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A UMNS Report
By Emily Snell*
7:00 A.M. EST July 20, 2011
The Rev. Edlen Cowley (far right) greets those arriving for the preview
service at St. Andrew Frisco. Cowley is the “planting pastor” for the new
church, which is the “daughter” church of St. Andrews. A UMNS photo
courtesy of the North Texas Conference.
View in Photo Gallery
Membership and attendance numbers provided during the recent annual
conferences in the United States did not reverse the declines of past
years, but those numbers and other reports indicated something different
afoot.
For the most part, the trend of decline continues in the three
measured categories—membership and worship and Sunday school attendance.
However, activity within and aside from those categories shows that
conferences are trying new initiatives to connect with unreached
communities.
Declines in the three measured categories have been widespread for
many years. In 1990, total lay and clergy membership in the United
States was 8,853,455, according to the statistical review compiled
annually by the General Council on Finance and Administration. By 2000,
membership had decreased to 8,341,375, and in 2009, it was down to
7,725,039. Average attendance in 1990 was 3,466,439, and by 2009, it
had decreased to 3,125,513.
By contrast, membership outside the United States has been steadily
rising. In 1990, total lay and clergy membership in the central
conferences was 806,841. By 2000, it had risen to 1,512,704, and in
2009, it had reached 4,412,489.
For many conferences, the decline in membership and attendance in
2010 narrowed even though 43 conferences fell in membership, 41 declined
in attendance and 33 decreased in church school attendance.
Six conferences reported
membership growth, five conferences increased average attendance and
seven conferences reported increases in church school attendance.
Only three conferences reported increases in both membership and
attendance, and, only one conference—Central Texas, which has maintained
30 years of growth—increased its numbers in all three categories. The
growth for all three conferences was less than 1 percent in each
category.
For the first time in 30 years, the Indiana Conference reported
growth in both membership and attendance but still saw a decline in
church school attendance. That was a big change from last year for the
conference when it recorded the most dramatic decline — a 5.15 percent
decrease in membership to 194,495, and a 4.2 percent decrease in
attendance to 116,722. The conference’s church school attendance dropped
9.5 percent to 39,329.
Shift in focus key for Indiana
The Rev. Mark Gough, director of church development for the conference, said a shift in focus was the key to Indiana’s growth.
“We really began to focus on the main mission to make disciples for
Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world,” he said, adding that
churches have to stop worrying about survival and start asking, “How are
we going to win people to Christ?”
The congregation of a new church, North Central Korean, gathers in The
Colony, Texas, under the leadership of Pastor Nakhoon Cho. A UMNS photo
courtesy of the North Texas Conference.
View in Photo Gallery
He said the conference, created in a recent merger of the North and
South Indiana conferences, now has five “remote” staff people working
with churches in the districts “to really make a difference in reaching
people that have not been reached. That’s what we’re concentrating on.”
“It’s easy to get distracted in a local church by all the things we
do,” Gough said, adding that churches need greater emphasis on reaching
people who don’t know the gospel, inviting them to church and treating
them well when they come.
Red Bird Missionary Conference also reported growth in membership and
attendance. The conference treasurer, Judith Fowler, said the growth
came from opening new churches and renovating existing ones.
Church school numbers were up in the Northern Illinois, Arkansas, New
York, Kansas East, Peninsula-Delaware and Eastern Pennsylvania
conferences. The Kansas East and Northern Illinois conferences grew less
than one percent. The Arkansas, New York and Peninsula Delaware
conferences saw increases between five and seven percent. The Eastern
Pennsylvania conference grew 15 percent.
The Louisiana, North Georgia and Rio Grande conferences reported
increases in membership, and the Yellowstone, Oklahoma Indian Missionary
and North Texas conferences increased in attendance.
The Rev. Jim Ozier, the center director for new church development
and congregational transformation in the North Texas Conference, said
new churches are the main reason for attendance growth.
Ozier said his conference hosts seminars called “Getting More
Members” by Jim Griffith, which teach existing churches how to be more
involved in the community. Only 15 churches can participate at a time,
and Ozier said the seminars are so popular that they have a waiting
list.
“To show increase in attendance one year is good news. To show it for
two years in a row is a trend. To show it three years in a row is a
pattern. And after that, it will mark culture change in the conference,”
Ozier said.
Ozier said when he works with churches he teaches them to think “culture first.”
“If churches just try to add new ‘things’ to attract people or to
change their ministry, it will have very little effect,” he said.
“First, you have to be intentional about changing the culture of your
church. And, the culture change is to become mission-field driven
instead of maintenance driven.”
Oklahoma growth in newer congregations
Despite declines in all three traditional measurement categories, the
Oklahoma Conference reported encouraging numbers in three of its newer
congregations.
Connect and Summit United Methodist churches, both in Edmond, Okla.,
are averaging more than 100 people at preview services, and Cross
Timbers, a 2-year-old United Methodist congregation in Moore, Okla., has
received 73 professions of faith.
Cross Timbers United Methodist Church in Moore, Okla., has
seen rapid growth in its two years because of its focus on
younger families. This photo shows one of the church school
groups called CT Kids. A UMNS photo courtesy of Cross
Timbers United Methodist Church.
View in Photo Gallery
The Rev. Craig Stinson, director of connectional ministries and
congregational development in Oklahoma, said the conference in past
years has not followed a mother-daughter format for developing new
congregations, but all three of these churches are connected to a
“mother” or “anchor” church in the community.
Stinson said the mother churches were concerned initially with how many people might leave and go to the new congregations.
“It turns out to be very few—under 20 in each—that are from the mother church,” Stinson said. “I was surprised.”
Stinson noted that Moore First United Methodist Church, the mother
church for Cross Timbers, has grown since it started the daughter
congregation. He explained that sometimes mother churches have more
ministries and programs in place that can meet the needs of new families
in the community. For example, if families want a church with a youth
group, members of Cross Timbers would direct them to the “mom church,”
Stinson said.
Stinson said Moore First has more members now than in the past five
years, and he believes it is because of its association with the new
congregation. He said Cross Timbers and Moore First are examples of why
churches should not fear to start other new churches.
Stinson said all three new churches attract young people, especially
families with children. He said the churches have so many kids that
“they don’t know what to do.”
Stinson said it is not always obvious why people attend the new congregations and not the old ones.
“The difference seems to be that younger people will come to the new
churches who simply would not go to the existing church for whatever
reason,” Stinson said. “(The older congregations) are all three exciting
churches. Because it’s new, unconnected people will come to the brand
new thing when they won’t come to the existing thing.”
Stinson said one key difference is that the new churches seem to be
more willing to try unusual things such as block parties, scrapbooking
events, outdoor movies or pool parties. “They’re willing to try almost
anything, and they’re not intimidated by the thought of failure.”
People gather outside Penn Avenue Redemption United
Methodist Church in Oklahoma City. Redemption churches
are made up of people who are current or former inmates.
A UMNS photo courtesy of Criminal Justice & Mercy
Ministries of the OKUMC.
View in Photo Gallery
Stinson also mentioned that the conference has created a new form of
church community called “redemption churches,” comprised of people who
are in prison or former inmates. “It’s a group of folks that were
marginalized, who are being the church,” he said. “It’s pretty exciting
to see those kinds of ministries.”
One such church, Penn Avenue, had about 15 people coming on Sunday
mornings. Stinson said it was a “beautiful old church that hadn’t kept
up with the neighborhood,” so the conference wanted to try bringing
inmates to services at an alternative time. The church agreed and was
“able to build a relationship that everybody enjoyed.”
“The best thing of all is hearing from people who have not been
disciples of Jesus Christ,” Stinson said. “They’ll come to the church,
and they’ll tell their faith story. It’s the reason we do this whole
church thing. It’s so people can know Jesus. When they tell those
stories, it’s worth everything.”
In the Missouri Conference, numbers in 424 churches declined, 104 stayed the same and 302 grew.
Fred Koenig, editor in the Missouri Conference, said focusing on the
“Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations” has been helpful for some
churches there. The five practices, created by Missouri Area Bishop
Robert Schnase, are passionate worship, extravagant generosity, radical
hospitality, risk-taking mission and service, and intentional faith
development.
He mentioned that two of the fastest-growing churches in the
conference are associated as mother-daughter churches. Sunrise, the
mother church, and Morning Star, both in O’Fallon, Mo., have benefited
from starting the new congregation. Like Stinson, he said sometimes
churches fear that planting a church will have a “detrimental effect” on
the existing church, but in this case, just like the congregations in
Oklahoma, both the mother and daughter churches grew.
Hispanic growth in Southwest Texas
The Southwest Texas Conference reported decreased membership of 50
people, even though it is located in an area of rapid population growth.
“The trend of that loss is unconscionable in my mind,” said the Rev. David Seilheimer, conference treasurer and secretary.
He told annual conference attendees that Hispanic membership in the
conference had increased by 123—nearly two percent. He reminded the
conference that half of its delegation to General Conference is
Hispanic. General Conference is the denomination’s top lawmaking body.
He also noted that Hispanic membership has doubled in the past decade,
saying the conference is “doing something good that we need to do
better.”
Young adults and campus ministry students worship with Bishop Mike
Coyner at the Indiana Conference's first ever leadership retreat for
young adults, MOVE. A UMNS photo
by Jennifer Synder.
View in Photo Gallery
“We have tremendous leadership among the Hispanic population,”
Seilheimer said. “The Hispanic population in South Texas is the youngest
population. Sometimes I think our failure to bring in Hispanics is not
the difference of race or language. It’s that we’re not very good right
now at dealing with young people. We need to be reaching out to those
people who are younger.”
The Illinois Great Rivers Conference reported declines of less than 2
percent in attendance and membership. The Arkansas Conference reported
less than 1 percent declines in attendance and membership and a 6.8
percent increase in church school attendance.
The Western North Carolina Conference reported declines in all three
categories but noted that participation in Christian formation groups
increased by more than 3,000. The California-Nevada Conference saw
declines in all three categories across the conference, noting, however,
that 130 churches experienced membership growth.
The Florida Conference noted that Bishop Ricardo Pereira, who leads
the Methodist Church in Cuba, reported that membership there has more
than tripled in the last 10 years, increasing from 9,000 to 30,000.
“I sense the stirrings of a new vitality,” said retired Bishop Alfred
L. Norris as he preached to the North Georgia Annual Conference.
Rejecting the idea that the church is in danger of long-term decline, he
said, “We need to have a passion and zeal for mission and evangelism.”
*Snell is a United Methodist News Service intern and a senior at Lipscomb University.
News media contact: Maggie Hillery, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5472 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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