TO: Clerks of Session, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church
SUBJECT: Statistical Report to the General Assembly for 2007

Dear brothers:

Greetings in the precious name of Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. It is time again to gather statistics from each church and mission work and presbytery. The General Assembly’s Standing Rules specify that the statistician "shall collect and compile statistical reports of the regional churches for the fiscal year ending December 31 and the information required by the Form of Government Chapter XIV, Section 6, and provide them in combined form to the Stated Clerk at least six weeks prior to the General Assembly, for presentation to the Assembly" (S.R. III.C.1). Further, the Statistician "shall prepare, and present to the General Assembly each year, explanation and analyses of the statistical reports for a meaningful understanding of them by the Assembly" (S.R. III.C.2).

The 2007 Statistical Report form is being sent herewith to clerks of session and others who have reported in prior years. It is also available electronically in Excel and PDF. If you do not use Excel, simply open and print the PDF form, fill it in, and mail it to me at the address below. [Website manager's note: You can open the Excel file with the free program OpenOffice.org, fill it in, save it as an Excel file, and email it to the statistician, saving him the trouble of manually entering your data.]

The membership totals you report for December 31, 2007 should match those previously reported. You can find your report for 2006 summarized in the Yearbook section of the Minutes of the 74th General Assembly (2007). If you find that the membership totals for 2006 were incorrect, please make the necessary corrections in this year's report and provide a brief explanation for the change(s).

Do not include any ministers in local church membership statistics even though they may have communicant fellowship in the congregation. A minister's membership is in the regional church, where he is counted separately on the roll of the presbytery.

Be careful to report all benevolence contributions separately from general offerings, as explained on the form. Only in this way can we obtain an accurate summation of benevolence giving.

Please send me your report by February 23rd. This gives you time to gather your data and report it, and me the time I will need to compile reports from more than 300 congregations and 16 presbyteries, correct errors and omissions, and provide the explanation and analyses expected of the Statistician.

May the Lord bless you and your congregation in 2008.

Sincerely in Christ,

Luke E. Brown
OPC Statistician
1585 Bauman Dr.
Maple Glen, PA 19002-3215
Home: 215-628-9729
Work: 610-354-2903
brown.1@opc.org