Fund campaign leader asks GAC to pay expenses By John H. Adams The Layman Online Thursday, September 28, 2006 LOUISVILLE, Ky. – David Peterson, the new co-chair of the denomination's $40-million fundraising campaign, Thursday called on the General Assembly Council to resume funding the campaign's expenses so that it can continue. "I would ask you to fund the last two years of this campaign," said Peterson, who is head of staff of Memorial Park Presbyterian Church in Houston and one of the leaders of the newly organized Global Presbyterian Fellowship. Peterson noted that it was assumed that the campaign would be self-funded after two years. But he said most donors are designating their gifts, and that limits the amount of money the campaign can use to cover its expenses. Earlier this week, Jan Opdyke, the staff director for the campaign, told the General Assembly Council's executive committee that the campaign could not raise enough expense money to continue. "We're at a crossroads," Peterson said in his report to the full council. "You know the political reality causing local churches to be much more local-minded. People do not give undesignated money." Nonetheless, he added, "there is a lot of excitement" about the campaign for worldwide missions and new church development "on both sides of the church." Peterson is part of "both sides." He is an evangelical and his co-chair is Joanna Adams of Atlanta, a former moderator of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, an organization that declares itself "progressive" and "liberal" and supports the ordination of practicing homosexuals. "She and I are in many, many ways the odd couple," he said. "On the theological and political issues of the church, we tend to sit on different sides of the table. But we are united in our commitment of Joining Hearts & Hands." Peterson said he believes the campaign is the most important thing that the PCUSA is doing today. "You'll probably have a string of speakers come and make this statement, but I'm telling you the truth." Why is the campaign important? "Because of Jesus Christ," Peterson asserted. "The core of the campaign is about Jesus Christ." Noting that a national leadership survey ranked the discovery of America, the moveable type printing press, X-ray technology and other events above the incarnation, life, death and resurrection of Christ, Peterson said Jesus is neither tied for first or fourth. "He stands alone in history. There is no one like him. Christ gives life everywhere he goes." Peterson said the purpose of the campaign is to provide the resources that will carry the gospel through new church development in the United States and missions around the globe. Without a global outreach, the PCUSA "stands on the precipice of exponential decline," he added. The campaign has gifts and pledges of $25.5 million, he said. With help from the council, it will raise the remaining $15 million, he promised.

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