United Methodist Church Works to Grow Scouting Membership
October 13, 2014
(Reprinted from the September 9 issue of the United Methodist Reporter.)
The number of young people involved in Scouting declined from 2.85 million in 2012 to 2.49 million in 2013 (the last full year of reporting).
The number of youth involved in scouting programs within the United Methodist Church declined from 365,565 in 2012 to 349,614 in 2013.
The General Commission on United Methodist Men, which met September 5-7, is seeking ways to reverse the loss of nearly 16,000 young people.
“Churches with members who don’t look like their neighborhood can change that through Scouting,” said Gil Hanke, top staff executive of the commission.
“Scouting is down because the church is losing its identity as a servant of the community,” said Bishop James Swanson, president of the commission. “If we don’t see our role as serving the people of the community our numbers will continue to go down.”
The bishop said efforts to increase the number of young people in churches must begin with children. He called for a new emphasis on Cub Scouts and Daisies from the Girl Scouts. “You can’t get youth without beginning with children,” he said.
Larry Coppock, commission staff executive for scouting and other youth-serving agencies, said efforts to help churches understand how Scouting can minister to communities is supported by 261 Scouting ministry specialists, 2014-15 Bishops Dinners for Scouting, and “Faith in Scouting,” a six-minute film produced in cooperation with the BSA.
Coppock said 6,300 United Methodist young people received God and Country awards through the St. Louis-based Programs of Religious Activities with Youth (PRAY), the highest number of all denominations (www.praypub.org).
United Methodists lead all denominations with 212,503 Cub Scouts and is second with 129,503 Boy Scouts in 4,837 United Methodist churches. Many of the 988 churches with Venturing crews use that co-educational program for their youth organization.
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