In 1950, close to 60 percent of the Canadian population could be found regularly participating in a religious service on any given Sunday morning.1 At this time the religious participation in Canada was actually 10 percent higher than that of the United States, which saw a weekly attendance of approximately 50 percent. However, this quickly began to change. By 1975, only about 30 percent of the Canadian population attended a religious service regularly.2 According to sociologist Reginald Bibby, the group that was mainly responsible for this drop was the generation known as the baby boomers.3 This generation experienced the cultural revolution of the 60s and as a result many did not prioritize the same religious establishments that their parents’ generation had. In fact, in 1975, only 15 percent of all Boomers in Canada regularly participated in any religious gathering, far behind the average 37 percent of the pre-boomer generation.
Over the last decade, a growing movement of missiologists, church planting networks, and church planters have produced a great deal of research and material on what they believe are some of the best practices and models for reaching westerners with the Gospel.
Over the last decade, a growing movement of missiologists, church planting networks, and church planters have produced a great deal of research and material on what they believe are some of the best practices and models for reaching westerners with the Gospel.