Self-preserving institutions are not able to keep up with cultural movements, risk new ideas, nor implement new innovations to reach lost people in a changing culture because it’s busy trying to figure out who does not belong in the organization.

In 2004 there were 261,675 communicant members in the PCA and by 2008 there were 267, 991.

According to the most recent statistics by the denomination’s Stated Clerk, we see that the denomination is probably as large as it’s going to get.

New churches are planted as churches dissolve. Churches come in from other denominations while others leave for new associations. New members join while others leave. More and more of my classmates from seminary are leaving their churches and ministry altogether.

This is simply a part of the natural life cycle of a denomination. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. It just “is-what-it-is.” No need to complain or be surprised. It happens.

It could be argued that since the PCA has grown up to be a major American institution among conservative Reformed evangelicals its primary interest is self-preservation instead of innovation, risk, and mission. The regular heresy hunting and in-fighting every few years is the sign of denominational institutionalization.

Self-preserving institutions are not able to keep up with cultural movements, risk new ideas, nor implement new innovations to reach lost people in a changing culture because it’s busy trying to figure out who does not belong in the organization.

As the PCA has self-preserved, like most other denominations launched prior to 1980, it has missed a major cultural shift into scientific realism and opportunities to embrace the racial differentiation that is America’s future–namely, that whites in America are moving toward becoming a minority.

Moreover, the formulas and methods that created the explosive growth in the 1980s and 1990s are no longer applicable to an America that has rapidly changed.

Denominations in general continue to provide good places for training, research, and resource creating and the PCA will continue to do that for evangelicals–but the explosive growth days are over.

Denominations, historically, are not equipped institutionally to make fast changes to keep pace with shifting cultural norms.

Once denominations grow 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 becomes a threat when it’s demonstrated in young pastors. Repeat this at an ordination exam and you’re likely not to get ordained: “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.” Or if you do utter such words the traditionalists will be suspicious of your potential heterodoxy.
In 10 years the PCA will likely be about the same size it is today. The denomination was the same size in 2008 as it was in 2004. The flatlining has normalized.

Instead of saying the PCA “is” one of America’s fastest growing denominations, it’s more accurate to say that it “was.”

I guess the same is probably true for the Missouri-Synod Lutherans as well. This is the history of denominations–they start from a grass-roots movement, they organize, become an institution, and in the flatline phase spend the rest of its existence maintaining itself.
Now that the numbers have leveled off, it’s time to ask new questions about the larger institution’s contribution to world-wide Christianity. Maybe the 2009 numbers will prove me wrong. I hope so.

Anthony Bradley is Associate Professor of Theology and Ethics at The King’s College, NYC. This commentary is taken from Bradley’s blog, The Institute and is used with permission of the author.