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CHURCH DEVELOPMENT New Churches Making New Disciples By Charles W. Courtoy
Executive Director of Church Development
“When we launch new churches we are doing
little more than shifting members from established churches to new churches,”
complained a recent critic from an established church in a district where a new church was
being launched. There is some of that, to be sure, but not near as much as some may think
or fear.
When we launch new churches our emphasis is on making new disciples. Each of the seven new churches chartered in 1996 and 1997 received on average 2.5 times as many people on profession of faith in 1997 as each of the conference’s established churches. After looking at the 150 churches launched in the last 37 years to determine their 1996 record for confession of faith, I discovered that they represent 21 percent of the churches in the Florida Conference. Those 21 percent accounted for 36 percent of the people received on confession of faith in 1996. They also accounted for 31 percent of the average weekly worship attendance and 30 percent of the total monies recorded as spent.
In business terms, that means 21 percent of our stores accounted for 36 percent of our new customers, 31 percent of the total volume of customers who visit our stores weekly, and 30 percent of gross sales receipts. If church members were stock holders of XYZ Company and heard those figures given at the annual stock holders meeting, they would demand that management and the board of directors launch a major campaign to open new outlets.
Of course, we are about far more serious matters than XYZ Company. Our business has to do with eternal matters. What price can you put on a wasted life? Jesus said and demonstrated that a soul is priceless, and He told us that our primary task is to make disciples.
The latest demographic study of the Florida Conference reveals that 13.4 million people are living within the conference’s bounds, with a projection that an additional 850,000 will be living among us by 2003 — just five years away. The shocking fact is that seven out of 10 of these residents have little or no connection with any faith community — Christian, Jewish, Moslem or other. In other words, seven out of 10 people are not being shaped by the moral and religious teachings to which you and I have committed our lives. What really gnaws at me is that 13 percent (1,742,000 persons) of the current population report they favor Methodism, and yet, we have only 2.5 percent (336,000 persons) of them as members and only 1.2 percent (156,000 persons) in weekly worship.
What are the stock holders of the Florida Conference saying about our results? I believe they are saying open more outlets!
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