Every year this week United Methodist congregations submit their Year End Reports to the Conference statistician, and I thought you would like to know some of the numbers that tell the story of St. Luke’s ministry in 2022. So here are a few...
6806 - That is the official St. Luke’s membership number as we start 2023. Included are the 147 people who joined St. Luke’s in 2022, 48 who died, and 112 who withdrew, transferred out, or were part of a database cleanup. Our congregation is approximately 85% white, 7% black, with the remaining 8% made-up of Asian, Hispanic, Native American, Pacific Islander or multi-racial. Our records show that our membership reflects 64% women, 36% men and less than 1% non-binary (this is the first year the greater UMC has asked this question of gender identity).
2570 – This was our average weekly attendance in 2022, a 2% decline over 2021. But so far in 2023 we are running about 5% ahead of where we were for the same period in 2022. The Midtown Campus is off to a great start, averaging 110-120 in attendance each week. We are still about 50/50 overall between in-person and online worship attendance.
48 – The number of people baptized last year.
838 – The number of children and youth on the membership rolls.
1499 – The number of adults who participated in some way in a discipleship experience.
1500 – The number of persons from our congregation who engaged in mission related work.
10,000 – We estimate as the number of people served by community ministries, outreach, justice and mercy related work through St. Luke’s.
$7,414,535 – The total dollars spent by the church for expenses, programs, and mission contributions.
I want to emphasize, numbers are not important, people are. But numbers do tell a story and our numbers tell a story of a church that is continuing to make an impact in the lives of people. At a time when so many proclaim the demise of the church, St. Luke’s is a beacon of hope, particularly for our UMC that will be open and inclusive with an evangelical heart, for all people to know the love and saving hope of our Lord Jesus Christ.
See you Sunday,
Rob