I don't usually blog about specifically United Methodist things, so this is a first.  I recently read a fascinating and sobering book - UnChristian.  The foundation of the book was the extensive research conducted by David Kinnaman from the Barna Group about young adults perceptions of Christianity in our culture.  One of the most staggering statistics is that only 18% of people ages 16-35 who have had some contact with church or christians report having a good impression of the church.  18%.  And we are supposed to be known for our love!  

I don't want to make it sound like looks are everything, but when 82% of the people you are trying to reach think most people associated with your faith are hypocrites then you have a huge hurdle to jump in order to show them that faith in Christ looks alot different than what they have seen.   

So what does this mean for the United Methodist Church?  **Disclaimer:  In what follows I may sound like I know more about how the church works than I actually do**  In America the UMC has declined for the last half century.  Young adults are fleeing the pews (as they are in many mainline denominations) and we are grasping at straws (or contemporary services) to try to woo them back.  There are some United Methodist churches that are reaching this generation, but most are not.   Most churches that seem to be reaching this generation very well are outside of mainline denominations, or at least they appear to be -such as:  National Community Church, Elevate, Origins, Mosaic, etc.   In these churches we can see what they are doing right, but as a UM body we never want to look.  As we go to annual conference and convocation year after year the speaking and teaching seems to always stay within our circle of methodism.  News Flash: The United Methodist Church is declining - maybe we should get some help and inspiration from outside of our circle!     

Another factor and hopeful solution for our church lies in the fact that all the churches I mentioned above were relatively recent church plants.  This is an avenue that the UMC has not exhausted.  There are many opportunities in cities dense with young adults to plant churches that reach them where they are at.  Instead of spending years and years of time and resources trying to spiritually remodel an older church, why don't we focus our attention on the white fields of urban young adults.  My generation wants to belong before they believe.  And let's be honest - most churches aren't going to change their appearance and social systems in order to radically welcome a generation that is radically different.  

In They Like Jesus But Not the Church, Dan Kimball makes two very good points.  First, our current culture is not Christian and we must approach it as missionaries.  When international missionaries first interact with a new culture they do not come and try to enforce their culture onto it (or at least they don't anymore).  Rather, they learn the taboos, the ways to connect, the do's and the dont's.  We have tried to enforce a 1950's church onto a generation that views it as completely foreign and negative.  We must step back and study this culture and learn how to connect. The second point he makes is that pastors and lay people must actually get to know someone who is outside the church in this generation before we can ever truly fulfill our calling to this generation.  I love the last chapter in his book.  After he has described the crisis we are in you would expect him to give us the answer, but instead he essentially says, "No - I am not going to give you the answer because you need to go out and bulld relationships with people outside of the church,"  - wow, radical.   

I found it very fascinating that our conference spent so much money to send us to see a growing church in Brazil when we have many growing churches here in our own cultural context - though they are not Methodist.  I found it even more interesting that those churches that were experiencing drastic growth in Brazil were implementing things that have been seen to work here in America (only with churches outside of the UMC), namely, church planting, no guaranteed appointments, and modern leadership techniques.   So I believe there is hope for the UMC, but  I also believe that culture-change has to come from the top down.  Until Bishops and DS's are held accountable and in turn hold pastor's accountable we will never see change.  In the book Simple Church, Rainer and Geiger comment that until we have a way to measure the success of our process we will never take the call to make disciples seriously.  So until the higher ups of the church decide to withdraw guaranteed appointments and seek to measure our progress and not just our decline and seek to blaze new paths with church planting it is up to local churches to become radically welcoming and for the pastor's to be culture shapers.  However, in an itinerant system this is only a temporary fix.  

Posted In: church culture

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