293 of 347 congregations report
professions of faith since 2002

Two-hundred-ninety-three of the 347 congregations in Southwest Texas have received at least one new member by profession of faith over the past three years.
Nevertheless, the 2,340 professions of faith made during 2005 was the third lowest total since 1981. The annual count of professions of faith has been generally declining since a high of 3,150 in 1995.
The Rev. David A. Seilheimer, Southwest Texas Conference statistician, made those points in his yearly report to the Southwest Texas Annual Conference session this month. Voting members of the meeting in Corpus Christi accepted the written report June 9.
Professions of faith provide the best statistical measure of how well Southwest Texas congregations are introducing people to Christ and making disciples, Seilheimer said.
Twenty-three congregations have accounted for a large percentage of professions of faith between 2002 and 2005, Seilheimer noted.
University UMC, San Antonio, (598 professions of faith over three years) and Alamo Heights UMC, San Antonio, (555 professions of faith since 2002) led the way, he said.
“Sometimes the accomplishments of these churches are dismissed because they are ‘mega-churches,’” Seilheimer said. “But that is not possible to do in this context. Together, these two churches have grown in membership by 7,275 during the 25 years we have studied.
“The fact that they are mega-churches is more a result of their effectiveness in bringing persons to Christ than the reverse.”
Effective disciple-making also characterized the next three congregations on the professions-of-faith list: Coker UMC, San Antonio; Northwest Hills UMC, San Antonio; and Northern Hills UMC, San Antonio.
“Note that these five churches have all dramatically increased membership over the last 25 years, some doubling their membership multiple times,” Seilheimer said.
Fifty-four congregations have reported no professions of faith since 2002, Seilheimer reported. Another 120 had 10 or fewer professions of faith over the past three years.
“These numbers are humbling,” he said. “One half of our churches are having very little success in introducing persons to Christ and the life of faith.”
But, he noted, the 54 congregations with no professions of faith represent only 2 percent of the conference’s 119,677 membership. The other 120 congregations represent only 11 percent of the conference membership.
“One conclusion that can be made from looking at these numbers is that we have 54 churches that have a very small number of members and whose probability of existence in the future is very low,” Seilheimer said.
The conference should evaluate each of the 54 congregations individually to determine “if change is possible given the community in which it is located,” Seilheimer said.
“If it is not,” he said, “then our goal is to allow these communities of faith to experience the kind of faithful and graceful death over the next decade that is in keeping with their faith and history.”
Church communities live, grow and die just as individuals do, Seilheimer said.
“The fact that we have some churches who are approaching death should not be grounds for despair but a fact taken in context of God’s loving plan,” he said.
While most measures of church participation showed uniform decline from 2004 to 2005, Seilheimer did find some causes for excitement:
> Nearly 75 percent of Southwest Texas United Methodists regularly participate in Christian formation groups. Those include Sunday school classes and Bible studies during the week.
> Some 25 percent of church members are active in weekday ministry events.
> Nearly 2,000 people joined Volunteers in Ministry teams during 2005.
“Such (VIM) involvement by definition includes significant investment of time and energy,” Seilheimer noted.
Debt secured by capital assets went up 12 percent to $76 million during 2005, Seilheimer reported.
“This indicates that our churches are continuing to invest in their future by improving and/or expanding their facilities to better meet ministry needs,” he said.