Economist Pitches Plan to Reverse Decline of UMC Before It 'Ceases to Exist As We Know It'

An economist volunteering at the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church has proposed a plan to help reverse the membership and financial decline of the denomination.

Donald R. House, who holds a Ph.D. in economics and chairs the SCJ UMC's Episcopacy Committee, released the 34-page proposal last Thursday titled "A Strategic Plan for Growth in The United Methodist Church." In an interview with The Christian Post, House explained that the plan derived from exhaustive research on church growth.

"I believe that the strategy will reverse the decline in the UMC in the U.S. My belief comes from considerable examination of almost 750,000 end-of-year reports among 32,000 local churches," said House. "I have considered pastoral leadership, demographic changes in neighborhoods surrounding local churches, and local church spending patterns in seeking to understand local church growth and decline. The strategy is based upon these considerations."

House also told CP that at present the overall plan for the UMC has a couple "pilot projects on-going to test the effectiveness of the strategy. Thus far, the results are positive." Read more