FAITH Communities TODAY ( FACT)

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in the Churches of Christ.

Where Our Congregations Are Found                                                  

• Churches of Christ are a "national" (as opposed to a "regional") religious body 
• Recognized in the Atlas of American Religion as one of 7 national Christian religious groups for the first time in 2000
• A majority of our congregations are in cities of 10,000 or more, with nearly 1/3 in cities of more than 50,000
• Most of our urban congregations are in the cities themselves, not in the suburbs

Comparison of Location with Other Groups

• Our congregations are located similarly to what are called "liberal Protestant" and "evangelical Protestant" groups (Presbyterian, Assemblies of God, Christian Reformed, Nazarene, Southern Baptist, and so on)
• More congregations in cities and non-rural settings than "moderate Protestant" groups (Methodists, Lutheran, Mennonite, Disciples of Christ, and so on)

Age of Our Congregations

• Most of our congregations have relatively recent origins (since WW II)
• The number of our congregations nearly doubled between ‘45 and ‘65
• Growth of new congregations slowed between ‘65 - ‘90
• We have started fewer congregations in the past decade than other religious groups as a whole
• Still, as a movement, we are "younger" than US congregations as a whole

Size of Our Congregations

• Most of our congregations have fewer than 65 regularly participating adults, 30 regularly participating children and teens (<95 total)
• Most of our members, however, are in churches with over 200 regularly participating adults
• A third of our members are in churches with 350 or more RPAs

Ethnic Composition of our Congregations

• The vast majority of our congregations remain racially segregated
• We differ from the composite US congregations, in that our congregations are less integrated

Gender Composition of our Congregations

• The gender make-up of our congregations is relatively balanced
• We have a greater proportion of our membership who are men than do congregations as a whole
• This holds true in all size congregations (from our smallest to our largest)

Education Levels of Our Members

• Most of our congregations have relatively few adult members with college degrees
• At the same time, most also have few adults who lack high school degrees
• The education level of our members is generally similar to that found in other religious groups

Age Distribution of Our Members

• Most congregations lack a majority of adult members who are under 35 years of age
• (However, our large congregations have a higher proportion of members in this age group)
• Most of our congregations also lack a majority of adult members over 60
• Twice as many congregations report "most" members over 60 than report "most" under 35
• We are slightly younger than all congregations

Family Composition in our Congregations

• Most of our congregations have a predominance of married adults (versus single or widowed adults)
• Very few congregations are made up of "singles"
• We are "more married" than US congregations as a whole

Families with Children

• At the same time, most of our churches have a minority of households that have children at home
• This is consistent with the age and marital data, above
• It also is consistent with all US congregations
• Our smallest churches have the fewest families with children at home, but are not necessarily "older" in composition

Religious Backgrounds of Our Adult Members

• While about 1/3 of our congregations report "few" of their adult members have lifelong connections with Churches of Christ, about the same number report "most" are lifelong members
• True regardless of size of congregations
• We are significantly more concentrated with lifelong members than congregations as a whole

New Members in Recent Past

• The vast majority of our congregations report few new members in the past five years
• This is especially true of our smallest congregations (those with fewer than 100 regularly participating adults on an average Sunday)

Income Levels of Our Members

• The vast majority of our congregations have relatively few poor households (<$20,000/year)
• Almost exactly parallels the national data
• While there is little difference in poor households based on size, our largest congregations have slightly fewer low income families among their adults