Children’s Sketch (11:15)
Mother’s Day | 2:16 | 3.3 MB

Music by Messenger
Forever | 3:56 | 5.7 MB
How Great is Our God | 4:29 | 6.4 MB
You Are Holy | 3:25 | 4.9 MB

Offering Music (9:15)
Amazing Grace | 3:17 | 4.7 MB

Anthem (9:15)
Men’s Chorus
O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee | 3:03 | 4.4 MB

Music by Messenger
As The Deer | 3:29 | 5.0 MB
Be Tough My Vision | 2:55 | 4.2 MB
Blessings | 4:47 | 6.9 MB

Anthem (9:15)
The King of Love | 3:34 | 5.1 MB

At our recent Charge Conference, our District Superintendent Dr. Kathey Wilborn gave our church high praise. She referenced a study done in 2010 entitled the United Methodist Church Vitality Index by a group called TowersWatson. Data from 2005–2008 in the areas of “attendance, growth, and engagement” compared percentages among various United Methodist Annual Conferences only in the United States.

According to their results, the California-Pacific Conference scored among the leaders in these categories. The numerical measures are as follows: growth 32.7%, involvement 38.1%, giving 16.8%, engagement 36.0%. The “total vitality score” was 23.9%.

The total averages of the 59 conferences that were listed is: growth 23.8%, involvement 23.8%, giving 23.8%, engagement 23.8%, and the “total vitality score” was 14.8%.

Moreover, our Bishop Mary Ann Swenson reported that the Long Beach District, of which we are a part, scored the highest in our California-Pacific Conference.

What does this all mean? It means that our Conference, our district, and our church ranks as among those considered to be highly vital. They didn’t provide each individual church’s score, but that regionally we are among the upper tiers compared to other UM churches in our country.

How would we assess each individual category with regards to our church? Growth is measured by average worship attendance and persons received by profession of faith. In our church’s statistics, our worship attendance hasn’t really spiked, but maintained a constant level. Involvement is measured by small groups, Bible study, and Sunday school. From 2005–2008 our active participation was pretty good. In terms of giving we have always reached 100% of our connectional and missional giving. Fourthly, our involvement in mission has been steady.

Since being here almost six years, I notice a high level of vitality in our church in many other unique ways: having vacation Bible school every summer and sending lots of youth to summer camp; having various celebrations which brings us together – music ministry Sundays, concerts, Filipino Heritage Sundays, chili cook offs; taking on a sanctuary renovation project and implementing related fundraisers: Madrigal concerts, our cookbook project. Plus other activities that invite folks into shared meals and fellowship.

We are vital, however, there is always the temptation to relax, to get sedentary, and take our foot off the gas pedal. Growing and improving in our spiritual journey, sharing and living the message of Jesus Christ to the community, and keeping pace with our financial responsibilities are always before us. In the area of our Sunday school, we have experienced some shifting of attendance due to our new worship schedule. We will be examining our whole Christian Education program throughout the rest of the spring and summer and evaluate the direction as it affects our vitality. More discussion will be brought forth in the months ahead as we continue to strive to be a vital, faithful, and fruitful church.

— Pastor Bob