08724
October 3, 2008

Growing the church

GAC’s Evangelism Committee reviews initiatives to reverse decline

by Susan Lindsey
Senior Communications Associate

SNOWBIRD, UT — With about half of its members attending their first meeting, the General Assembly Council’s (GAC) Evangelism Mission Committee on Oct. 1 reviewed a variety of initiatives aimed at overcoming a decades-long membership decline in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

The review included presentations by Hunter Farrell, director of World Mission, and Eric Hoey, director of Evangelism and Church Growth, who reported on staff activities in their areas.

Farrell said that mission personnel have increased in number and in diversity. The full-time overseas mission force is budgeted to increase in 2009 for the first time since Presbyterian reunion in 1983. Budget constraints present a challenge to keep the mission force in the field, he told the committee and so a direct mail appeal is being planned.

Building on the success of “Mission Challenge ’07” — in which 48 missionaries spoke to nearly 60,000 Presbyterians in more than 140 presbyteries — a second major missionary itineration, “World Mission Challenge ’09,” is now being readied, Farrell said, under the leadership of recently retired Guatemala mission worker Ellen Dozier.

Farrell also discussed “Equipping the Church for Mission” — a new initiative growing out of a mission consultation last winter in Dallas that commits a wide spectrum of Presbyterian mission groups to work more collaboratively so Presbyterians can find every possible way to participate in Presbyterian mission.  

Farrell noted that only about 5 percent of Presbyterian international mission work goes through the GAC, compared to 95 percent in 1960. A plethora of Presbyterian groups — but not denominational offices — conduct mission work on behalf of Presbyterians, in addition to presbyteries and congregations, which are increasingly engaging in global mission directly.

“This is good in many ways, establishing thousands more connections between God’s people across borders each month and resulting in remarkable personal transformations,” Farrell told the committee. “However, there are also negative effects.

“It’s like when mercury hits the floor,” he said, noting that a lack of coordination can produce scattered, disorganized and sometimes ineffective results, including confusion among PC(USA) partner churches overseas.

The GAC now needs to find ways to mobilize mission to be more effective and faithful, Farrell said, “helping to connect partner groups, and provide resources, information and guidance.”

In his report, Hoey provided background and updates in the areas of Asian American leadership, collegiate ministries, church growth, financial aid for studies, mission program grants to congregations, multicultural ministries, and small church and community ministries.

He also discussed “Grow Christ’s Church Deep and Wide” — a two year initiative that commits all Presbyterians to growth in four areas: membership, discipleship, service and diversity. That effort is being enhanced by a new Web site, PresbyGrow, that collects resources for new church development, church growth and congregational transformation.

Vanessa Hawkins, associate for the Black Congregational Enhancement Office, reported on the African-American Church Growth Strategy approved by the 218th General Assembly. The strategy — part of an overall goal approved by the 1996 General Assembly to increase racial ethnic membership in the PC(USA) to 20 percent by 2010 — is divided into five areas: new church development and transformation, leadership development, youth and young adults, clergy women and evangelism. 

Hawkins said the strategy was developed with the understanding that what works in one place may not work in another. “Everything we do is contextual,” she said.

A particularly critical issue in the strategy, Hawkins told the committee, are the challenges involved in finding churches where ordained African American women could serve as solo pastors. A task force will be established in the next few weeks, she said, to monitor progress of the growth of African American churches within PCUSA and to report to the 219th General Assembly.

In other business, the committee:

• Approved a covenant agreement between the PC(USA) and the United Church of Christ in Japan;
• Appointed Martin Lifer of Hilton Head Island, SC, as the GAC’s liaison to the Mission Development Resources Committee, which administers financial aid to congregations for capital and programmatic needs; and
• Elected Carolyn McLarnan of Hattiesburg, MS, as its new chair.