Methodists Start Membership Drive

The ethnically diverse United Methodist churches--calling themselves “the rainbow people of God�--will fill the Universal Amphitheatre today for a celebration launching a new effort to reverse a long-term membership slide.

Membership in the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination has dropped steadily in the past 25 years, from about 11 million to fewer than 9 million. United Methodist churches in Southern California had about 108,000 members last year, compared to 129,000 a decade earlier.

The Vision 2000 Launch Event at Universal Studios is a regional prelude to church-growth workshops and campaigns to increase attendance in the Methodists’ 373 congregations in Southern California.

And just as important as church expansion is helping neighborhoods cope with their changing racial and ethnic compositions--regardless of whether the ministries result in new members--said Bishop Roy I. Sano, whose Pasadena-based jurisdiction covers churches in Southern California and Hawaii.

“Neighborhoods that may now seem strange to us are made up of people who have spiritual needs, as well as many gifts to give a church,� Sano said.

The bishop himself illustrates what United Methodists are about these days.

Sano avoids typical evangelistic language in talking about goals. “I became a Christian because of the kindness Christians showed to me; then I saw how the life of Jesus Christ motivated these people,� he said. “People understand the language of love before they understand the language of theology.�

Four weeks ago, when Sano assumed the presidency of the denomination’s 66-member Council of Bishops, he became the first Japanese American ever elected to the post.

Supervising the launch event at the Universal Amphitheatre is the Rev. Brandon Cho, a Korean American minister who heads the United Methodist district based in Chatsworth.

There will be performances by a 200-voice Korean choir, a 400-voice Pacific Islander choir and a group of African American gospel singers, Cho said. One of the principal speakers and a featured soloist are African American, he added.

The Methodists needed a full house--more than 6,000 seats--to break even, and reached that goal. By Wednesday, all of the event tickets, at $10 per person, were sold, according to Charles Joye, an assistant to Cho.

Bishop Sano said there are signs that helping different language and racial groups find a home in the United Methodist Church is working.

He cited the opening of a $1.2-million sanctuary for Centenary United Methodist Church in Central Los Angeles, the innovative cooperation of four Latino congregations in the Long Beach area and the recent merger of a small, primarily white congregation in Pomona with a larger and better-funded Korean American congregation.

“The Anglo church members were not intimidated; they didn’t depart for another church,� Sano said. “This is the result of learning how to be better neighbors.�