wfn.org | General Assembly Backgrounder: "Racial/Ethnic Church Growth"

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

15-April-1998 
98119 
 
    General Assembly Backgrounder: 
    "Racial/Ethnic Church Growth" 
 
    by Julian Shipp 
 
Editors Note: This is the first in a series of six backgrounders on major 
issues coming to the 210th General Assembly-Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.-With the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) continuing to lose 
members at the rate of more than 30,000 annually, church growth efforts are 
commanding significant attention, particularly outreach to racial/ethnic 
members and groups. 
 
    Initial plans were presented at the 1997 General Assembly to meet a 
goal set by the 1996 Assembly to increase racial/ethnic membership of the 
Presbyterian Church to 10 percent by the year 2005 and to 20 percent by the 
year 2010 (it is presently 6.8 percent). Detailed proposals will come to 
this year's Assembly, June 13-20 in Charlotte, N.C. 
 
    In 1996, the Assembly approved an overture submitted by the Presbytery 
of Yukon declaring evangelism a denominational priority and "setting a goal 
for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to be a growing church by 2005." 
 
    Also in 1996, the Assembly kicked off a "Year with Latin Americans" 
(which actually lasts until the summer of 1998). Presbyterians are 
encouraged to get to know their Latin neighbors - not just the ones across 
the border in Mexico or Honduras, but the ones across town and across the 
street. The 1996 Assembly also officially recognized a national caucus of 
Middle Eastern Presbyterians, a small but increasingly active ethnic 
constituency of the denomination. 
 
    Significant Assembly initiatives have also been adopted for growth of 
Hispanic and urban churches, and a new mass media advertising campaign, 
"Stop In and Find Out," commissioned by the 1995 General Assembly, was 
unveiled at the 1997 Assembly. 
 
    Proclaiming its belief that "a great new awakening is happening in the 
Presbyterian Church," the General Assembly Council (GAC) appointed its 
Church Growth Strategy Team last year in San Antonio and charged it to 
devise a comprehensive church growth strategy for the Presbyterian Church 
for at least the next decade. 
 
    The eight-member team is seeking to knit all church growth goals into a 
unified strategy for the church. The team will present its final report to 
the GAC in February 1999 for forwarding to the 211th General Assembly 
(1999) in Forth Worth, Texas. 
 
    Several of the denomination's racial/ethnic constituency groups also 
are stepping up their efforts to increase membership in the denomination. 
For example, the National Black Presbyterian Caucus, which has about 675 
members, announced plans during its annual meeting this year to propose 
that the General Assembly study the feasibility of establishing new urban 
mission presbyteries to concentrate on African-American priorities. 
 
    Church leaders say growth efforts should also include making funding 
for the denomination's eight racial/ethnic schools and colleges a top 
priority. Collectively, these schools enroll more than 5,000 students on 
campuses in the Southeast, Southwest and Alaska. 

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