We should use more than numbers to measure success
I find myself agreeing with Lonnie Phillips of Seguin in regards to recent numbers representing the health of our churches (“Report of membership loss doesn’t tell whole story,” March 11).
At some point in our history we changed our view of how we measure the success of ministry. Many of our current methods would deem Jesus’ ministry a failure. It would seem that the success of a church should be measured in the souls touched by Christ.
Both churches I serve, like so many of our churches, have folks on the membership rolls who I have never and will never see. People on the rolls don’t represent the number who attend church. The number who attend aren’t equal to the number of people our two churches touch each week in the ministry of the kingdom.
Although New Life UMC is a very small congregation, it touches many lives for Christ in the course of the week. Our food pantry serves the needs of those in the community without questions and red tape.
Our witness ministry goes out to the people and shares the gospel with them. Consequently, many receive Christ into their lives.
We invite them to the church, but that is not our focus. Our focus is kingdom building. As we build the kingdom, we will share in its harvest.
As John Wesley reminded us, the business before us is saving souls. We would do well to measure a congre-gation’s success by the number of souls it is touching in the name of Christ instead of the number of people sitting in the pews—maybe doing nothing but sitting—or the amount of money in the bank—also just sitting, not touching souls for Christ.
It seems that what we do outside church walls is more important to building the kingdom than what we do inside. Could we be so focused on the inside that it prevents us from going outside to where the people are?
Mike Swearingen
Bloomington

Following God’s holy law shouldn’t embarrass us
I’m so happy the General Conference made the decision to follow the teachings of God’s holy law. Delegates did what was right in the sight of God.
God didn’t choose any of us to judge others. Don’t judge the church court. It made a decision by being obedient to God’s law (“Action by church court sickens, embarrasses me,” Jan. 28, and “Letter about church court expresses my feelings, too,” March 11).
There should be no embarrassment for anyone to acknowledge membership in an organization that proclaims God’s teaching.
Humans didn’t condemn anything or anyone. God condemns this homosexual lifestyle. Gays and lesbians need to ask God to overcome this sickness.
If that is the lifestyle they want to live, so be it. But please don’t try to change God’s law for everyone else to live by.
The Rev. Tony Evans said it so we can all understand: “The debate over homosexuality illustrates the danger of trying to decide which parts of scripture are authoritative as they stand and which parts need to be amended in light of changing social standards.
“We need to understand that as Christians we must receive the Bible as completely reliable and trustworthy on every matter it records as God’s authoritative message to us.”
Ollie W. Hargis-Giles
San Marcos