Fact check: Tell me the list of churches in Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC)

1. Why counts differ: competing tallies and shifting membership that confuse readers

Different analyses report different totals for CREC membership, with one source stating 146 member churches and others describing “over 160 churches and parishes.” The discrepancy likely reflects timing, definitions, and what each source counts as a “member” (e.g., fully-constituted churches versus mission or candidate congregations), but the provided materials do not resolve those definitional differences ^{[2] [1]}. The CREC’s own web presence emphasizes a searchable directory rather than a single static list, implying that membership rolls are maintained dynamically and that a snapshot number can quickly become out of date ^[1].

2. The official route: CREC’s website as the primary roster resource

Analyses indicate the CREC maintains an online “Find a Church” feature and a page titled “Our Churches,” which list congregations across multiple continents and include specific metadata such as locations, pastors, and status (mission/candidate/constituted). Those pages function as the most direct public record of member congregations, and multiple summaries point readers to those resources rather than reproducing an exhaustive list in news copy ^{[1] [5]}. Because the site entries are the organization’s own data, they are the authoritative starting point for compiling an up-to-date member list, but they will reflect CREC’s internal classifications and update cadence ^[5].

3. Geographic footprint: a small global communion, not a single-country denomination

The available summaries consistently portray the CREC as international in scope, with congregations across North America, Europe, Asia, and South America, and named presbyteries organized around historic figures in church history, suggesting transnational presbytery structures ^{[1] [2]}. The presence of churches in countries such as Japan, Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Canada, and the United States is cited in the analyses, which underscores that any complete list must collate entries from multiple national contexts and likely multiple languages and registration regimes ^{[1] [5]}. This diffusion complicates simple headcounts and increases the likelihood of differing totals between snapshots.

4. High-profile mentions: why journalists and officials scrutinize the roster

Coverage that names individuals — notably Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth being identified as an attendee at Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship, a CREC congregation in Tennessee — has raised public attention to the denomination’s roster and composition, prompting inquiries into who belongs and where congregations are located ^[3]. That coverage frames the CREC not merely as an ecclesial network but as relevant to public life and appointments, which motivates journalists to seek lists or directories and to cite the communion’s own church listings in reporting ^{[4] [3]}.

5. Organizational structure matters: presbyteries and membership categories change counts

One analysis specifies that CREC churches are organized into nine presbyteries named after historical figures, a structural detail that matters when aggregating member counts because presbyteries may have different criteria for admitting and listing churches ^[2]. The CREC’s public pages reportedly distinguish between mission churches, candidate churches, and constituted congregations in their listings, and that internal taxonomy contributes to divergent public tallies depending on whether a source counts only constituted congregations or includes mission and candidate statuses ^[5].

6. Assessing reliability and potential agendas in coverage

The sources in the analyses include the CREC’s own site and news reports that contextualize the communion amid political reporting; thus each source carries an identifiable slant—organizational pages aim for completeness and outreach, while news stories emphasize public-interest angles tied to political figures ^{[1] [4]}. Because the provided materials do not include a single canonical enumerated list reproduced verbatim, the most reliable method to obtain a current list is to consult the CREC’s “Find a Church” and “Our Churches” pages and to cross-check entries against reporting when verifying high-profile congregations ^{[1] [5]}.

7. Practical recommendation and what remains unresolved

Based on the analyses, a definitive static list reproduced here would risk being outdated or inconsistent with CREC’s own classifications; therefore the clearest path to an accurate, current roster is to use the CREC site’s searchable directory and to reconcile mission/candidate statuses when compiling a formal list for research or reporting ^{[1] [5]}. Remaining unresolved by the provided analyses are precise membership cutoffs (why one source cites 146 while others say “over 160”), dates for those counts, and a fully enumerated public list validated against CREC’s internal records ^{[2] [1]}.