by

August 1, 2012

Do you like this?

Mr. Bean

Photo Courtesy of John Wesley Leek

Would Mr. Bean be this bored at your church?

Bishop William Willimon disputes the idea that many people (statistically mind you, not anecdotally) are leaving United Methodist churches because they find themselves in strong disagreement with their pastor or congregation. It happens, but truly rarely.

“That’s an old-fashioned Methodist alibi—‘We’re dying because we’re so prophetic and truthful,’” Willimon has often said. “The words you’re looking for there are actually ‘boring’ and ‘old.’”

I think he's onto something there. Why go to church, he proposes, if it's little more than an inconveniently timed Rotary meeting? I think that may be the second biggest reason young Methodists leave the UMC once they leave their home churches.

The biggest reason membership continues to decline in many annual conferences is that longtime Methodists are dying off and they haven't been replaced.

We clearly have a widespread failure of discipleship.

Consider this shocking statistic: The average United Methodist Church member invites only one person to worship every 38 years. I was first introduced to that statistic by Rev. Andy Stoddard and hoped he was wrong. He wasn't; it's our own leadership who is sharing that information with us.

Why don't we invite our neighbors to church + why do so many leave the UMC after high school?

I think it's a combination of two primary things.

1. Our churches often ARE boring and we don't think other people, especially young people, would like them.

2. We don't have a clue when it comes to discipleship. You have to be a disciple to make disciples and previous generations, the same people who helped nurture me into the faith, have largely not known how to disciple or cared to do it.

We have hope in Jesus and a God who seems to enjoy bringing things back from the dead. That said we have to acknowledge how we got where we are in order to become a faithful church again.

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August 1, 2012

Comments (7)

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The UM Church does not listen to its people

I left the UM Church because I got tired of being called a Methodist by the United Methodist Church. I grewup in the Evangelical United Brethren Church. I was part of the merger with the Methodist. I attended the UM Church until 1979. Since the merger all I ever heard was about the history of the Methodist Church. The former Evangelical Association, Evangelical, United Evangelical, United Brethren and Evangelical United Brethren Churches histories were forgotten. The UM Church celebrate anything that has to do with Methodist. Its time for the UM Church to celebrate being United Methodist not being Methodist. Listen to your former member you'll learn something about why they are leaving your church. Most people don't care if you attend church and your gay or your race all they care about is hearing the word and being listen to by their church leader which at the present time they are not.

Rodney W. Cook 81 days ago

Declining Membership

I am in the process of joining Lovers Lane UMC. The people are welcoming, there is absolutely NO homophobia and there is no way one could be bored with our young, sassy, black female pastor of Crosswalk, Shante Buckley (contemporary service). I can't speak for the Methodist church in general but my observation is that this church is doing what it can to remain relevant to all ages. As a child attending Lovers Lane many years ago, it was very white. Today there are people of all stripes, genders, colors and ages. I like that.

Lori P 293 days ago

boring

If people are complaining of being bored, it's because they go to church looking for a good show...to be entertained. We've made being a Christian primarily about going to a building and being entertained....thinking we have worshiped, when in reality all we've done is watch a show. Worship had become a noun, not a verb closely identified with sacrifice.

Will Clegg 294 days ago

I left because of homophobia, not bordom

Maybe it's just me, but I refuse to be part of a church that teaches about a God of intolerance and hate rather than the true God, Jesus Christ.

Important Truth 295 days ago

impact of UMC to the world

I think one of the reasons why our church is declining in membership is because our programs/ministries have less impact to the needs of the people in communities and the world. We need to re examine and discern the our mission program and plan with people ministries that respond to their everyday needs and problems. The UMC needs to be an authentic church by serving the poorest of the world today.

Marie Sol Sioco-Villalon 296 days ago

Decline of Membership of the Church

I think there is another issue: the concept of "Membership" has been so cheapened by overuse that folks don't want to be "members" of anything. I can become a "member" of the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, Common Cause, the National Rifle Association, the National Psoriasis Society, and heaven knows just how many other organizations, simply by writing a check and mailing it to them. They don't ask anything of me except money, or occasionally to write my congressman. That's the expectation of "membership" in our churches today.

We also have the erroneous idea that discipleship = membership, and that one cannot truly be a disciple of Jesus Christ unless one is a member of a church. That's not the way many look at things these days.

A few years back, in a community where the average length of residence in the community was less than two years, I visited a man who had been coming to our church for several weeks. I invited him to come to a membership class and to join the church. He then asked me a question that they didn't teach me how to answer in seminary. That question was, simply, "What's in it for me?" That may well be the watchphrase of the Gen-X, Gen-Y generations. I finally found the answer to his question a few years later: what is in membership for an individual is that s/he gets to vote at the Annual Church Conference. Period. Isn't that special? One can be a constituent and get all the rest of the goodies that we call "membership." One can even be a Trustee of the Church and not a member.

I think we would do ourselves a favor to abandon the concept of "membership" and replace it with "Confirmation," Commitment, and "Re-Commitment." Invite people to join the church thru confirmation if they have not had that training before, and to make a "Commitment" for the rest of the calendar year. At the end of each year, persons are asked prayerfully to make a "re-commitment" to serve Christ through his church for another year through that local church.

To be blunt, the real number that counts is the number of butts seated in the pews or seats for worship on an average Sunday morning. In most of my churches, I shot for an average attendance that exceeded my membership, if at all possible. A church with real people present and participating beats the thunder out of whether they are "members" or not.

Why do we stick with a concept like "membership" when the currency of that concept has been cheapened beyond belief by overuse?

Tom Griffith 297 days ago

jpsusag@cs.com

I agree that "church"today can be boring and dull. As I have said in previous commentary, I was born a Methodist and I'll be a Methodist til I die but I am a John Wesley Methodist and there seem to be fewer and fewer of us as time goes on. Mostly, I think, thatis because we have fewer clergy leaders who are uncomfortable with things the way they are. For example, in watching the process of electing bishops this year, I found more interest being focused on administrative experience and identiry rather than prophetic and challenging characteristics. Also, the denomination has "officially" seemed to have given up being John Wesleyites. Until those things change, it is difficult to invite newcomers to join. Some of us who are stubborn hang in there and are dissenters with the hope that we can influence some change. I hope that we can do it.

Phil Susag 297 days ago

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