Who we are

The PC(USA) Church Growth Network (PCGN) is a supportive, learning community of PC(USA) leaders dedicated to strengthening local congregations and new faith communities in faith, size, vitality, and mission impact. Inspired by Acts 16:5, we aim to help churches grow sustainably by fostering relationships, celebrating progress, and offering relevant education.

We value diversity, equity, and inclusion, and support congregations of every size and context. Rooted in the PC(USA)'s theology and polity, we encourage collaboration and dialogue that build unity, not division, equipping leaders to share the life-changing love of Christ in their communities.

OUR BOARD

Lisa Allgood
(she/her)

  • Lisa is the Executive Presbyter for the Presbytery of Cincinnati. A life-long Presbyterian and ordained Ruling Elder, Lisa served multiple churches as Clerk of Session before becoming commissioned to the Presbytery in 2019, after spending 36 years as an executive in the pharmaceutical industry. Lisa leads training and support for more than 60 churches and New Worshipping Communities in the greater Cincinnati area. Lisa is Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and serves the board of Sinapis, a global Christian non-profit based in Nairobi serving entrepreneurs in the emerging and frontier markets of the world, providing training and support in a Christian context. An avid traveler and photographer, she also serves the board of the Eddie Adams Workshop.

Sarah Bigwood
(she/her)

  • I currently serve as the Head of Staff and Pastor at First Presbyterian Church with sites in Fargo, ND and Baker, MN. I have been involved in ministry and church leadership for over 25 years, serving in various pastoral and leadership roles throughout the Presbyterian Church (USA). I’m part of the Northern Plains Presbytery, which spans North Dakota and parts of western Minnesota.

    One of the most unexpected and energizing ways I’ve seen growth is through the consolidation of two congregations into a multi-site church. When Baker-Downer merged with First Presbyterian Church of Fargo in 2024, it breathed new life into both communities. The Baker site now focuses exclusively on welcome and mission, and their joyful service has sparked new energy and excitement within the Fargo Mission Committee. We’ve deepened our involvement in ministries we already supported and have also invested in new efforts that Baker brought to our shared ministry. It’s been a beautiful reminder that sometimes, combining communities can multiply energy and passion for serving God’s people.

Greg Bolt
(he/him/his)

  • I am currently the pastor and head of staff at Salem First Presbyterian Church in Salem, OR. I have been serving the church in various capacities since volunteering to lead recreation at Vacation Bible School when I was 15. I have served in ordained and non-ordained roles, as well as roles in congregations and in camp settings within the Presbyterian Church (USA). I am part of the Presbytery of the Cascades, which serves Central and Western Oregon, Southern Washington, and Northern California. I also serve as a commissioner and chair of the Nominating Committee to the Synod of the Pacific encompassing Idaho, Nevada, Northern California, Oregon, and Washington.

    One of the most unexpected church growth moments for me was during the pandemic, in the midst of “George Floyd” summer, while serving in rural Minnesota. During that time the church I served began to show up to rallies, to speak into justice spaces, become more involved with mutual aid, and engage in a more public witness. While this was not fully embraced by the entire congregation, many people in the community began to seek us out as meeting spaces, as conversation partners, and as an organization in solidarity with the marginalized in our community. We gained many members, were invited into transformational opportunities not only for the church but also for the community. This work lead to more work on inclusion, more outreach to the community, and a larger voice for the marginalized in a small rural town. The Spirit was moving.

Paul Burns
(he/him/his)

  • I was ordained in 2007 and I'm currently serving as the pastor of Eastminster Presbyterian Church and St. Mark Presbyterian Church, two churches 8 minutes apart in east Dallas. We are part of the Grace Presbytery, 130 churches spanning North, Central, Eastern Texas.

    One of the most unexpected and energizing ways I’ve seen growth is at my first church, which had a gym that hadn't been used for anything but potluck suppers in years. They were also losing their youth. We began to ask the question: How can we use our gym for ministry? God's answer was a neighborhood youth basketball program which reinvigorated church youth programs. They grew in number. But these youth were unlike the youth that had been in the church before. The church grew in faith by learning to accept young people of different races and socio-economic contexts.

Josh Erickson
(he/him)

  • My current call is to serve as the senior pastor of Park Ridge Presbyterian Church (Park Ridge, IL). I have been in full-time ministry for the past 17 years. My focus in ministry has been congregational revitalization and youth and family ministries. I

Paul Moore

  • I currently serve as the pastor of Chain of Lakes Church, a Presbyterian congregation in Blaine, Minnesota, where I was the Organizing Pastor. We started in 2009 with seven families and today have about 100 families. We are known for ministries with homeless people and as LGBTQ advocates.

    I began ministry in 1993, serving Community Presbyterian Church in Plainview, Minnesota. While there, we doubled worship attendance, completed a million-dollar remodeling project, and started a community Youth Center and a Migrant Council for people from Texas who worked at the local canning factory.

    I care deeply about personal faith and community involvement. In my thirty years of ministry, the congregations I’ve served grew in worship attendance for twenty-eight of those years. I’m concerned about the decline of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and recently wrote about it on my blog.

    I’ve served my entire ministry in the Twin Cities Area Presbytery, including many years on the Church Development Team. In 2026, I’ll serve as Moderator.

    What matters most in growth is spiritual energy: a warm welcome, people who are happy to be there, a well-tended building, meaningful worship, and clear ways to live out faith during the week. When people consistently experience these things, a congregation grows.

Pepa Paniagua
(she/her)

  • I currently serve as the Coordinator for Innovation and New Ministry Development at Grace Presbytery. I have been in ministry and church leadership in a variety of forms over the past 20 years. As a lifelong Presbyterian, I was raised at Valley Presbyterian Church in Portola Valley, California in the bounds of San Francisco Presbytery. Having moved from California to Texas (with a small stint in Washington State for college), I have experienced the variety of expressions of faith and church and come to value the ways that each community gathers as a reflection of their own context and values.

    Since coming out in 2014, I have had the honor of being invited to spaces of deep pain and loss by people who have been cast out by church or institutional religion. It has been the joy of my career to walk along people as they rediscover their identity as beloved children of God, and to help them integrate their faith, their humanity, and the ways the express themselves as part of the Imago Dei. Part of that work as led me to help congregations embrace the work of broadening their welcome in authentic and intentional ways, and I have been thrilled to see congregations grow in faith and numbers over the years as they have become spaces of healing and hope.

Charter

Approved June 4, 2025

Part 1 – Purpose and Distinctives

The PC(USA) Church Growth Network (PCGN) is a learning community of PC(USA) leaders who value and believe local congregations and new faith communities are called and created to be “strengthened in faith and increase in numbers.” The PCGN seeks to foster growth in size, vitality, and missions impact for local congregations and new faith communities so that more people experience the life-changing love of Christ.

The PCGN seeks to support healthy and faithful church growth by cultivating new relationships among church leaders, encouraging and celebrating progress, and offering educational experiences that equip and inspire leaders to promote growth in their churches or new faith communities.

“So that the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in numbers daily.” Acts 16:5

Growth in Size

  • Congregations and new faith communities should grow numerically in engagement, worship attendance, and/or membership.

  • Churches and new faith communities should strive to grow at a sustainable pace and aim for a healthy size that suits their current stage of ministry.

  • Congregations and new faith communities must develop and sustain a level of organizational capacity that supports the welcoming and inclusion of new people.

  • Faithful and healthy church growth is not growth for the sake of growth alone.

  • The Church universal needs and should value congregations of every size and type.

Vitality

  • Congregations and new faith communities must embody multiple types of vitality

    • Missional Vitality – demonstrates a strong outward focus that promotes the sharing of the gospel and the welcoming of new people

    • Ecclesial Vitality – embodies the marks of a faithful church that is devoted to the ministry of Word and Sacrament, fellowship, care for one another, and administration

    • Adaptable Vitality – cultivates the ability to do new things or do things differently to get different results

    • Experiential Vitality – shows the ability to provide a personally impactful experience for people

Missions Impact

  • Congregations and new faith communities must be able to make an observable difference in making God’s dreams for the world a reality by serving our neighbors.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The PCGN promotes the full inclusion of all people and seeks to be a diverse and equitable learning community. The PCGN seeks to support all PC(USA) congregations, new worshipping communities, and leaders.

Part 2 - Other Important Information

A New Conversation

  • The PCGN is seeking to foster a denomination-wide conversation about church growth. This conversation will continue for some, be new for others, and be improved for many.

  • Congregations and new faith communities in rural, suburban, and urban contexts face diNerent challenges and opportunities that impact church growth.

Part of the PC(USA)

  • The members of the PCGN are committed to the theology, polity, and values of the PC(USA)

  • The PCGN will not foster any conversations that support divisiveness, schism, or departing the PC(USA)

Expanded Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement and Values

  • The PCGN promotes the full inclusion of all people and seeks to be a diverse and equitable learning community.

  • The PCGN seeks to support all PC(USA) congregations, new worshipping communities, and leaders.

  • PCGN will encourage people to engage with and learn from authors, leaders, churches, best practice practitioners, thought leaders, and others from across the global church. We are committed to learning from people with whom we might disagree on certain theological beliefs or convictions.

  • The PCGN leadership team will make every reasonable effort to share in advance if any authors, leaders, churches, best practice practitioners, thought leaders, and the like that are promoted by the PCGN have made public statements that do not align with the diversity, equity, and inclusion values of the PC(USA).

  • The PCGN will respect chosen names for all people. The PCGN will use preferred pronouns for all leaders and encourage the use of preferred pronouns for all individuals involved in PCGN events and activities.

Membership and Participation

  • Anyone who is an active member in good standing of a PC(USA) congregation, a PC(USA) presbytery, or other PC(USA) affiliated institutions is welcome to participate in all PCGN network activities, whether in person or online.

  • The PCGN leadership team reserves the right to restrict access to in-person and online activities if any individual or group causes undue harm to others.

  • The PCGN is an ecumenical effort. Leaders from other denominations, non-denominational churches, or similar entities are welcome to participate in the PCGN activities that are open to the broader church.

Platform Qualifications

  • The PCGN will ordinarily only allow people to be speakers, presenters, or workshop leaders who meet at least one of the following criteria:

    • ordained ruling elders or teaching elders in the PC(USA)

    • leaders from other denominations with which the PC(USA) are in full communion

    • publicly support the diversity, equity, and inclusion values of the PC(USA)

Leadership Team Qualifications

  • The PCGN leadership team members will be committed to the PC(USA) values of diversity, equity, and inclusion (BOO F 1.10403)

  • The leadership team will typically consist of ordained ruling elders or PC(USA) ministers of Word and Sacrament who are in good standing with their respective local congregation or presbytery.

PCGN Leadership Team Structure

  • The leadership team will be elected during the annual meeting of the PCGN

  • The PCGN leadership team will consist of up to 7 voting members

  • They will be organized into classes with term lengths. Terms will be 3 to 5 years in length. Renewable once. The target is three classes of leadership team members, with 2 or 3 people per class

  • A moderator and secretary shall be elected. A treasurer may be elected as well.

  • If the PCGN has staff in the future, the senior leader or a single executive-level staff member will be allowed to sit on the leadership team as a voting member. They may serve as moderator.

  • A nominating committee will be assembled for future nominations. The PCGN nominating committee will seek to help cultivate a diverse leadership team.

Contact us

Interested in learning more about our network? Fill out some info and we will be in touch shortly. We can’t wait to hear from you!