Extravagant Generosity, "UM Style"

As promised, I wanted to spend at least one more posting on the column written by Bishop Bruce Ough (pictured) in the January 27th edition of their newspaper, West Ohio News. Let me pick up where I left off in the last posting. He writes:

"The extraordinary disasters of last year have exposed the true colors of the United Methodist Church, I have never been more proud of our denomination and the powerful presence of our connection. United Methodists responded to the devastation created by the tsunami in South Asia with an astonishing offering of over $60 million...To date, United Methodists have shared an astounding $50 million to help rebuild the lives of those in the Gulf States displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita."

Here in the Greater New Jersey Conference, the numbers are truly inspiriring. In 2005, our churches gave $2,053,761 to what we call "Second Mile" giving. That's more than twice what was given in 2004 (a not-too-shabby $927,911) and more than the total from 2001, 2002 and 2003 combined! Of that $2 million plus total, $524,700 was for the Tsunami and $737,446.22 was for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. So for those who think the United Methodist Church is slowly dying, I'd say the numbers tell a different story!

We are not a dying church, but we are, in many places, a people who have lost touch with who we are, what we have done, how we are in ministry around the world 24/7, and what we might do in the days ahead. We should be excited about this, every individual and every congregation!When we recover our excitement and enthusiasm for the mission and ministry of the United Methodist Church, then our numbers will increase, our giving will jump, and our ability to enter new and vital minitries in the name of Jesus Christ will exceed our wildest expectations!

But...we will need to walk the first mile in order that we might go the second mile. More on that in upcoming posts.