25% of the population of North Carolina going to evangelical churches and 39% in Mississippi.
The states that rank below the national average are found on both coasts. For Washington, it is 10%, California is 7 percent. But the lowest percentage comes from New England, Rhode Island at just 1.5%.
New Hampshire and Massachusetts are not very far behind at 2.5% & 2.3%. New England comparied to any other region or state has the least amount of evangelical churches in the United States. Sometimes I feel like a missionary, and looking at this research I understand why. New England is very much a mission field.
A very humbling statistic.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment