Demographic changes to affect UM funding

United Methodist News Service
NASHVILLE, Tenn.—The face of today’s United Methodist is markedly different from what it was 40 years ago.
That reality concerns church financial leaders tracking how changing demographics are hitting the denomination in its pocketbook.
In the United States, which provides the lion’s share of denominational resources, United Methodists are becoming rarer in a growing population. Adults older than 57 generally attend larger churches. Most are white or African American. And they are generally wealthier than United Methodists of previous generations.
The implications are far-reaching and represent a mixed bag of good news and bad news for denominational reach and resources, said Don House, chairman of a task force that recently completed a study of United Methodist funding patterns.
“While the (U.S.) population is growing, our membership is decreasing per capita, which means United Methodists are having a smaller and smaller impact on society,” said House, a research economist in College Station. “That wasn’t supposed to happen.”
House presented the group’s report during the September meeting of the General Council on Finance and Administration. He is an elected director.
The council voted to send legislation based on the report’s recommendations to the April 23-May 2
General Conference in Fort Worth.
The measures include a proposal to require jurisdictional committees that already review the work of bishops to evaluate their leadership in promoting and supporting the full payment of apportionments. If a bishop is found to be deficient in this task, a report would be sent to the president of the jurisdictional college of bishops. He or she would share that report with the Council of Bishops in executive session.
Candidates for deacon or elder would have to include in their graduate theological studies the theology and discipline of financial giving, in addition to current required areas of study such as Old Testament, New Testament and church history.
House presented the bad news first. Membership has decreased by more than 20 percent since 1973, and membership per capita in the United States had dropped from 4.75 percent to 2.7 percent by 2005.
During the same time, the number of United Methodist churches has declined by 12.4 percent. The declines have been significant in all five of the church’s U.S. jurisdictions.
“There is no jurisdiction with a winning report card,” House said. “We are getting rare in the
population, and it has an impact on our funding.”
The denomination has 8 million U.S. members and another 3.5 million members in other countries.
House cited numerous trends to help explain the membership drops:
> Ethnic background: In counties with a high percentage of whites and African Americans, a solid percentage of the population attends United Methodist churches. However, House said, “we don’t do well” in counties with growing or larger percentages of Asians, Hispanics, Pacific Islanders and Native Americans.
> Age: Based on the U.S. population, those attending United Methodist worship services today are underrepresented in the under-35 age group and overrepresented in the over-57 age group.
> Church size: The largest churches are growing while the smaller ones are stagnant or declining. “The smaller you get, the faster the decline in membership,” House said. “It wasn’t that way in the ’70s.”
The good news is that, despite declining membership and attendance, United Methodist churches claim a relatively constant share of the dollars given to U.S. religious groups. While religious organizations in general are losing their share of the philanthropic dollar to educational institutions and foundations, The United Methodist Church has received a steady 6 percent of the religious dollar since the mid-1980s.
The task force report says church-wide United Methodist ministries are struggling because they are receiving less funding from local churches. Such ministries are primarily funded through apportionments.
In recent decades, congregations have spent more on local ministries and needs, resulting in a decreasing share of total funds for the denomination. In 1974 local church contributions to the apportioned funds represented an average of 4.5 percent of
local church expenditures.