tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2786908254617003646.post8643691664949379493..comments2024-03-29T00:47:42.684-06:00Comments on Growth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church): Why Church Growth?Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16030323360917985701noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2786908254617003646.post-22616195973748674802009-10-18T14:30:37.281-06:002009-10-18T14:30:37.281-06:00Mormon Times for Oct. 15 had an excellent column b...Mormon Times for Oct. 15 had an excellent column by Orson Scott Card entitled "History of Christian Growth," in which he makes the claim that early Christian growth patterns paralleled our LDS growth since the Church's founding in 1830. <br /><br /> He cites information from Rodney Stark's book "The Rise of Christianity," which show early Christian growth as follows:<br /><br />YEAR CHRISTIANS<br />50 1,400<br />100 7,530<br />150 40,495<br />200 217,795<br />250 1,171,356<br />300 6,299,832<br />350 33,882,008<br /><br /> These figures are only extimates, but independent sources show them to be reasonably correct. <br /><br /> Dr. Stark arrived at these numbers using 1,000 as the starting point for the year 40 A.D. and then progressing forward at 40% growth per decade, which was the identical growth of the LDS Church in its first 150 years. I believe the growth rate is close to that today.<br /><br /> By 350 A.D. Christians were a majority of the Roman Empire which numbered around 60,000,000 by then.Rayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01629100796960009292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2786908254617003646.post-40500411685409758832009-10-13T15:37:08.585-06:002009-10-13T15:37:08.585-06:00This is a great post, and it's important to ke...This is a great post, and it's important to keep things in perspective. The real work isn't reflected directly by statistics, but indirectly in that these statistics are influenced by that effort that represents the work.Alexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14073669040544001211noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2786908254617003646.post-62079578440888309342009-10-11T13:26:42.377-06:002009-10-11T13:26:42.377-06:00Great reflection about the real church growth!Great reflection about the real church growth!fcostahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04555335829896001873noreply@blogger.com