Numbers Don’t Lie
We have been slogging through the 2025 end of year report statistics to turn in to the conference office. This report tells the conference how we are doing and where our time and money has been spent. Each year we ask the question, where did we get that number? Then we recreate a formula or a spreadsheet and compile information. This year I decided to save it all to a google document so that next year should be much easier. As difficult as this task is, it also allows us to celebrate! Because when we have the numbers, we are surprised by the information that they generate. Rev. Cindy Havlik (served Faith for 9 years) used to say “Numbers don’t lie.”
So here are a few of the numbers that I think we should celebrate:
1) We had 7 Professions of Faith in addition to the 8 students who went through confirmation! Look at the Holy Spirit moving people’s hearts.
2) We had 36 new members say yes to growing in discipleship with us as part of this expression of the Body of Christ. And that was with me not taking any appointments in the last quarter due to my father’s decline and death.
3) We listed all of the non-profit organizations and ministries that we had helped in the last year and it went up by 21% to 29 agencies. Way to go Faith!
4) The number of persons served by our outreach and ministries went up 245% and we owe a lot of that to our youth group. They served breakfast at Iron Gate 8 times and each time served over 400 meals. The total number of people served was 5,572.
5) Giving to UM causes went up 24% to $83,253. Way to be generous Faith!
6) In addition to financial support for UM causes, we also gave $43,275 to other agencies outside the United Methodist umbrella. Things like Eastern Oklahoma Food Bank and Family Promise, etc. This was an increase of 101% over 2024.
7) Lastly, we counted 514 people who attended Christian formation groups. Since we have a value of “Learning for Life” this is a fantastic number of people who have chosen to grow in understanding of Biblical literacy and discipleship.
I am very pleased with these numbers and they don’t even tell the whole story. We also gave away 70 beds this year. We crossed the threshold of 1 million dollars of support for Care Portal since that program began. I could just keep telling you more and more amazing ways that this body of Christ has impacted the community. I was taught to ask the question “If your church closed tomorrow, would anyone in the community notice?” The answer to that question for Faith is a resounding “YES!”
Well done you good and faithful servants. You have been so faithful to the God that you serve and you have been blessed as well as being a blessing for the transformation of the world.
I love you and God loves you,
