It currently has 322 congregations nationwide in 21 parishes[3] with a total of 32,000 baptised members,[4] making the PCS the second largest of the four[5] Lutheran bodies in the country.

Its membership is primarily made up of the indigenous peoples of Sabah, with the largest majority being from the Rungus tribe of the native ethnic Kadazan-Dusun population.

The PCS itself was established with the first synod on 20 April 1966 and registered with the Sabah government in 1967 out of the missionary work of the Basel Mission amongst the Rungus, started in December 1952.

[7] In 1996, congregations were established in West Malaysia, Labuan as well as Singapore to minister to the growing migrant worker population in those territories from Sabah.

In 1956, a Bible school was established in Tinangol near Kudat and continued to operate until 1973 when the USNO led Islamization campaign in the state of Sabah was at its height.