The Covenant is bucking the trends

The Evangelical Covenant Church is bucking all the denominational trends. "The Covenant is countering every single trend. We are growing. We are growing younger. We are growing more diverse. We are growing in conscience." ~ Gary Walter

From Gary's report:

• The Covenant has grown 53% in the last 10 years

• The number of all ethnic and multiethnic congregations has grown from 81 to 186 in between 1996 and 2008

• Nearly 24% of all Covenant congregations are multiethnic

• 69 churches are in process of being planted

• The Covenant is planting about 20 churches every year –- an average of one every two to three weeks

• 46 churches now have an average attendance of more than 600 people

• Swedish Covenant Hospital, Emanuel Medical Center, and Covenant Retirement Communities provided $33 million in free care

• Covenant World Relief was engaged in 31 projects with the poorest of the world’s poor

• Break the Chains, the human trafficking initiative, begun in the Department of Women Ministries, has raised more than $350,000 to date

• Representatives of 330 churches benefited from seminars given by various departments in 2008

• National Covenant Properties loaned $46.3 million to 71 churches in 2008