Posted on 02/09/2016 8:15:17 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Presbyterian Church (USA) is expecting to see a loss of over 400,000 members between 2015 and 2020, according to a reported internal document.
PCUSA's Office of the General Assembly and Presbyterian Mission Agency Board Executive Committee held a meeting last Wednesday when projected losses were discussed, according to a recent account by the conservative Presbyterian publication The Layman.
"The slide [from the meeting] also showed that COGA is predicting membership losses of 100,000 for both 2015 and 2016," reported The Layman.
"Membership losses for 2017-2020 are projected to be 75,000 each year. That is more than the membership losses in both 2014 (-92,433) and 2013 (-89,296)."
The Layman is the publication for the Presbyterian Lay Committee, a group of theologically conservative Presbyterians whose founding predate the formation of PCUSA.
Presbyterian Lay Committee President Carmen Fowler LaBerge told The Christian Post that she believes the estimated losses for 2015 were "based on preliminary reporting by presbyteries to the Office of the General Assembly."
"We also assume that the 2016 projection of 100,000 is based on information that the OGA has about churches in the process of seeking to leave the PCUSA. So, those numbers are likely pretty good," said LaBerge.
"The 2018, 2019 and 2020 projections of year over year losses of 75,000 members are just that, projections. They are in line with the trend of the past 10 years and there is no reason to think that the trend will reverse itself."
Over the past several years, PCUSA has suffered decline in the number of affiliated congregations and membership counts.
According to the PCUSA's General Assembly Mission Council, in 2000 the denomination had more than 2.5 million members, or approximately 1 million more people than in 2014.
In 2011, membership in the denomination went below 2 million and in 2014 the number of member congregations dipped under the 10,000 mark.
One self-inflicted contribution to the decline has been the general theological direction of the General Assembly especially its growing acceptance of homosexuality.
For example, the 2010 General Assembly approved Amendment 10a, which allowed for local bodies, or presbyteries, to ordain non-celibate homosexuals.
As a result in 2012 a group of conservative Presbyterians founded the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians, which presently boasts more than 200 member congregations.
Regarding the impact of the projected decline noted at last week's meeting, LaBerge told CP that she thought the impact was "already being felt psychologically in terms of morale."
"No matter what industry you're in, if I told you that half of your franchises were going to close and half of your constituents were going to be gone by the end of 2020 you'd be devastated," said LaBerge.
"The projected membership decline is equivalent to the denomination closing 1,000 churches a year, every year, for five years. That would cut the number of PCUSA churches in the country literally in half."
A distinction without a difference ---- in results.
Fortunately, the PCUSA isn’t the only Presbyterian denomination. My PCA church gets lots of PCUSA refugees.
Same here
It is precisely for that reason that I rejoice when I see full parking lots at a Protestant Megachurch, a Mormon Church or a Catholic Cathedral even if they don't happen to be my cup of tea.
It is at least showing people who will stand for something decent.
Agreed
Their numbers are sure to improve. Just imagine all the gay couples who would be happy to join the church, and then their children would... oh, never mind!
Parity with the PCA, when?
Lots of churches like that from every domination. As my dad would say, just write Ichabod above the door and be done with it.
Unlike lots of churches, the PCUSA is not just a single rogue church, this entire organization has been nothing but blasphemy for decades... if you actually have read and understand christian theology at any level, you cannot be part of this church as it exists today.
2 Thessalonians 2:3
Either that or they use the liberal rag newspapers, and liberal TV as their main source in interrupting the scripture.
I think you are right my FRiend.
There is a large contingent of Korean Pres inside the PCA.
Is that is them they are good to go.
So many of these institutional churches and mega-churches have been terminally compromised.
It’s a blessing to have hundreds of small Bible believing Churches and home churches replacing large corrupt organizations that are complicit with the state.
Why did they learn nothing from the demise of ECUSA and the threatened split of the UMC over this? It's a non-starter for actual Christians, as opposed to mere cultural/social CINOs, or Democrats who want to infiltrate Christianity with heresies.
>>Why did they learn nothing from the demise of ECUSA and the threatened split of the UMC over this?
They don’t care. I have spoken to leftist pastors countless times over these issues. They explain that:
1) God isn’t through speaking to us. New things are revealed to each generation.
2) We (the conservatives) are living in a past that never existed as we think it did.
3) That biblical inerrancy is a fairly recent development in the evolution of the church.
And if you keep disagreeing, they hit you with:
4) Where did you get your seminary degree? I have been trained and tested to know that I am more knowledgeable about these subjects than you.
#1 alone is where we should part ways, but I stupidly try to dig into their beliefs and that’s when I get hit with 2-4.
Christians, of whatever demonimation, have the core beliefs of Jesus and THEY may not have the same beliefs as their uber liberal leadership.
Bye-Bye Presbyterian Church.
I think that it's a sad state of affairs for those life-long Presbyterians to see what has become of the "faith of their fathers."
>>I think that it’s a sad state of affairs for those life-long Presbyterians to see what has become of the “faith of their fathers.”
I know quite a few who hate what the PCUSA has done, but they won’t move over to the PCA because they’ve invested so much time and money in their old church, they are Elders and are respected there, and they would rather be in an apostate denomination than start over elsewhere.
These are the most pitiful ones of all.
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