Replies

In my opinion, the Methodist churches that have left the hedonist United Methodist conference are ripe for church growth and making a difference. I used to be in a UM church before I learned part of my donations went to abortion lobbyists. I tried to convince my pastor and the elders that we should quit doing that. The pastor was too close to retirement to make waves (UM pastors get a pension, what Dave Ramsey calls golden handcuffs). And too many of the older women in our local church were Dim loyalists. So they convinced the pastor to kick me out of volunteering with the kids (both leading elementary age children's church and volunteering with youth Sunday evenings and Wednesday evenings). Oh, well. Church ain't meant to be a spectator sport where you just go and watch. It's meant for members to volunteer and make a difference in. That's why I left that church and joined my current church more than a decade ago.

Yet, months ago that local Methodist church left the hedonist UM conference and joined the Bible believing Methodists. My neighbor, who still goes to that church, said I'd be encouraged by the church's future -- the older people were the main voices for staying with the hedonists and the young adults were the ones saying they were looking for real Christianity and were going to leave if the local church stayed with the UM. Pride is a sin, so I'm very sinful -- because I'm very proud of the young adults I remember as young and cute kids and teenagers.

Never ever doubt God's ability to use you. I wish I had a dollar for every time I questioned why I was going into the projects on Wednesday to pick up poor black kids to bring to youth services (back when I was in a mostly white Assembly of God church) and being called cracker and such. Every time I was ready to toss the van key to the youth pastor and tell him to find someone else, one of the teenagers would be down at the alter giving it up for Jesus. Then I married and switched to the Methodist church, telling myself the same thing, that there's no point boring the kids in Sunday school or youth group because they don't seem to pay attention anyway. Yet every now and then one of the teenagers would say he or she made a decision not to go along with worldly friends because of something said in Sunday school or in children's church years before. Or the time a seminary student came back and visited his old youth group between semesters, hugged me in front of others, and thanked me for inspiring him to read the Bible with obsession like I do and go into the ministry to be the stability in a future youth group like I was (we had 3 different youth pastors within a 3 year period while he was in the youth, so those kids saw me, a simple volunteer who just answers Bible questions, as the continuity among those changes). Or the now worship leader of an independent church who thanked me for the 2 Sundays in his middle-school Sunday school class we discussed apologetics. I had no clue that kind of thing spoke his language. I just prepared the topics and lessons as I believed God's Spirit guided me. (Still thinking a bit Pentecostal when I was in the Methodist church. LOL) Next thing you know that sixth grader got all Jesus freak on us, started leading weekly devotions and school, and hasn't let off the gas since (now about 30 years old).

If the Lord can do that with a plain and simple Alabama boy like me, He can do that with anybody, including you.