Imagine Team Sustainability Script

Bertrand Russell (in a quote sometimes incorrectly attributed to Chuck Schuster) once wrote that some of us are “moved emotionally by statistics. This capacity …. is as rare as it is important.” 

Numbers moved Jesus emotionally to action.  Otherwise, why would he gone to go looking for the Lost Sheep, if he were not moved? 

I am going to challenge you for a few minutes to be “moved emotionally” by numbers. 

Let me start with …

New Church Starts

From 1945 to 2001 – what is now the Rocky Mountain Conference started 61 churches.  That was an average of more than one a year. 

In the last thirteen years, we have gotten two churches to full recognition as a “church.”  Two. 

We celebrate the chartering of Elizabeth UMC this year.  It is our first chartering in a decade. 

Does anyone believe our current rate of establishing new churches is an indicator of long-term sustainability for Methodism in the Rocky Mountain Conference? 

Let me now move to …

Worship Attendance

Since the early 1980s, in spite of pretty steady declines in membership, our conference attendance held reasonably steady for many years in the 35,000 on an average Sunday.  Everyone … our attendance dropped below 30,000 in 2013 and in fact has declined by 13% over the last ten years. 

Does anyone believe our steady loss in worship attendance is an indicator of long-term sustainability for Methodism in the Rocky Mountain Conference? 

Our decline in attendance is modest compared to our decline in …

Making Disciples

Our mission statement is about the making disciples.  We are not doing well here.  Let’s look at three indicators:  New Christians, Confirmations, and Baptisms. 

As I just said, we have lost 13% in our average Sunday attendance over the last ten years.  If our decline in disciple creation were comparable with that decline it would be in the range of 13% or so.  It is not.  It is in fact, much worse. 

New Christians joining our churches -- Confirmation classes -- Baptisms are all down about 35% or nearly twice what we would have expected given our attendance change.

Does anyone believe our sharp decline in overall disciple making is an indicator of long-term sustainability for Methodism in the Rocky Mountain Conference? 

Allow me to make an invitation for a movement to bottom up thinking

We need to try something new (pause).  We need to try something different (second longer pause). 

Our Discipline reminds us that it is at the local level where the church is the church.  Bishop Robert Schanse notes that we also have in our current Book of Discipline over four thousand “shall” statements. 

Does anyone believe that top down directives will lead to long-term sustainability …?  Or will it be bottom up? 

Doubtlessly, we are, scripturally and theologically, people of hope.  And there are in our numbers, glimmers of vitality that move us emotionally to see hope. 

Vitality is being displayed in many shapes, sizes and forms …. 

If we look for churches in the Rocky Mountain Conference that –

•      Increased in attendance,

•      Baptized someone,

•      Brought in a New Christian, and

•      Conducted a Confirmation Class.

We show here in your conference booklet (hold it up) the names of 25 churches with the smallest being Chugwater, Wyoming.  A worship attendance of 25, and Chugwater is in this report. In addition – Chugwater increased in membership and they paid 100% of their tithe plus!  Can we have a shout out for Chugwater? 

Vitality is not dependent on size. 

If we relax the Confirmation Class requirement and look only at positive attendance change, a baptism, and a new Christian, we add 32 more churches.  Thirty-two more churches on the edge of disciple making vitality. 

Vitality can be displayed in other transformational ways, but might we offer, it will be difficult -- if not impossible to transform the world -- without disciples. 

For those rare souls who want to reflect on the important, and prayerfully be emotionally moved, a more extended analysis is in this report (here) … but I invite you know that good people are working on this, people who love the church as much as you do are working on this.  Pray for us.

We are working in the belief that the people of the Rocky Mountain Conference values transformation, mission, competency, and inclusion. 

We believe that we here -- here now and in our local churches now -- have the capacity to lead us, in community, back to long-term sustainability.  Do you believe that?  If not, we ask:  If not you, who?  If not now, when? What is your part in this transformational work?  What is God's part?   Doug Palmer is going to talk about how we might work together to bring transformation into our local communities and the world.”