Actscelerate.com

Looking for accurate data

Acts-celerater Posts: 787 **10/12/20 10:44 pm**

Iâ€™m trying find out how many active churches there are in the COG. Iâ€™m also interested in knowing approximately how many members there are in the COG.

Iâ€™m getting conflicting results from my own research so Iâ€™m appealing to those in the know. If you can, please cite your data source.

Thank you!
_________________
“Hell will be filled with people that didn’t cuss, didn’t drink, and may even have been baptized. Why? Because none of those things makes someone a Christian.”
Voddie Baucham

Acts-celerater Posts: 787 **10/13/20 11:42 am**

Hmmm... must be a very closely guarded secret entrusted to only those in possession of the decoder!
_________________
“Hell will be filled with people that didn’t cuss, didn’t drink, and may even have been baptized. Why? Because none of those things makes someone a Christian.”
Voddie Baucham

As of the MAY 2020 State News there were 405 churches

Hon. Dr. in Acts-celeratology Posts: 6042 **10/13/20 1:04 pm**

Hope that helps.

Re: As of the MAY 2020 State News there were 405 churches

Friendly Face Posts: 156 **10/13/20 3:30 pm**

Plus

Acts Mod Posts: 25305 **10/14/20 7:27 am**

How many dead members are on the roles and how many have duplicate membership in multiple churches.

Did we learn this from the demoncrats?
_________________
Doctor of Bovinamodulation

Sorry--I was referencing only Florida

Hon. Dr. in Acts-celeratology Posts: 6042 **10/14/20 10:01 am**

I got caught up in the pen name--FLRon--and got off track.

Re: Plus

01000001 01100011 01110100 01110011 Posts: 24285 **10/14/20 7:18 pm**

Acts-perienced Poster Posts: 11849 **10/16/20 7:42 am**

Are you thinking nationally or internationally? I haven't looked in years, but internationally, Indonesia used to have the largest membership of any nation. That could still be the case. GBI was estimated to have about 2 million members or aherents.

That also illustrates how a denomination can greatly increase its membership. Much of GBI seems kind of 'Charismatic' to me, and the fellowship of churches Pak Niko led in the Jakarta area had banners that said 'Karismatik' on them. GPDI, the Pentecostal Church In Indonesia is another denomination. I believe GBI split off a denomination (GBIS) that split off of GBDI but I'm not sure how many splits there were in between. GPDI affiliated with Foursquare several years back, so the size the Foursquare denomination must have grown quite a bit because there are a lot of GPDIs (maybe fewer than GBI, but still a lot.)

GPDI seems more conservative with men wearing long white-sleeved shirts to church and more emphasis on dress and not going to the movies in some of the congregations. GBI is more 'modern'-- not exactly 'liberal' but less into older Holiness codes. I think of Foursquare as a bit 'freer' or more 'modern' denomination in the US than the COG, but the COG is affiliated with the more Charismatic GBI and Foursquare with the more Pentecostal GPDI. Btw, a lot of Indonesian Charismatics will say Pentecostals like to cry a lot in church, probably thinking of GPDI. I've had this conversation in a Charismatic church that seems a lot like a Pentecostal church.

Is it important to know how big the denomination is? Remember what happened to David when he started counting membership. Smile

I read the Little Flock movement was hesitant about counting members

Re: Plus

Acts-dicted Posts: 7604 **11/14/20 12:56 pm**

Acts-celerater Posts: 787 **11/15/20 11:58 am**

I'm asking about world wide total number of churches and the total number of members in the COG. If a ballpark figure is all I can get I'll take that, but surely this info is available somewhere?

I need this data for a New Members/ Discipleship class I'm developing. For those new to the COG I want to show them that they are a part of something much larger than a local church body.
_________________
“Hell will be filled with people that didn’t cuss, didn’t drink, and may even have been baptized. Why? Because none of those things makes someone a Christian.”
Voddie Baucham

FLRon...

Hon. Dr. in Acts-celeratology Posts: 6042 **11/15/20 4:32 pm**

Re: FLRon...

01000001 01100011 01110100 01110011 Posts: 24285 **11/15/20 8:09 pm**

Acts-celerater Posts: 787 **11/16/20 8:45 am**

Yes I get it it. Actual numbers are far less than reported numbers because hardly any churches have accurate membership records.

I donâ€™t like using Wikipedia as a reliable data source but in this case I believe I will so as to put this thing to rest. Here is what they had to say about COG numbers:

â€œOn the church's website, they claim that in 2020, they had 36,000 churches and 7 million members in 178 countriesâ€.

I was not able to verify this on the COG website however.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_God_(Cleveland,_Tennessee)#Statistics

Thanks to all who chimed in.
_________________
“Hell will be filled with people that didn’t cuss, didn’t drink, and may even have been baptized. Why? Because none of those things makes someone a Christian.”
Voddie Baucham

Best Resource for Accurate Information

Acts-celerater Posts: 813 **11/19/20 8:01 am**

Call Cleveland and ask to speak to Raymond Hodge.
He's a great guy, and if anyone knows, he does.