The Destabilization of Institutional Christianity
In a recent and groundbreaking article from The International Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Society entitled, “The Religion Singularity: A Demographic Crisis Destabilizing and Transforming Institutional Christianity,” Ken Howard expounds on international demographic datasets that indicate the number of new Christian congregations throughout the world is outpacing the total number of new Christians. The overall implication is that the growth of Christian denominations and individual worship centers is largely due to church fragmentation more than it is to evangelistic practices. Known as a “religion singularity,” the growth of these denominations and worship centers signify that institutional Christianity will no longer be sustainable by the end of the twenty-first century and will eventually perish entirely. In other words, institutional Christianity has become more proficient at internal division than it has at outward multiplication, splitting and fragmenting more than they are converting or reproducing future Christians.