A Hundred Years, and a Question
What do you do the morning after a centennial?
From November 2025 to May 2026, Covenant Presbyterian marked one hundred years on our corner of Peachtree and Terrace. We welcomed back Rev. Steve Goyer to the pulpit after twenty years away. We heard Dr. John Coble play the organ with the kind of skill that makes a room go quiet. We sat together in Sunday school and over lunch and wrestled honestly with Covenant’s role in the Civil Rights era in Atlanta. And through the Lenten season, we lifted up the partners in ministry who have walked alongside us for decades.
It was a season worth having. And then — as any honest centennial must — it gave way to a question: What comes next?
The Honest Picture
Covenant arrives at this question in a moment that calls for clear eyes. The numbers tell a story the wider church cannot afford to ignore. Mainline Protestants have shrunk from nearly 30% of Americans in 1972 to about 9% today. The PCUSA alone has declined 58–68% since 1987 — from roughly 3.8 million to 1.2 million members. Only 2% of Americans aged 18–40 identify with a mainline denomination.*
In our own context, Covenant has made strategic decisions in response to fewer resources and people. About seven years ago, the church moved to a solo pastor model. Over the past five, staff roles have shifted to part-time. Covenant now relies on contract workers and volunteers for cleaning, communications, audiovisual support, and more. Mission giving has decreased by about 30%. Building expenses continue to climb — close to $1.8 million spent on the facility since COVID, even after investments in new HVAC and boiler systems, with delayed work on roofing and lighting systems still ahead.
That is the honest picture. And yet — and this is the part worth leaning into — it is not the whole picture.
By the Grace of God
In 2025, Covenant welcomed more adult members than it had in the entire previous decade combined. In 2026, 75% of our new members are in their early 40s and below. New small groups and dinner groups, designed to serve demographics that hadn’t previously found a home at Covenant, are meeting and growing. Families are showing up — without a dedicated children’s or youth program to draw them. A confirmation class is on the calendar for this year.
Covenant entered into a genuinely exciting new partnership with Candler School of Theology to offer affordable housing for a Formation Community in our Manse. The program invites students to live and grow in faith alongside their peers, rooted in community life. Covenant’s Formation Community centers Women’s Spiritual Leadership and will engage monthly with our new 20/30s small group — a collaboration that quite literally plants the next generation of leaders in our building.
Throughout the week, the building continues to bustle. The Spanish Academy, GiGi’s Playhouse, LaGonave Haiti Partnership, twelve-step groups, community yoga, Scouting America, and Interfaith Atlanta all call Covenant home. An in-kind mission budget analysis suggests Covenant provides an annual subsidy to the surrounding community of around $55,000 through free or reduced-cost space. Add that to our Mission giving, and our total mission investment has actually increased by over 100%. We are doing more in the world than the budget line suggests.
And Covenant completed a successful capital campaign with pledges exceeding the HVAC repayment goal — with participation from community friends, previous members, and members of other congregations entirely. Grants came in from Candler School of Theology, Emory St. Joseph’s Hospital, and the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta.
None of this happens by accident. It happens because this congregation keeps saying yes.
Creativity, Commitment, and What’s Next
There is a difference between a church that looks backward with fondness and a church that looks forward with faith. Covenant has always been the second kind — and this season is no exception.
The Session moves into a period of discernment, working from our mission statement to chart a path for the current context, not the previous century. The new program year centers us in the practices that have always sustained the church through change: Bible study, prayer, and communal discernment. We are paying attention to the latest trends in spirituality and health — not because we are chasing culture, but because we take seriously the people God is calling us to walk alongside.
One hundred years on this corner. And the most interesting chapter may be the one we are writing right now.
We would love for you to be part of it.
*These statistics come from Ryan Burge’s work “Graphs about Religion” on Substack, and his new book “Vanishing Church.”