Even as PCUSA declines, EPC seeks to grow a new presbytery
The Layman, September 12, 2012
One of the fastest growing Presbyterian denominations in the U.S. may soon launch another presbytery to handle its continued growth – at a time when many disaffected churches of the Presbyterian Church (USA) are seeking a new denominational home.
On Sept. 7, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church announced a planning meeting to possibly form a new presbytery that would comprise congregations in Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska.
During the denomination’s 2012 General Assembly in June, commissioners tasked the EPC’s Committee on Administration with developing and creating a new presbytery in those states.
Since 2007, the number of congregations joining the EPC has ballooned from 182 to a doubling of 364. Since its previous General Assembly in 2011, 61 have been accepted. Even as the EPC grows, the PCUSA – beleaguered by theological dissension and shifting demographics – has been on the decline. The 2011 statistics show that membership in the PCUSA is now less than 2 million people and that contributions have decreased by more than $20 million.
Total membership in the PCUSA at the end of 2011 was 1,952,287, showing a loss of 63,804 members since 2010. Membership in the denomination has fallen each year since 1965 when the PCUSA reached its highest total membership of 4,254,597.
Within the past decade, a few hundred congregations have left the PCUSA for either the EPC, the newly –formed ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians or other denominations. A perusal of PCUSA presbytery minutes show that several more are in the discernment process.
Although congregations give a variety of reasons for leaving, most say the root of dissension rests with what they call an erosion of Scriptural authority following several controversial shifts within the PCUSA.
For the EPC, such growth – whether as a result of PCUSA fallout or new church plants — means that presbytery boundaries must be reviewed.
In a report to commissioners, the EPC’s Interim Committee on Presbytery Boundaries reviewed “the present and near future adequacy of presbytery boundaries while attempting to take into account the high amount of fluidity of the number of churches resulting from dismissals from the PCUSA.”
At its General Assembly in June, the denomination looked at forming the new “Great Plains” presbytery and also reviewed the adequacy of boundaries in the Mid-Atlantic and Central South as well as the possibility of creating a change for the fast-growing Alleghenies presbytery.
“We will shine the light of [Jesus’] salvation in this place and to this country and to ends of the earth,” EPC Stated Clerk Jeffrey J. Jeremiah said during the EPC General Assembly. “As a result there will be 1,000 EPC churches in the U.S. and throughout the world,” he said, referring to the denominations plan to grow to that point by 2025.