Pastor's Paragraph
The United Methodist Men's magazine for Summer 2008 had a very interesting set of summaries of the General Conference held in 2008. I was particularly interested in the report of membership for the United Methodist Church. The article began by noting that membership decreased by eight-tenth of a percent from 2005 to 2006 (the last year the statistics were available). That means there were 7,931,733 lay members (add to that 45,200 clergy and some 871,218 non-members who attend the church regularly).
Two things interested me in the statistics: the article said that although membership is still declining, attendance at worship is up. The report suggested that more and more people are attending church, but not joining. Church leaders think this is because people are not as inclined to join groups and many of our constituents are in jobs that move them regularly. They do not join because they may not be here in five years. Participation is the important thing for them.
And the article said the median size of our churches is 111 members. That is an interesting statistic because out here in the West we have a few really big United Methodist Churches and a lot of smaller ones (ranging around 100-200 members). Many of us think the smaller ones are too small and need to grow. Maybe they are above average in size when seen in light of the national United Methodist Church.
Statistics do not tell us everything. But they do help us see what is going on in something as big as the United Methodist Church. And they help us form questions about who we are and what we should be doing as a Church in Christ's service in the world.
See you Sunday ~ Rev. Jim Hickman | 
