Online Archives

UM membership in the United States has been dropping, but giving is on the rise. So says the new report by the General Council on Finance and Administration unveiled by General Secretary Sandra Lackore at last week's UM town hall. According to the report entitled "This Is Our Story," U.S. membership has dropped more than 19% from 1974 to 2005. At the same time, attendance as percentage of membership has increased from 36% in 1974 to nearly 42% in 2005. In other words, attendance has not dropped as fast as membership, and at times during those two decades it has risen. Professions and restorations of faith are more than 51% of new members today. About half of those are from confirmation classes, whereas 78% were from confirmation classes in 1975. While larger churches bring in more new members, they have about the same number of professions of faith as the smallest UM churches. The largest churches are better at bringing in new members transferring from another church.

The report also included information on giving, saying, "In fact, in 2005, giving adjusted for inflation increased for the fifteenth consecutive year." Half of these funds came through pledge giving. When income grows, so does spending. Benevolence spending increased 36% in ten years; staff salaries and benefits increased 46%; and clergy salaries and connectional clergy support increased at about 11%. The church outside the United States makes up one-third of the total UM membership. This non-U.S. membership has grown 177% in the last ten years, or 223% if you include the addition of more than 677,000 members in Côte d'Ivoire. The number of local churches outside the United States has grown by 86% since 1995, and the number of ordained clergy has grown by almost 83%. In closing the report, GCFA came back to the figure that 41% of U.S. churches did not have a single new member by profession of faith or restoration. "There is much out there for us to do," the report says.