The Presbyterian Center, a building belonging to Presbyterian Church (USA) and located in Louisville, Kentucky
Posted on 06/02/2020 7:51:37 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Presbyterian Church (USA) recently reported that it lost around 50,000 members and over 100 congregations in 2019, which was hailed as a slowing of their years-long decline.
The largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States released a report last Thursday regarding the current membership and church numbers.
From 2018 to 2019, PC(USA) went from approximately 1,352,000 active members to approximately 1,302,000 members, or a drop of around 50,000.
The number of congregations belonging to PC(USA) also declined, going from 9,161 in 2018 to 9,041 in 2019. This is around 400 fewer congregations than the denomination had in 2016.
The Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, stated clerk of the PC(USA) General Assembly, said that report was “good news” since membership did not drop below the 1.3 million mark.
“We must celebrate while knowing that there remains work to be done,” stated Nelson, claiming that this was the first time in three decades that they were “not reporting membership losses.”
“We are witnessing congregational transformation and renewal through innovative leadership, discipleship training, spiritual renewal, and contextual ministry implementation.”
Nelson went on to state that he believed a key feature of eventual growth for the denomination will be “dependent on evangelizing immigrant communities.”
“Church planting in immigrant communities is leading the way towards our current and future church growth,” he continued. “We are not dying. … We are Reforming.”
Jeff Walton of the Institute on Religion & Democracy was critical of Nelson’s optimism, noting that the losses over the past year are “consistent with reports from recent years.”
“Apparently in Nelson’s assessment the vanishing of more than 50,000 church members does not count as decline because of rounding,” wrote Walton.
“The rate of decline continues to be greater than the most recently reported membership numbers in the Episcopal Church, which reported a loss of 36,214 persons in 2018 (the Episcopal Church customarily releases statistics in the autumn of the following year).”
As with other mainline Protestant denominations, PC(USA) has experienced severe decline over the past several years, having had about 1.2 million more members in 2000 than at present.
In 2011, membership slipped below the 2 million mark and in 2014, the number of congregations affiliated with the denomination went below the 10,000 mark.
One factor has been the liberal theological direction of the PC(USA), as seen with its increased acceptance of homosexuality, which prompted large numbers of congregations to seek dismissal.
Many of these departing congregations formed a new conservative denomination called ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians in 2012.
I left in ‘95 and never looked back.
PCUSA... Turning Jesus into a homosexual, vegan, woman since 1983
PCUSA and CPUSA are two sides of the same coin. Seems their former members realized this.
They traded the gospel for the homosexual progressive agenda.
How is that working out?
PCUSA seems to have “progressed” in the same direction as the ELCA!
RE: Would I be wrong to assume that today’s Presbyterian Church bears absolutely to resemblance to *genuine* Christianity?
I can’t blame you for having that impression. As the saying goes... “If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck ...” ( you know how to fill in the rest ).
I’d like to learn more about this ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians.
I guess Presbyterianism is dealing with the same divide as LCMS versus ELCA.
My LCMS pastor friend put it bluntly: “We don’t even talk to each other any more.”
RE: I’d like to learn more about this ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians.
Perhaps, these webpages can help:
https://eco-pres.org/our-story/ ( THEIR STORY )
https://www.theology-eco.org/ ( THEOLOGY )
https://eco-pres.org/vision/ ( MISSION AND VISION )
“Nelson went on to state that he believed a key feature of eventual growth for the denomination will be “dependent on evangelizing immigrant communities.””
the problem with that is that po’ people won’t have the money to keep the bigwigs in their fancy digs and fancy salaries ... not to mention keeping up those giant, expensive-to-maintain church buildings ..
“hailed as a slowing of their years-long decline.”
great news, right? not declining as rapidly as before on an absolute basis, but i wonder what the annual percentage shrinkage graph is?
“The Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, stated clerk of the PC(USA) General Assembly, said that report was “good news” since membership did not drop below the 1.3 million mark.”
next year they can celebrate the “good news” of not falling below the 1.2 million mark ...
“We are witnessing congregational transformation and renewal through innovative leadership, discipleship training, spiritual renewal, and contextual ministry implementation.”
i see they’ve totally mastered the buzzword salad idiom of using a whole shitpile of fancy words in a single sentence without saying anything meaningful ...
Much thanks for those links, FRiend.
Presbyterian Church (USA) recently reported that it lost around 50,000 members and over 100 congregations in 2019, which was hailed as a slowing of their years-long decline.
No, I don't expect the denomination to auger straight into the ground. Loss will slow, as those that care leave, leaving those that are just fine with the way things are.
The Presbyterian Center
Nice building. Wonder how much is occupied?
RE: Nice building. Wonder how much is occupied?
Here in New York, especially the suburbs, I see a lot of traditional, century old churches ( many with wonderful heritage style architecture ) being sold to or taken over by Asian Christian Congregations ( most of them Koreans and Chinese ).
If this trend I see occurs elsewhere, I will not be surprised to see that Nice PCUSA building for sale in the not too distant future. I just hope it will be to a church and not to a secular business or school.
Here in New York, especially the suburbs, I see a lot of traditional, century old churches
Seeing it right now, in my little city (~25K) in West Rustbelt, USA. 2 PCUSA congregtions, turned into one, turned into none. One United Methodist congregation dwindled, and merged with another. Smaller church buildings abandoned here and there around town, in (now) slum areas.
Nice old buildings, that they built in the 19th century, that we in the early 21st couldn't possibly afford to maintain. We're not as rich as we like to think we are.
PC(USA), yes, but there are several Presbyterian denominations that have remained solid.
Here is a link to a video from Lutheran Satire Youtube channel.
I believe Pastor Hans Fiene is LCMS.
“The Devil’s Kenneth Copeland Suit”, 3:33 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7IndCia69s
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