PCA Historical Center: Your Help Is Needed!

Your Help Is Needed!

The work of the PCA Historical Center depends entirely upon voluntary contributions. We currently have no endowments or other means of supporting this valuable work. When the Presbyterian Church in America was established in 1973, its constitutional documents were carefully constructed to protect the right of the local congregation to its own property and, as a result, the local congregation also retains all rights to its money as well. In other words, unlike most of the mainline denominations, the PCA does not tax (or otherwise levy) its local congregations.

This means that in the PCA, the agencies, boards and various works of the denomination must each individually present their own case before the churches as to why a particular ministry should be supported. It is then up to the Session of the local church to determine that they will support that work, agency, or board.

We hope that as you have explored Historical Center's web site and become more familiar with the work that is being done here, that you will become convinced of the need to support the Center with both your prayers and your contributions.

The current pressing need here at the Historical Center is the installation of high-density compact shelving. We moved into our new facility in September, 2000. Already we have purchased and had installed the foundation deck and railing for this shelving, along with eight ranges of new shelving. What remains now is to secure the remaining shelving and complete the installation. Designated gifts to meet this need are needed now. We must finish this installation as soon as possible in order to have room for new collections coming in. The total amount needed at this point is roughly an additional $50,000.

What exactly is "high-density compact shelving"?

Glad you asked! A lot of people don't know exactly what we're talking about at first. But many have seen the same type of shelving in a doctor's office or other place where large volumes of records must be stored.
3 The picture to the left illustrates what the shelving looks like. You can see that the key feature is the lack of aisles between the shelving ranges. Instead, the units ride on railing set in the floor and when access is needed to a particular area, the range is moved to one side or another by means of a mechanical handcrank.

To see how the installation of this shelving will work here in the Historical Center, the drawing to the right4 shows the ranges as they will be arranged in the room where the collections are stored.
Twenty-two ranges will constitute the complete installation, and these will provide almost 5,000 linear feet of shelving. We currently house about 2000 boxes or 2500 linear feet of material, so the compact shelving will allow us to double the size of the Center's holdings. Which means we will have room to grow! And our collections have been growing at the rate of about 100 cu. ft. per year.
We do ask that you join with us in praying for God's provision for this need. Should He lead you to also help us with a financial contribution, please know that you are helping in a work to preserve the testimonies of God's people.