As part of the denominational ministry plan, Our Journey 2020, the CRCNA has contracted with Calvin College’s Social Research Center to administer a denominational survey every year. The results from the 2018 survey have now been compiled.
All CRC-affiliated adults and older youth are welcome to respond to this survey every year as they are led. In order to ensure a healthy number of responses to the survey every year, however, CRC leaders have randomly assigned every CRC church to one of five “cohorts”. Each cohort includes about 20 per cent of all active congregations, and each congregation will be asked to engage in active recruitment of responses to the survey just once every five years, according to their cohort.
In other words, every member of every CRC is welcome to participate in the survey every year, but each church will only be sought out and encouraged to respond once every five years.
In 2018, 215 churches were invited to recruit responses to the survey. A total of 1,371 people from 75 churches responded. A report outlining the findings of this survey is attached.
This survey reports provides a glimpse of what congregations are thinking on various topics and shows where the denomination can assist them in such areas as discipleship or collaboration. It is a baseline against which future changes in the desired futures of Our Journey 2020 can be measured.
It is important to note, however, that this report represents only a small slice of the CRC. While it can point to some trends, it should not be used to make broad statements or lasting conclusions.
The 2019 survey will be launched in January 2019. Stay tuned to crcna.org/survey for more information.
Comments
This is a very comprehensive document that will require a lot of study and explanation. One question to which the denomination has a pretty accurate answer and I would like to see how it squares with the survey. It is this one:
Our congregation should financially support ministries and services of the Christian Reformed Church at the full amount recommended for a congregation of our size.
The denomination should publish a graph along the same lines as the response on the survey to this question. Something like:
x churches with under 100 professing members = (e.g. 20 churches with under 100 professing members contributed $ 60,000 )
x churches with 100-200 professing members =
x churches with 200-250 professing members =
x churches with 250-300 professing members =
x churches with 300-350 professing members =
x churches with 350-400 professing members =
x churches with 400-500 professing members =
x churches over 500 professing members =
Somewhere in the CRCNA these numbers (Ministry Share payments) are available. They should be made public. Use the year 2016. The Calvin College Research Centre should have no problem doing this.
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