Church growth, regardless of denomination, is an either-or proposition: either the Church continues to grow in fulfillment of Christ's Great Commission to go into the world and make disciples, or it will wither and die and, according to the parable of the fig tree, the unproductive fruitwood will be pruned back and discarded as useless. The characterization of the church at Laodicea in Revelation 3:14-22 as being lukewarm and self-sufficient is also appropriate as a word picture which describes many individual congregations within Christianity; too many churches sit back and delight in their beautiful buildings and furnishings, in their weekly tithes and offerings, and yet they fail to realize that they are "wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked" as were the Laodiceans.
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 but totally sacrificed. Because of this, vital piety and dynamic faith have become virtually unattainable or maintainable.
Tuell's prefatory observation that the mood of the UMC's 1992 General Conference was a broad reflection of the "secular political world, with its widespread feeling of powerlessness of ordinary people" is important for the church to grasp today. If nothing else is recalled to the collective mind of the Church, it must be remembe...