Demographics show Confessing Church growth, vitality
By Craig M. Kibler, The Layman Online, March 24, 2003
As a group, the 1,291 Confessing Church congregations within the Presbyterian Church (USA) give substantially more money per member, have a lower attrition rate and report a higher percentage of members in the pews during worship services than the denomination as a whole.
Although often maligned by denominational leaders, the continually growing Confessing Church Movement represents the evangelical wing of the denomination that is most committed to faithful stewardship and worship.
Attrition rate lower
While 213th General Assembly Moderator Jack B. Rogers labeled the movement “divisive” and Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick called it schismatic, the fact is that the attrition rate for the Confessing Churches from 1989 to 2001 was 6.3 percent, while the denomination’s attrition rate as a whole was 11.6 percent for the same time period.
The demographics comparing the Confessing Church congregations with the PCUSA were gleaned from the denomination’s “2001 Comparative Statistics.”
As of today, the 1,291 Confessing Churches – which include congregations in 45 states and Puerto Rico with 428,367 members – represent 11.6 percent of the 11,142 congregations and 17.2 percent of the 2.49 million members in the denomination. In the 734 days since the movement began, it has grown at an average of 1.8 churches and 589 members per day.
Those Confessing Churches also represent 22.10 percent of total contributions by all Presbyterians. The average annual gift per Confessing Church member in 2001 was $928. The figure for the denomination is $783.33 – a difference of more than $145.
Considering that the average size of a Confessing Church is 332 members, that translates into an annual budget of $312,736 for the hypothetical “average” congregation. The average size of all congregations in the PCUSA is 228 members, which would reflect an annual budget of $178,599.24 at the $783.33 membership contribution.
Those numbers dwarf a comparison of giving compiled by the Covenant Network. The Covenant Network, More Light Presbyterians, the Witherspoon Society, That All May Freely Serve and similar groups advocate for the ordination of GLBTs (gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered) Presbyterians and the repeal or nullification of the denomination’s ordination standard.
Commissioners to the 215th General Assembly will consider another overture, after the presbyteries have voted three times in ever-increasing margins to affirm the denomination’s ordination standards, to delete the “fidelity/chastity” standard in the constitution.
In response, the board of More Light Presbyterians “is committed to having a ‘delete B’ overture brought before the General Assembly every year ‘until B is dead and gone,'” according to board member the Rev. Bear Ride.
Rogers, addressing the March 7 conference of the Witherspoon Society, said, “the majority of people are not yet ready to consider a new possibility. Proponents of ordination without regard to one’s sexual status realized that much more education and building of relationships needs to be done if change is to take place.”
Mary Rees, national co-moderator of That All May Freely Serve, said her organization “stands firmly” with “our Three Sisters (More Light Presbyterians, Shower of Stoles Project, and That All May Freely Serve), and many others in the belief that the vision of a totally inclusive, welcoming Presbyterian Church (USA) must be presented at each and every General Assembly.”
The Rev. Susan R. Andrews, a member of the board of directors of the Covenant Network, has been nominated as a candidate for moderator of the 215th General Assembly. She is the senior pastor of Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, Md.
Andrews was one of the speakers at the Covenant Network Commissioner Convocation Dinner at the 214th General Assembly in Columbus, Ohio – speakers who vowed that “we’re in this together for as long as it takes” to remove the “big mistake” of the fidelity/chastity clause from the Book of Order. The speakers encouraged participants to work for a church “where gay and lesbian Presbyterians called and gifted for leadership in the church are elected and ordained and installed.”
Denomination’s rapid downward spiral
The relative rates of decline are key factors in light of the denomination’s rapid downward spiral, from a high of 4.2 million Presbyterians in 1965 to 2.49 million at the end of 2001. The PCUSA lost another 31,549 in 2001 – the highest decline since 1994 when 43,930 people left the pews in the wake of the ReImagining God movement.
The shrinkage in 2002 has not been reported, but budget-makers are estimating that 35,000 more members will come off the rolls. In addition, for 2003, the General Assembly Council is projecting church membership (which is the basis for setting the 2004 per-capita apportionment) to decline another 35,000 members.
That membership loss continues a trend that has seen more than 1.76 million members leave since 1965. In the past five years, 140,901 Presbyterians have left the denomination – including 34,871 in 2000, 27,367 in 1999, 21,517 in 1998 and 22,275 in 1997. Since 1966, the average membership loss has been more than 50,000 a year, the equivalent of closing 250 churches with 200 members each annually.
The denomination does not conduct exit polls to determine why members are leaving the Presbyterian Church (USA), but the annual exodus does rise dramatically when aspects of historical Reformed faith are under attack.
In 2000, the denomination’s staff leadership and the General Assembly Council were the targets of thousands of complaints from Presbyterians who asked that Presbyterian speakers at denomination-sponsored events be held accountable to the historic faith.
The General Assembly Council declined to act on their requests.
Another issue stirring dissent – and membership dropouts – was the decision by the denomination’s highest ecclesiastical court allowing ministers to conduct same-sex unions and the subsequent vote by presbyteries not to override the court’s decision.
Welcoming denominations
Furthermore, there are several rival evangelical Presbyterian denominations that welcome refugees from the PCUSA, including the Presbyterian Church in America and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
Since 1973, with the formation of the National Presbyterian Church that later became the Presbyterian Church in America, that denomination has grown from 260 congregations representing 41,000 members to 1,450 congregations representing 306,000 members at the end of 2000.
Since 1981, when it was formed with 12 congregations, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church has grown to 190 churches in the United States and Argentina representing 65,000 members.
But, as a group, the Confessing Church demographics seem to suggest that evangelicalism is more deeply rooted than liberalism.
Worship attendance
A key indicator of church vitality is worship attendance. The denomination’s data show that Confessing Churches average 57.6 percent attendance by members at worship services, while the denominationwide figure is 51.3 percent.
In addition, Confessing Churches contribute 22.10 percent of the funds to the denomination and have 19.11 percent of the people in the pews for worship.
Per-capita rate
To keep pace with a shrinking denomination, the 214th General Assembly approved increases in per-capita apportionments for 2003 and 2004. The per capita for 2002 was $5.25 per Presbyterian member.
Commissioners voted to increase it by 19 cents to $5.44 in 2003 and another two cents to $5.46 for 2004.
A recommendation from the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly, however, asks the 215th General Assembly to approve another five-cent increase to $5.49 for 2003.
Reports presented to the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly and the General Assembly Council executive committee stated: “It is clear that the turmoil in the church will impact both the level of membership and the percentage of presbyteries paying their full per capita apportionment. For 2003 we are projecting for budget purposes that our membership loss for 2003 (which sets the basis for the 2004 per capita apportionments) will be 35,000 and that the amount of withholding of per capita will be $350,000 in 2004.”
Kirkpatrick, for his part, said he expects per-capita withholding to reach $425,000 in 2003.
The proposed 2004 expenditure budget totals $14,708,259, which represents a 2 percent increase over the 2003 budget. The Office of the General Assembly will receive $9,773,825 of the per-capita budget and the General Assembly Council will receive $393,434.
The Office of the General Assembly’s portion of the per-capita budget includes grants of $400,000 to the National Council of Churches, $449,414 to the World Council of Churches, and $232,731 to the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.
The General Assembly per capita pays for the operations of the staff and headquarters in Louisville, Ky., while special contributions and revenue from the Presbyterian Foundation pay for the mission of the church.
Membership, redirection, donor-designated giving
Membership declines, redirecting per-capita payments because of conscientious objection to some of the denomination’s actions, and donor-designated giving instead of general purpose contributions (designated gifts now account for 76 percent of the contributions to the denomination, with unrestricted mission money declining from $41 million to $37 million from 2001 to 2003), have reduced Louisville’s ability to move money around to cover unpopular programs.
A recent story by the Covenant Network regarding donations by congregations affiliated with the network fails to take all of these factors into account. The Covenant Network claims that congregations affiliated with the network or with More Light Presbyterians “give on average more than twice as much to G.A. mission, and more than two and a half times as much to presbytery and synod mission, as do ‘confessing’ churches.”
The story also said that “Covenant and More Light churches pay 27% more per capita than do so-called ‘confessing’ churches ($19.68 per capita vs. $15.50).”
Solely describing undesignated giving and per-capita payments by the Covenant and More Light churches, the story nowhere makes reference to membership declines, redirecting per-capita payments because of conscientious objection to some of the denomination’s actions, and donor-designated giving.
Neither does it discuss that the actions of the 214th General Assembly – silence in the face of defiance of judicial rulings and constitutional standards, funding boycotts rather than missionaries, removing any qualm of conscience from late-term abortions – may lead more sessions to ponder those stewardship decisions.
Another issue the story ignores about per capita concerns the General Assembly’s and the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission’s affirmation that financial support of church government is based on the willingness to “give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion” (2 Cor. 9:7; Ex. 25:2). That understanding – that the PCUSA asks for, rather than commands, financial support – is coming under attack.
At the 214th General Assembly, the Office of the Stated Clerk, the Advisory Committee on the Constitution and the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (all of which are funded from per-capita monies) stated that a 1992 amendment to G-9.0404d in the Book of Order made sessions obligated to pay per capita.
That amendment arose out of a key case in 1992, Session of Central Presbyterian Church vs. Presbytery of Long Island. In it, the highest court in the denomination ruled that per-capita payments by local sessions are voluntary and that sessions cannot be punished for not paying them.
That decision by the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission came after Central Presbyterian withheld its per capita from the presbytery because the presbytery sponsored an address by a witch.
The court enjoined the Presbytery of Long Island from punishing Central Presbyterian Church – clearly establishing the session’s right to determine how tithes and offerings are spent. But Kirkpatrick and his advisory bodies have contended that “voluntary” giving applies to church members and not church bodies. The stated clerk for several years has warned elders and pastors that even discussing withholding per-capita payments is a violation of their ordination vows.
The General Assembly, affirming the historical right of sessions to determine how tithes and offerings are spent, rejected that advice and, instead, resolved that per-capita payments continue to be voluntary gifts.
“Per capita is one of the sinews of our covenantal relationship,” the General Assembly said in response to an overture from the Presbytery of Scioto Valley. “We believe that relationship is voluntary rather than mandatory.”
In December, however, a regional court of the Presbyterian Church (USA) upheld a policy adopted by the Presbytery of Scioto Valley, similar to its overture, that requires sessions of local congregations to pay their per-capita apportionments unless they are excused by the presbytery.
Complainants in the case argued that the presbytery’s policy was unconstitutional because it countermanded church law and court interpretations that have historically affirmed the absolute right of sessions to withhold or redirect per-capita assignments, but the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Synod of the Covenant ruled against the complainants. The case is under appeal.
Evangelism, church development and missions
Evangelicals, citing the fact that the church’s highest priorities are evangelism, church development and missions, consistently have called on the denomination’s leaders to restore budget cuts in the mission program.
A speaker at the 214th General Assembly said, “There is no question where the people’s hearts are. Two-thirds of the money given by our congregations to the General Assembly is restricted by those congregations, and most of those funds are for World-Wide Ministries. Through opinion polls and giving patterns, Presbyterians are saying loud and clear that they love evangelism, church development, sending missionaries throughout the world, and ministries of compassionate service,” he said.
“I regret to tell you that the unrestricted portion of the proposed 2003 budget does not reflect those priorities. Those who created this budget eliminated funding for the dire