PCUSA mulls selling longtime headquarters amid decline, post-COVID work culture
The largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States is considering selling its headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky, which it has occupied since the 1980s.
Presbyterian Church (USA), A Corporation Board, that serves as the corporate entity of the denomination’s General Assembly, is mulling the future of its headquarters in downtown Louisville.
Known as The Presbyterian Center, the PCUSA moved into the building in August 1988, a few years after the 1983 merger of the southern-based Presbyterian Church in the U.S. and the northern-based United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. that created the denomination.
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PCUSA Communications Director Rick Jones told The Christian Post, “A Corp board is beginning a conversation about the long-term future of the Presbyterian Center.”
“The discussion began during its board meeting last week,” said Jones, noting that “no decision has been made about what the future might be” for the Presbyterian Center.
“However, the changing workforce patterns after COVID have prompted church leaders to consider the best stewardship of the center and what the best strategy for the support of current and future ministries might be.”
As with many religious organizations in the United States, the PCUSA has been experiencing considerable decline over the past couple of decades, seeing sizable drops in membership.
In May of last year, the PCUSA Office of the General Assembly released an annual statistics report, which found the denomination had approximately 1.140 million members in 2022.
This represented a sharp decline from the approximately 2.5 million members that the denomination reported having in 2000, having dropped below 2 million in 2011.
While the PCUSA discerns whether to sell its headquarters, other Protestant denominations in decline have already made plans to sell their main buildings.
In September 2021, the United Church of Christ announced that it was going to sell its nine-story, 120,000-square-foot national office in Cleveland, Ohio.
The Rev. John Dorhauer, then general minister and president of the UCC, said in the announcement that the move was part of an effort to "carefully steward our precious missional resources."
"Making this move saves the National Setting hundreds of thousands of dollars a year by leasing one floor rather than maintaining a nine-story building that once housed 330 employees," stated Dorhauer.
Last year, the Christian Reformed Church in North America announced that the denomination was selling its Grand Rapids, Michigan-based headquarters after residing there for over six decades.
CRCNA's ministry board voted to put the property up for sale, with Dan DeKam, director of U.S. ministry operations, giving thanks in a statement for the years that the denomination was able to use the property.
"At the same time, we recognize that the building's infrastructure is aging, and its ongoing maintenance is becoming financially unsustainable," stated DeKam.
"The pandemic forced staff into different ways of working and, although the future of office work isn't entirely clear, we do know it needs to be flexible — for the health of employees and the good of the organization. It is time for a new shape."
