No Future

I have a habit of printing off interesting articles and allowing them to pile up on my desk.  I was going through my stack yesterday and found an article entitled "No Future for Methodists Unless Change Occurs, Say Leaders."  It's an older article, from March of last year, but the message is one that needs to be heard by every leader and member of the local church.

I'm a first-generation United  Methodist.  My mother was raised in the Catholic Church and my father in the Southern Baptist Church.  Ever wondered what happens when you mix those two together?  You get a United Methodist!

I believe myself to be very ecumenical in my approach to ministry.  Jesus is Jesus, whether you're Catholic, Baptist, Episcopalian, Disciples of Christ, Lutheran, or Presbyterian - or non-denominational for that matter.  I also see value in the denominational structure because there are just some issues that we, as Christians, will never come together on.  I will always struggle with the Baptists because I believe in baptism as a sacrament that needs only be done once and infants are eligible.  I will disagree with Catholics because I believe that we should observe an "open table" in Holy Communion - that it is offered to all, just as the grace of God is offered to all.  You get the idea.

Back to the article.  It talks about how membership in Protestant churches has been down over the last several decades (since the 1950's actually).  United Methodists are the second largest denom to Baptists and we're still 8 million strong, but the only places we're showing an overall increase in numbers is in parts of Africa and SE Asia.

Half of Gen-Xers and Millenials have left the denom and some have found homes in other churches while others haven't found a need for the Christian community at all.  The UM's that remain are getting older and whiter.  Younger people aren't coming in and the future, according to the Council of Bishops, is looking bleak.

I sit in church meetings regularly and I have frequent conversations with church members.  Everybody's concerned with where the young people have gone.  Average age at Mt. Bethel is probably around 60 with very few young adults, youth, or children.  Survival is going to be painful for the long-time members of churches like Mt. Bethel.  In the first half of the 20th century, if you built a building with a steeple, people would miraculously appear and they would attend faithfully.  They'd put up with bad preaching and watered-down missions and evangelism.  Times have changed.

The churches that are growing don't wait for people to come to them, they are reaching out to people.  And they're not doing it in a way that promotes faded-out traditions but focuses on meeting the needs and interests of people that have either never been a part of the Christian faith or were once a part of the traditional church and were wounded or left unfulfilled.

Things will have to change.  No, not every church will need to convert to contemporary worship and not every pastor will have to figure out how to sport the untucked striped shirt and gelled hair (thank God).  We will have to take a look at our structures though - go from a hierarchy approach to a team approach.  Every member has to figure out how to be a minister to others, looking to the pastor for leadership (discipleship) and inspiration and encouragement.

People come to church because they're looking for something and their options are wide ranging with more churches in communities that offer more ministries.  People are hungry for what's missing.  If we refuse to feed them for the sake of tradition or for the sake of our own comfort or power, then we have a problem.  If that's the Methodist way, then I don't want to be Methodist.

--------

In the same vein, kudos to those pastors out there who are pushing limits and helping their people reach others.  Grace to the pastors that are planting new churches with the sole purpose of reaching the unreached.  And to the lay leaders that hear this call and have the desire to see things change, feel free to visit Mt. Bethel anytime - we have others who have the same desire, but you can never have enough voices.