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BY JOHN H. SOUTHWICK
GENERAL BOARD OF GLOBAL MINISTRIES

The Research Office and the General Board of Global Ministries recently looked back on the "Aughts," those years between 2000 and 2009, to examine some statistics, which they published in the Background Data for Mission newsletter.

In the last decade, the U.S. population grew, breaking through to the 300 million level, going from 281 million in the last census to more than 308 million currently. This represents a gain of close to 10 percent.

Not only is the U.S. population growing, it is changing composition.

Those who identify themselves as Non-Hispanic whites have increased in number, but have gone from
79 percent of the population down to 77 percent.

Hispanic/Latinos have increased from 35.3 million to 47.5 million, an increase of 35 percent. Their portion of the total population has gone from 12.4 percent to 15.5 percent.

The next most numerous group is blacks, having gone from 33.9 million to 37.3 million, an increase of
10 percent. Their portion of the population has gone from 12 percent to 12.1 percent, indicating change at the same pace as the general population.

Asians have gone up from 10.1 million to 13.3 million, a 31.6 percent increase. They now represent 4.3 percent of the U.S. population.

During this period, United Methodist statistics for the United States have not shown the same growth. (Actually, the most recent official UMC data is from 2007.)

United Methodist membership has declined from 8.3 million to 7.9 million, a 5.6 percent decrease. Worship attendance has declined from 3.5 million to 3.2 million, a 7 percent decrease. The number of churches has dropped from 35,947 to 34,282, a 4.9 percent decrease.

The number of baptisms has dropped a striking 29.8 percent from 150,686 to 116,121. New members by profession of faith have likewise plummeted from 174,236 to 140,219, a 24.3 percent drop.

In the midst of these negative statistics, good news can be found amongst racial-ethnic figures.

Total non-white (Asian, African American, Native American, Pacific Islander, and Hispanic) membership rose from 503,161 to 570,077, a gain of 13.3 percent.

Several comments are in order regarding the worship attendance numbers, especially since, despite shortcomings, this is regarded as one of the best currently collected indicators of congregational vitality.

The first observation is that for decades prior to this one, though membership was declining every year, the attendance figures were pretty level. It is only recently that they have started to decline, and significantly.

The other comment is that in 2001, attendance actually spiked notably, presumably due to 9/11. To have an overall decline of 7 percent, despite the 2001 bump, is a huge change from the past.

Preliminary 2008 figures suggest a continuation of the serious dropping trend.

The United Methodist Church is a missional one. One core aspect of missional ministry is being incarnational. In other words, congregations need to be leaving the comfort of their pews and going where the unchurched people are. If there was ever a time for The United Methodist Church to embody this principle, it is now.

For more information, visit http://reserach.gbgm-umc.org.