Among the many signs of increasing health and growth in the International Churches of Christ are the results of the latest Disciples Today Church Survey.
This final installment of the 2009 Church Survey shares some of the victories God has worked among us and challenges that face us.
V. Victories
The 2009 survey revealed a number of positive trends:
The continuing turnaround of our largest churches
- Five of our largest churches (LA, NYC, Manila, Bangalore and Singapore) reported growth in both 2009 and 2007, continuing turnarounds from lows that occurred in 2006.
- Three others of our largest churches achieved turnaround milestones. The Hong Kong and South Florida churches reported their first growth since 2001. The Boston church reported its first growth since 2000.
- These eight are among our oldest churches, all with long histories of sending out other churches and providing money and leadership for hundreds of smaller churches. As a group they suffered disproportionately from 2003-2005, losing 43% of their members. Their combined membership growth since 2006 is 1,253.
Growth in several groups of related and individual medium-sized churches
- The Japan churches reported the first growth, as a group, since 2001.
- Our churches in Indonesia have grown by over 10% since 2006.
- Our underground churches in China grew by 110 and planted two new churches between 2007 and 2009.
- Our Canadian churches reported growth of 5% from 2007-2009.
- Seattle and its recent plantings (Spokane, Tacoma and Bellingham) grew by 5% to almost 800 members.
- Several other medium-sized churches reported strong growth over the 2007-2009 period: Richmond (20%), St. Louis (15%), San Antonio and Columbia, SC (13%), and Athens, GA (8%).
- Four churches over 200 members are now larger than at any time in their history, and all were planted in the 1990’s: Hampton Roads, Medan (Indonesia), Hartford and Gainesville.
VI. Challenges
In the past three years we’ve seen a number of churches go out of existence.
We no longer have churches in 12 nations we had churches in as recently as 2002.
· Our only church in Poland had attained to a membership of 70 in 2002. Poland is now the largest nominally Christian country in the world in which we do not have a church.
· Our only church in Portugal was planted in Lisbon in 1996, but after 10 years of existence dwindled down to a half dozen members, and is no longer meeting.
· Our church in Vienna, Austria—which had reached 47 members by the end of 2002—merged with a mainline Church of Christ.
· Our only church in Slovenia had reached 18 members by 2001, but went out of existence before its tenth anniversary.
· Our only church in Slovakia reached 29 members by the end of 2002 but lost two-thirds of its membership by then of 2004, and is no longer in existence.
· Small church plantings in some Muslim countries went out of existence some time after 2007. Valiant efforts to establish churches in two others persisted with a handful of members for over 5 years each, came to an end sometime after 2002.
· Our church in Curacao, which had reached a high of 36 members in 2000, dwindled to a handful of members, then joined the Sold Out Discipling Movement. Another small island nation church, in Cape Verde off the western coast of Africa, went out of existence sometime after 2005.
· Our church in the Caribbean nation of Martinique reached 34 in 2002, but is no longer meeting.
We now lack a presence in several cities in which an ICOC had existed for many years.
· Churches in Rhode Island and Riverside, California are no longer a part of our movement.
· We no longer have a church in Adelaide (planted in 1993) or Canberra (planted in 2001) Australia.
· We no longer have churches Germany at Ramstein Air Base (planted in 2000) or in Cologne (planted in 1997 and with a peak membership of 78 in 1999) or Hamburg, Germany.
· Our churches in College Station, Texas and Portland, Maine went out of existence. Both had existed over 10 years before failing. Plans are in the works for both of these to be replanted.
We were able to report the existence of almost 100 new churches planted from 2003-2008, but 31 of these do not appear as separate churches in the 2009 survey.
· In India, 15 churches we had previously counted as new churches are once again counted as a satellite of another church in India.
· Five plantings reported to have happened in Kenya, four in the Ivory Coast, two each in Guatemala and Romania, and one each in Malaysia, Sierra Leone, and Malaysia never reported membership in any survey year, and are either already out of existence, or still being counted with another church’s membership.
Survey and Report Prepared by Disciples Today
Roger Lamb, Chicago
Paul Ramsey, Columbia, SC
