Church Growth

Fortunately, an increasing number of churches today are being rekindled with the same kind of zeal and excitement which emanated from the emerging Church in the first and second centuries. This is no less true for United Methodists than it is for other evangelicals, but there is considerable room for improvement across the board.

Miller astutely observes that Wesley "had the right formula" when he focused the church's priorities on Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience, all built upon a foundation of knowledge and piety. In the quest to position Scripture and tradition as the primary components of contemporary Methodism, Miller believes that reason and experience have been all

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of unity in love and a spirit of inclusiveness. The Korean Methodist Church was also built upon Wesleyan traditions, and has grown to become the second largest Methodist body in the world in its slightly more than 100-year history. Park credits the "circuit trips" of the early Methodist missionaries with carrying the gospel message to the rural agricultural communities in the south. The intimate bonds which developed between various Korean Methodist congregations is directly attributed to the nature of the circuit mission activities, in contrast to the Presbyterian church's missionary efforts which emphasized individual, independent congregations. Membership growth in the first five years of this century can only be described as phenomenal. At Inchon in the south, there was a 2700% increase from 94 to 2,625, while in the north, there was even greater growth from 51 to 2,151 (4100%)! The Methodist mission was characterized by social service rather than by gospel preaching. Hospitals and schools proved to be key elements in reaching the people and preparing their hearts to accept the gospel message. Additionally, because most of the Methodist missionaries were women, considerable efforts were expended to abolish the so
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Approximate Word count = 1360
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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