In the 2024 denomination survey, top picks to the prompt “To me, the term ‘Christian Reformed’ means....” include "Christ-centered," "Scripture-centered," and "Conservative."
By the Numbers
For each month's print issue, we include a statistic we think might be of interest to our readers. To read full issues online, visit this page.
The number of ministers of the Word serving outside of congregational ministry in 2023 is more than nine times greater than in 1950.
Oct. 31 is marked as Reformation Day in Protestant churches to remember the onset of the Protestant Reformation that began in 1517.
A report from the Christian Reformed Church’s Candidacy Committee on the current leadership landscape of the denomination is included in the Agenda for Synod 2024.
Kent Hendricks used digitized agendas from the Hekman Library website to find the average number of words per overture for nine different years going back to 1944.
Got something to say to synod? A lot of people (or councils or classes) have had a lot to share in the past five years
“Many have inquired about the current ratio of vacant churches to ministers eligible for call, and there is a growing sense that the Christian Reformed Church in North America has a ‘pastor shortage,’
Once a year, members of the Christian Reformed Church in North America are asked to respond to the denomination's annual survey covering things from giving and diaconal work to prayer and spiritual disciplines.
The 2023 Christian Reformed congregational survey asked participants to describe the area in which they live. From nine choices, here’s the percentage of respondents for each type of setting.
From naming and renaming what eventually became the Christian Reformed Church in North America to the first publication dates of denominational periodicals, quite a number of memorable events in our denomination happened in February. Here are a few:
The 10 most-accessed articles on thebanner.org between January and December 2023, in order of most views to fewer. For links and 15 more of our most popular articles from the past year, visit thebanner.org/2023-top-25.
The 2023 CRCNA Congregational Survey asked participants to “indicate how many hours you spent during an average month over the last year in each of the following:
We got a news tip about a British Columbia church celebrating its pastor’s 20th anniversary with that congregation.
The 2023 CRCNA Congregant Survey shows respondents pray or do devotions alone most of the time.
When given 28 suggestions and the prompt “To me, the term ‘Christian Reformed’ means
Reader satisfaction with The Banner has gone up over the past three years, according to data from reader surveys in 2020 and 2023.
Since 2019 the CRCNA has been trying again to “reimagine” ministry shares—the money collected from member churches to pay for the running of the denomination and the ministries we hold in common
“Which generations of your ancestors have been involved in the Christian Reformed Church?”
A Christian Reformed Church worship survey in 2018 found that many more CRC congregations were celebrating specific liturgical seasons/days than they did in a previous worship survey 19 years earlier.