Established for 118 years, the Sarawak Methodist Chinese Conference (SCAC) has 131 churches, 198 pastors, 54 local and overseas missionaries, and 116,109 baptized and confirmed members.
Of these 131 churches, 123 are Chinese , 11 English and 22 BM speaking churches. The total number of regular worshippers has dropped from 34,268 in 2015 to 32,951 in 2019 and that represents only 30% of the total members (116,109).
However comparing the number of worshipers (32,951) to the total number of confirmed members (42,067), we see that the turn up rate is actually over 80%.
On the other hand, although the number of worshippers in Chinese service has fallen, the number of worshippers in BM services has increased by 17% compared to last year. Around 1,426 worshippers attend BM services.
The number of baptisms for this year also dropped compared to the figures 5 years ago. For example in 2015 the number for adult baptism was 1,165; 1,115 in 2016; 1,078 in 2017; 1,044 in 2018 while 2019 we have only 998. For children baptism, the figure was between 1,400 to 1,500 persons in the past five years, but this year it dropped to a new low with only 1,394 people. Judging from the attendance of fellowship groups, the Boys’ and Girls’ Brigade record the most participants, with a combined attendance of 7,753 participants, ranking second are the Adult and Young Adult Fellowships with 3,044 participants, followed by Women’s Fellowship, 2,405 participants. The Youth Fellowship records2,356 participants while Senior Fellowship records 2,115 participants
The above statistical figures were reported by the Statistics Board during the 44th Session of the SCAC. The Chairman of the Board, Rev Lau Ong Heng pointed out that we should look at these statistics from the perspective of tracking church health and not from the perspective of gauging performance. This is to address short fall and weaknesses of the church. He compared the church to a wooden bucket. The amount of water a wooden bucket can hold is determined by the height of the shortest wall of the bucket. So we should pray and ask God to reveal to us the short fall of the church and what the church should do, and to add to the church daily those who were being saved.
Compiled by Menglei
Translated by KT Chew