I'm looking for a free (or low cost, which is <$100) listing of all
the individual churches in the U.S. (of all denominations) that have
over 500 members.  (Actually, that number is not carved in stone, it
could be 400, or 600).  What I need is the name of each church, the
number of members, and the mailing address of the church.  The
minister/pastor's name or email would be
nice, but is not required.  I believe this will be a large list, on
the order of 50,000+ churches.

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Request for Question Clarification by scriptor-ga on 04 Aug 2002 05:56 PDT

Dear chanelops,

I managed to find a commercial database on CD-ROM, containing exactly
the data you are searching for. However, this seems to be expensive.
On the other side, it contains information on about 350,000 churches
and the like in the USA. Would you like this as an answer?

Regards,
Scriptor

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Clarification of Question by chanelops-ga on 04 Aug 2002 06:57 PDT

Scriptor,

I am interested, but as I indicated in the question, I was seeking to
keep the cost below $100.  Can you tell me what the price of this
CD-ROM would be?  I might consider it an answer if it's not
significantly more $$.

Thanks for your efforts.

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Request for Question Clarification by scriptor-ga on 04 Aug 2002 07:25 PDT

Dear chanelops,

The problem is, the company offering the database CD is located in the
USA, while I am outside the United States. So I can't call them by
phone, but I'll send them a pricing inquiry via e-mail. Please be
patient, I hope to get an answer soon.

Regards,
Scriptor

---

Clarification of Question by chanelops-ga on 05 Aug 2002 08:21 PDT

Scriptor,

OK, standing by.

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Request for Question Clarification by scriptor-ga on 05 Aug 2002 10:16 PDT

Dear chanelops,

I have just received pricing information from the database publisher.
Unfortunately, it proved far too expensive ($ 495.00 for the most
basic version alone). I am very sorry that this led nowhere at all. I
will keep on searching for cheaper alternatives.

Regards,
Scriptor

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Clarification of Question by chanelops-ga on 05 Aug 2002 15:19 PDT

Thanks for your efforts, Scriptor.  Even though that's way too
expensive for what I need now, I'd be interested in knowing more about
this database company, if you'd care to tell me who it is.  (What I'm
hoping is that some day down the road in a year or two I might be able
to afford them!)

But if you're not comfortable doing that, don't worry about it.  I
can't use them now at that price, anyhow.

---

Request for Question Clarification by scriptor-ga on 05 Aug 2002 15:26 PDT

Dear chanelops,

Of course I will provide you information about the database publisher.
Please follow this link:

http://www.americanchurchlists.com

Maybe it proves useful for you.

Greetings,
Scriptor

OK, I'm sure this is out there. So far, I've found a Catholic
directory, a Mormon directory, an Episcopal directory... but no
overall one. Too bad the library isn't open in the middle of the
night.

If your public library provides online access to Reference USA you can
do a custom search using the Yellow Pages heading "Churches" for each
state and get a list.  You cannot limit it by the number of members;
however, you can limit it by the number of employees which cuts the
number of listings considerably.   Alternatively, you might try some
online yellow pages searches.  One page is Infospace

http://www.infospace.com/

Webweiss, thanks for the ReferenceUSA tip.  Our local library does
subscribe to that, so that could be a backup option, although I'm not
sure if they'll let me search and retrieve records for 50,000+
entities.

Anyhow, I'll keep it in mind, but I'm still hoping someone will be
able to answer the original question.  It IS Sunday, after all!  <gr>

A nationwide search on "church" at knowx.com results in a list of
659,894 organizations.  Yikes!  From just a quick scan, most of these
seem to be actual churches (as opposed to, say, a business called
"Church's Laundromat and Coffee Bar").  KnowX also says the "entire
list" is available for $9.95, but I don't know if that means all
659,894, or just the 25 that are shown on each screen.

By the way, a similar search at www.switchboard.com (a nationwide
yellowpages) turned up 250,000 churches, 420 synagogues, and 127
mosques.

Happy hunting.