To Users of the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches CD:

From its founding in 1916 under the auspices of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, until today under the stewardship of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, the Yearbook under various titles, has provided a unique ongoing, accounting of the churches' sacred work.  

As churches have changed, so has the Yearbook reflected those changes.  We find described in these pages the churches engaging the world in the era of Sunday school and foreign mission emphases, the campaign for prohibition, mission during wars, building of new church edifices as the general population boomed, and toward the end of the century the debates over issues of modernity, racial/ethnic diversity, and religious plurality. 

As the chronicler of record for church data over these many years, the Yearbook has captured data that reflect the extent of the churches' reach into society and the world.  These numbers track the churches' activities through church and organizational membership totals, financial giving and benevolence figures, total numbers of church workers, the number of Sabbath schools, teachers and students, and an astonishing variety of missions.  These numbers over time reveal important clues into changes in the churches relative to themselves, and to society.

As much as the numbers tell an important story, so likewise do the types of data the Yearbook's editors elected to capture.  These categories of data hint at what the churches themselves judged most appropriately reflected their mission and purpose at any particular time. 

"New occasions teach new duties" goes the old hymn.  Likewise, we find reflected in these pages the churches inextricably bound to their time in history, endeavoring to engage the world of their day.   We find statistics for organizations that may no longer exist or no longer have the importance they might once have had, such as the Y.M.C.A.'s National War Work Council , or the Railroad Associations.  The churches pursued mission to places that seem oddly, or inappropriately identified by today's standards, Porto Rico, or the Orient.  We shudder today to find churches referring to peoples to as "Confucianists and Taoists", "Mohammedans", "Animists", "Negro" Men, and "Mountaineers".  Yet, one must be careful not to judge harshly historic conventions by present-day standards.  

Methodologies
Many people handle church statistics, some highly skilled, some less so.  The data you find in this archive have been the result of tens of thousands of individuals who gathered, reviewed and transmitted information of all types.  At local congregations, individuals record and report attendance, membership, financial and other data to regional and/or national agencies.  Those agencies, in turn, compiled the data and ultimately shared it with the Yearbook for publication.  From statistical data related to benevolence giving and church membership, to corrected copy for directories, the Yearbook would not be possible without the careful, but nevertheless inevitably imperfect efforts of those who furnished the information.  

We have presented here facsimiles of the most relevant statistical and editorial pages as the were published.  Many discrepancies exist on those pages; for example, obviously dramatic changes in a particular church's figures from one year to the next was sometimes due to transitions in personnel and their differing understandings of membership categories.  In some cases those originally-published figures were corrected in subsequent editions; sometimes corrections were available elsewhere and not updated in the Yearbook.  We made no attempt to research or note subsequent corrections to the Yearbook's figures in the facsimile pages.   

Computable Figures
The Database folder on this compact disc provides the researcher who is interested in analyzing the Yearbook's figures with the means to do so without needing to manually enter Yearbook figures into a database, statistical, package or spreadsheet.  One would do well, however, to note which columns were double-entered, compared and corrected.  The corrected data are, to the best of our knowledge 100% accurate in reflecting the figures published in the Yearbook on that particular year.  

We would commend the serious researcher to further analyses done by empty tomb, inc. which has contributed wonderfully to this work by carefully verifying and correcting the most important church data since 1968.  Their most up-to-date corrections are provided on this CD in computable Microsoft Excel and comma-delimited database format, and on an ongoing basis through their annual, The State of Church Giving.  Researchers will appreciate that notations are included that indicate sources for the corrected data.

Overall, the error rate in our data conversion prior to checking and correction was 0.8%.  This overall error rate serves as a workable estimate to predict the errors which may exist for the unchecked data since the same data entry procedure was used to input both the checked and unchecked data.  Unchecked figures can still be useful as they can be easily double checked against the facsimile pages.   (We would be grateful to be informed of any errors you discover.)  

This Archive
The data found in these 68 editions of the Yearbook tell a fascinating story which church leaders, researchers, journalists, church historians and sociologists will, we hope, elaborate into a fuller understanding of the church's historic development and changing role in society and the world.  

Whatever brings you to this CD, whether it be an academic research project, a bit of curiosity, or seeking data for a church agency, we hope you will find the data you need.  We have been honored to be stewards of these irreplaceable data and to have the happy task of hitching the venerable wagon of historic church data to the bright star of modern technology.  To do so we relied upon tens of thousands who once, in long ago years, compiled the data and many of whom now from their labors rest.  Our contemporary colleagues and researchers who today provide us data have contributed much to the accuracy of these data and none more than John and Sylvia Ronsvale at  the empty tomb, inc.  All merit our deepest gratitude.  The NCCCUSA, even in times of its own institutional challenges and travail has given priority to the publication of the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches.  The Rev. Robert W. Edgar, General Secretary has continued that tradition and we thank him for this commitment.  Finally, we are grateful to the Lilly Endowment, Inc. and to Dr. Frederick L. Hofheinz, Program Officer for the foresight to know the incalculable value of yesterday's data for today's and tomorrow's scholars.  In this way the financial and moral support for this data preservation project was secured.

We dedicate this CD to the memory  of our colleague Constant H. Jacquet, Jr., who for served as Editor of the Yearbook for 21 editions.  During his tenure he brought to it a high standard of professionalism which we seek to maintain.

March 2001

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