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However, whereas the 1950s was the Great Awakening, right now we seem to be in the Great Decline.

Or are we? Is Christianity dying out?

Whereas the number of clergy in the Catholic Church is declining, the number of lay people involved in ministry has steadily grown. The number of nuns and monks is going down, but the ranks of lay associates is rapidly rising.

To give a local example, the Sisters of St. Joseph have a lot fewer nuns, but they now have about 150 lay associates who have adopted the spirit of this religious order. In fact, I am one of them. Not many people know I am proud to be a card-carrying wannabe nun!

Church attendance may be down, but many small groups are spontaneously rising. Many churches find the best way to include non-churchgoing individuals in their fold is to invite them to small groups that meet in homes for prayer, Scripture study or to reflect on spiritual books or movies.

Another positive development is that Catholic and mainline Protestant churches have come together and resolved many of their centuries old doctrinal disputes and are learning to work together for church unity rather than seeing each other as enemies.

There are now many mega-churches in North America, and worldwide there has been explosive growth in Christianity in Asia, Africa, and South America. The growth of the African church in particular is jaw-dropping. In 1900 there were fewer than nine million Christians in Africa, now there are more than 541 million enthusiastic followers.