A Sustainable Presbyterian Future: What's Working and Why

By Louis B. Weeks

In this study of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Louis Weeks examines the present state of the denomination and how congregations can grow in faith through the current time of transition in the church. He considers markers of Presbyterian identity, new ways of connecting and faith development, and defining qualities of the church. Recognizing that many congregations are changing in different ways, Weeks includes case studies of congregations and interviews with leaders of local congregations and denominational leaders to explore aspects of Presbyterian faith and life that are viable and necessary for the future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Geneva Press
• Release date: Jun 25, 2012
• ISBN: 9781611641707

Louis B. Weeks

Louis B. Weeks is President Emeritus of Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, and is the author or editor of twelve books on Presbyterianism and mainstream Protestantism.

Book preview

Virginia

Chapter 1

Presbyterians Tottering and Thriving

D id you see the Wall Street Journal?" asks my friend in our Sunday school class. They had an editorial, ‘Where Have All the Presbyterians Gone?’ It’s pretty devastating. ¹

Yes, another adds. Why are we losing so many members? I hear the PC(USA) will be gone by 2060.

What can be done to turn this thing around? still another chimes in. It looks like this congregation will be by itself pretty soon from what I hear. We don’t have missionaries in other countries, and all we do here in the United States is squabble.

Here we are in a flourishing congregation, one that has grown significantly in the past thirty years while also giving birth to a PC(USA) new church development nearby with a loan of members. Here we are in a thriving Presbyterian church worrying about the death of the PC(USA). Hundreds of PC(USA) congregations are thriving today as we are, some in rural areas and small towns, some in suburbs, some in urban areas. Yet all of us know about other congregations that are languishing, unable to sustain leadership or pay a pastor, many of them deeply conflicted. And some denominational offices and middle councils seem frequently dysfunctional—stuck in ruts of ineffective practices and repeatedly treating divisive issues—while others function more effectively than they did in the 1980s and 1990s.

Where should we begin in addressing these questions and worries?

Over the past decades, I received similar questions and heard the same concerns from Presbyterians and others in every part of the country. Even when visiting Presbyterian churches in Korea, Ghana, and elsewhere, I’ve heard questions about the PC(USA) and expressions of dismay about the future prospects for the mother church that helped them form. Questions about membership, wherever voiced, also carry an underlying concern about the viability, even the survival of any generous Presbyterianism for the future. Worse, pessimism about the prospects for our future can become self-fulfilling prophesies of failure.

Now in retirement, and after fifty years of studying Presbyterian denominations, visiting hundreds of congregations to preach, teach, and learn about their worship and work, and after helping lead major research projects on matters Presbyterian, I can respond with some knowledge and assurance about our situation.

I am deeply concerned about the decline in membership. The PC(USA) officially numbered 3.1 million members in 1983 when it was formed. The two denominations that united to comprise it had both been losing members already. In 1965, those two Presbyterian denominations together had numbered 4.25 million. By 2010, the number in the PC(USA) had dwindled to 2 million—less than half the number of that 1965 high point in number of members.²

Moreover, numbers of people have devoted their energies, even their careers, to seeking destruction of the PC(USA), celebrating every defection from it. According to one search site’s figures in late 2009, there were more than 3,192,000 references to Presbyterian decline and Presbyterian demise. That represents more than one reference per member of our church! Some allege that the PC(USA) is apostate, a servant of the anti-Christ, and at the very least, un-Christian. The diatribes, thank God, seem to have decreased somewhat in recent months, though detractors still publish invitations to schism in major newspapers and independent journals.

What has been happening in the PC(USA)—the loss in members, the vituperative critiques, and the proselytizing—has also occurred in the other mainline denominations. More recently, many more conservative American denominations, those commonly labeled evangelical Protestant churches, have also been losing members and receiving scathing criticism.

Further, and perhaps in part because of the negative publicity, younger Americans are less and less inclined to join any church in the first place—even those megachurches specifically focused on their age cohort. Increasing numbers of Americans today seek to be spiritual without becoming religious or joining a church. They relate negatively to the binding (from Latin ligare, meaning bind, connect) in a community of any kind. This unwillingness to make commitments causes real concern.

But I am equally concerned about our diminished presence today and our future prospects as a part of the Christian movement and the body of Christ. Pundits today say American churches have in large measure sold out, lost our zeal for the gospel, settled for a small market share of members’ time, energy, imagination, and money.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the portion of the Christian family in which we have particular responsibility, has been disproportionately significant since the founding of the nation. We have exercised a distinctive role in the spiritual and moral life of the nation. What will it mean for the other streams of Protestants if we Presbyterians have diminished zeal and influence? What happens to American life more generally?

Further, how can those of us seeking a vibrant future for the Presbyterian church and other constructive portions of the Christian church best contribute energy and resources?

Presbyterians in America

From the very beginning of the United States of America until today, Presbyterians have exercised a profound presence in the nation. Several American colonies, particularly the middle colonies from New Jersey to South Carolina, contained comparatively large numbers of Presbyterians. We were a major irritant in the face of the Anglican religious establishment and repressive colonial administrators almost everywhere.

Though early accounts of our history accented the leadership of Presbyterians in fomenting the American Revolution and carrying it to success, more recent histories show that some Presbyterians remained loyal to the British crown. So, numbers of us fought fiercely on both sides of that struggle, with many also seeking quietly to avoid the hostilities, just as we seem to have been on all sides subsequently in every major issue in American life.

Most Presbyterians emigrated from Scotland, Northern Ireland, and England. Significant numbers also came from Reformed communions in Wales, France, Holland, and several states that eventually comprised Germany and Switzerland. Each of these ethnic groups had been forced to make compromises in gaining or maintaining a Presbyterian presence with a state church. This was true especially for those Scots who had been exiled in Northern Ireland, the so-called Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, a large number including the only clergyman signing the Declaration of Independence—John Witherspoon.³

Presbyterians quickly came to gain African American and Native American members as well. Free persons of color, slaves, and those of mixed parentage became a significant part of colonial Presbyterianism. It took decades, though, for white Presbyterians to recognize formally the leaders from among the African American and Native American faithful, to educate them as pastors, and to ordain them as