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Forty-three percent of United Methodist churches in America did not receive a member by profession of faith in 2004, the most recent year for which numbers are available.

In the Baltimore-Washington Conference that same year, 190 out of 693 churches did not receive a new disciple of Jesus Christ by profession of faith.

These troubling numbers serve as an indicator that congregations are losing their effectiveness to attract new believers, say spiritual leaders in the conference and at the denomination?s discipleship agency.

Bishop John R. Schol, episcopal leader of the Washington Area, said that this further illustrates that we are moving in the right directions through the Discipleship Adventure.

'As we focus on holistic discipleship, we will inspire present disciples and attract new ones,' the bishop said. 'We?ve been working to do that since the start of the Discipleship Adventure.'

The Discipleship Adventure is an inward journey of celebrating one?s faith, connecting through Christ and developing one?s faith, while also serving others in Christ?s name and sharing what God has done.

'The Adventure, when lived in all of its parts, produces fruit the early disciples saw in the Book of Acts,' Bishop Schol said. One of those fruits is leading people into a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

'The conference has established, as a goal, as a minimum, that every congregation should be bringing one new person into the church through profession of faith for every 25 people in worship,' the bishop said.

The 43 percent number was cited during a recent United Methodist Board of Discipleship meeting by the Rev. Karen Greenwaldt, top executive of the Board of Discipleship, and Bishop Michael Coyner, board president.

Bishop Coyner, leader of the Indiana Area, made the observation during a presentation on the seven vision pathways the Council of Bishops, with the denomination?s Connectional Table, is using to help the church make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. One of the council?s pathways is transforming existing congregations by helping them become more effective and faithful in ministry.

'There is one number in our denomination which keeps going up,' Bishop Coyner said. 'It is the percentage of churches that did not receive even one person as a new member by profession of faith.'

Existing congregations need to be transformed in a variety of ways, but at the heart of the transformation is 'simply to have a passion that we are all about making disciples for Jesus Christ,' the bishop said.

Greenwaldt said many of the denomination?s U.S. churches 'are in real trouble.' In addition to receiving no members by profession of faith, she said, membership and church attendance are also in decline, as well as contributions to conference benevolences.

She noted that the average age of people in U.S. churches is between 57 and 62, but millions of young people who live in the same towns, cities and suburbs are attending house churches, marketplace ministries and cyber-churches. 'They continue to avoid going to our churches and to similar denominations,' she said.

?Consumer church? problem
Though the denomination emphasizes clergy and lay collaboration, Greenwaldt said, 'The reality is that many churches continue practices that call for a passive laity who wait for the direction of the clergy.' She described this laity as 'passive churchgoers' or 'lethargic consumers' who are addicted to a 'consumer church.'

'I think we still operate in many of our churches as if it?s 1959,' said the Rev. Vicky Starnes, pastor of the Brunswick Charge on the Frederick District. 'We think that all we have to do is wait and folks will come back to church. What we don?t realize is that they never came, they know very little about church or faith in God, or what they do know is negative or boring. The mindset we often carry is what?s killing us.'

Starnes, in an e-mail, said that she is trying to address this problem in her church by preaching a relevant message from the Bible every Sunday.

'I try to bring it into your life and into mine,' she said.

Combined with that, her two small-town churches do extensive evangelism, children?s sermons and activities, follow-ups with visitors, some contemporary worship and 'anything else we can think of to get our name out in the community.'

It seems to be working. Recently, 10 new members joined the church, three by confession of faith.

Radical change needed
The time for an incremental quick fix has passed, Greenwaldt said at the Board meeting. 'We are living in a world and in a church that needs radical intervention. The status quo will not overcome the inertia holding us in place.'

That sentiment is echoed by the Rev. Ianther Mills, Washington East District Superintendent.

'Triage will not do it this time,' she wrote in an e-mail. 'What we need is radical surgery, and we need it NOW!'

Greenwaldt called on church leaders and members to return to the basic disciplines of the Christian faith.

'The church does not need more managers,' she said. 'Rather, the church needs leaders.'

Linda Green contributed to this report from United Methodist News Service.