From the Presbyterian News Service: Way ahead for ‘hard-to-call’ churches outlined.
LOUISVILLE — The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has launched an effort to help provide pastoral leadership for small churches who may not have any pastoral leader, may have been seeking a pastor for a long time, and may even have lost any expectation of being able to call a pastor.
The effort, called the Hard-to-Call Churches Project, calls upon the energies of presbyteries and synods, Committees on Ministry, Committees on Preparation for Ministry, Presbyterian colleges and seminaries, and the General Assembly Council (GAC) to seek to alleviate the situation.
According to project team leader Deborah Fortel in the Office of Ministry Support, 48 percent (5,191) of PC(USA) congregations have 100 or fewer members and the number of small churches increased by 187 from 2002 to 2005.
In contrast, she added, just 9.4 percent (1,024) of the church’s congregations had 500 members or more. During the same period, the number of small churches increased and the number of 500+ member churches decreased.
“We are a denomination of small churches,” Fortel concluded.
Moreover, she told the GAC during its Sept. 26-29 meeting here, in 2005 only 57 percent of PC(USA) congregations had an installed pastor, and 2,050 were without any pastoral leadership. Of these 1,689 were small churches. ….
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