Good News, Bad News

According to a web headline today, the Shenango Presbytery just organized it's 69th church. That's the good news. Really good news.

The bad news is that is the first church that presbytery has organized in 80 years! Yikes!

Part of the church's mission is to grow, and to multiply, and to make new congregations. When working at a large Presbyterian church many years ago that prided itself on its growth, I discovered that there had only been seven new converts in the past decade who joined the church. (Of course, this does not count the converts who were influenced by the church and its members, who wound up elsewhere.) Still, I remember commenting to a friend of mine, "A church this size should have that many converts every year, by accident!" Well, I guess the same would hold for a presbytery as well-regarded as Shenango. One new church in 80 years?!? It's about time!

My thoughts and prayers are with Rev. Angel De La Cruz and his congregation. He describes his congregation, “We are very charismatic in our worship, but very reformed in our theology.” God bless him! In many presbyteries, this sort of endeavor would be criticized into extinction. Their church name does not even have "Presbyterian" in it! After all, there is a "proper" way to be a Presbyterian. Being charismatic and being Presbyterian are to many, like oil and water. But for Word Centered Fellowship Church, oil and water DO mix! After 80 years, it's about time. May their tribe increase in Shenango, and across the PCUSA.