Yearbook 2019 Available
Both the hard-copy and digital versions of the Christian Reformed Church in North America’s Yearbook 2019are now available, providing, as always, a list of churches, classes, and ministers and giving a statistical snapshot of memberships, baptisms, transfers, church beginnings, and church endings.
The hard-copy and digital versions are available through Faith Alive Christian Resources. In addition, a PDF version of the Yearbook Supplement 2019 is also available through Faith Alive.
The value of Yearbook 2019 and the Yearbook Supplement 2019 is that both offer comprehensive, up-to-date information and give an overview of the denomination.
“We live in the information age,” writes Steven Timmermans, executive director of the CRCNA, in the book’s introduction. “While capturing information in print (and by PDF) is helpful, we also know you need current, not out-of-date information.”
Available in the Yearbook is information on ministers accepting new calls and information on new persons stepping into classis leadership roles, he said.
The Supplement 2019 adds additional information, complete as of Jan. 1, 2019. Besides being available as a PDF, information contained in the supplement can also be accessed on Church Finder.
“The Yearbook Supplement provides a directory of churches listed alphabetically by city and includes addresses and contact information, service times, and basic membership statistics,” Timmermans writes.
In addition, he said, the supplement includes the name and email address of each church’s clerk of council and of each congregation’s ministers past and present.
The online Yearbook 2019 offers all that and even more information on such matters as anniversaries of churches, classical statistics including church statistics by classis, a denominational summary, classical membership growth statistics, and historical membership statistics (1963 - present). Also included online is a list of agencies recommended for financial support as well as information on denominational ministry shares.
“The baptisms, professions of faith, member transfers, deaths, church beginnings and endings recorded in the Yearbook demonstrate that the Christian Reformed Church in North America is not static. We are part of a living body,” writes Timmermans.
“Our parts are many, as we are composed of hundreds of local churches in different countries, regions, ethnic-cultural settings, and socioeconomic contexts. Yet, as this Yearbook shows, we are one church, growing together in love.”
