Madison Avenue Methodism (Slick ads won't save a mainline church that has lost track of its soul)

Is television advertising mainline Protestantism's best hope? Set to mood music that would have made Barry White grin, a new United Methodist Church spot features a woman discovering a red ribbon, a black man in a wheelchair, an Asian woman fighting with her husband, a businessman picking up arrows, and other people of every age, sex, and color finding their way to a field. The voiceover intones, "Find your path and share the journey. The people of the United Methodist Church." This is what's supposed to haul folks back to Methodism -- or at least stem its precipitous decline.

"The Journey" TV ad will be launched next week by United Methodist Communications in a $2 million cable rollout. UMC has sent out press releases and retained a Washington, D.C. public relations firm to announce its latest push in the "Open hearts, Open minds, Open doors" advertising campaign. The Methodists' sustained PR push began in 2001 with aggressive advertising and is slated to continue through 2008, with concentrated efforts during back-to-school and holiday periods.

While United Methodist Communications' PR representative contacted TAS to set up interviews with church officials about the ad campaign, they failed to call for two days. So we were left with a few questions: What is the ad saying? Where is the ad's religious message? What about the ad distinguishes the United Methodist Church? Why is a church spending so much on television advertising?

At first glance, the ad says very little. The church welcomes people from all walks of life and makes few demands. Rev. Larry Hollon, chief executive of United Methodist Communications, seems to confirm this in the press release, "We are on a journey that leads us toward God. This spot shows that persons seeking a path for their faith can find a home in the United Methodist Church." And he told the Denver Post, "What we're trying to say is, if you're searching for wholeness, a desire for spiritual growth and commitment to a larger purpose, try us." From this information, the uninitiated would learn that the UMC is monotheistic and welcoming. To learn that the church is Christian would require independent investigation.

Maybe the message behind the ad campaign -- or lack thereof -- is part of the problem rather than a solution. Mark Tooley, TAS contributor and United Methodist director at the Institute on Religion and Democracy in Washington, said, "The ads aren't offensive, they're just kind of languid. I'd question their effectiveness."

Apparently even the motto "Open hearts, Open minds, Open doors" is causing problems in the United Methodist Church, according to Tooley. A conference by pro-gay Methodists will be hosted over Labor Day weekend by a church facility at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina. Conservatives in the church are objecting to "Hearts on Fire," which will featured the defrocked openly lesbian minister Beth Stroud, since UMC has rejected the ordination of practicing homosexuals as well as gay marriage. Those defending the use of church property for "Hearts on Fire" have justified it by citing the absolute inclusiveness implied in "Open hearts, Open minds, Open doors." "People on the conservative side of the church are concerned about the slogan because people on the left push their agenda using that," Tooley said.

So what Methodist convictions will attract the masses into the pews of a mainline Protestant denomination? A denomination's moral teachings usually indicate its theological strength. The church lists topics on its website. Where one might expect subjects like original sin, salvation, and the like, the curious find nods to modern liberalism: corporate responsibility, restorative justice, and women clergy. Dig a little deeper and you'll find that UMC opposes the death penalty in all circumstances, but is equivocal when it comes to abortion.

FIVE YEARS AND $20 MILLION of slick packaging haven't stemmed UMC's membership nosedive. In fact, the situation has only grown worse. According to UMC, the church only lost 34,000 members in 1999 and 36,500 in 2000, but saw 69,000 leave in 2003 and 71,000 leave in 2004. Such attrition is nothing to sneeze at when total membership is less than 8.2 million.

The slide isn't new for UMC. As a percentage of the American population, its membership has dropped from 5.3% in 1970 to 3% in 2000. And while U.S. population has increased by over 110% since 1940, Methodists only increased membership by less than 1% over the same period.

As is fairly well known, only mainline Protestant denominations suffer this fate while Catholic and fundamentalist denominations have experienced healthy membership growth. The Southern Baptist Convention increased its rolls by 7 percent since 1994, the Pentecostal Assemblies of God by 20 percent, and the Roman Catholic Church by 13 percent. Last year alone, the Catholic Church grew by 1.28 percent, the Southern Baptists by 1.18 percent, and the Assemblies of God by 1.57 percent, while the Methodists turned in 0.002 percent growth.

It's no coincidence that mainline Protestantism and its milquetoast morality is failing while churches with strong convictions are booming. People are drawn to strong convictions and churches that demand something of their lives. Americans don't need to be told in an ad campaign that the United Methodist Church -- the country's third largest denomination -- is there. The problem is that there's no there there.

I post this as what once was.

Shouting Methodists By Winthrop S. Hudson

In England by the year 1800 the Methodists had reportedly lost their shout and were vying to be accepted as emotionless religion Yet their legacy from the days of John and Charles Wesley could not be more different. The Methodist Shout, Methodist Enthusiasm, Spirited Methodism, Methodist wild fire, the dance, falling out, all were for almost 75 years the normal fare in their meetings. And when Methodism came to the US these practices and manifestations continued in force until the Civil War. (Inserted)

"I do believe, without a doubt
The Christian has a right to shout.[1]

When one thinks of early nineteenth-century Methodists, one immediately thinks of the name which was commonly applied to them. People spoke of Methodists as "shouting Methodists," and it was a name Methodists were glad to accept and make their own. This is made evident by a song in Stith Mead's Methodist songbook of 1807, Hymns and Spiritual Songs. It is a song extolling the Methodists, and it was sufficiently esteemed to be placed in the cornerstone of Foundry Methodist Church in Washington, D.C.[2] Entitled "The Methodist," this spiritual song declares:

The World, the Devil, and Tom Paine
Have try'd their force, but all in vain.
They can't prevail, the reason is,
The Lord defends the Methodist.
They pray, they sing, they preach the best,
And do the Devil most molest.
If Satan had his vicious way,
He'd kill and damn them all today.
They are despised by Satan's train,
Because they shout and preach so plain.
I'm bound to march in endless bliss,
And die a shouting Methodist.

What was meant by the term "shouting Methodist"? At the very least, it meant that Methodists were a noisy lot, interrupting the preacher with "Praise the Lord," "Hallelujah," and "Amen." Alexander Campbell declared that the Methodist church could not live without her cries of "glory! glory! glory!" And he reported that "her periodical Amens dispossess demons, storm heaven, shut the gates of hell, and drive Satan from the camp."[3] But Methodist noise was not limited to ejaculations. Singing and clapping, groaning and crying, praying and exhorting, contributed to the din. In the same songbook of 1807, the initial impression of a convert is reported:

The Methodists were preaching like thunder all about. At length I went amongst them, to hear them groan and shout. I thought they were distracted, such fools I'd never seen. They'd stamp and clap and tremble, and wail and cry and scream.[4]

A later Methodist songbook, The Hesperian Harp of 1848, has a "dialogue song" between a "Methodist" and a "Formalist," in which the "Formalist" gives a similar picture of the Methodists.

Such groaning and shouting, it sets me to doubting. I fear such religion is only a dream. The preachers were stamping, the people were jumping, And screaming so loud that I nothing could hear.... The men they were bawling, the women were squalling, I know not for my part how any could pray.... Amid such a clatter who knows what's the matter? Or who can attend unto what is declared? To see them behaving, like drunkards, all raving, And lying and rolling prostrate on the ground. I really felt awful, and sometimes felt fearful That I'd be the next that would come tumbling down.

In the end, he did come tumbling down. His heart was "glowing," Christ's love was "flowing," and "peace, pardon, and comfort" he found.[5]

These were the "shouting Methodists," and it is clear that "shout" was a prominent part of Methodist vocabulary. Nowhere is this more evident than in the refrains of their spiritual songs. "Shout, shout, we're gaining ground," they sang. "We'll shout old Satan's kingdom down."[6] The word would appear in casual conversations. An aged person, for example, would rejoice at being still able "to shout," and a death would be recorded: "She went off shouting."[7]

What did it mean to "shout"? "Shouting" was never mere noise. "Shouting" was neither preaching nor exhorting. Exhorting was a noisy performance, but the word had a technical meaning that was not broad enough to include even the "action sermon." Nor was "shouting" praying, not even when praying became a babel of unison but individual prayers, not even when praying became a din as a congregation sought to "pray down" a sinner or to contend in prayer for the souls of the penitent.

"Shouting" was praise or, as it was often called, rejoicing. Both its practice, including the clapping of hands, and its meaning was partly shaped by Old Testament texts.[8] Initially "shouting" was probably no more than uttering ejaculations of praise. But it quickly became, in addition to these ejaculations, a type of singing, a type of song, a "shout song," or just a "shout."[9]

If a "shout" was an ejaculation of praise and a song of rejoicing, it also became the name of a religious service, a service of praise, a praise meeting. People spoke of going to "preaching," of going to a "class meeting," and of going to a "shout," a praise meeting. "When we get home," they sang, "we'll have a shout in glory."[10]

Finally, for some, a "shout" became a dance, a shuffling of the feet, a jerking of the head, a clapping of the hands, and perhaps an occasional leap. Most often it was a circular march, a "ring shout." Thus Webster's Third New International Dictionary defines "shout" as "to give expression to religious ecstasy, often in vigorous, rhythmic movements (as shuffling, jumping, jerking) specifically, to take part in a ring shout." (This is the true legacy of the early Methodists that they have striven so hard to cover up and deny -- I dare say that they as a whole were more charismatic that the charistmatics of our day and as a whole early methodists were more pentecostal than the almost flavorless Pentecostals of our day. What has changed it is the professional Levites that have taken over every one of these revivals and made the people disciples unto themselves and taught their doctrines and traditions of men purposely killing the spirit of God for control and respectability issues.)

The term "shouting" suggests confusion, and this was the initial impression one gained of Methodist meetings. Devereux Jarratt, a Methodist himself prior to the separation of 1784, reported of a Methodist gathering in 1776 that "the assembly appeared to be all in confusion, and must seem to one at a little distance more like a drunken rabble than the worshippers of God."[11] The development of a specialized vocabulary with highly technical meanings, on the other hand, suggests that there were patterns of group activity in the midst of the confusion, a degree of order and method in the apparent madness. Perhaps the patterned activity of the folk religion of the Methodists can best be grasped by viewing it through the lens provided by the Kentucky Revival.

My comment: If you want to read something eye opening about Methodists and Southern Baptists read about the cain ridge revival that took place from 1800-1804 read what built those two denominations and what they were founded upon.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.