The Presbyterian Church (USA)’s third largest presbytery plans to branch out into four divisions in an attempt to root out financial decline.

At its April meeting, the Pittsburgh Presbytery voted to continue work on a reorganization plan that will divide member churches into four branches based on geography yet with an option for porous alternatives.

Despite its size – with 37,000 members attending 145 churches – the presbytery has been besieged by financial and legal woes over the past 10 years, forcing the governing body to dip into the principal of its endowment fund to the tune of a quarter of $1 million each year.

“We ran out of money doing business the old way, and rather than just cut staff and programs to balance the budget, we thought it better to seek the Lord’s wisdom on what our mission ought to be,” said the Rev. Sheldon Sorge, pastor to the presbytery.
“We have been so bold as to believe that the Lord doesn’t give us a mission without providing sufficient resources to accomplish it,” Sorge said, adding that the plan will save $300,000 per year.

The nuts and bolts

Under the plan, each of the presbytery’s four branches will gather three times a year in fellowship meetings that will include communion, prayer as well as time for teaching and planning. Each branch will be assigned one staff member and the overall staff will shrink from 16 to 11.

“Presbytery staff will be ‘repurposed’ from being central program leaders to ‘equipping the saints for the work of ministry,’” Sorge said.

The presbytery as a whole will cut its regular meetings from six to three per year and the central office will remain open.

“We asked the mission question first, and found ourselves drawn into this direction of shifting a bunch of central work closer to the ground in regional branches,” he added.
Sorge said the presbytery will continue to vote on amendments and budgets, and to elect officers, central committees and commissions in plenary gathering, adding that nothing would change in terms of how Pittsburgh chooses General Assembly commissioners.

Each branch will launch with informal leadership teams tasked with shaping how meetings will function. Representatives from the presbytery’s Commission on Ministry (COM) and Commission on Preparation for Ministry (CPM) will coordinate branch duties like candidate and pastoral care, transitional assistance as well as serving as “first responders to congregations in need,” Sorge said

“But each branch will not have its own COM or CPM,” Sorge added. “We aim to get a lot more of our amazingly gifted congregations and leaders resourcing and motivating each another for the Lord’s work,” he said.

Monetary woes

Along with many of the PCUSA’s 173 presbyteries, Pittsburgh’s treasury has lost ground in two areas over the past several years.

Since 2008, three churches have left the presbytery due to theological differences with the PCUSA, while at least 50 churches have either refused or have been unable to pay per-capita dues. In two of the dismissal cases, the presbytery ultimately allowed the churches to leave in exchange for a monetary settlement.

In 2007, Beverly Heights Presbyterian Church left Pittsburgh Presbytery, joining the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) by a vote of 195-4.

Stating that the PCUSA had “turned from classical Trinitarian theology and from belief that Jesus is the divine son of God and sole savior of humanity,” the congregation agreed to a settlement with the presbytery which allowed the church to keep its name and property in exchange for a $250,000 payout over 10 years and a forfeiture of $46,655 in a trust account.

Later in 2007, the 1,734-member Memorial Park Presbyterian Church in Allison Park also voted to dismiss to the EPC by a vote of 951-93.

Then the largest church in the presbytery, Memorial Park filed a lawsuit in 2008 to retain title to its property but ultimately settled with Pittsburgh for $575,000. The church officially joined the EPC in 2010.

Fourth Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh voted 27-2 to pursue dismissal to the EPC in 2008 but did not seek to retain its property.

According to a 2011 presbytery report, Pittsburgh churches owed more than $783,024 in per-capita payments — the deficit for 2011 alone was expected to exceed $300,000.
Sorge said at least 10 congregations refuse to pay per-capita due to theological disagreements with the PCUSA. For example, Hebron Community Church in Penn Hills has not paid $129,946 since 2008. Several other churches show arrears up to $30,000.

In an attempt to save money, Pittsburgh voted in 2011 to stop sending per-capita payments to PCUSA higher governing bodies on behalf of churches that could not or would not pay.

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