PCA taps missions executive as moderator

DALLAS — A missions executive was elected June 10 as the new moderator of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), the denomination announced.

Paul D. Kooistra, coordinator of Mission to the World, the denomination’s missions agency, was chosen at the PCA’s General Assembly in Dallas. He has worked for the missions agency since 1994 and previously served as the president of the PCA-affiliated Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis.

At the meeting, officials of the nation’s second-largest Presbyterian denomination reported an increase in membership, from 338,873 in 2006 to 342,041 in 2007. The number of congregations rose to 1,666, an increase of 27.