Presbytery overture appeals to PCUSA to foster evangelism
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, March 23, 2004
Evangelism, a lost art among mainline Presbyterians, is like the overused but appropriate weather adage: Everybody talks about it, but nobody does anything about it.
Once again, the General Assembly will be asked to stoke some evangelical fire in a denomination that has lost nearly 43 percent of its members since 1967 – an average of nearly 50,000 a year. (By the numbers, membership plummeted from 4.2 million in 1967 to 2.45 million at the end of 2002).
The Presbytery of the Trinity in west-central South Carolina has submitted Overture 04-31 to the 216th General Assembly with a target: to reverse the tide by encouraging local church sessions “to set voluntary goals and objectives using church growth or church health methods, for example, encouraging at least 3 percent growth per year for the next five years beginning in 2005.” If that worked to perfection, membership would increase by about 600,000 by 2010.
The Trinity plan is more modest than the proposal by Fahed Abu-Akel, moderator of the 214th General Assembly (2002). Abu-Akel called on every member of the denomination to recruit one new member. His goal was to double membership in a year, but he missed the mark.
The denomination reported that membership declined by 41,812 during the calendar year that ended on Dec. 31, 2002. The denomination’s budget-makers are projecting a loss of 45,000 members in 2003. The 2003 figures will be reported to the 216th General Assembly when it meets in Richmond in June.
Trinity’s Overture 04-31 begins with a couple of woeful whereases: “… in the year 2002 our beloved denomination lost 41,812 members reflecting a 1.68% decrease in membership in that year … over the years of 1991 and 2001, our denomination has lost 321,040 members reflecting a 9% loss in membership in that decade.”
The South Carolina presbytery has a star witness – if it chooses to use him. He’s Dr. Robert H. “Robbie” McBride, the pastor of Saxe Gotha Presbyterian Church in Lexington, S.C. According to the denomination’s data, Saxe Gotha has nearly tripled its membership from 1,246 in 1992 to 3,819 in 2002. He began serving the congregation in 1983 when it had a handful of people and was essentially a new church development.
The overture seeks to establish some kind of organizational support for evangelism. But, even though evangelism is No. 1 on the denomination’s list of the “Great Ends of the Church,” real commitment in terms of resources and money has been meager.
One of the most verbally ambitious thrusts came out of the 211th General Assembly (1999), which adopted a church growth strategy report called “A Vision for Church Growth in the Presbyterian Church (USA).”
The minutes of that General Assembly declared, “The 211th General Assembly (1999) enthusiastically approved a number of ambitious membership growth and church planting goals contained in the Church Growth Strategy Report …” The report called on every Presbyterian congregation to “be a mission outpost; carry out the great commission to make disciples within its neighborhood, as well as the world; and prayerfully design a mission plan to be in ministry with those who are hurting, in need, and without Christ.”
Between 1999 and 2002, the denomination lost 108,232 members.
The “enthusiasm” that the General Assembly mustered faded when “A Vision for Church Growth” landed on the agenda of the General Assembly Council. While John Detterick, executive director of the council, encouraged council members to set evangelism as the denomination’s top priority, they fretted over having to cut funding for peace, justice and social issues. Eventually, they reached a budget compromise – declaring that evangelism and “justice” are co-equals.
In 2003, the 215th General Assembly gave a near endorsement to the Alpha Program, a highly successful worldwide evangelism emphasis. The General Assembly directed the denomination’s General Assembly Council to “explore the appropriateness of recommending the Alpha Program as a congregational resource for evangelism and to supplement as necessary to reflect the Reformed tradition and the Presbyterian Church (USA).” Meanwhile, several Presbyterian pastors have taken potshots at Alpha.
Like Trinity’s overture, evangelism proposals do occasionally appear on the General Assembly’s docket, but they don’t stir the passions when compared with the relentless battles over ordination standards and theological disagreements. In most years, the General Assembly Committee on Evangelism receives few outright appeals for serious evangelism efforts.
The Committee on Evangelism in 2003, for instance, issued a 5,239-word report that included only one reference to “evangelism” – in that case, referring to the committee’s name.
In 2002, the 214th General Assembly’s Committee on Evangelism included a reference to evangelism in its report to the General Assembly. The committee had approved a study – “We Are What We Eat” – from the General Assembly Council calling on farmers to grow healthy crops.
The committee’s comment on the report: “In as much as more than half of all PC(USA) congregations are rural, we commend the full text rationale of the ‘We Are What We Eat’ report as a positive step toward revitalization of rural congregations, a priority identified for evangelism and church growth. We find the information offered in the full text rationale to be an essential underpinning for the recommendations. We appreciate the spirit of the rationale that avoids causing alienation in such a complex issue and recognizes the responsibility of all parties in the agricultural revolution. This report provides a means for the entire church to be a living witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Here’s the text of the Trinity overture:
Overture 04-31. On Encouraging National, Presbytery, and Synod Leaders to Foster Evangelism – From the Presbytery of the Trinity.
Whereas, in the year 2002 our beloved denomination lost 41,812 members reflecting a 1.68% decrease in membership in that year;
Whereas, over the year of 1991 and 2001 our denomination has lost 321,040 members reflecting a 9% loss in membership in that decade;
Whereas, Jesus’ command to “go and make disciples” reflects a continuing imperative to “go” (Matthew 28:19);
Whereas, God is faithful (I Thessalonians 5:24) and will never leave us (Matthew 28:20);
Whereas, the local congregation, its leaders and members remain the place for training, goal setting, and leadership of the local mission (B.O.O. G-11.0103(a));
Therefore be it resolved that Trinity Presbytery overture at its February 14th Stated Meeting the 2004 General Assembly to resolve to encourage our national and synod leaders to foster evangelism by
1. Having the General Assembly’s Stated Clerk write each session:
a. including prayer for their growth;
b. asking for them to set voluntary goals and objectives using church growth or church health methods, for example encouraging at least 3 percent growth per year for the next five years beginning in 2005;
c. asking for them to endorse their goals and return them to the presbytery stated clerk and the General Assembly Stated Clerk’s office.
2. Encouraging the stated clerk’s office of each presbytery and synod to write a letter of encouragement to each session in their jurisdiction to seek God’s leading and to make plans as lead by God and the Session.
3. Encouraging all ministers and elders to pray for God to raise up faithful members for each congregation in our denomination.
4. Set aside a morning worship service at the 2010 General Assembly to report on God’s faithfulness and to celebrate Christ daily mercies to our denomination.