wfn.org | ABCUSA: ABCUSA Reports Fastest Growth Among Protestant Bodies

["SCHRAMM, Richard" <Richard.Schramm@abc-usa.org>]

American Baptist News Service (Valley Forge, Pa. 3/19/04)--American Baptist
Churches USA recently has witnessed the fastest growth of any Protestant
denomination, according to a report in the newly-released 2004 Yearbook of
American and Canadian Churches.

With a membership of 1,484,291 as of the end of 2002 (the latest year for
which figures for all denominations were available), American Baptist
Churches USA reported a growth rate of about 3 percent. The increase over
2001 totals (1,442,824) was the second in a row showing significant growth.

The Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches has for more than 70 years
provided an annual report of church membership figures.  Those statistics,
compiled by the National Council of Churches, identified 161 million
adherents in 215 denominations.  In this year's report American Baptist
Churches USA moved up from the twentieth to the nineteenth largest church
body.

"The fact that we have seen growth over the past few years is tremendously
encouraging, and speaks specifically to the vitality of our NEW LIFE 2010
emphasis on new believers and new churches," said the Rev. Dr. A. Roy Medley,
general secretary of American Baptist Churches USA.  "While numbers
themselves can never tell the whole story, we have reason to assume they
indicate the American Baptist call to Christ-centered renewal has touched and
motivated many people."

In 1999 American Baptist Churches USA began a 12-year emphasis of planting
1,010 new churches, reaching 1,000,010 new believers, vitalizing a multitude
of caring ministries, and so transforming American Baptist congregations by
the year 2010. The vision grew out of a grassroots challenge to be faithful
to God's leading as the denomination moved into a new millennium.

"The energy generated by NEW LIFE 2010 has been felt in American Baptist
churches across the United States and Puerto Rico," said the Rev. Dr. Aidsand
F. Wright-Riggins III, executive director of National Ministries. "NEW LIFE
2010 demands that we pray without ceasing for God's guidance and the energy
of the Spirit. We are envisioning nothing less than a denomination renewed
and empowered."

K/2004ABNS/04ABN37
	
American Baptist News Service: Office of Communication, American Baptist
Churches USA, P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851; (800)ABC-3USA x2077
/ (610)768-2077; fax: (610)768-2320; www.abc-usa.org;
richard.schramm@abc-usa.org