The mission of the United Methodist Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world – or as I (Dave) like to put, to make disciples of Jesus who make a difference for Him in the community. In 2021, even amidst the ups and downs of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, Keith Church has been able to experience remarkable success in fulfilling this mission.
Making Disciples of Jesus Christ
The first part of our mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. And Keith Church has been doing just that! In 2021, we received seven new members on Profession of Faith. That means seven persons professed their faith in Christ for the first time last year. These are new disciples! These new members were all received through our Confirmation Class, which began prior to the pandemic and was finally completed last spring. We also received three new members by transfer from other United Methodist churches and three new members from churches from other denominations. That is a total of thirteen new members of Keith Church in 2021. This qualifies Keith Church for a Silver Medal for Excellence in Evangelism in the Holston Conference!
We also baptized three babies this past year, setting them on their journey toward one day professing their own faith in Christ and becoming disciples themselves. Ten of our church members joined the church triumphant this past year, and two transferred their membership to other churches. So we realized a net gain of one member for a total of 1279 professing members.
We also continue to make disciples of Christ through our worship together. Not only did we return to in-person worship for most of 2021, but we also continue to provide online worship for both the sanctuary and Gathering services. Our average weekly online worship attendance for 2021 was 170, which actually surpassed our average in-person worship attendance of 146, for a total average worship attendance of 316. This total figure is 5% higher than our 2019 pre-Covid average attendance of 299.
We also continue to make disciples through our small groups, including our home-based groups, Sunday school classes, adult fellowship, and our women’s circles. Many of these groups continued meeting during Covid or have returned to meeting together in-person. Our children’s and youth ministries have been especially strong thanks to the dedicated leadership of Reagan Kelly and Mark Reedy. The youth are now having a monthly youth worship service in addition to their weekly small group meetings, and they now have almost twice as many regular attenders as in 2019 (31 compared to 16). We also have an average of 15 children on Wednesday nights, and the Trustees are working with an architectural firm to redevelop the nursery areas in memory of Melissa Rhodes so that we can continue to draw new families and make new generations of disciples for Jesus Christ.
Making a Difference in the Community
Keith Church members are also making a difference in our congregation and in our community for Christ, fulfilling the second half of our mission statement. We currently have 108 different church members serving on our various ministry teams and committees at the church. Another hundred or so members serve in outreach events like the Fall Festival, the Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve meals, or volunteer with ministries in the community like Nourish One Child (which currently serves 291 children in the city school), Table Graces, and Grace & Mercy Ministries. Over 2/3 of the 60 individuals who volunteered at the Warming Center which we hosted this January were Keith Church members. We also offer weekly worship services on Wednesdays at Athens Place and Morning Pointe assisted living centers which has incorporated at least 10 of our church members.
Our members not only support these various ministries physically but financially as well. In 2021, Keith Church members generously supported more than fifteen different ministries in our community with more than $40,000 of budgeted or designated gifts to agencies like Coordinated Charities, Friendly Fellows, Good Faith Clinic, Helping Hands, the HOPE Center, Isaiah 117 House, the Tri-County Center and more. As longtime church member, community leader and Home Service Sunday school class teacher Neal Ensminger was fond of saying, if anything good is happening in this community, you can bet that someone from Keith Church is involved.
Financial Challenges and Opportunities
Keith Church, like a lot of churches locally and nationwide, has been impacted financially by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as by uncertainties over the future direction of the denomination after the upcoming General Conference. The good news is that we received about $50,000 more than we anticipated receiving, and we were able to fund 93% of our expenditures. The bad news is that we also spent about $50,000 more than we received. Much of that overage had to do with unanticipated building maintenance and repair expenses. (Detailed financial reports are available in the church office to anyone who would like to review them.)
There is also good news in that the average annual amount our church members give to support the ministries of the church has increased from $2,845 in 2015 to $3,557 in 2021. That’s an increase of 25% and is a testament to the generosity and commitment of our engaged membership. The bad news is that the number of givers during that time has decreased from 266 in 2015 to 192 in 2021. That’s a decrease of 28%, much of which follows the death or departure of some very faithful and generous supporters. So there are fewer people giving more money to the church than in years past. This mirrors a nationwide trend in philanthropic giving not only to churches but to other organizations as well.
Our church leadership wants to encourage our membership’s fullest engagement in the financial support of the ministries of the church which we believe are making a real difference in people’s lives and in this community. The Bible instructs us that we glorify God through our giving of ourselves through our time, our talents and our treasure. While the top 10% of the church’s givers each gave over $10,000 in 2021, nearly two-thirds (65%) of our givers gave less than $3,000, and there are many more who are involved in the life of the church but do not contribute anything financially. So there is plenty of room for our congregation to grow in the discipline of giving. Recently, we included a flyer in the bulletin that showed that an additional $5 a week – the cost of an iced coffee or a small pizza – from every current giver would mean an additional $60,000 a year to support the church’s ministries. That would nearly cover our anticipated shortfall for the budget for 2022.
The changing financial situation of the church presents an opportunity for the church to structure our staffing and programs more strategically so that we can fulfill even more efficiently and effectively our mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ who make a difference in our community. There will likely be changes yet to come on the horizon, but we hope they will ultimately be changes for the better.
We continue to invite you to fulfill what our Church Council has discerned as God’s vision for Keith Church in 2022 – to EXPAND OUR REACH as we REACH UP to God in worship and praise, REACH OVER to one another in care and concern, and REACH OUT to our neighbors in love and service.
Pastors Dave & Andrew
The Keith Church Blog 