A Prospective

So what if 100 or 200 or a thousand evangelical congregations withdraw from the PC (USA) by the end of next year. That denomination still will have over nine to ten thousand congregations remaining (10,266). There are still more than 21,000 ordained ministers - less than half are working the church. The latest statistics available (2011) indicate that the PC (USA) received no congregations from other denominations in the past four years reported. The PC (USA) dismissed, on average, 22 congregations every year since 2008. From 2008 to 20011 86 congregations were dismissed to other denominations. This doesn’t count the few who left without being officially dismissed or those who have left in 2012.  

In the presbytery where I reside, more than half the congregations cannot raise the minimum level of compensation for a full time seminary educated pastor. Of the ten thousand congregations currently a part of the PC(USA) it is possible that half are unable to call a full time pastor. Now we are considering 5,000 mission viable congregations all but a handful of which are in a steady membership decline. On average about 45 % of the active membership of any Presbyterian Church (USA) are in worship on a given Sunday.

It is has been pointed out many times, by evangelical leaders, that the decline began in the mid-1960s when the national church, already moderately liberal, took an even sharper turn to the left. Denominational insiders, naturally, deny that there is a correlation between the politicalization of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the steady decline in members. We are less than half the size we were in 1965. Some studies have indicated that we lose people mostly to no church at all. They not only leave the Presbyterian Church (USA) but withdraw from the Church of Jesus Church. This indicates to me that we are doing an ineffective job in nurturing faith in our youth and have been so for a very long time. When a denomination moves into the godless secular world, thereby worshipping its values, why should the secularists see any relevence is worshipping the God revealed through sacred scripture? 

 The leaders of the PC(USA), at the national level, spends ten times the amount of its mission resources in the pursuit of “justice” than it does on advancing the kingdom through the pronouncement of the Gospel. It is little wonder that we are becoming increasingly secular.

If you have a program calendar from the GA offices in Louisville, you will find a staff directly at the back of the calendar. In reviewing it, just now, I am amazed at how the structure has downsized since I last looked at it. Many departments that were once independent are now combined into one large section with a single senior director and many associate directors under that one person. Many of the offices are associated with various gender and ethnic/racial adjectives denoting each. Some are directly structured to support a specific social cause – such as the environment or peacemaking. The most overt pursuit of “civilian affairs” is obvious at our Washington and United Nations’ offices where direct lobbying takes place. Under the title “social witness” I noticed that the associate who was (perhaps still is) responsible for advocating for a tomato pickers’ union in Florida is now hidden under a more ambiguous title. At one time she had her own office title and staff assistant with a budget in excess of one hundred thousand dollars.

We can certainly expect greater visibility of homosexual rights advocacy now that we have born false witness by declaring their behavior to be holy and righteous before the Lord. There will be a concerted effort to place homosexual pastors in congregations, just as there was once such an effort to place women in our pulpits. There might even be an openly gay person elected moderator of the General Assembly. How many of our current stock of clergy have kept their homosexual behavior secret?

Of the 13,000 ordained Teaching Elders more than half are female. The number of female clergy was zero in 1950. While most evangelicals oppose the ordination of homosexuals, they support the ordination of women. Since a landmark judicial case in the late 1970’s where a candidate for ministry was denied ordination because he opposed the ordination of women, there are no evangelicals who would dare admit their opposition to the ordination of women. I see the same dynamic with the forced acceptance of homosexual clergy. What is currently permissive will one day become mandatory. Please note this, all you peace-at-any-price moderates who want to be seen as those who honor the Word of God.

The loss of evangelical congregations, whether it is a hundred or a thousand, will have only a small financial impact on the national offices or their programs. The most controversial or progressive offices are funded by endowment monies. I suspect that the financial shortfall in the budgets of the national offices is due more to a lower return on investments than a decrease in giving.

For those congregations that depart the PC(USA) and find a Reformed body that still proclaims to saving grace of Jesus Christ, it is likely that you will escape the influence of a steady decline in numbers and faithfulness.

The only hope I have for the renewed spiritual vitality and restored faithfulness of the PC(USA) rests solely in the mighty hand of God. Looking toward the dry bones of the PC(USA) which will only come when all the current flesh has completely rotted away. I do not hear God asking me, “Can these bones live again.” If He did, I would have to answer like the prophet and say, “O Lord, only thou knowest” (Ezk 37:3) Just as I do not hear my Lord turning my eyes on the drying bones of a rotting denomination, I do not hear my God exhorting me to “Preach to those bones.” I fear the day of preaching righteousness while amidst the decaying souls of the PC(USA) is long past.