The most interesting thing about these two alleged 15% segments is that there seems to be virtually no overlap between them. Find a PCA church with evening worship (in addition to morning worship) with two full sermons on the Lord’s Day AND unordained “deacons” serving on a unisex board and—to be frank— you’ve found something like a sasquatch riding a unicorn.
Just as certain ratios recur in the natural world, so does the normal distribution (or bell curve) prove helpful in thinking about things ecclesial. At the beginning of the Presbyterian Church in America’s sixth decade, a couple of roughly 15%-70%-15% distributions seem to stand out…and invite analysis.
Standard disclaimer: If analyzing divisions, trends, percentages, or distributions concerning the church strikes you as offensive or divisive, please stop reading now.
The first approximately 15% segment is churches with second/evening worship services. An informal study suggested by two PCA members found that a bit more than 12% of PCA churches have a second/evening worship service. This data was gleaned from PCA church websites and even the authors would not claim 100% accuracy. My guess is that the number is just a bit low—something nearer 15% is likely. The presence of evening worship services (not identical to morning services) may suggest something about a church and the convictions of her officers (since second services don’t occur by accident), but more about that later.
The second approximately 15% segment is churches that are (usually) egalitarian-leaning and employ ecclesial modifications and attenuations—the innovators. This category is sure to provoke pushback, but let me try to explain. Under this heading, I’d place PCA churches that:
- Downplay presbyterian distinctives by, for example, not clearly identifying themselves as PCA on their church websites, listing “staff” but not officers on the web or in bulletins, employing scaled-down, minimalist, or alternative doctrinal statements for public consumption. They are quite intentionally not “presby maxing.”
- Have heavy, regular involvement of unordained persons in liturgical roles in worship services. This goes beyond having women or young people in the rotation to read scripture. What I have in mind is much, if not most, of the worship service leadership (besides the sermon and benediction) being conducted by unordained persons.