Staff church growth study approved By Paula R. Kincaid The Layman Online Tuesday, June 20, 2006 217th General Assembly Birmingham, Ala. BIRMINGHAM -- The 217th General Assembly approved an overture requesting a study on church growth, but did make a changes on who would do the work and what factors would be considered. Overture 12-08 from Eastern Virginia Presbytery had requested a task force be formed "to analyze at least 45 randomly chosen congregations that have shown significant growth over the past 24 to 36 months prior to the previous General Assembly, construct a report on this analysis and present it to the 218th General Assembly (2008)." To save money, the GA Committee on Church Growth and Christian Education, which made the recommendation to the assembly, amended the overture so that the Evangelism Office of the General Assembly Council will do the study. Committee Chairman Lee Jordan of Yukon Presbytery, said that the committee was "sympathetic" to the direction of the overture, but after hearing from PCUSA staff, decided that it could be done within the budget and staff of evangelism office. Another change made by the committee was to list factors the Evangelism Office should consider. Racial and cultural diversity, theological perspective, involvement of women and social justice viewpoint were added to the overture's geographic location, visibility of the church, socioeconomic levels, mission emphasis, mission goals, prevalence of small groups, Christian education efforts, youth ministry, worship styles and frequency and overall feelings about the church among officers and members. According to the recommendation, "significant growth shall be defined as increasing membership by at least 10 percent for two consecutive years. This data shall be derived from the annual statistical reports to the General Assembly," and churches to be analyzed include: at least fifteen shall be churches with average Sunday worship attendance of 150 or less; at least fifteen shall be churches with average Sunday worship attendance of 151-300; at least fifteen shall be churches with average Sunday worship attendance of 300 or more. The study will include interviews with church staff. The Evangelism Office was directed to analyze the data and interviews "to determine commonalities and differences as to the reasons for the growth among the churches. In addition, the General Assembly Council, Evangelism Office, shall recommend goals and strategies for synods, presbyteries, and churches," and submit their findings to the 218th General Assembly.

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