Ten Provocative Questions
I finished reading Ten Provocative Questions Inspired by the 2007 State of the Church Report (PDF Document) by Lovett Weems. This is a 6 page response to An Invitation: A Summary of the State of the Church (PDF Document). I recommend reading each of these if you are interested in the current and future state of The United Methodist Church.
One of the questions from the document on which I particularly reflected was this:
"Can medical science continue to keep U.S. United Methodism alive?
... The failure to reach younger people is abundantly clear in the State of the Church report. It is painful to read that clergy seem less concerned about this than laity are, and that laity want younger people but are not willing to change their worship or budgets to reach younger generations." Wow. I find it disturbing that there is not a greater overall concern about young people in church. One way in which I think that this could be addressed would be to create opportunities to connect with the church and live a life of faith for college and post-college age persons that would be continuous or complementary with both student ministries from one side and adult faith development on the other. Integration campus ministry could be an important part of this conversation.
What is your response to the State of the Church or Ten Provocative Questions? What about a smooth transition between student ministries to adult discipleship? Do you know of something like this in existence?