Interesting fact #1 is that congregations of the size of MPC (both in terms of membership and attendance) are pretty rare in the PCUSA, and when you add the factor of the church's commitment to mission as witnessed by its support of denominational ministry, the number shrinks considerably. I've come up with 14-16 churches that meet MPC on that matrix of membership and mission giving.
So here's an assignment for any who might like! Most of those churches have websites. If you choose to accept it, look them up, rummage around, and then in one way or another, let us know what you think! This is similar to the church visits that the Sabbatical team is about, but it lets you come along from the comfort of your computer screen--so click away, and let us know your impressions:
First Presbyterian Church, Stamford, CT
First Presbyterian Church, Cedar Rapids, IA
Blacksburg Presbyterian Church, Blacksburg, VA
Wallingford Presbyterian Church, Wallingford, PA
St. Philip Presbyterian Church, Houston, TX
Troy Presbyterian Church, Troy, OH
First Presbyterian Church, Tupelo, MS
Immanuel Presbyterian Church, Milwaukee, WI
First Presbyterian Church, Decatur, IL
First Presbyterian Church, Greer, SC
Danville Presbyterian Church, Danville, KY
First Presbyterian Church, Hartsville, SC
Government Street Presbyterian Church, Mobile, AL
Happy hunting!
3 comments:
Chuck, this is my report from SE Christian. Mike
Report on SE Christian, Louisville, KY Visit
July 30, 2005
Jim Baumbach, Jim Bowman, Lynn Selle, Jane Slater, and I visited SE Christian on Saturday, July 9, 2005. We went to the 5:00 pm Saturday night service, which was a contemporary service. The sanctuary holds approximately 9,100 people. This service had about 4,000 people. Close to half of the service was praise music led by 6 professional singers and a professional band. The music and the sound were excellent. There were 3 large jumbotron screens to view the action as many seats were quite a distance from the stage. Communion was served in less than 3 minutes by 50-100 ushers. There was one baptism by emersion, the ceremony took about one and a half minutes. The head pastor preached for about 10 minutes. The sermon was short, to the point, and directly quoted several Bible verses that were put up on the screens. The pastor’s sermon answered numerous questions including female leadership in the church, the use of old hymns versus new praise songs, and the church’s stance towards homosexuality. On each subject, he was clear on the church’s stance and read directly from the bible verses that supported his stance. Women are not allowed to be pastors or elders, and the church does not approve of the homosexual lifestyle. During the sermon, after each of the issues was discussed, the congregation in unison said “United in doctrine, liberty in opinion, in all things love.”
After the service we met for one hour with two elders. They have a mission statement that they expect their members to follow very closely. They are very clear to their members both what they expect from the members and what the members should believe. New members meet with counselors to find their interests and fortes, and then are directed to groups and committees that fit their interests and fortes. The church expects three hours per week from their members. One hour of attending church service, one hour of Bible study, and one hour of volunteer work.
The staff is made up of 276 full time employees, 40 part-time employees, 42 ordained pastors, and 3 preaching pastors. Currently there are 30,000 members on their rolls, although they are trying to pare the rolls down to active members. They estimate 22,000 active members. About 18,000 attend weekly. Their yearly operating budget is $28 million with about 16% or $4 million going to mission. They support over 100 missionaries worldwide. The $28 million budget does not include any special projects or building additions. They are currently in a $30 million building project to house staff; they raised this money in 4 months. The building itself is $26 million, and the $4 million balance will go to mission projects.
This is a non-denominational church. New members come from 3 areas, 1/3 Catholic, 1/3 no formal background, and 1/3 Protestant background.
The elders stressed that this is a volunteer driven church. On any given weekend they need between 100 and 400 volunteers from greeters to traffic control to ushers and communion servers.
There is 770,000 square feet of building area. There are two glass elevators on the outside of the sanctuary running from the floor of the atrium to the top of the 2nd balcony, as well as 2 escalators and stairways. They had a wedding chapel on one end of the building and a very large area for Sunday school and other classrooms.
The church has a committee that helps members resolve personal conflicts within the congregation’s community without resorting to external litigation.
Missions include other bible based organization’s startup costs, and a food pantry run exclusively by this congregation where bags of food are left behind members vehicles in the parking lot and picked up during the church service.
There are 35 women’s Bible study groups and 15 men’s, as well as several thousand individual and external study groups.
Friendships and community service develop among those who attend regularly, and they tend to sit in the same sections from week to week.
The church has a long open atrium in the center of the building with a manned visitor’s welcome and information booth. A packet for first timers which included a CD with descriptions of the church activities and some of its music was available.
The parking lot is extremely large with 5 entrances and very attractive landscaping.
Respectfully submitted,
Mike Harer
I enjoyed visiting your church this past Sunday. Good luck and God bless.
Hi Pastor Chuck, I just dropped in on my way back to my Spiritual site. I liked what I
found and thought that I would leave you a note for your efforts in creating Want an Assignment?.
Post a Comment