Circulation of the Elect?

John P. Marcum and Cynthia A. Woolever, Research Services Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Louisville, Kentucky

Note: This is the third report on results from a recent study of new members in Presbyterian churches.

An important goal of the 1998 survey of adult new members was to determine the faith and church participation backgrounds of individuals affiliating with PCUSA congregations.

Figure 1 shows how responders to the survey joined their new congregations. The majority had recently belonged to another church (some Presbyterian, some not), and joined as official transfers. Around one-quarter joined by reaffirmation, suggesting previous--but not necessarily recent--church membership. Only one in five adult new members joined by profession of faith.

A closer look at their religious backgrounds shows that few of those joining by profession of faith were without some previous experience in the church. Overall, only 7 percent of new members responded no when asked, "Besides the church where you are now a member, have you ever, at any time, belonged to, or regularly attended, any other church or place of worship?" (See Figure 2.)

But are these 7 percent truly new to the church? A look at their responses to some other survey questions suggests that most have some previous, perhaps even extensive, connections to the church. Of the 7 percent:

• two-thirds report being baptized as an infant or child
  
• one-third report having at some time joined a church through confirmation
  
• one quarter had at some time been affiliated with a church of another (non-Presbyterian) denomination.
  

Eliminating these individuals further reduces the previously-never-churched total to 12 respondents, or 1 percent of the total. The true figure probably lies somewhere between 7 percent and 1 percent, since it seems a bit of stretch to label someone as "churched" whose only prior involvement was baptism as an infant. But even at 7 percent, it is clear that Presbyterian new members are almost exclusively drawn from the pool of individuals with prior church ties.

Whether this relative absence of never-churched individuals among new members reflects more on the nature of Presbyterian outreach efforts or the nature of American society isn't clear. The proportion of reaffirmations suggests that we are meeting needs of significant numbers of people outside the church. Is our witness to Jesus Christ somehow less compelling to -or not even reaching-- those who have never darkened a church door? Or are there simply few such adults around? The answers to these questions have important implications for future outreach.

Email the author: Jack Marcum