ICOC 2007 Membership Survey: Report and Analysis

Disciples Today in cooperation with www.missionmemo.com maintains the only existing Church Directory for our family of churches. Each year we conduct a Church Survey to be sure our information is updated. Kelcy Hahn wrote a very interesting, objective analysis of our churches in the report that is attached here.

The Church Directory button at the top of each of our web pages takes you to a listing of the contact information and weblinks that are continually updated through the year as churches provide us with their information. Once per year we also take a survey of churches to be sure our information is accurate and to update the membership for each church. As a sign of growing health and cooperation in our churches, this year we heard from 545 of the 562 churches.

We published Kelcy’s report and analysis of the survey in a five part series. Click here to see those reports in our category: Leadership / Church Surveys. Or just use our Google search feature in the upper right corner of this page.

Please click here to download the entire report in one document.

International Churches of Christ 2007 Membership Survey: Report and Analysis

Here are the Summary Highlights:

For the first time since 2002, our annual survey of membership among International Churches of
Christ shows an increase in estimated membership.

Total membership increased by an estimated 1.7% in 2007, to 90,130.

We now have over 560 churches in 147 countries.

The losses that started in 2003 were the culmination of a ten-year trend of declining
growth rates since at least 1994. Growth in 2007 continues an improving trend apparent
since 2005.

The ratio of growing-to-non-growing churches improved substantially in 2007. Over 200
churches reported growth, not including newly planted churches.
Recovery has been uneven. Many churches continue to struggle to stop losses, much
less initiate a turnaround.
Overall, the numbers tell a remarkable, if uneven, tale of survival, repentance and
recovery.

Please join us in a huge thank you to Kelcy Hahn who uses his God-given gifts to donate hundreds of hours in gathering and posting this vital information and analysis.