Skip to main content

Immigrants a Catalyst for America's Revival?

Share This article

In The New Pilgrims, author Joseph Castleberry makes the case that immigrants are contributing powerfully to the growth of religion in America and especially to Christianity.

Castleberry, who is president of Northwest University, said that rather than mistrust new immigrants, Christians should welcome them and appreciate the "high-octane faith" that many of them bring.

Castleberry documents how immigrants have become the catalyst for growth in a number of denominations. For example, starting in 2001, the Assemblies of God has seen its entire recorded net growth coming from ethnic minorities through immigration.

In 2001, whites made up 71 percent of the denomination. Today, it's fallen to 59 percent with Hispanics growing from 16 to 21 percent.

Castleberry argues that immigrant churches of all kinds should be welcomed, including ethnic churches that encourage members with a similar ethnicity and language as well as bilingual churches and international churches.

He's optimistic that America's immigrants will help spur the U.S. towards revival.

CBN's Heather Sells spoke with Castleberry about his book. Click play to watch.

Share This article

About The Author

CBN
News

CBN News is a national/international, nonprofit news organization that provides programming 24 hours a day by cable, satellite and the Internet. Staffed by a group of acclaimed news professionals, CBN News delivers stories to over a million viewers each day without a specific agenda. With its headquarters in Virginia Beach, Va., CBN News has bureaus in Washington D.C., Jerusalem, and elsewhere around the world. What began as a segment on CBN's flagship program, The 700 Club, in the early 1980s, CBN News has since expanded into a multimedia news organization that offers today's news headlines