REPORT OF REV. BERTHA POTTS,  THE DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT OF THE STILLWATER DISTRICT OKLAHOMA , AT THE CONFERENCE ON DECEMBER 9, 2007 AND TO THE CLUSTER GROUP MEETING ON FEBRUARY 10, 2008 IN THE ASBURY UMC IN PONCA CITY. 

1 INTRODUCTION:

 Lovett Weems, Professor of Church Leadership and Director of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington D.C. was commissioned in 2005 by the Connectional Table to review data and give feedback about the state of our denomination.   According to Weems, United Methdist Leaders have been struggling for decades to understand the gradual delcline of the deonomination in the United Sates, where memberfship is almost 8 million, a decline of l9 percent since 1974.  Fourty-one percent of United Methodist Churches in the United Sates did not report a single profession of faith in 2005. 

In our Oklahoma confernce research shows that 66 churches have had no professions of faith in the past 4 years.  We have several churches in the category in our own district.  Some of our churches may have had only two or three in the same period of time.  Many of those churches are in areas where the towns and communities are in decline.  Some are having new populations of people move in who are different than the populations of previous years.  These situations present us with major challenges. 

Weems contends, though that the United Methodist Church has a future in the United States if we reach younger and more diverse people.  He said in his report that the church grew up in the 19th century and early decades of the 20th century, but "as the last century unfolded, the nation changed and the church did not."

Today, Weems says the U.S. church is smaller and older and less diverse than in the country's population and notes that the denomination has steadily grayed since 1975.  According to Weems, "The need for a renewed spirit of inclusion of people is crucial today and the church's future will be shaped by "its willingness and ability to respond to the changing face of America."

Weems also called the lack of young United Methodist clergy both a crisis and a "complex, multi-dimensional phenomenon" and asked if they should be declared an endangered species.  Over the last 20 years, the denomination's U.S. clergy under the age of 35 have dropped below 5 percent.  "There is no single cause and no single solution."

Weems declares the church must recruit young clergy to bring new ideas, creativity, energy and cultural awareness and add that without them, these lost characteristics are, jeopoardizing the wisdom and experience that can come with long ministry tenures.  

 2 THE GOOD NEWS:

The Good News is the report indicates that United Methodists are immersed in experiences leading to theological grounding and spiritual vitality.

"Untied Methodist core beliefs are clear" and is "remarkable" conses