The United Methodist Church is growing globally while declining in the United States, passing the 12.5 million-member mark, according to recently released statistics. Drawing from annual conference journals sent to the UMC General Council on Finance and Administration mostly from 2016, the UMC saw its numbers grow compared to five years earlier. The statistics were used to determine the number of delegates each annual conference will send to the 2020 UMC General Conference.
Delegates for the denomination’s 2020 legislative gathering will represent a diverse national background, according to the United Methodist News Service. “The 2020 General Conference in Minneapolis will have 862 delegates — half clergy and half lay. Of those delegates, 55.9 percent will be from the U.S., 32 percent from Africa, 6 percent from the Philippines, 4.6 percent from Europe and the remainder from Concordat churches,” reported UMNS. READ MORE
