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Eric Hoey is the Director of Evangelism and Church Growth for the General Assembly Mission Council of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). He hopes to build a culture of faith sharing among individuals in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) who have a passion for church growth. This blog considers what the gospel asks of the church in the 21st century.

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December 5, 2008

Presbyterian Presence: An Outdated form of Church Growth

Eric Hoey

The other day, I was driving by a university where my host told me about the campus and what religious entities were on the campus. He told me that the Catholics has a strong presence with the Newman Center and the Presbyterians do not have any presence at the campus. If I were a proud Presbyterian, I would be thinking, “Why not, we should be leaving our mark everywhere!!!”

Presbyterian ChurchWith new church developments of yesteryear, Presbyterians planted churches with the strict intent to be a “Presbyterian presence” in the community. We built big buildings in the most prominent places to tell the community that the Presbyterians are here! People flocked to us. However, today, everything is different. We cannot plant churches the way we used to 50 or 100 years ago. Now don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with having such a significant influence in the society that if your church were to disappear tomorrow the whole community would mourn. What I am saying is that in an era of limited funds and lack of institutional trust, “Presbyterian presence” is NOT a good rationale for planting churches.

We must be planting churches where God desires us to participate in what God is already doing in a community. Prayer, seeing the community with God’s eyes, great demographics, and leadership with the right mix of gifts that match ministry in the context of the community, these are all aspects of ministry every church needs to consider in order to be relevant to our changing context. Once we have these mastered, the Presbyterian presence will come.

Categories: Church Growth