» Faith downunder

The Australian newspaper is upbeat about Australians’ growing interest in Christianity: The rebirth of Christ: Religious revival reflects humanity’s quest for meaning

• 500,000 young Catholics will converge on Sydney in 2008 for the World Youth Day.
• About 4.5 million – or almost one in four – Australians attended Easter services this year.
• Catholic church membership is up, Anglican church attendance – at least in Sydney – is on the rise.
• Pentecostal Christian congregations swelled by 11.4 per cent in the five years to 2001 and continue to grow.
• 40 per cent of young people surveyed say religion is important in their lives, almost double the total in 1978.
• 56 per cent of young people consider themselves spiritual.

I’ve never been wowed by statistics like these, unless they were useful to add weight to some report I was writing. What I do know is there will be winners and loses in this changing environment. When the paradigm shifts everyone goes back to zero. Those with the biggest investment in the way things are will be least likely to adapt. Expect to be surprised.