Population trends to alter face of ministry, scholar says




By Rachel L. Toalson
Staff Writer
The face of Texas is changing, and those changes will influence the church.
That’s what state demographer Steve Murdock told nearly 300 Southwest Texas Conference pastors during the March 5-6 Bishop’s Convocation at Mount Wesley Conference Center, Kerrville.
Texas is growing in a different way from what was predicted 10 years ago, said Murdock, who holds the Lutcher Brown distinguished chair in demography and organization studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
“Growth is becoming increasingly more concentrated in the metropolitan areas, and the rural counties are suffering,” he said.
Populations are booming in Dallas, Houston, the San Antonio-Austin corridor and along the border from Laredo to McAllen, he said.
The non-Anglo population is growing faster than the Anglo population—with a high rate of immigration, Murdock said. Many immigrants have lower levels of education than other Texas residents and step into lower paying jobs.
Pastors expressed surprise when Murdock reported that Texas ranks 50th among all states in the percentage of people with high school diplomas.
Texas is 53 percent Anglo and 47 percent non-Anglo today, Murdock said. That’s what the United States is predicted to be by 2040.
“The Texas of today is the United States of tomorrow,” Murdock said. “We are a preview of things to come. If we can get it right in Texas today, we’ll be able to get it right in the United States.”
The Texas population is also getting older, Murdock said. One in five Texans will be 65 or older by 2030. But the non-Anglo children’s population is growing at the same time.
“What that means is Texas will be stressed and strained at both ends—at one end for the long-term health care and at the other end for education,” said Murdock, whom Texas Monthly voted one of the 25 most influential people in Texas in 2005.
Planning for the rate of growth and the diversification of Texas is critical, he said.
“Texas will be poorer and less competitive in the future,” Murdock said. “If we’re going to fix the things that need to be fixed in Texas, we need to do it now. This isn’t going to get any easier. The future of Texas is tied to how well the non-Anglo population is doing.
“How well you do with the non-Anglo population is how well you do with your church. If your population doesn’t reflect the fastest growing population in Texas, you’re not going to grow.”
Pastor Kendall C. Houston Jr. of Karnes City UMC said his congregation was predominantly Anglo while his county was predominantly Hispanic. His church is planning for growth 10 years down the road, and Murdock’s presentation would influence those plans.
“We have to make sure that the churches in our denomination are ready for those growing numbers because they represent people who live and worship Jesus Christ,” Houston said.
The Rev. Steven M. Purdy, senior pastor of First UMC, Harlingen, said his congregation had launched a service to reach Hispanic residents. More than 100 were attending, though the church membership was only 50 percent Hispanic.
“God intends us to be a part of reaching the community and the state,” Purdy said. “We’re in a strategic role to reach the people in our state. We’re in a position to motivate people in the church and our community to do the right things and maintain connection with each other.
“We cannot hibernate and talk about how wonderful things used to be. The intimidating thing is to step out and do something in a different way. We need diversity.”
Murdock said he always tells business leaders that if they don’t have Spanish-speaking professionals in their business, they are a business of the past, not of the future.
“Churches aren’t businesses, but to put it in terms of looking at the product you provide and what the consumer needs, that’s probably just as important to you,” Murdock said.
The Rev. John Feagins, pastor of Chapel Hill UMC, San Antonio, said his research has shown that the more the Hispanic population grows, the less The United Methodist Church grows.
Most non-Roman Catholic Hispanics are going to Pentecostal and Assembly of God churches, Feagins said. Though Assembly of God churches have about 1/6 the overall membership of The United Methodist Church, they have four to five times more Hispanics.
“The good news for us is that the Assembly of God denomination branched off from the Methodist Church,” Feagins said. “They have a structure similar to us. They are a Wesleyan denomination, and they have shown that an organized Wes-leyan denomination can succeed among the Hispanic population.”
The Methodist Church in Mexico has also been successfully growing, he said.
Feagins said five factors contribute to the growth of Assembly of God churches and the Methodist Church of Mexico:
n They present a familiar face in leadership. Churches have laity and clergy members with a Hispanic face. They aren’t simply Spanish speakers.
> They provide enthusiastic, charismatic experiences about the Christian faith. Churches have passionate worship.
> They have a strong commitment to soul-winning evangelism and discipleship.
> They are unapologetic about their teaching.
> They emphasize personal holiness, which leads to a more peaceful life.
Feagins said the five factors characterize the early Methodist movement.
“The problem is not that too few Hispanics are embracing Metho-dism,” he said. “The problem is that too few United Methodists are embracing Hispanics. Those were the factors behind Wesley’s mission. Those will rescue the church of the future.”
Later in the convocation, Bishop Bruce Ough of the Ohio West Episcopal Area preached from Luke on Jesus setting his face to go to Jerusalem—a great Lenten text, he said.
He tied the text into Murdock’s presentation by discussing the faces of people whom Jesus met along his way to Jerusalem and what that means to the church and its future.
Ough preached March 6 from Romans 12 , teaching about the characteristics of a leader.
The 15th annual convocation was a time for clergy members to gather with Bishop Joel N. Martinez for a time of study, reflection and renewal.