June 29, 2006 | Read Time: 1 minute
Stanley W. Anderson, a Denver businessman who says he is frustrated with the steady decline in membership in the Presbyterian church, has given $150-million to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the religious denomination’s headquarters in Louisville, Ky.
He said the money was to be used to build congregations that were ethnically and racially diverse, establish new churches, and revitalize struggling congregations.
Mr. Anderson is the founder of Anderson and Associates, an Arvada, Colo., consulting firm that specializes in electronic commerce, and a third-generation member of Central Presbyterian Church, in Denver, where he is a church elder.
He said in a statement, “I am tired of seeing the annual report of our denomination that shows a net loss of membership, the decrease in mission giving, and a struggle to balance the books.”
Membership in the denomination has declined by 50 percent in the last 40 years, according to church officials.
John Detterick, executive director of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) general assembly council, said the money will be put into a fund and distributed to presbyteries — the regional bodies of the church — through grants ranging from $250,000 to $1-million. At Mr. Anderson’s request, the local organizations will be expected to match the grants.
He also asked the church to require grant recipients to map out their plans to develop new churches, increase ethnic and racial diversity in congregations, and invigorate existing congregations.
Ten percent of each grant will support a presbytery’s mission work, and 1 percent will go into the Theological Education Fund, which supports seminaries.
Mr. Detterick said all of the money would be disbursed by 2012.
