For the first time ever, the Badger State will welcome a PCA General Assembly. The Administrative Committee has announced that the 54th General Assembly will be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on June 14-18, 2027.
The hosting duties will be shared among Wisconsin Presbytery, Chicago Metro Presbytery, Korean Central Presbytery, and the Presbytery of Northern Illinois. The host committee hopes that the multi-presbytery, multi-state partnership will extend beyond hosting responsibilities to create opportunities for partnering in other arenas.
”We truly believe this will be good for our churches, our presbytery, and our partner presbyteries,” said Steve Iler, a ruling elder at Cornerstone PCA in Delafield, Wisconsin, and co-chair of the General Assembly Host Committee. “They can experience General Assembly, get a bigger picture of the denomination, and build relationships across state and presbytery lines with partnerships.”
The 2027 Assembly will be only the 11th Assembly outside the Southeast, and the first time back in the Upper Midwest since the 1987 Assembly in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The 1978, 1982, and 1987 Assemblies were held at Calvin College (now Calvin University) in Grand Rapids.
While the PCA continues to expand all over the United States, the majority of its churches are primarily in the Southeast. But Wisconsin Presbytery has grown steadily in the past 15 years thanks to a commitment to church planting and partnerships.
Hosting a General Assembly requires close coordination between the PCA’s Administrative Committee (AC) and the hosting presbyteries. Between exhibitors, commissioners, visitors, and families, the AC estimates that as many as 4,500 people have attended each Assembly since the pandemic. A city must have availability at a convention center that can hold that many people and enough hotels that will offer affordable rates.
Angela Nantz is the AC’s event coordinator, and she works to find cities that will make affordable offers to the PCA. As the Assembly has grown, some cities that used to host General Assembly are no longer options because the meeting space and housing options will not work. And some cities that would be desirable venues are simply too expensive.
And then there’s the question of resources on the ground. Nantz said the host presbytery (or presbyteries) must plan and execute the worship services, plan women and family activities, and have volunteers on site. These hosting responsibilities require the presbytery to raise as much as $150,000. Mark Kaiser, a ruling elder at Jacob’s Well PCA in Green Bay and the other host committee co-chair, said they are working to gather 250-300 volunteers needed for the week.
The 2027 Assembly will mark the second time that several presbyteries have worked together to host an Assembly. In 2024, James River, Blue Ridge, Tidewater, and Korean Capital presbyteries all shared hosting responsibilities. Nantz sees this as an encouraging pattern. “It’s really beautiful,” she said.
Iler and Kaiser are excited for the opportunity to show off their state to GA attendees and their families. Attendees will likely enjoy cooler temperatures than they will find during an Assembly in the Southeast, making ideal conditions for enjoying a Milwaukee Brewers baseball game or experiencing other attractions connected to the Great Lakes region.
“Come early, stay late,” Iler said. “There’s a lot to experience around the Great Lakes.”