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Good news about faithfulness!

I don’t know about you, but some days I grow weary of persons sharing nothing but "doom and gloom" about the future of the church. There are many challenges that face our churches these days, but there is also a great deal that is happening within the ministry of our congregations and the wider church.

In my report to the Ohio Conference at the Annual Gathering, I reported some statistics that may be of interest to you. We talk at times about the "glory days" of the 1950’s when it seemed as if churches were filled and thriving. But in the last five years there have been great things happening here in the Ohio Conference as well.

In the last five years, the 443 congregations gave $253 million to support the current expenses of the local churches in this Conference. Congregations have received an additional $38 million for capital expenses to improve or build new buildings. The congregations of the Ohio Conference gave over $25 million to support Our Churches Wider Mission, another $6.5 million in special support for offerings and gifts to other United Church of Christ ministries, and $6.9 million to other benevolent causes. This means that within the past five years the members of the churches of the Ohio Conference gave over $323 million to support the ministries of Jesus Christ through the United Church of Christ and related ministries. Praise God for the faithfulness and support of the ministry of the church of Jesus Christ. That, my friends, is a lot of Good News!

Should you doubt whether this is increased giving over the past, it should be noted that per capita giving (giving per person)to Our Churches Wider Mission grew by 21% in the last five years, and giving to support local church ministries grew by an amazing 104%.

I am excited about the future of the church even with the challenges we face. Throughout the history of the church, from the earliest Christians in the first century until today, challenges have faced the members of the church. I suspect there were moments in the first century when the folks must have wondered, will we survive? In the Middle Ages, when the church seemed to have stumbled into chaos, there must have been times when those faithful Christians wondered, how shall we continue?

Today we also face new opportunities to help the church be faithful to the past generations and at the same time help it to be relevant to the present and future generations. We will not all agree about how we shall be the church in the future, but I doubt whether any of us ought to lose faith in the idea that the church will survive and grow. I am aware that numbers alone do not show the complete evidence of growth, but they are a sign that something good is happening.

I encourage congregations to take a look at what has happened in your church in the past five years. Thank God for past faithfulness and for the courage to face the days and years before us. We have Good News to share. Praise God!