All this to point out that American Presbyterianism is rapidly aging and, well, dying. It doesn’t much matter what your theology is if you don’t have a future generation to bequeath it to. The barrenness and sterility that we see in American Presbyterian churches is in sharp contrast to what we see in Malawian Presbyterian churches.  

I am a missionary to Malawi, Africa, currently on home mission assignment (furlough).  On weekends I put my ten-year-old son in a car and we travel to a Presbyterian church (usually PCA or EPC) somewhere, to speak, show my power point presentation, and try to build support, a never-ending task.

The worrisome thing is that all my individual supporters are elderly; I actually have three couples supporting me from assisted living facilities and this obviously won’t continue much longer.  The generations coming up behind them either don’t support missions at all, or else they support missions by sending themselves on these “mission trips.”

The thing we experience Sunday after Sunday in one Presbyterian church after another is we’re speaking to a shrunken congregation of gray-haired people in which the youngest member is in his/her sixties. In one church after another we see where they had to turn the nursery into something else for lack of children. It reminds me of that song by Cat Stevens, “Where Do the Children Play?” back forty years ago. My son will typically be the first child they will have seen in many moons. He hates this; he hates being the only child amidst a bunch of seniors and he is starting to rebel.

All this to point out that American Presbyterianism is rapidly aging and, well, dying. It doesn’t much matter what your theology is if you don’t have a future generation to bequeath it to.

The barrenness and sterility that we see in American Presbyterian churches is in sharp contrast to what we see in Malawian Presbyterian churches.  Half the population of Malawi is under age fifteen, and every Sunday they are packed to the rafters with kids, kids, kids. It’s easy to see where the future of Christianity is. This was made possible because generations back, your forebears sent out missionaries. And these overseas churches are definitely NOT favorable to gay marriage, gay ordination, and abortion.

And thus the matter of the PCUSA defending and promoting same-sex marriage, gay ordination and abortion: these issues – regardless of what your positions is on them – probably won’t do much to alleviate American Presbyterianism’s number one problem: childlessness.

When the CEO of Chick-Fil-A caused a controversy by making a statement allegedly unfavorable to homosexuality, someone pointed out that in order to produce a chicken, you need a hen and a rooster. Likewise, abortion is unlikely to re-activate long dormant church nurseries. No nurseries, no future.

“Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward” (Psalm 127:3).

Larry Brown is a minister in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, a member of Central South Presbytery, and serves as Professor of church history, world history, hermeneutics and missions at the African Bible College in Lilongwe, Malawi.