Annual conference report:
UMC as we know it is dying

The Valley of Dry Bones

Friends, many people have requested a copy of the report I presented June 3 at the annual conference session in Corpus Christi. I decided to share it in this venue as well.

---

Introduction: Real Church video (available from ignitingministry. org). Shows a first-time visitor going to church with a video camera in his tie tack. There are no greeters. He is ignored by the ushers, has to ask for a bulletin, is brushed off, and told to go sit by himself in an empty sanctuary.
This is convicting. It’s a sad picture of the welcome we extend to guests. It is no wonder we are dying.
The United Methodist Church as we know it is dying.
How many people are here under 50? Stand up. Look around. I should ask how many people here are of childbearing age. What does that say about our future?
The United Methodist Church in general has lost members for years. I confess I have not been too anxious about that. We were always growing because we have the benefit of living in the Sun Belt and enjoyed growing demographics. I have known since my youth that the smart Yankees come down here.
But my complacency has been jarred by the facts. The fact is that our conference has lost members and declined in worship attendance for the past two years. One year I could dismiss as a hiccup. Two years is a trend.

Vital signs as indicators
The fact is that we are sick. We have been turning in our vital signs for 12 or 13 years. Even the influx of smart Yankees cannot mask the fact that we are bleeding.
It is a fact that if you have no new members, no baptisms, no confessions of faith and 10 deaths, your church is sick. If that happens five or six years in a row, your church is dying.
We are hemorrhaging. This is not an office-visit illness. We are in the hospital.
I have said myself as a pastor, and I have heard my pastors say, “Well, we need to take these people off the rolls if they are not here.”
That is fine. I understand that. That is common sense. Common sense is also, “OK, lost them. We must replace them.”
If we were a business and our people were money, most of our churches would be bankrupt.
Business as usual is not an option. You know the definition of insanity: doing the same things and expecting different results.
We must confess that we are Ezekiel’s dead bones (Ezekiel 37:1-3).
Dead churches do not have grace-filled worship. The church of Jesus Christ is not a comfortable clique.
OK, so your kids and grandkids have moved off to the city of San Antonio or Austin. Responsible parents and grandparents make provisions for their children and grandchildren.
Our children and grandchildren are going to the Victory Tabernacle or the Bay Area Fellowship, where the message of Jesus Christ is preached with an urgency and passion that few of our pastors possess, with bands and video clips. And music that is TOO LOUD for us.
To put this in business terms: We are losing our market share.

Providing a legacy
What is the spiritual reason for your church to exist? What we need here is not a slogan but a way of life. We must revitalize existing churches and start new ones.
How do old, sick people ensure the future? They give their children a legacy. How do we align our corporate life with the purposes of God?
God is not through with us. The world needs our message of grace.
Bad theology is hazardous to faith. If you don’t think so, go to the funeral of a suicide victim preached by a Baptist.
The question is: What must we do now to ensure the future? What must we do now to ensure that our children and grandchildren have the benefit of the richness and wisdom of The United Methodist Church?
In broad strokes, here is what we must do.

Igniting our ministry
At the local church level, every church becomes a “welcoming congregation.” We must treat our visitors as we would treat guests in our homes.
Igniting Ministry is one of the best things we have ever done. You can find the welcoming congregation process at www.umc.org under Igniting Ministry. Strengthen the hospitality and guest follow-up ministries of each church in the conference.
Bishop, if each district will have at least half of its churches be certified as welcoming congregations by next annual conference, we can change this negative momentum.
The churches who are certified welcoming congregations could be the six-star churches!
Supporting material for the award is available to all United Methodist congregations without cost. This is doable at no extra cost. The welcoming congregation certification is something that the general church is giving back to the local church. This is a benefit from paying our apportionments. Let’s take advantage of it.

Leadership and development
At the conference level, the New Church Development Commission is presenting a strategic plan that will include Cabinet and Board of Ordained Ministry working together on issues related to transforming the annual conference, the most important being effective pastoral leadership.
> Improve the leadership skills and performance of the clergy within the conference through individual or small group coaching. Do this for those identified as having significant leadership potential, which the conference wants to develop in an intentional manner, and for those who are identified as having below average performance, which the conference wants to address in an intentional manner. We need clergy members who are deeply in love with their community and believe that people can be made new in Christ.
> Put a program in place for pastors who have moved three times in seven years.
Effective pastors are aware of the present context—local, national, international. If the sermon did not address the tsunami the Sunday after Christmas, there is a problem. The context needs to become the lectionary, the lectionary of life.
Leaders have a capacity for foresight that holds in tension the lessons of the past, the needs of the present and the promise of the future.

Establishing new churches
> Train the Cabinet and Board of Ordained Ministry to create a healthy system for establishing new churches.
> Put in place a process for assessing new-church-start pastors—a church planting academy.
Leadership is key for a new church start. We can never go beyond our leadership, either in new churches or existing ones—not only clergy leaders but lay leaders working with pastors.
If your pastor preached with the tongues of men and angels and a guest received the treatment in the video, that guest would never come back.
It takes both laity and clergy together to be effective. If the lay leadership becomes a roadblock, we are stuck. If the clergy leadership becomes a roadblock, we are stuck.
That is why church-planting projects are more likely to succeed if a trained coach is part of the planting system.
> Have on-site visits, benchmarks that clarify expectations.
> Target areas where there is a need for new congregations. Follow the sewer lines. New sewer lines and new homes mean potential new United Methodists.
> Provide financial support. Strategic plans that do not have dollars tied to them are doomed to fail. Look at the legislature.
> Have a dedicated professional staff.
> Follow the message of our retreat with Bishop Joe Pennel: This effort must be undergirded with prayer.

Empowered by the Holy Spirit
This is not something we will do. This is something that God is calling us to do, something the Holy Spirit will empower us to do through prayer, meditation, scripture reading and empowering the laity for ministry. Our hope is in God. When you pray about a real need, you will be moved to address it.
We believe in the ministry of the laity. We are ordered by the Book of Discipline.
We remember that we are in covenantal relationship with every other United Methodist church. We are one church with many branches.
If there is no commitment and vision in this room, it will not happen. We can get a lot done if we don’t care who gets the credit.
Closing: Show clip of video of Bishop Joel N. Martinez made in the McAllen District. Bishop Martinez is in a playground filled with children of different ages and ethnicities. Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors slogan.
Let this picture of the future be TRUE!