Open letter
Larger churches systematically under-represented
By Winfield Casey Jones , Special to The Layman, February 21, 2011
CORRECTION: I’d like to apologize for and correct an error in this article. I said the median Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation was around 200, but I should have said the average size of a PCUSA congregation is around 200. The median congregation size is much less – around 97, while it is the average PCUSA membership that is just under 200. I’d like to thank Frank Norment for pointing this out to me. I do not believe this in any way changes the case I was making since my numbers were based on Form of Government mandates for representation of congregations. For example, as I said, 4,000 Presbyterians in twenty 200 members churches (average size) get 20 elder commissioners at presbytery while if all these members were in one congregation they would get six elder commissioners at presbytery. If one were to think about median size congregations of around 100 members, the comparison is even more exaggerated: 4,000 Presbyterians distributed among 40 of these median sized 100-member congregations would get 40 elder commissioners versus the six elder commissioners the same members would get if they all belonged to the same congregation. And as I said, General Assembly per capita is strictly proportional to membership. Winfield Casey Jones
Recently some evangelical pastors of many of the larger congregations in the Presbyterian Church (USA) signed a letter pointing out a crisis in the denomination and calling into question whether (given our recent history) our problems can be successfully addressed within our current framework or whether this may be an unwise use of energy that distracts us from the mission of the church. These signatories have received quite a bit of criticism, with which I do not agree.
However, my purpose in writing is to address a related issue I have not heard discussed. To me, it is like the elephant in the room or the emperor with no clothes. This unaddressed issue is that when the pastors of some of our largest churches feel the need to write such a letter, we might well ask ourselves what in our system has caused them to have to try to communicate in this way. Far from seeing this letter as arrogant, or as having been written by an elite, I see it as being symptomatic of the fact that our largest congregations have been systematically disempowered and under-represented in the PCUSA.
Presbyterians who are members of large-membership congregations are extremely under-represented at presbyteries, synods and General Assembly. The median PCUSA congregation is now barely over 200 members. But many of our denomination’s members are in larger membership congregations. Let’s compare the voting strength of 2,000 and Presbyterians who are distributed among ten congregations with the voting strength of the same number (2,000) of Presbyterians who are all in the same congregation. (Then we will do the same by comparing the voting strength of members of a 4,000 member congregation with members in 20 congregations of 200 members each.)
Suppose each of ten 200-member congregations has a full or part-time pastor who votes at presbytery. Each congregation will also get one elder vote at presbytery. While we understand that the 200 members congregation’s pastor (as well as its elder commissioner) do not represent the congregation and cannot be instructed how to vote, nevertheless in my view it is naïve not to suppose that in many ways the minister and elder commissioners will be influenced by the ethos, perspectives, and theological view of the congregation they help lead! Now imagine a 2,000 member congregation. It has the same number of members as ten 200 member congregations. Typically this 2,000 member church may have three pastors, and the Book of Order gives it four elder votes at presbytery. So it has seven people who are a part of its life voting at presbytery as commissioners, whereas ten 200-members congregations would have 20 votes, almost three times as many votes as one 2000 member church has.
Imagine now a 4,000 member congregation. It typically may have five pastors, and it gets only six elder commissioners, for a total of 11 commissioners whose perspectives are shaped by its life, values, ethos and theology. On the other hand the same number of Presbyterians (4,000) distributed among twenty 200 member congregations would have 40 persons voting, almost four times as many.
Is there a good reason why Presbyterians in median sized congregations of about 200 members should have three to four times the representative power of Presbyterians who have happened to join 2,000 or 4,000 member congregations? Is it any wonder that these larger-membership churches would feel disenfranchised, and that some of their pastors would sign a letter expressing frustration?
What message are we sending to congregation when our system tells them, “we want you to pay a per-capita that is strictly proportional to your membership, but the more you grow, the less proportional voting power you will have?”
Let me now give you an example. I love very much my own presbytery, the Presbytery of New Covenant. We have sensitive, committed, passionate leaders and we try hard in our life and ministry to represent all sized churches and all theological perspectives consistent with the Reformed faith. We have 106 congregations, but it so happens that in our presbytery pastors from our four largest congregations signed this letter. These four largest congregations have approximately 38 percent of the Presbyterians in our presbytery, but the pastors of these churches and the elders their sessions elect have approximately 10 percent of the votes at our presbytery. We also have many retired, at large and validated ministers who get to vote, and they are equalized by elders who have leadership positions in the presbytery or who are assigned on a rotating basis from congregations of over 200 members. A few of these elders who also get a vote due to equalization come from these four churches and a number of honorably retired pastors who can vote at presbytery retired from them, so that probably increases their vote percentage from 10 percent to no more than 13 percent. Still I think it is fair to say that in our presbytery (where, again, these four largest churches have 38 percent of our members) as in presbyteries across the denomination, the perspectives, ethos, experience, and values of individual members of larger-membership congregations are under-represented at least three-fold.
Before I close, let me re-emphasize:
- Neither pastors nor elders “represent” a particular church, and they cannot be instructed on how to vote. Nevertheless it is unrealistic and even foolish to think that pastors who lead a congregation and elders who are elected by its session as commissioners do not in many ways reflect its ethos, values and theology.
- Commissioners to General Assembly are elected by presbyteries. Under-representation at presbytery will inevitably be reflected in the composition of the group of commissioners sent to GA. (Having chaired the nominating committee of our presbytery, I know that while we tried to fairly represent larger congregations, historically the percentage of GA commissioners from our four largest congregations in any give year has been very small compared to the 38 percent of our congregants contained in these congregations.)
So to summarize: Under our Book of Order, one member of a 100 member congregation with a pastor has, arguably, seven times the strength of representation in presbytery as one member in a 4,000 member chu
rch. Even if the 100 member congregation is without a pastor, one of its members has over three times the proportional strength of representation of a member in a 4,000 member church. If you are a member of a 2,000 member church, your strength of representation is typically one-third of that of a member of a 200 member church, near our median size.
Presbyterians who are members of large-membership congregations are under-represented at presbyteries, synods and General Assembly.
Is it any wonder the pastors wrote a letter?