The United Methodist Church is commonly regarded as the faith of Middle America. A denomination that grew up and expanded with this nation, it has exemplified mainstream Protestantism and has not been one to be splintered by major controversy.Its been marketing itself with the phrase Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors. Compassionate, receptive, inclusive. And who doesnt have a Methodist relative? The United Methodist Church in the U.S. and worldwide has been doing some market research about itself. It has been testing its members opinions and attitudes and finding out what the outside impressions people have about Methodists. Some 11,000 members in the U.S., Africa, Europe and the Philippines took part in online and telephone surveys. Some 2,600 interviews were carried out.Since 1964, United Methodist churches have seen a 27 percent loss in membership while the American population grew 54 percent. The Western U.S. is the least served region: In this jurisdiction, there is one United Methodist church for every 37,000 people, while there is one for every 6,337 people in the South Central jurisdiction, one per 5,400 in the Southeast, one per 8,400 in the Northeast, and one for every 7,600 in the North Central jurisdiction.The survey data found its members affirmed strongly a belief in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit as well as their reliance on Gods grace and salvation. The report said there was somewhat less agreement as to whether mission and service are important to personal salvation. Here in the American West, the surveys found, Methodists afford lesser importance to core beliefs. Overall, Methodists highly agreed that more young people must be brought into the 8 million-member church (2006), which had 11.5 million members in 1968. But there was less agreement on how to attract young people. A minority of respondents said the church is willing to make needed changes to reach the young, such as alternative worship services or putting money into the effort. More than half of the new Methodist churches in the past six years were in Spanish-speaking communities. Worldwide, fastest growth is in Africa and the Philippines. Not surprisingly, when American Methodists were asked about the churchs position on homosexuality, the Southeast least condoned it and the Western area was most receptive. Yet, fewer than half of those surveyed called the gay issue extremely important. Highest priorities were: scripture, children, reaching out to the unchurched and ending racial division. Yet, only a third of the respondents believe the church provides the opportunity to discuss those issues. Pastors said they generally do not believe they are well-trained, expertly supervised or assigned to churches in an appropriate manner. When non-Methodists in six test markets, including Pittsburgh, Roanoke and Sacramento, were interviewed by the Barna Research Group on their impressions about the denomination and the Open Hearts message, the church got strong marks: 47 percent expressed a willingness to attend U.M. church, with 11 percent very willing; 37 percent said their impression of the church was very, or somewhat, favorable; and 58 percent could recall the Open Hearts theme after being exposed to the advertising. A church official concluded the United Methodist message seems to be shifting peoples attitudes about the denomination in a very favorable way.

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