Kanzo Uchimura, a Japanese Christian and missionary, spent time at the end of his life reflecting on Christianity in the world. Concerning America he said

“Americans are great people; there is no doubt about that. They are great in building cities and railroads…Americans have a wonderful genius for improving breeds of horses, cattle, sheep and swine…Americans too are great inventors…needless to say, they are great in money…Americans are great in all these things and much else; but not in religion…Americans must count religion in order to see or show its value…to them big churches are successful churches…To win the greatest number of converts with the least expense is their constant endeavour. Statistics is their way of showing success or failure in their religion as in their commerce and politics. Numbers, numbers, oh, how they value numbers!“

As read in The New Shape of World Christianity by Mark Noll