New Church Development

The Presbytery of West jersey

Meeting: Meets 12:30 PM at the Presbytery Office

This newly formed committee is just beginning its work. More information will be posted in the near future.

The New Church Development Committee is presently in the process of starting a new church in Mullica Hill. We are also conducting feasibility studies in preparation for another new church. Please keep this active committee in your prayers as we seek to fulfill our Lord's Great Commission to teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of our Lord.

NCD Facts

Pastor Chuck Denison, Associate Director of New Church Development for our national office in Louisville has written, "NCD was always an expected and accepted priority across the history of Presbyterianism until the 1960's. The move away from NCD, which began in the decade of the 1960's can be shown to directly result in a cause and effect relationship in declining membership. A statistical analysis shows the cause and effect relationship. For example, in 1959, 87 new churches were started and there was an increase in membership of 50,120. In 1977 there were 15 churches started and a loss of membership of 46,225. Denison's concludes, "First, reverse the myth, people did not lose interest in Presbyterianism, thereby creating a decline in our membership, which then resulted in fewer churches. Rather, we reduced our NCD efforts and immediately showed significant membership loss, because we stopped going to where the people where going. We stopped offering new populations the option of indigenous, local Presbyterianism, so they had to stop coming and joining.

IN 1972 the Board of National Missions chose to vote itself out of existence. Thus, New Church Development became the initiative and concern of the local presbyteries from this point on. Since the demise in 1972 of the Board of National Missions each presbytery has had the responsibility to initiate new churches. Most of our presbyteries are not equipped to meet the challenge. In the absence of any nationally coordinated training and support of leadership, and with little incentive to risk NCD, the result has been a dramatic decrease in the number of churches begun, which corresponds directly to the loss of membership in the PC(USA).

In the past 40 years we have lost 1.85 million members. That is 133 members every day, 365 days a year, for the past 40 years. At that rate we will be extinct in 49 years.

In West Jersey Presbytery we have lost half of our membership over the past 40 years. Meanwhile the population living in our Presbytery has grown by almost 1/2 million people. Between 1956 and 1962 West Jersey Presbytery started six new churches. 1956-New Covenant Presbyterian Church, 1957-Trinity Presbyterian Church, 1960-Covenant Presbyterian Church, 1960-Willingboro Presbyterian Church, 1961-Christ United Marlton,1962-Medford Presbyterian Church. Since 1972, when the National Board of Missions stopped NCD work, our Presbytery has started two new churches, 1981-Bethel Hispanic and in 1992,Friendship Community in Sicklerville

If we had not planted those 6 churches back in 1956 - 1962, we would have now have $158,000 less in the Presbytery budget every year. Conversely, if we had continued to plant churches as we did over those 7 years, for the next 40 years, those new churches would be giving an additional $900,000 to the Presbytery every year.

Conclusion: NCD is an investment in the future health and ministry capabilities of our Presbytery and our denomination. If we do not start new churches, no one else will. And the result will be a continued decline in our membership, a continued decline in our Presbytery budget, a continued decline in our ability to do mission work of any kind.