What do our concerns say about our ministry priorities?

Have you ever wondered what matters most to Southwest Texas United Methodists?
I looked over the opinion pieces printed in United Methodist Witness during 2005. Of the 64 articles published, the top subjects were:
> Homosexuality—23 percent.
> Politics and public policy—17 percent.
> Scriptural authority—11 percent.
> Membership decline—11 percent.
> The church’s mission—9 percent.
> Disaster response—6 percent.
Our articles reflect our character as United Methodists and give insight into our priorities. Are we most concerned with homosexuality and scriptural authority? Are we most anxious about disaster and decline?
The articles suggest we are.
Homosexuality was the most popular topic. By most accounts, homosexuals are a static 1 to 4 percent of the general population. Yet their issues were discussed in 23 percent of the articles.
Perhaps we are so captivated by their concerns because of our common culture. Like most United Methodists in the United States, homosexuals tend to be morally and politically liberal, upper middle-class professionals with no children.
In contrast, young people under age 35 make up 50 percent of the U.S. population (2000 census). Yet only one article treated their concerns.
Books such as The Fourth Turning (Strauss & Howe, 1997) tell us that the rising generations are poorer, less educated and more pragmatic than older generations. Many of today’s young are the children of immigrants whose birth-rates are the highest in the nation.
Last year Hispanics accounted for half of the population growth in the United States. Latinos make up more than 56 percent of the population in the counties served by our Southwest Texas Conference.  
While we focused on the agendas of an affluent and eccentric few, young people and Hispanics were relatively ignored. Over the past 20 years, they returned the favor. 
From 1985 to 2005, the number of United Methodist ordained elders age 35 or younger has dropped from 3,219 to 850, a decline of 74 percent. Their influence fell from 15 percent to 4 percent of all ordained elders (Lewis Center for Church Leadership).
Today only seven elders under age 35 were counted out of 250 Southwest Texas Conference ordained elders, a mere 2.8 percent. 
The Rio Grande Conference had no elders under age 35. Their 34 ordained elders are deployed across two states where more than 7 million Hispanic people live. 
As other Christian groups developed young leaders, tested new strategies and boldly shared the Christian faith, we became increasingly invisible and irrelevant to approximately two-thirds of the people who live among us. 
Today most of our membership decline takes place in congregations surrounded by growing young and Hispanic populations.
United Methodism is at risk but not for the reasons we are told. For the first time in American History, we stand on the brink of becoming a marginalized sect, increasingly estranged from ecumenical and evangelical Christianity and devoid of significant representation within majority population groups.
We can correct our priorities and reclaim our identity, purpose and mission as a connectional Christian denomination, or we can continue to alienate one another with controversies while our congregations become fossilized remnants of days long gone. The choice is ours.