Presbyterians Offer 'Church Improvement Toolbox' to Stimulate Growth
If membership was a factor in determining church health, most mainline Protestant churches would be in dire need of help.
According to an estimate cited in “The Evangelical Moment” by Kenneth J. Collins, every five years since 1965, Evangelical churches have grown eight percent while mainline Protestants lost five percent.
While those figures may not be true in all denominations (many actually grew in number over the past 30 years) it is generally the case in the historic mainline churches that had once dominated the evolving American Christian landscape.
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Still, mainline denominations have remained strong in many ways, offering unique services to its member churches involving everything from running seminaries for future pastors and coordinating large-scale disaster relief efforts.
Churches involved in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have yet another reason to stay on board. Last week, the denomination made available a “Church Home Improvement Toolbox” that contains a variety of “do-it-yourself” research strategies for positive church improvement.
Tools include statistical reports of individual congregations collected and organized by the denomination’s Office of the General Assembly, demographic reports on the community around the church, and data on religious congregations and memberships in the U.S.
“From statistics on membership and financial trends in your congregation to demographic reports and congregational surveys, you'll find plenty of bright ideas,” a message on the PCUSA website read. “You wouldn't try to build a new home using just an electric drill – why work on congregational improvement without a full toolbox?”
Church Home Improvement Projects are available free to PC(USA) congregations. To learn more, visit: www.pcusa.org.
