Executive Council members provided some small-group feedback to members of the Standing Committee on Domestic Mission and Evangelism after a June 15 presentation of an interim report on the 20/20 movement during the council’s meeting June 13-16 in Louisville, Ky. The report indicated among other items that average Sunday attendance for 2004 is expected to show a decline for the third straight year.

One proposal sought a partnership between “big/rich churches and small/poor churches” being linked perhaps through “something similar to the Presbyterian Church Loan/Bank program.” The day before council members were shown a presentation and by senior leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) at the national headquarters of the 2.5 million-member denomination which is located in a 300,000 square-foot office facility that was created by combining and renovating two “shuttered” turn-of-the-century warehouses downtown.

Included in the presentation was a short description of the financial program which encourages individuals and congregations to invest a portion of their assets with the church “so that other Presbyterian congregations can borrow the funds to build and renovate church facilities.”

The program provides an income stream from the interest earned on the investment. Begun in 1999 with an initial capital base of approximately $23 million, it had grown to $44.2 million last year. The program made available $41.9 million in loans for new church buildings during that same period, according to the 2004 annual report of the General Assembly Agencies to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

More News of the Week:

· Seven Florida Parishes Seek Alternative Episcopal Oversight

· Bishop Sentamu Named Archbishop of York

· Executive Council Lowers Payout Rate From Endowment Funds

· Third Straight Year of Attendance Loss Likely

· Bishop Griswold Confident Before ACC Meeting

· Episcopal-Lutheran Agreement Going Strong

· Dean Presler Leaving ETSS for General

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