Church Planting vs. Redevelopment

A former GA staff person told me that very few (if any) congregations in the PCUSA made it through a successful redevelopment. He also said that few of the denominations new church developments were successful and growing. I know that those are his opinions and may or may not be supported with raw data (he worked in the new church development area of GA). Here are some of my thoughts…

Working on our presbytery’s redevelopment team was very frustrating. The churches I met with wanted to grow. They wanted to have a positive impact on their neighborhood and the world. Yet, there was nothing that they were willing to change. It takes a system wide change for redevelopment to succeed. I know of one church that has had the assistance of another church in terms of people, preaching and $$$. Another church experienced growth when a new pastor came and some people followed him from his prior church. However, most churches just do not redevelop.

The most successful method for starting a new church is for an existing church to start a “daughter church” or satellite campus. This method has worked in non-denominational churches and in other denominations. Why not in our denomination?