Moderator: factors causing membership loss are unclear By John H. Adams The Layman Online Tuesday, June 5, 2001 GROVE CITY, Pa. – Syngman Rhee, who is finishing his year as moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA), says the staff of the denomination does not have a full understanding of why membership is declining so sharply. Rhee was asked about the recent announcement that the denomination lost nearly 35,000 members in 2000 – nearly 75 percent greater than membership losses in both 1999 and 1998. Rhee, speaking at an open forum sponsored by the Presbyterian Lay Committee as part of its annual Faith and Life Conference at Grove City College on May 30-June 3, said he hopes the denomination will assess reasons for the membership losses. Currently, he said, known factors for the declines are that congregations continue to purge their roles of inactive members and a failure to attract youth and young adults. He did not mention theological controversies as a factor in membership loss. And he took sharp issue with people who criticize the denomination's staff for actions that might precipitate theological rifts and flight from the PCUSA. "We need to be careful," Rhee said, "about saying 'them.' Until three years ago, I served as staff. I know so many of the faithful servants of God who are doing their best." He advised against making "sweeping conclusions about groups of people who are parts of our church." But Rebecca McElroy, vice moderator and a director of the Presbyterian Lay Committee, did not fully agree with Rhee. Citing the controversy over comments by Dirk Ficca at last year's Peacemaking Conference – where Ficca asked, 'What's the big deal about Jesus?' – McElroy said she was surprised that the staff and the General Assembly Council simply could not have made a straightforward simple statement – that Ficca was out of bounds and that Jesus Christ alone is Lord of the world. That sort of statement, plus a commitment by the General Assembly Council to require Presbyterian speakers and curriculum writers to uphold the Lordship of Christ, was the essence of a complaint filed by two congregations against the General Assembly Council. The two congregations are Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas, the third-largest church in the PCUSA, and Montreat Presbyterian Church in the denomination's conference center in Montreat, N.C. The Montreat session recently decided to pursue its protest as a remedial action against the General Assembly Council. The General Assembly Council has refused to require speakers and curriculum writers to uphold the doctrine of Christ's universal Lordship. That case will go before the General Assembly's Permanent Judicial Council, the highest court in the denomination. Membership loss has had a substantial impact on the ministry and mission of the denomination. The budget of the General Assembly alone is $14 million, which is based mostly on a $5 per capita apportionment on the 2.5 million Presbyterians in 11,000 congregations. Since 1965, the denomination has lost 1.7 million members – or a potential of $8.5 million annually in per-capita support. Based on the 35,000 decrease in membership in 2000, another $175,000 in potential per-capita support vanished. Furthermore, many congregations in the Confessing Church Movement are beginning to divert the amount they would pay to the General Assembly to other ministries that they believe more faithfully reflect the movement's core tenets. In the face of declining support for the General Assembly, the General Assembly Council is recommending that the General Assembly increase per-capita apportionments to $5.22 per Presbyterian and hire four regional fundraisers at $110,000 each to raise additional funds. Currently, per-capita payments by congregations is not mandatory. Local sessions are granted full authority over the way they allocate their tithes and offerings. But one overture before the General Assembly calls for requiring that local congregations pay their full per-capita apportionment – in effect, taxation. In addition, another overture seeks to require local congregations to pay assessments to support Presbyterian seminaries.

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