Before I write another word of criticism of the Call to Action Steering Team's final report, I think it only fair to offer, with all due humility, an alternative vision for moving forward as a denomination.
Before I do that, though, I also think it is necessary to spell out a major error on the part of CtoA. There has certainly been a steady downward trend in membership in the United Methodist Church, and the number of incoming members has been too slow to mask the aging nature of our congregations. All the same, what the final report fails to note is these are general social and cultural trends, as well as reflective of basic statistics of our population.
The largest population cohort is the Baby Boomers, roughly speaking those born between the years 1946 and 1964. The reason our congregations are aging is our population is aging.
More broadly, younger people are not only abandoning the mainline churches. In general, all churches are seeing dwindling numbers. Even the evangelical and Pentecostal denominations that saw such massive growth two decades ago are starting to feel the effects from a general, national trend toward secularism. While we can sit and debate who is at fault, if one sees it as something worth mourning, these larger social and cultural trends - an aging population; fewer younger people who also have fewer ties to institutional churches, or religion in general - need to be admitted as major obstacles to any attempt at reform.
Keeping these facts in mind, we should nevertheless affirm as United Methodists our heritage as outlined by Albert Outler in his discussion of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. Keeping our eyes on Scripture, delving in to our tradition, using the gift of reason, and listening and learning to the experiences of many people offer opportunities for doing and being Church in all sorts of ways. We should also remember that we are not about our work; we are the Body of Christ, abroad in the world, living the hope that the new life in Christ brings to all of us. While we should certainly focus on building the spiritual tools of our churches for doing this work through Bible Study, reflection on the historic doctrines of the Church as well as the deep wells of our Wesleyan heritage, we should never forget that these are means to the end, not of vital congregations, but being the Body of Christ.
There is no set of metrics that determine "best practices" for making disciples. The Spirit beckons, Jesus calls whom he will, and the Kingdom will come. We need to be open to all the ways God is calling us to be a people called Methodist. Sometimes that means nurturing small communities in isolated pockets that can barely sustain themselves; sometimes that means reaching across the miles to gather together via social media or other digital platforms, creating intentional communities in which members support one another even if they have never met face-to-face. It might mean fostering within local congregations a variety of talents and gifts for outreach.
We need to see our churches not as places or worship, although we do worship there. They should be places where people come to be fed in order to be about the work of the Kingdom. Most of all, we need to remember that real reform comes from the energies and imaginations at the local level. The Call To Action Commission, whatever its merits, is the imposition upon real live congregations that will not account for the sheer variety of new life out there in our denomination.
