UMs need to look at whole doughnut, not just hole

Ralph Thompson
Wesley UMC, San Angelo

Have you ever noticed that a dozen doughnut holes cost almost as much as a dozen whole doughnuts? One of the world’s greatest geniuses was certainly the person who thought, “Why are we throwing away these production leftovers? There has to be someone who would actually pay to eat these things!”
With just the right amount of marketing, we gladly pay more per ounce for doughnut holes than we pay for whole doughnuts. That is a great example of how people too often value what’s not there over what’s there, which brings me to the church.
At seminars, conferences and even in worship, we too often focus attention on what’s not in our churches any more. We remember the “good old days” when there were kids. Every Sunday school classroom was occupied, and the choir was full.
We remember when new families were joining the church every month, when Vacation Bible School filled every corner of the church and when we all had hair!
Today we look around to find that those days are gone. We think we’ll never see them again. Where there was excitement, we find ourselves struggling to “make it through” another worship service.
Snap out of it! We still worship the same God! We still cherish the same Jesus Christ! We still serve the same church!
We only need to stop staring at the doughnut hole and look at the whole doughnut! All too often, our administrative boards and councils spend too much time focusing on what used to be rather than what is and what could be.
At a laity meeting in the San Angelo District, I suggested to one of my brothers, “You just need to get out more.”
We all need to get out more. We need to take a moment to look at our communities, our extended church families and our towns to realize where our God-given talents and gifts could serve humanity and bring glory to God.
I doubt that there is a single church in the Southwest Texas Conference that, with prayer and effort, could not make at least one disciple before the end of June.
And if that’s so, why not make just one disciple in July, August and September?
We need to look at the whole doughnut. The gospel refers to it as a plentiful harvest, but for city dwellers, “doughnut” works.
We cannot go back to the past. The doughnut hole will never fit back into the doughnut. There is a whole new world out there. At the Vista Vision Plan gathering last year at Alamo Heights UMC, we were reminded that the communities around our churches are constantly evolving.
That doesn’t spell doom for the church. It, instead, means a more diverse harvest or a box of assorted donuts. We have to muster enough faith to go out boldly and claim souls for Christ.
Congregations across Southwest Texas comment, “We just don’t have the resources to do what we need to do.” As I said, we need to get out more!
One of the greatest benefits of being a part of the connection known as the Southwest Texas Conference is access to training, information, resources, funding and assistance designed to address the needs of every size and style of church.
Unfortunately, we spend so much time pondering the doughnut hole we don’t notice what’s out there. I recently heard of a church that did merely what the Rev. Harry Kahl described during his workshop on Church Growth and Congregational Revitalization at Wesley UMC, San Angelo, last May
That church did its demographics homework, held prayer vigils, faithfully borrowed money to start a new congregation, created a strategic plan and put evangelism on the top of its list of priorities. As a result, this church grew from 200 to more than 2,000 members in just over nine months!
I would love to say that it was a United Methodist Church from Southwest Texas, but it wasn’t. What matters is that this church paid private consultants for the resources and information available through our connection to every church.
Above all else, they looked beyond the doughnut hole to see the whole doughnut!