© 1999 Meredith Sprunger
© 1999 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
A highly acclaimed book, The Rise of Christianity, by Rodney Stark (Princeton University Press, 1996) may cast some light on growth in the Urantia movement. Rodney Stark who teaches at the University of Washington is regarded by many scholars as the most significant figure in the sociology of religion today. From the best available data, Dr. Stark estimates that Christianity grew at the rate of 40% per decade. Professor Stark has other observations about the rise of Christianity, some of which refute traditional opinions and may lend insights on growth in the Urantia movement:
Starting with the estimate that there were around 300 people in the Urantia movement in 1955, a 40% per decade growth rate suggests that there should be around 1152 people in the Urantia movement in 1995. Using this criterion, it appears that we are growing as well as or better than early Christianity.
One of the potentially crippling factors in the Urantia movement is the semi-closed networks of the Fellowship and the IUA where in-group activities predominate. We lack religious organizations primarily devoted to ministry and outreach. A redeeming factor is Urantian Web Sites on the Internet. Hopefully, we are laying foundations for the advent of new religious organizations that will carry the paradigm of the Fifth Epochal Revelation throughout the world.