I am spending the weekend in East Lansing, on Michigan State's campus, for the Michigan Area Annual Conference. This is a meeting of all the United Methodist Clergy in the state, as well as lay representatives from all of the United Methodist Churches. We gather for inspiring worship, this year in the Breslin Center, and for the business of our conference.
Much like at the annual local church meeting, the church conference, we hear reports and elect officers for various commissions and boards. We also receive statistical information from the previous year.
The missions report was inspiring. It was wonderful to hear that the United Methodists of Michigan have given over $800,000 to curb Malaria around the world. That is nearly $10 for every United Methodist church member in Michigan. We heard a report from the United Methodist relief effort for those affected by the water crisis in Flint. Methodists from all over the world are contributing to the effort of United Methodist Church in Flint to bring water and filter systems to the people of Flint. The United Methodist Committee on Relief has committed to long term assistance, especially for those who have been effected by lead poinsoning.
In other mission news, there has been an increase in the number of participants in Volunteers in Mission, the program for sending United Methodists out for hands-on-mission all over the world. Also, it is estimated that 280,000 Michigan community members have been served by our United Methodist Churches. At Brighton First, that includes those who use the VINA Dental Clinic, our Fish and Loaves free dinners, our foster care ministry Hope's Closet and our bedding ministry.
The Annual Conference also heard the sobering news about our church's continuing decline in attendance and membership. Sunday school attendance also continues to decline. The bright spot was the announcement that there have been more professions of faith to become church members than there have been in previous years.
One statistic that struck me was that there were 2,055 new church members received in the Detroit Annual Conference in 2015, and that the number of church members who died during 2015 was less than those who came to membership. Some assume that the decline in United Methodist Church membership is predominently the effect of an aging church. The people are dying and the numbers are decreasing. This is not exactly true. The decline in church attendance and membership is due to an increase in non-participating members and members who choose to transfer their membership to other churches.
Lovett Weems, a leader in the United Methodist Church, says we are called to see the work of the church differently than we have in past decades. The old way of doing church was to gather to communicate and teach the people. The new way of being the church is people of faith communicating to gather and serve.
If our worship gatherings are not relevant and transformational, and if we are not calling, equipping and sending our congregation to be in ministry in our communities, people will seek the movement of God's spirit in other places.
One of the concerns mentioned in the Vital Church Initiative Consultation Report that Brighton First received in 2015 was that we are a church that does "transactional" mission very well. We meet the physical needs of people in signifcant way. The Consultation Report called Brighton First to be in "relational" mission with community members and to see worship as a place to connect powerfully with God on the way to being change agents in the world.
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