“Corazón”

Here's an interesting fact.  The Methodist Church is growing...in Cuba.  There are more members and more new churches.  This is what Cuban Bishop Ricardo Pereira said about what is going on the Carribean island:

“In the 1970s we tried every program that came along, but the church continued to grow older and decline. We had no other option but to pray and fast with all our power.”

Some of his statistics were staggering: There were 3,000 members in 1985, today there are more than 30,000. In 1999 there were 90 Methodist churches in Cuba; now there are 361. The church there has averaged 10 percent growth each year, but in the past quadrennium it has been more than 60 percent. When he was elected bishop there was a Methodist presence in less than half of the nation; now it’s up to 90 percent, “and I know we can finish the last ten percent before I end my episcopacy!” he said to much applause.

The downward slide of mainline churches is not inevitable.  Things can turn around, but it can only be through the power of the Holy Spirit and in the name of Jesus.  No program, not even this one, will save us.  Only God can be our hope to plant new faith communities.

May God do a work in us and through us.