An interesting article on Charisma News by Dr. Michael Brown provides a balance to the recent headlines about how religion, particularly Christianity, is dying in America.

It is true that attendance at mainline liberal denominations such as the Methodist and Episcopalian churches in the U.S. are in absolute free fall.

In fact, a 2022 study out of England conducted by University of South Wales mathematician, Dr. John Hayward, suggests that if the current trend continues, the Anglican church a dinosaur in the modern church age will be extinct by 2060.

These three liberal churches left the Biblical faith decades ago and the seeds of those decisions are finally taking root.

In fact, I would argue whether they could actually be considered a church from a Biblical perspective since they no longer believe in the resurrected Christ.

Certainly, a story out of Canada portrays the current state of liberal Christianity. In 2018, a pastor of a United Church in Toronto, Canada came out to his congregation as an atheist.

Even though the United Church left the Biblical faith decades ago, this seemed to be a bridge too far even for them, and an Ecclesiastical court was initiated to remove the pastor.

And then they didn’t.

The United Church decided that in the name of diversity, there was nothing wrong with an atheist pastoring one of their few remaining churches.

The headline of one of Canada’s major newspapers, the Toronto Star, summed up their decision best: By swallowing its opposition to the minister who doesn’t believe in God, the United Church shows just how irrelevant it is.

As liberal churches close and their buildings are transformed into daycares, homes, and even mosques, from the world’s perspective their decline is masking what is really happening in spirit-filled Christian churches, charismatic and Pentecostal, around the world.

According to a 2015 study conducted by the Pulitzer Center entitled, Pentecostalism: Massive Global Growth Under the Radar, the Holy Spirit is moving, and this subsection of the church is growing.

The report concluded that not only do Pentecostals and Charismatics represent one-quarter of the world’s Christian population, they are also the fastest-growing religion in the world, not just the fastest growing group in Christianity.

If we know where to look, the Holy Spirit is moving.

Sadly, it is not just liberal churches that are experiencing growth issues. The Southern Baptist Convention which believes in the resurrected Christ but over the years has taken a strong stand against the baptism of the Holy Spirit, spiritual gifts and speaking in tongues is also experiencing growth problems. In 2022, the SBC reported a 450,000 drop in membership the biggest in 100 years. READ: SBC loses over 450K members in 2022; largest drop in membership in 100 years

Despite holding to the Bible, are they being impacted by rejecting the power of the Holy Spirit in the life of their churches?

But perhaps a 2022 study conducted by the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Oral Roberts University, and the Empowered21 Network best reveals the exponential growth occurring in Charismatic Christianity.

It found that between 1900 and 2020, Pentecostal and Charismatic churches “grew at nearly four times the growth rate of both Christianity and the world’s population.”

These are not the statistics of a dying religion.

You just have to know where to look.

READ: Progressive Religion May Be Dying But the Gospel Is Thriving AND Pentecostalism: Massive Global Growth Under the Radar AND Spirit-Empowered Christianity is one of the fastest growing global movements, new study shows