It is an urban and rural church that was originally developed mainly in the interior places of Sabah and Sarawak. In recent years churches have been established in the main towns, e.g., Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, Miri and Sibu as well as several other centres. The SIB is a growing church. Formerly limited to certain parts of the two states, SIB members and churches are now distributed throughout Sabah, Sarawak and West Malaysia. SIB is large: The SIB consists of 221 churches in Sabah with a membership of 34,260 and 219 churches in Sarawak with a membership of 59,674. Each church has its own elected leaders. There are only 76 full-time pastors in Sabah but in Sarawak there are 185 pastors. (Statistics are as of 1982.) The SIB have been independent from its inception as an organisation in 1959. It financially supports its own pastors and workers. It also trains its own workers through its own training program. There are 6 Bible schools associated with the SIB in Sarawak and Sabah.