Last week, the PC USA (where my ordination is held) released some information on the denomination’s membership statistics.
In two years, the denomination has shrank by approximately 94,000 people.
The summary:
There was a net loss of 56 congregations in 2006.
Membership decreased by nearly 46,000 in 2006.
In 2005, membership decreased by 48,000.
“The bottom line: For growth to appear, our overall losses need to go down and our overall gains need to go up,” she said. “The 2006 picture shows we lost fewer people, but we also brought fewer into the church. Not the formula for growth.”
The Rev. Eric Hoey, the PC(USA)’s new director of evangelism and church growth, said the answer to turning the tide lies in simply sharing the Good News.
“I firmly believe that if every Presbyterian were able to have the skill and the confidence to share his or her faith to only one person in the next 10 years, we could stop the decline of our denomination and start a new wave of bearing fruit in the name of Christ,” he wrote.
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In order to grow the church, you’ve actually got to believe in the Gospel, not some syncretistic amalgamation of universalism. I mean when we’re changing the make-up of the trinity, how in the world do we expect people to care about converting to a God we’re not sure how to name accurately.