Evangelism in the Christian Reformed Church

According to the 1996 Yearbook of the Christian Reformed Church, the denomination has 944 congregations with members. (Ministries without members are excluded.) A total of 3,170 members were received through evangelism. But 495 congregations reported no growth through evangelism in 1995.

In brief: 48% of the churches gained members through evangelism. Half of the denomination's gains through evangelism came through 72 congregations (7.6% of denomination). Over ten percent of gains (358 new members) came through the efforts of these 8 congregations.

1. Orange Korean, Fullerton, CA - 60 members
2. Rosewood, Bellflower, CA - 50
3. New City, Long Beach, CA - 47
4. Immanuel, Fort Collins, CO - 47
5. Grace Filipino, Bellflower, CA - 42
6. Church of Love, Los Angeles, CA - 40
7. Peace Arab-American, Dearborn, MI - 36
8. Friendship Chapel, Allendale, MI - 36

Evangelism success by members received through evangelism is summarized in the first chart. Bars indicate the number of congregations by number of members received through evangelism in 1995 (the first bar is truncated to keep the rest visible - it should reach to 495, but then the single congregations would disappear into the baseline).

The second chart shows how many members were received through evangelism at each level: 20 congregations gaining 10 members each graphs as 200 members received at 10 per church.

The third chart shows cummulative membership gains through evangelism. Nearly half the evangelism gains were through 68 churches bringing in 13 or more converts, 7 congregations gained 12 (the midpoint), and the remainder through those 374 congregations bringing 1-11 into the church. Over half the churches in the CRC did not report gaining a single member through evangelism in 1995.

Looking at evangelism as a percentage of church size, 495 congregations reported 0% growth through evangelism in 1995. 167 saw 0.01-1.0% growth, 81 had 1.01-2.0% growth, 60 experienced 2.01-4.0% growth, and 141 gained over 4% of their membership via evangelism in 1995. 73 congregations grew 10% or more through evangelism.

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