Last week I had the opportunity to attend a Presbyterian
Church Growth Network (PCGN) regional conference that was held at Copper Creek
Church in Champaign, Illinois. I’ve talked before about the decline in people
among the Presbyterian Church, PC(USA). Every year my daughter, Hannah, has
been alive the PC(USA) has experienced a decline in numbers—and my daughter is
now in graduate school! The formation of the PCGN about a year ago was a
grass-roots response to this very serious problem.
I’ve participated in what has become the PCGN since a
group of us started having Zoom calls about two years ago. Unlike previous
attempts by organizations committed to church growth within the PC(USA), the
PCGN is committed to the welfare of our denomination. None of us on the board
want to see churches leave. And we’re committed to inclusion of all people as Teaching & Ruling Elders. The website of the PCGN is here: https://www.pcgrowthnetwork.org/ The
charter document of the PCGN is here: https://www.pcgrowthnetwork.org/whoweare
Even though this conference was only one day the
presenters shared meaningful content that is helpful for people who want to see
their congregations grow in size, vitality, and impact.
One of the special parts of the conference was the beautiful
hospitality shared by Copper Creek Church. This Presbyterian congregation was
started in 2007 as a satellite campus of First Presbyterian Church in
Champaign, Illinois. They became a separate congregation and today have
over 700 people part of their congregation. They offer three services and are
in the preliminary stages of a large capital campaign.
Scott Keeble and his wife, Melissa Keeble (both pastors
at Copper Creek) shared hospitality in an extravagant way. When I arrived on
Wednesday, Scott asked me if he could make me a latte. And he did! And then he
offered to make a latte for every person who came. How many pastors of churches
that size are willing to share hospitality in such a beautiful way?
Scott opened the conference by talking about vision
casting. He described vision as a description of a congregation’s preferred
future, a picture of something that doesn’t exist. He shared some of Copper
Creek’s story. When they launched they identified themselves as a church for
those who had a hard experience in churches—the de-churched. They did a lot of
research on this group. Because they believe this group is skeptical of highly
programmed congregations, they decided to have a stream-lined approach to programming and focus more on small groups as part of their discipleship.
After a break Kim Adams shared a talk on worship, music,
and the Sunday morning experience. One takeaway from the workshop is the decision congregations make about style of worship. Typically we think that we have to choose between a traditional
or contemporary style. Instead people in the workshop talked about deciding if your style will be formal or informal. It’s possible to have an informal traditional service, and it’s
possible to have a formal contemporary service.
Josh Erickson gave a beautiful talk on church development and church size. I
spent most of my time in Illinois hanging out with Josh. We rode together from
Chicago to Champaign and back and even found time to attend a Cubs game. Josh
just finished a sabbatical where he finalized a book he is writing on church
size.
Scott Lyon shared the last workshop of the day on the topic of Artificial
Intelligence (AI). I admit that this is an area that I have very little
training. But I’m interested in receiving more training. It was shared during
the conference that knowing how to use AI is like having an intern. I’m ready
for that.
This conference is something that could be replicated across
the country. People organizing these could find speakers on these topics.
Though the attendance at this conference was not overwhelming, I’m confident
that most people left with at least one idea that can be implemented. My idea
is increasing my own use of AI.
A big thanks to Josh Erickson and Scott & Melissa Keeble and their team at Copper Creek for all
their work in organizing this conference. These types of conferences can help
main-line and Presbyterian people imagine the day when our denominations are
growing in size, vitality, and impact!
