A challenge from Dakota

I think his name is Doug Dugdale, and I assume that is one of his grandchildren in the picture that I have purloined from his website.

Doug recently posted a challenging sermon on his blog. He specifically spoke about the Dakotas (a couple of states in the mid west of the USA) and our sister church the United Methodist Church. But his message is just as relevant to us Methodists in every town, city and rural area of the United Kingdom. These are the highlights, but the whole sermon is worth reading:

In 1974 the number of UM churches in North and South Dakota numbered 350.  Today we have 263.  The number of United Methodists has decreased from 63,000 to 40,000 in the last 35 years.  The average attendance has gone from 30,000 to 20,000.  In 1980 United Methodists comprised 4.4% of the population of the two states.  Today we comprise less than 2.7%.  The number of attending Sunday School has also decreased: children by 28%; youth by %21 and adults by 6%.

I realize there is always a margin for error in statistics.  Who knows how accurately pastors and ushers and Sunday School superintendents have recorded numbers throughout the years.  However, the trend can’t be denied.  We were challenged at the meeting. We were reminded that these statistics are us.  For most of us older pastors, at least, this continual decline has happened under our watch.

Today I relay the challenge to you as well.  Whether a part of the United Methodist Church for many years or just a short while this decline has happened under our watch.  There have been no exceptions.  The decline has happened every year since 1970.

We could make all kinds of excuses.  We know some of the problem is demographics – the decline of the rural areas, the changing of culture and so on.  We could blame it on others.  But we can’t deny it, part of problem is us.  We just aren’t taking this seriously.  For example: How many persons have you brought into the Christian faith since you first accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?  How many people have you kept away?

The sad thing about it, we have strayed so far from the track of early Methodism.  John and Charles Wesley, Francis Asbury, and many, many others would be greatly saddened by what has happened to this movement they began 250+ years ago now.  Did you notice I said “movement?”  They were not concerned about a church.  They were concerned about a movement of God’s spirit.

That is some of our problem. We define ourselves too much as a place instead of a movement.  We define the church as an organization that takes care of us instead of a movement motivated by us.  We as pastors have come to believe that we are appointed to take care of churches instead of to lead the church.