(PNS) Active membership in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) continues to decline, decreasing by more than 46,000 in 2006, and the number of people being baptized also continues to slide, according to statistics.
Membership went from 2,313,662 in 2005 to 2,267,118 in 2006, according to the annual statistics compiled by the Office of the General Assembly (OGA). The numbers also show that fewer adults, 946 less, and children, 234 less, were baptized in 2006.
The numbers also show that fewer people transferred their memberships into the PC(USA) from other churches, 2,738 less than in 2005. Yet at the same time, fewer people transferred out of the PC(USA) in 2006, 780 less than the previous year.
There were 56 fewer congregations in 2006 than in 2005 – 10,903 compared to 10,959.
A snapshot of the statistics, compiled from session information submitted to presbyteries per The Book of Order, is available through the OGA’s online publication Perspectives. The numbers will eventually become part of the OGA statistics that appear each year in the General Assembly Minutes, Part II, Statistics.
Eighty-eight percent of churches, or 9,609, returned statistical data to their presbyteries, Kristine Valerius, manager of OGA records, reported in her commentary.
“Every year our certificate gains are higher than our certificate losses,” Valerius wrote, referring to the membership transfers. “It means more Presbyterians return to churches each year than are leaving the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The bottom line: For growth to appear, our overall losses need to go down and our overall gains need to go up,” she said. “The 2006 picture shows we lost fewer people, but we also brought fewer into the church. Not the formula for growth.”
Between 2004 and 2005, the PC(USA) lost 48,474 active members.
Eric Hoey, the PC(USA)’s new director of evangelism and church growth, said the answer to turning the tide lies in simply sharing the Good News. “I firmly believe that if every Presbyterian were able to have the skill and the confidence to share his or her faith to only one person in the next 10 years, we could stop the decline of our denomination and start a new wave of bearing fruit in the name of Christ,” he wrote.
He was particularly troubled by the declining baptism figures, which Hoey said “simply broke my heart,” and Valerius pointed out that in 2006 adult baptisms averaged less than one per church and child baptisms came in at almost three per church.
In terms of racial-ethnic membership, with 83 percent of congregations reporting compared to 85 percent in 2005, the PC(USA) saw the number of Asians go from 45,775 in 2005 to 45,637 in 2006, and the number of Blacks go from 60,589 to 58,132. Hispanic members went from 22,871 to 23,249, and Native Americans went from 3,886 to 4,931.
One of the more promising statistics is the increase in ministers, a trend upward over the last several years. The numbers show 21,360 ministers in 2006, compared to 21,312 in 2005, 21,287 in 2004, and 21,248 in 2003. Of the 48 additional ministers logged in 2006, 22 were newly ordained Ministers of the Word and Sacrament.
“As a seminary president I am also attentive to the statistics that show a growing number of pastors for a smaller number of congregations,” Laura S. Mendenhall, president of Columbia Theological Seminary, said in her Perspectives commentary.
“I am grateful that there are more new pastors because so many of us are nearing retirement,” Mendenhall said. “We will need more pastors to take up the slack. And, we need more pastors who are willing and able to go to underserved areas to build and rebuild churches.”
