wfn.org | Church Growth Strategy Team

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1-April-1998 
98116 
 
    Church Growth Strategy Team 
    Receives Louisville Presbytery Input 
 
    by Julian Shipp 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.-Meeting here March 25-28, members of the General Assembly 
Council's Church Growth Strategy Team visited a number of promising local 
congregations and gathered ideas from six pastors in Louisville Presbytery 
as it worked to create a comprehensive Presbyterian Church growth strategy 
for at least the next decade. 
 
    The Church Growth Strategy Team was appointed last September at the 
GAC's meeting in San Antonio.  It was charged to devise a strategy to 
reverse the gradual membership decline in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). 
The denomination, currently at 2.6 million members, has lost an average of 
more than 30,000 members per year for at least the past 25 years. 
 
    The team is scheduled to meet in various places around the country in 
the coming year to glean as much information and as many ideas as it can 
prior to reporting its findings to the GAC in 1999. 
 
    Louisville area pastors who met with the team included the Rev. Willa 
Fae Williams of Portland Avenue Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Megan Ritchie 
of Buechel Presbyterian Church, the Rev.Whit Malone of Springdale 
Presbyterian Church, and the Rev. Mike Stuart of James Lees Memorial 
Presbyterian Church.  The team also heard from the Rev. Al Earley of 
LaGrange New Church Development in LaGrange, Ky., and the Rev. Elizabeth 
Kirkpatrick-Brucken of First Presbyterian Church in Eminence, Ky. 
 
    The pastors discussed church growth issues and successful programs with 
team members, who also visited several church growth projects in the 
Louisville area, including 
 
      Portland Avenue Presbyterian Church, which presently has 22 active 
members with 11-13 in attendance. The church is located in the Portland 
neighborhood, which has the highest poverty and the greatest illiteracy 
rate in the Louisville metropolitan area. Today, church membership is 
growing again, with 11 new members having joined since September of 1997. 
A neighboring United Methodist congregation has joined the Portland Avenue 
Church for worship, making Sunday attendance now approximately 60. 
 
      James Lees Memorial Presbyterian Church, which recently received a 
$102,000 grant to build community relationships through evangelistic 
outreach, provide a safe-house for at-risk young people and render a 
variety of inspiring worship and traditional educational experiences from 
within the Reformed tradition. 
 
       LaGrange Presbyterian New Church Development in LaGrange, Ky., which 
was launched by a group of people in that suburban community. Last fall, a 
founding pastor - the Rev. Al Early, formerly of Gallipolis, Ohio - was 
called to lead the congregation to formal chartering.  Worship services are 
completely filling the space in the interim facilities. A new site has been 
purchased and a new building is scheduled to be built soon. 
 
    "Our challenge and our struggle is how to grow," said the Rev. Megan 
Ritchie. "We're a laboratory and sometimes I feel like we're being held by 
a spiderweb. Church growth is really scary." 
 
    The pastors told team members they face a multitude of challenges 
daily, including helping families living in crisis and striving to find 
ways to keep the gospel relevant to today's secular society. 
 
    Other obstacles to growth cited by the clergy included various 
provisions in  the "Book of Order," which they said often frustrates growth 
and development of their congregations; the cost of curriculum materials; 
fear of risking personal safety while conducting ministry; getting people 
to pray not only on Sundays but daily; becoming a people of hope and 
believing it; and reaching out to racial/ethnic people, who often perceive 
the PC(USA) as exclusive and elitist, since it is approximately 93 percent 
Caucasian and contains many wealthy members. 
 
    "I truly believe that we have gotten so comfortable being Presbyterian 
and Christian in this country that we're afraid to take risks," said team 
member Sandra Hawley of Bloomington, Minn. 
 
    Even so, team members acknowledge they may have to propose bold 
ventures in order to accomplish their goals.  The team's efforts are fueled 
by recent General Assemblies, which have adopted ambitious goals for church 
growth, particularly among racial/ethnic groups. The 1996 Assembly, for 
instance, adopted a goal of racial/ethnic membership growth to 10 percent 
of the denomination's membership by 2005 and to 20 percent by 2010. 
Significant Assembly initiatives have also been adopted for growth of 
Hispanic and urban churches. 
 
    Members of the Church Growth Strategy Team are team chair Jinny Miller 
of Mishawaka, Ind.; the Rev. David Bleivik of Anchorage, Ala.; Eugenia 
"Gene" Shannon of Bradenton, Fla.; Diane Wheeler of Palmyra, N.Y.; the Rev. 
John Buchanan of Chicago; Aurelio Garcia of San Juan, Puerto Rico; the Rev. 
Joseph Etua of Starkville, Miss.; and Elizabeth Stephan of Auke Bay, 
Alaska. 
 
    Staff working with the team include Rosalie Potter, associate director 
for evangelism and church development; the Rev. Douglas Wilson, associate 
for Presbyterian evangelism; Diana Stephen, associate for rural ministry 
and church development strategy; the Rev. John Haberlin, associate for 
church growth and new church development; the Rev. Stephen Boots, associate 
for redevelopment evangelism and church development; the Rev. Curtis 
Kearns, director, National Ministries Division; the Rev. Rita Dixon, 
associate for black congregational enhancement; the Rev. Sun Bai Kim, 
associate for Korean congregational enhancement; and the Rev. Trey Hammond, 
coordinator for urban ministry. 
 
    The team is scheduled to meet again April 29-May 1 in Los Angeles. 
Miller said the team plans to present its final report to the GAC in 
February 1999 for submission to the 211th General Assembly (1999) in Fort 
Worth, Texas. 
 
    "In 20 years, the church will see the fruition of our work, I am sure," 
said the Rev. Elizabeth Kirkpatrick-Brucken of Eminence, Ky. 

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