Presenting the Conference Statistician’s report, Dr. L. Marvin Guier, III, said he was hard pressed to try to accentuate the positive.
“Unfortunately, it is my duty to report that in 2008, for the third time in the last four years, the total membership, the average worship attendance, the number of new members received, the number of professions of faith, and the average Sunday School attendance of the churches of the NTC all declined,” he said.
Membership was down 106, totaling 158,606 at year’s end. Average worship attendance decreased by 1,325 to 60,626. Sunday School attendance dropped for the fourth year in a row, down 676 to 31,861. The number of professions of faith, 3,224, was the lowest in more than a decade. Dr. Guier reported that 50 of the 314 churches and fellowships did not receive a single new member in 2008, and 114 churches, more than 36%, did not have a single profession of faith. One positive was grand total giving for all causes, increased by 4.9% to $148,423,035.
“We know that we live in a fertile mission field, and we believe that our great God wants to do great things through us. But this year’s statistical report makes it abundantly clear that we must begin to do some things differently! We’re pretty clear about what our mission is. Now we must be honest about our situation, and we must be willing to make the hard decisions about what God calls us to do and what God doesn’t call us to do
to accomplish that mission in the coming years,” he challenged.
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