John Louk

How are we doing at making disciples of Jesus Christ who transform the world? In assessing the state of Salem, there are some benchmark statistics to which we want to pay attention. Salem’s membership includes 231 people. This is significantly less than previous years as our Charge Conference in November removed 79 members who had become inactive. This past year 7 members died and 5 were transferred to other congregations. We received 24 new members the previous year, and in 2012 we received another 19 new members (15 by transfer from other congregations and 4 by profession of faith). We continue to grow! Our worship attendance decreased a little. We now average 175. With our membership at 231, however, we are getting healthier. Whereas many congregations see about 30% of their members in attendance, Salem has 75%! The healthiest congregations, though, have greater attendance than membership. Not only are all the members present but several new people are visiting, too. That i...

“ I have so much to do that I spend several hours in prayer before I am able to do it.” John Wesley There is an old story about a young man who approached the foreman of a logging crew and asked for a job. The foreman said, “That depends. Let’s see you fell this tree.” The young man stepped forward and skillfully felled a great tree. Impressed, the foreman exclaimed, “You can start Monday.” Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday rolled by. Thursday afternoon the foreman approached the young man and said, “You can pick up your paycheck on the way out today.” Startled, the young man replied, “I thought you paid on Friday.” “Normally we do,” said the foreman. “But we’re letting you go today because you’ve fallen behind. Our daily felling charts show that you’ve dropped from first place on Monday to last place today.” “But I’m a hard worker,” the young man objected. “I arrive first and leave last. I even worked through my coffee breaks!” The foreman, sensing the young man’...