As part of our advisory committee work this morning, I was able to study the full Report of the Statistician to the 77th General Assembly. Mr. Luke Brown has ably served the denomination for many years and presents a crisp report full of interesting numbers. As I read the report I wondered, "How does Grace OPC in Sheboygan stack up?" The easiest comparisons were made from within our own Presbytery. We are a member of the Presbytery of the Midwest. It is the largest Presbytery in the OPC both by number of churches and mission works(34) and the total number of members (3575). We also had the highest amount of total offerings for the last year of any Presbytery in the OPC. So within the Presbytery of the Midwest, where does Grace fall? In terms of membership, we are #11 largest of the 34. In terms of total offerings, Grace OPC ranks 7th. In terms of giving per communicant member, we are 9th. In regard to the whole of the OPC, there were 321 congregations at the end of 2009. Grace OPC is 87th in size of the congregation. That puts Grace w/in the top 30% of the denomination, size-wise. When it comes to total giving, Grace is 53 out of 321. That places Grace w/in the top 17% of the denomination when it comes to overall giving. So why all of this statistical comparison? Is this just a giant pat-on-the-back - an exercise in self-serving pride? Not so! Rather, it demonstrates what I've long suspected - that Grace OPC is a healthy church, above average in size, and extremely generous in its giving. If I had a nickle for every time I've heard Grace OPC referred to as a "little church" or similar language, I could probably fund a missionary out of those proceeds. The statistics bear it out - we are not as little as people might think and our congregation is a sacrificial and generous group of saints! One other little factoid: Where is the largest congregation in the OPC and what is their membership total? The answer is... Columbia OPC in Columbia, Maryland, with 673 members.
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