A Reflection on the Handling of Historical Data and Statistics of Hong Kong Churches from a Study of Hong Kong Denominations

　　From July 2006 to June 2007, I contributed articles for the “Tracing the Origins of Hong Kong Churches” series in Christian Times. The purposes of these articles are to search for the origins of the faith and doctrines, traditional rituals and ceremonies, denominational structure of today’s Chinese churches in Hong Kong. Within the series, the introduction of the historical roots of each denomination drew the most attention. This suggests that the Chinese church members tend to be rather confused and do not have a clear understanding as to why so many denominations exist. They hope to know these denominations better in order to clarify the complicated relationships among them. Upon the request of a publishing company, I decided to produce a book entitled A Survey of Hong Kong’s Ten Denominations. This book is a comprehensive exploration of the origins and development, faith and polity and the up-to-date overall situations of ten major denominations in Hong Kong.

　　To complete the study, I set out to collect all the historical information and statistical data, carefully study many periodicals and annual reports, and make contact and visit various major Christian denominations. Through the process of researching and writing this book, I have got a better grasp on the ways each major denomination in Hong Kong handles historical data and statistical figures. In this article, I would like to share briefly the phenomena I have discovered. Although I contacted only ten denominations, they are all having a sizable church community with a good number of denominational churches and each having a rather big congregation and each denomination provides a wide range of social services. This reflects significantly the overall picture of Christian churches in Hong Kong.

1. Hard Facts of Denominational History

　　It is true that all of Hong Kong’s major denominations have fairly detailed records of their own origins and development, but there are cases when the data presented are inconsistent and contradictory, and the given historical descriptions are vague and lopsided. The reasons can be classified into the following two categories.

(1) Deficiency of Historical Data

　　When a Chinese church was founded, it was mostly run by western missionaries, and when they left, they took home with them the missionary records. Furthermore, as there was a lack of interest in preserving historical data, many historical documents were lost and subsequently past historical facts can by no means be reconstructed. For example, the Baptist Convention of Hong Kong (BCHK) was founded in 1938. At first, there were only three independent churches: the Hong Kong Baptist Church, Cheung Chau Baptist Church and Aberdeen Baptist Church, together with three gospel centers at Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon City and Hung Hom respectively. A significant milestone in the Baptist Convention of Hong Kong came when it was joined by a group of Swatow churches. However, I could not find any records to reveal exactly when this group actually joined BCHK. No one whom I contacted could give an accurate date for Swatow churches’ joining. What I can be sure is that this must have taken place in or before 1955 when the annual general meeting of BCHK was held at Kowloon City Swatow Baptist Church.¹

　　If the development of a denomination or a church is simple and clear, despite poor documentation in the past, its historical facts can somehow be deduced. However, there exists complex evolution in the history of many Hong Kong churches, making it hard to trace back the true origins. For example, the Hong Kong Lutheran Church and the Hong Kong and Macau Lutheran Church had branched out from the same denomination but got separated before the 1970s. That is why some of the earliest churches of the Hong Kong Lutheran Church can now only be found in the Hong Kong and Macau Lutheran Church’s history. This may sound odd to those who do not understand the subtle historical development involved.² Another example, the Tiu Keng Leng Church was regarded as the very first church founded by the Christian and Missionary Alliance Churches Union of Hong Kong. Today there are three different churches, which are C. & M. Alliance Ling Yan Church, C. & M. Alliance Hau Tak Church and New Rennie’s Mill Alliance Church, each claiming to be related to or as an extension of this church. Their intricate relationship can hardly be sorted out without going through historical records.

(2) A Lack of Historical Study

　　For reasons of keeping the records in archive or regarding them as confidential, the first hand records of churches are usually not open to the public so that outsider researchers are denied access to them. In such cases, to get to know the history of a denomination or a church, one can only resort to secondary sources such as an annual bulletin or report. However, when these historical records are compared and closely examined, one sometimes finds that the churches themselves do not have a comprehensive understanding of their own history causing the records to appear vague and contradictory. For example, the Twentieth Anniversary Publication of Hong Kong Baptist Convention recorded that when BCHK was founded, the Hong Kong Baptist Church had 1,530 members, while Cheung Chau Baptist Church had 25 and Aberdeen Baptist Church had 223 with a total membership of the churches being 1,778.³ It is a pity that in the subsequent Fortieth, Fiftieth and Sixtieth Anniversary Publications, that figure was mistakenly written as 1,178.⁴ This clearly shows that this mistake passed down from generation to generation.

　　Another common problem in handling secondary sources of information has been to do with the principle or the way of handling the historical records varies from one person to the next, often causing readers to feel confused. How should we fix the date of a church’s founding: the day it was open for ministry or when it was formally founded as a church? In case when the religious organization that set up the church ceased to provide subvention or moved elsewhere, how then should we fix the date of its establishment? For example, the Hong Kong Baptist Church used to claim its history to begin with the founding of Queen’s Road Baptist Church in 1842 but that church was closed soon after its founding. Although some western missionaries tried to keep the church running from 1860 to 1865, it was not until 1880 that regular church meetings were formally resumed.⁵ On the contrary, the C. & M. Alliance Hebron Church, originating from the Hebron Church founded in 1915 in Nan Hai, Guangdong and later moved to Hong Kong due to a change of political regime in China in 1949. However, since the church was reconstructed in 1962 and joined the Christian and Missionary Alliance Churches Union of Hong Kong, it was regarded as a more recently founded church and was even placed on the church list below those churches founded in the fifties. Obviously, the former’s founding date is based on that of its predecessor while the latter is not. Of course, how a church’s predecessor should be reckoned is a question worthy of further investigation. In the historical development of the two churches mentioned above, the assets and polity of the old have not been continued in the new church. It is the ministerial staff and church membership which have been continued. In this case, can we say the new church is a direct continuation of the old one?

　　It Is Interesting to note that the two churches mentioned above are members of the Baptist Convention of Hong Kong and the Christian and Missionary Alliance Churches Union of Hong Kong respectively, and yet their seminaries handled their histories in just the opposite way. Applying the principles of continuation of the ministerial staff and church membership as evidence of a hereditary relationship, then we can establish that predecessor of the Hong Kong Baptist Theological Seminary owned by the Baptist Convention of Hong Kong is the Guangdong and Guangxi Divinity School founded in approximately 1870 in Guang Zhou, Guangdong Province. The Divinity School was closed down as the Communist regime took power and moved to Hong Kong where it resumed in 1951 under the name of the Divinity School of the Baptist Convention of Hong Kong and in 1963 was renamed Hong Kong Baptist Theological Seminary. As for the seminary linked with the Christian Alliance Church, its predecessor was Alliance College founded in 1899 at Wu Shou in Guang Xi province and renamed Alliance Bible College in 1938. It moved to Hong Kong in 1949 and was renamed Alliance Bible Seminary in 1955. On the surface, the historical development of the two seminaries was rather close, yet the former took 1951 as its founding year without including the history of its predecessor, while the latter claims it to have begun in 1899, since it includes the history of its predecessor.⁶

2. Statistical Data of a Denomination

　　In the last twenty years, the Hong Kong Church Renewal Movement Ltd. Has conducted a large scale census of local churches every five years, noting in detail different data like the number of people attending church meetings, male to female ratio, age distribution, level of education and occupation; and giving us an impression that the numerical records of Hong Kong churches are fairly complete. However, my experience gained from this study suggests that the general condition is not so ideal.

(1) Insufficient Statistical Investigation

　　Although many large local denominations have published their annual reports setting out the various developments and statistical data of the past year in detail, there are a number of denominations which do not make regular investigations or keep numerical records of their member churches. The two denominations, Assemblies of God Ministry and Pentecostal Holiness Church, with a total membership of over 10,000 are typical examples. When I asked for the figures of church service attendance and church membership, they could not immediately provide those figures; however, they were helpful in collecting the required information for the completion of my study. Besides, this is also true to individual churches. For example, the International Christian Assembly offers a number of worship services in different languages, but it does not have a membership system as the Filipino or Indonesian domestic helpers only stay temporarily in Hong Kong causing the attendants’ mobility rate to be fairly high and making it hard to count its members. Meanwhile, since it does not register the church attendance, when I asked the church about the figures, it only gave a rough estimation of about 3,000. Similar conditions can be seen in other English-speaking churches, such as the Methodist International Church, Hong Kong.

　　Even if a denomination or a church does have a regular statistical survey, the data collected may not be altogether reliable; this may be due to inconsistency in the statistical principle followed, resulting in figures that are far from accurate or misleading. For example, some denominations still keep those members who have passed away, emigrated overseas or lost contact in the membership list and so their total membership remains abnormally high. I have found according to this principle that the average church attendance of the member churches of one denomination being only 4,100 while its total membership is as high as 14,000. To reflect the real condition, the Diocesan of Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui Office has recounted its members in recent years cutting the figure from 30,000 to 10,000. According to some reliable sources, some churches in Hong Kong would include the attendance of its local and overseas branch churches when counting its regular church attendance so as to give a much higher figure than the actual one.

(2) Obstacles in Handling Figures

　　Although some denominations have statistical figures, the way they handle those figures has sometimes set up obstacles for academic research. A typical example is that for confidential reasons they refuse to disclose the figures I asked for. For example, although one denomination publishes its annual report and announces its statistical figures of the past year, when asked about the related information, the General Secretary of that denomination refused to provide those figures saying that they were confidential. That is why in my book A Survey of Hong Kong’s Ten Denominations, nine denominations have the latest figures up to 2007 while the denomination I mentioned has the figures only up to 2006. Of course, there may be changes that one may not want to disclose to outsiders, such as internal strife and conflict in the church or a sudden drop in church attendance. Many denominations or churches are inclined to keep them a secret, and in fact, I came across this phenomenon for quite a few times during my study.

　　Besides deliberately keeping some figures secret or confidential, there are unintentional mistakes too, such as errors in copying or in simple calculation, which give obstacles to a study. One of the obvious examples can be seen in comparing the figures of the Baptist Convention of Hong Kong in the last two years. According to the annual report, the total average Sunday service attendance of member churches in 2006 was 38,969 whilst it was 35,618 in 2007, does that mean the church attendance of Hong Kong Baptist churches are on a drastic downfall? A drop of 3,351 in church attendance in a year’s time would certainly be a crisis worthy of special attention. However, a simple comparison of the figures between member churches shows there has been a numerical growth in most churches, and so what actually is the problem? Upon closer observation, it was found that the church attendance figure of Aberdeen Baptist Church in 2006 had been mistakenly written as 8,536 and a follow-up investigation showed that it should be 875, a difference of 7,661. Taking away this miscalculated figure, there is an increase of 4,310 in the total of average church attendance of Baptist churches from 2006 to 2007. What a different, much more optimistic picture it shows as far as church growth is concerned!⁷ It is fortunate that this is an obvious mistake that can be easily spotted but it is hard to estimate how many minute errors there are that cannot be easily verified.

3. Reflection and Suggestions

　　The past history of a denomination or a church is the key to an understanding of its past church growth, helping us to know ourselves better, learn from the past and know more about the present. On the other hand, statistical figures are the evidence to master today’s development and an important reference for evaluating the present and planning for the future. From the above discussion, there is still much room for improvement for Hong Kong churches in these two aspects. Here, I venture to make the following two appeals:

(1) Acknowledge Historical Study of a Denomination

　　Within the parameters of our ability, a denomination or a church should try its best to properly preserve historical documents as some historical data, once lost, can never be reconstructed; even worse is that the errors and confusion would perhaps linger, unable to be rectified. This is especially so given that the development of some of the churches in Hong Kong is rather complicated, there is a need for more elaborate historical records to make clear the intricate relationship involved. If the church space is too limited to preserve the collection of historical data, it is advisable to scan those documents and convert them into computer documents, or better still, donate them to a denominational seminary and put them in the archives.

　　Furthermore, the church should spare more resources for the study of its history so that a more accurate and detailed history can be compiled and written out. If possible, develop unified principles for handling historical data can avoid confusion, for example, to stick to the same principle of either to count the founding date of the earliest predecessor or only the date of moving to Hong Kong. I understand that it is hard to change certain traditional practices, as it is impossible to say that the Alliance Bible Seminary has only a history of sixty years, just as it is hard to accept that Hong Kong Baptist Theological Seminary has had a long history of over 140 years. Perhaps every church organization should try hard to list out in detail the date when it was first founded and the date it moved to Hong Kong as this is a more useful way to clarify historical facts.

(2) Acknowledge Statistical Figures of a Denomination

　　To accurately master the real condition of and facilitate the study of Hong Kong churches, each of the churches should collect numerical data such as to count the church attendance and the amount of offerings received weekly and then the denomination to which the church belongs collects the data and does a statistical analysis every year. In case the statistical records are lost, it is often impossible to retrieve them. To count the figure correctly, a church should design some accurate and reliable ways to do their calculations: (i) Have someone to do the head count in the middle of the meeting; (ii) every one present records one’s attendance; (iii) use modern technology such as the electronic membership card to do the counting. I once heard that a pastor of a big church only does a rough estimation of the service attendance and the number of its members. As a result, the actual attendance of over 100 becomes 300 whilst a church membership of over 600 becomes 400. This kind of calculation should be avoided. In doing the head count, churches should follow a unified standard to enable a fair comparison and avoid being misled. For example, church attendance should only include that of the mother church while attendance of branch churches should be listed out separately. Also for the church membership, only the active participating members should be counted; those who have passed away, migrated or lost contact over a long period of time should be deducted from the total.

　　As the church is a big family and we are its household members, I do not understand why those figures as church attendance and the number of church members would be considered to be confidential. This act of not disclosing statistical figures impedes the study of the Christian churches in Hong Kong. It is hoped that this denominationalist mindset will gradually diminish. As for the unintentional errors in statistical figures, we hope that every denomination and every church will do a better job in proofreading as some delicate errors can be detected only by those concerned people who have sufficient reference material to verify. Otherwise outsiders can have no way to make out where the trouble lies.

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¹ “Twenty Years’ History of The Baptist Convention of Hong Kong,” in Twentieth Anniversary Publication of The Baptist Convention of Hong Kong, ed. Chung Yan-kwong et al. (Hong Kong: The Baptist Convention of Hong Kong, 1959), 7.
² For example, in the “Report on the Founding of Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong” written in 1954, there were a total of 15 churches and the one listed as “Taipo Market” is today’s Hong Kong & Macau Lutheran Grace Church.
³ See Tam Hei-tin, ed., “The Statistical Table of the Annual Number of Members of Hong Kong Baptist Churches over the Past Twenty Years,” in the appendix of The Twentieth Anniversary Publication of The Baptist Convention of Hong Kong, 12; the total number of Baptist members can be found in “The Statistics of Members of Baptist Churches in Hong Kong and Kowloon by Year,” in The Twentieth Anniversary Publication of The Baptist Convention of Hong Kong, 36. Dr. Lau Chun-pang of our Seminary had pointed out this problem earlier, see Lau Chun-pang, “Dr. Lam Chi-fung: The Maker of Hong Kong Baptist Education Enterprise — A Preliminary Exploration of His Ideas on Christian Education” (Baptist Heritage Week handout, Hong Kong Baptist Theological Seminary, 2007), 1, footnote 1.
⁴ See “The General Ministry of the Baptist Convention of Hong Kong,” in The Fortieth Anniversary Publication of the Baptist Convention of Hong Kong, ed. Leung Sau-yan, et. al. (Hong Kong: The Baptist Convention of Hong Kong, 1979), 8; Pang Hau-tang, “A Brief Golden Jubilee History of the Baptist Convention of Hong Kong,” in The Golden Jubilee Special Publication of the Baptist Convention of Hong Kong, ed. Kai Ying-chung, et. al. (Hong Kong: The Baptist Convention of Hong Kong, 1989), 16; “The History and a Brief Introduction of the Ministry of the Baptist Convention of Hong Kong,” in The Sixtieth Anniversary Publication of the Baptist Convention of Hong Kong, ed. Kot Man-wai et al. (Hong Kong: The Baptist Convention of Hong Kong, 1999), 16.
⁵ See the publication of the former Senior Pastor of the Hong Kong Baptist Church, Rev. Lau Yuet-sing, The History of Hong Kong Baptist Church (Hong Kong: Hong Kong Baptist Church, 1941 1st ed.; 1996, 2nd ed.), 63.
⁶ That is why in 2001 the Hong Kong Baptist Theological Seminary had its fiftieth anniversary while the Alliance Bible Seminary had its centennial celebration in 1999.
⁷ See “The Statistical Table of the Ministry of Baptist Churches in the Baptist Convention of Hong Kong, 2006,” in The Annual Report of the Baptist Convention of Hong Kong, 2006 (Hong Kong: The Baptist Convention of Hong Kong, 2007) , the appendix after page 272; and “The Statistical Table of Baptist Churches in the Baptist Convention of Hong Kong, 2007,” in The Annual Report of the Baptist Convention of Hong Kong, 2007 (Hong Kong, The Baptist Convention of Hong Kong, 2008), the appendix after page 288.