Bishop's Page

After some real efforts on the part of all the Annual Conferences (ACs), we now have on hand a set of reasonably reliable statistics of the Methodist Church today. These are found in the accompanying table. There are still some things that need fine-tuning or even correction. But an analysis of the figures as they stand does give us some indication of where we are as a church. For the purpose of clarity, any figure taken from the table and used in the discussion below will have the column referred to in brackets (e.g. A, or B, or C).

First, the total confirmed adult (above 16 years) membership of the church is 97,509 (G). This together with 59,763 (H) preparatory members (i.e. baptized and under 16 years) gives us a total of 157,272 members. This makes us one of the largest Protestant churches in the country. Comparative figures for the number of those affiliated (i.e. adults and children, as well as occasional worshippers) to the three largest Protestant churches in Malaysia are given by Operation World, 21st Century Edition (Paternoster, 2001) as: Anglicans, 180,000; Methodist, 210,000; and Sidang Injil Borneo, 150,000. The parallel figures given by the World Christian Encyclopedia (Oxford, 2001) are: Anglicans, 180,000; Methodist, 230,000; and Sidang Injil Borneo, 190,000. The above figures obviously have certain margins of error. Nonetheless, they are indicative of the overall trend.

However, we would be unwise to assume that everything is fine. Although we have 97,509 (G) adults on our registers, the average Sunday church attendance is 72,272 (J), which is only 74% of the adult membership. This may not look too bad on the surface. But the reality is that churches that are alive and growing generally have an attendance of over 100% of their membership, because such churches will not only have more committed members but also lots of visitors. Based on this, our Sunday attendance does look somewhat mediocre.

Coming to some of the other statistics, it appears that some tidying up is needed. For example, the number of those listed under preparatory members (H) for CAC and TRAC is far too low in relation to the number of adult members-unless we are having serious fertility problems among parents in both ACs! Both conferences will have to check their figures here. Another set of figures that requires attention-although of a different kind-are those listed as 'Baptized, Above 16 & Not Confirmed' (I). Those ACs with large numbers in relation to their overall membership will need to ask why so many adults have been baptized but not brought into the full membership of the church. This clearly poses a pastoral challenge to us which cannot be avoided. It tells us that we need to be much more diligent and intentional in our follow-up of new converts in the church. The goal is to ensure that those coming into our churches by the front door will not end up slipping away by de-fault through the back. Rather, our evangelistic efforts must be matched by our discipling process on the one hand, and the quality of our community life on the other, so that new converts can be nurtured to fullness of maturity in Christ.

This brings us to the number of pastoral staff presently working in our churches. The total of 417 (C) means that we have only one (1) pastor for every 234 adult members. This is far from adequate. Except for SPAC which has the best pastor-to-adult membership ratio of 1:68, all the other conferences are struggling, with SIAC having the lowest at 1:594. Furthermore, the number of students (D) training for the pastoral ministry in all our churches are also low, with TRAC facing most difficulties. In some ACs, the numbers of those leaving the pastoral ministry have also been relatively high. These matters should be of serious concern to all of us. It may well be necessary that the whole process of recruitment, training and nurturing of pastoral staff should be carefully studied at the highest level of our church, in order to ensure that there will be adequate workers for the future.

One particular interesting development is that of overseas missions. Many other churches in the country have begun to take a serious interest in this over the last two decades. The Methodist Church as a whole has not been left behind. Some of our local churches have been striking out on their own over the past decade or two, and today a total of 34 (F) full-time missionaries have been sent forth. Perhaps even more important still has been the fact that two of our ACs, the TAC and SCAC, have also sent out missionaries as conference appointments. SCAC in particular must be commended for its efforts. Over the past ten years they have sent 24 (E) missionaries to different parts of the world, stretching from East to Central Asia, and to Africa. This is very important for the future of our church because it can only bring forth God's blessing, not only on the peoples to whom the missionaries are sent, but also upon us who send them!

The present figures cannot tell us much more than what has been highlighted. We cannot, for example, tell from them how fast the various ACs are growing, and how dynamic the spiritual life of the local churches at grassroots is. To have a more in-depth analysis we will need other data, which we hope to gather in due time. But they say enough to give us some important pointers as Methodists. Here are three of them.

First, we need to pray over and work at overcoming some of the weaknesses that we have at present. These include the need to pay adequate attention to the discipling process and on-going pastoral care of our members, so that those brought to Christ will be helped to grow to become mature Christians in our churches. One important goal is for us to increase the percentage of our Sunday attendance relative to our registered adult membership. A second is to ensure that many more of the adults who have been baptized will be brought into the active membership of the church.

Secondly, there is clearly a need for more pastors in our churches. Jesus told his disciples: 'The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field' (Mat 9:37). Should we not all respond to this as a call to prayer for our church also? In line, we should continue to also pray that God will raise up more from our midst for overseas missions so that the Good News of Christ can be proclaimed to many who have yet to know Him!

Finally, we need to ask one last question. Given that our church is one of the largest churches in this country, what does God expect of us, the people called Methodists? Although we do not have hard figures, the clear indication is that the growth of our church has lagged behind some of the smaller churches in the last two or three decades. How can we order our personal lives and that of our church so that God can use again in a more dynamic and effective way to build His church in this nation? How can we use the vast resources that God has given us for the well-being of other churches in our nation, as well as to make a really effective contribution to world missions? How can we be used by God more and more to bring about a godly impact upon our nation? These are some of the questions that we need to ponder over together, so that we as Methodists may indeed be a genuinely faithful people of God in our generation!


Membership Figures of the Whole Methodist Church in Malaysia