Only 7 presbyteries grew
from ’99 to ‘08, report says
The Layman, January 28, 2010
Only seven out of the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s 173 presbyteries, or 4 percent, saw membership growth from 1999 to 2008, according to the newly-released “Presbytery Ten-Year Trend Report” from the denomination’s Research Services office.
The report is available for free online or a hardcopy can be purchased for $95. Featuring data compiled from the Session Annual Statistical Report for each congregation over the last 10 years, the report tracks membership, giving, worship attendance, baptisms and other data.
According to the report, Atlantic Korean-American (non-geographic), Charleston-Atlantic, Eastern Korean, Middle Tennessee, Midwest Hamni (non-geographic), Northwest (Puerto Rico) and Seattle showed a net gain in reported membership for the 10-year trend report.
Most of the membership gains were by fewer than 1,000 members, however, Eastern Korean saw the largest jump. The non-geographic presbytery, created in 1996 out of the Synod of the Northeast, saw its membership swell by 4,702 from 1999 to 2008. Starting with only 12 congregations in 1997, it had grown to 20 by 1999 and stood at 29 in 2008. Middle Tennessee also had significant growth, adding 1,260 members.
As for the other 166 presbyteries in the report, they experienced a net loss. Though some decreases were small, other presbyteries had major net losses over the last 10 years. Some of the largest membership losses were in the presbyteries of Hanmi (non-geographic), Maumee Valley, Pittsburgh, South Louisiana and Wabash Valley.
The report shows Hanmi having the largest percentage of membership loss, with a 53-percent drop from 1999 when it had 5,501 to 2008 with 2,582 members.
South Louisiana Presbytery wasn’t far behind as it shed nearly half of its membership from 1999 to 2008. Membership totaled 12,546 in 1999, but had dropped to 6,862 by 2008, a difference of 45 percent or 5,684 members. More than half of that loss is reported in 2008, a year that included the departure of nearly 1,600 members when First Presbyterian Church in Baton Rouge, La., joined the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
Pittsburgh Presbytery, among the largest in the denomination, dropped from 52,080 members in 1999 to 38,933 in 2008 – a net loss of 13,147 or 25 percent. The presbytery’s total number of congregations also dipped from 165 in 1999 to 153 in 2008. During the same period, eight congregations were merged and 10 dissolved.
Wabash Valley (Indiana) Presbytery’s membership dropped from 22,538 in 1999 to 15,282 in 2008 – a loss of 7,256, or a third, of its members. Several former Wabash Valley congregations left PCUSA during the 10-year period. Maumee Valley in Ohio and Michigan also saw a one-third drop in its membership, from 165,661 in 1999 to 10,524 in 2008.
A Presbyterian News Service news release describes the report as a resource that helps congregations make “fact-based decisions” in areas such as strategic planning and trend tracking.
“By providing these materials online, Research Services will be able to eliminate the paper costs for congregations and presbyteries that want electronic access to the materials,” said Ida Smith-Williams, associate for research and information, adding that a fee still is required for printed versions of the report.
The reports are available in both table and chart formats, and are broken down into several individual data sets. Data also is available in a single report averaging about 35 pages in length.