PC(USA) membership continues to decline

2003 drop was largest since 1983 reunion

by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE — Last year the Presbyterian Church (USA) experienced its largest percentage membership decline since Presbyterian reunion in 1983.

      According to statistics released by the Office of the General Assembly, communicant membership at the end of 2003 totaled 2,405,311 — a decline of 46,658 from 2002. The combined membership of the former United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America and the former Presbyterian Church in the United States at the time of reunion was 4.2 million.

      General Assembly Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, in an op-ed in The Presbyterian Outlook, said the ongoing membership decline “should call us to prayer and repentance” and said he’s “convinced God wants us to be a growing church.”

      Those Presbyterians reside in 11,064 congregations, 33 fewer than in 2002. Thirty-one new churches were formally organized in 2003 (nine fewer than in 2002) and 47 congregations were dissolved, 11 fewer than last year. Four churches were received from other denominations and three were dismissed to other denominations.

      Total contributions and income from these churches totaled $2.9 billion in 2003, an increase of 2.5 percent over 2002. Two-thirds of those funds was spent on local program, 15 percent on capital expenditures,

      At the end of 2003, there were 21,248 ordained Presbyterian ministers, including 346 who were ordained in 2003. Three-hundred fifteen ministers died in 2003, 66 were removed from office, and 21 were dismissed to other denominations.  Six ministers were restored to office and 104 were received into the PC(USA) from other denominations.

      There were 101,324 ordained elders at year’s end and 68,132 deacons.

      Following a pattern of recent years, the PC(USA) gained more new members through profession of faith and transfer of membership than it lost through transfer to other denominations and death. That net gain was more than 47,000.

      However, “other losses” — people who simply left the church — amounted to a whopping 112,624.

      “Statistically, we are not losing people to other churches,” Kirkpatrick wrote in the Outlook. “Our problem is that we are losing our people to the secular world — to no active church affiliation. All of us — pastors, elders and deacons — need to give special attention to nurturing our members, supporting them in meaningful ministry, and reaching out to them when they begin to fall away from active membership.”

      Kirkpatrick, noting that 32 percent of PC(USA) congregations reported membership gains last year, urged Presbyterians to learn what makes churches grow and emulate them; to redouble the church’s efforts to become a multicultural church; and called upon presbyteries to commit to starting more new churches and upon all Presbyterians to support the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts and Hands, a five-year, $40 million campaign to raise funds for overseas missionaries and new churches, particularly racial ethnic and immigrant congregations.