Odd statement, considering that these churches are actually growing. To give some examples, my church (which fits this category) is growing slowly but steadily, even though we're in liberal Orange Co. NC. The daughter church we started in Northern Wake Co. is flourishing, and a church we fellowship with up in a very liberal part of Maine that was planted just a few years ago has also seen exceptional growth. Most of this growth is from new converts, not "personnel shifting."
It's interesting, but there are many, many doctrinally strong fundamental churches in the North - Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Maine - they're all over, and continue to spread.
I think the expression he chose ("aggressively evangelistic") is a misnomer. I gather he is talking about high-pressure bus-ministry-driven count-the-heads sunday-school ministries.I think that is a fair assessment of what the article's author was saying.
As I said, I think what he "predicts" is already a fait accompli. In the early '70s, nine of the ten largest churches in America were that style of church. Today, I'd guess that none of the 50 biggest churches would fall in that category. Some of the super-aggressive numbers-oriented churches that dominated the fundamentalist landscape 35 years ago have dwindled to nearly nothing, and the movement itself is in serious decline.
If you want quantifiable evidence of the decline he is describing, check the enrollment trends over the past 40 years at, say, Tennessee Temple.
I'm thankful that the church we attend fits that category. But I agree that the mainline Protestant churches (Lutheran, Methodist, etc) and drying up because they have embraced liberal theology. The true followers of Christ in those denominations are leaving and going elsewhere. I say let the purging continue.
Our church (SBC) was blessed with 4,000 new members last year.