Joy, hope, and energy amid the struggle

Secular news coverage makes it seem like the United Methodist Church is on its deathbed, but I’ve seen something different

One day, Chip Hunter and I were killing time between scheduled conferences and we did a little sightseeing. This is the Memorial Cross, on a mountain overlook at the University of the South in Sewanee.

There’s a famous — and slightly mis-worded — Mark Twain quote: “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” Twain did say something similar to that, but according to Mental Floss it was in the context of a paragraph and the actual wording was a little less pithy:

“I can understand perfectly how the report of my illness got about, I have even heard on good authority that I was dead. James Ross Clemens, a cousin of mine, was seriously ill two or three weeks ago in London, but is well now. The report of my illness grew out of his illness. The report of my death was an exaggeration.”

There’s been a lot of news coverage about disaffiliations from the United Methodist Church. I discussed that issue in a post last summer. Most of the disaffiliations, sadly, have been based on fear and misinformation, in some cases being spread recklessly by people with axes to grind. I won’t repeat that whole explanation here.

If all you were reading were the outside news reports, you might think that the UMC — which had, like other mainline denominations, already been suffering from declining attendance in the U.S…