All churches should have
professions of faith, dean says

By Claudia M. Williams
Staff Writer
Every Southwest Texas Conference congregation should receive at least one member by profession of faith during the coming year.
That’s one way the conference can “improve its performance,” the Rev. Kim Cape said June 9 in Corpus Christi.
For the second year in a row, Cape, incoming Austin District superintendent and dean of Bishop Joel N. Martinez’s cabinet, delivered the annual report from the seven district superintendents to the Southwest Texas Annual Conference session. She received a standing ovation.
Unlike a business, which measures its performance by financial returns, Cape said, churches measure their performance by their successes in drawing people to Christ.
The church, like a business, has a product, Cape said. That product is a connection with Jesus Christ.
Contrary to some beliefs, Cape said, the number of people in those connections is measurable. Not only should the “products” be counted, so should the progress churches are making toward making disciples.
Southwest Texas United Methodists must start doing something about three straight years of declining church membership, worship attendance and professions of faith, Cape said.
Overall, she noted, 43 percent of United Methodist congregations across the nation had no professions of faith in 2004. More United Methodist churches in the United States are closing than starting.
The denomination, Cape said, faces serious challenges that threaten its viability in the United States while members are “wringing (their) hands and saying the church is going to hell in a handbasket.” Others are offering excuses or blaming the clergy or laity—or both.
“A colleague of mine, whose initials are Robert Hall (outgoing Austin District superintendent), said he was tired of all the gloom and doom—and so am I,” Cape said. Church leaders applauded.
“Are we ready to do something about it?” Cape continued.
“Yes” came a response from the audience.
Stopping membership decline requires more effective leadership, Cape said. The conference initiatives on clergy effectiveness and new church development, approved during the June 7-10 session, are crucial.
Like successful businesses, churches must recruit and train the best people, Cape said.
“We must invert our three-year probationary period from a default of ‘Yes, you will be ordained unless you really mess up’ to a default of ‘No, you most likely will not be ordained unless you have proved yourself to be an exceptional pastor,’” she said.
The new church development initiative is key to the conference’s future, Cape said. United Methodists must plant new churches where the people are moving and partner with existing churches to reach new people.
“The circuit riders followed the pioneers west,” she said. The church’s frontiers today are where the people are moving as well as the inner city.
“We still have a passion for souls, don’t we?” Cape said. Conference members applauded in response.
A third contributor to the vitality of the church, Cape said, is the emphasis on welcoming congregations.
As both Martinez and Lay Leader Jay Brim did in their June 8 speeches to the conference session, Cape commended the churches that have received or are working to attain the welcoming congregation designation.
“It’s easy; it’s free; and it’s available on line,” she said of the welcoming-congregation materials.
Certification, Cape said, could be an effective measure of a congregation’s progress in delivering on its “product”—disciples of Jesus Christ.