Growth strategy revealed only to Presbytery execs
The Presbyterian Layman, December 4, 1998
The Church Growth Strategy Team of the General Assembly Council has prepared a draft report on a plan to reverse the membership decline – more than 1 million members in the last three decades – in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
The strategy team, meeting for six days in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, also discussed its draft report privately with executive presbyters who were attending a national meeting in Santa Fe.
When the strategy team indicated it would keep its “work-in-progress” under wraps until presented to the GAC, 40 executive presbyters protested. Being allowed only to hear about it, but not to see and read it wasn’t good enough, they said. After a quick huddle, team members agreed to distribute the draft with the understanding it would not be shared beyond the room.
Growth strategy in draft
The strategy team was appointed in September 1997. While not disclosing the specific contents of its draft report, the team says it is not a plan for church growth. Rather, according to the Rev. David Bleivik of Anchorage, the report focuses on viewing the United States a “mission field.”
“The church needs to declare the United States a mission field and go out as we have into other parts of the world,” Bleivik said.
Margaret Haney, Miami Presbyterian Executive, said that the strategy team had “woven a dream, but we need some wheels under it.”
Sandra Hawley of Bloomington, Minn., former chair of the GAC’s National Ministries Division Committee and a member of the strategy team, said, “The task force struggled with the notion of a nationwide strategy because of the differences within presbyteries. The best we can do is suggest goals.”