People leave churches for all kinds of reasons and many of our members leave to join the church triumphant.  The simple answer to why our membership is shrinking is that we are not taking in enough members to replace those lost to death and other causes.  We are not reaching the people we need to be reaching. 

One of the things I sometimes do in response to the question about membership loss is to ask people in the group to raise their hands if they have invited someone to go to their church in the last month and offered to go by and pick them up.  The rate of affirmative response to that question is usually about 3 or 4 per hundred people.  I have asked that question in some groups of well over 100 persons and no one raised their hands.  Should we be surprised that our denomination is shrinking when many Presbyterians never invite anyone to come to church with them, let alone feel comfortable talking with someone about how God makes a difference in their life?  Maybe a first step toward turning this situation around would be for every session, pastor and elders, to have a conversation on this subject and to take on the responsibility to lead its congregation to be an “inviting” church.  If you have found fruitful ways to do this that might be helpful to others, please share them with me by writing to gamoderator@ctr.pcusa.org. 

Grace and peace, Joan

Joan S. Gray
Moderator, 217th General Assembly (2006)