As a boy 40 years ago, Larry Homitsky sang in a United Methodist church choir, played on the Bethel Park church's sports teams and was a Boy Scout there.

But Homitsky and his family were not Methodists. It was the activities -- and the proximity to their home -- that proved to be an irresistible draw. At 14, Homitsky joined the church. His parents soon followed. The boy had found a moral anchor and a place where the "people were committed and dedicated."

The connection would deepen. In 1976, he became a United Methodist pastor.

For the past two weeks, Homitsky, with his green "Ask Me" vest, has been a ubiquitous presence at the denomination's convention here, one of nearly 800 local volunteers. But his work resonates far beyond the conference and Western Pennsylvania.

Today, with almost two decades of pastoral experience, Homitsky is a key figure in the United Methodist church's national effort to rebuild membership.

The roots of his involvement go back to 1997, when he was named the Western Pennsylvania Conference council steward. His mission was to train the conference's 900 congregations on how to welcome new worshippers and keep them.

At about the same time, the national church was formulating an effort to address more than two decades of declining membership in the U.S.'s second-largest Protestant denomination. The $20 million TV and radio campaign, called "Igniting Ministries," was launched four years ago.

Many feel that the commercials are restoring a welcoming climate to United Methodist churches, something that Homisky believes has waned since the 1700s, when the church was one of the fastest-growing in the United States.

Early results show that the commercials have put bodies back into pews. The Barna Research Group reports that in data from 149 United Methodist churches, first-time visitors and weekly attendance is up 14 percent and worship is up 6 percent.

Homitsky has seen local churches try the advertising. First United Methodist in New Castle ran ads during the Christmas season. Spencer United Methodist on the South Side has a billboard and a cluster of congregations in the Mon Valley took out TV commercials. Homitsky said the churches had seen their first increases in five years.

Why? "The commercials lift them up. The ads are a tool that reach the unchurched and reaffirms those who are already part of the church."

But that is why, yesterday, the campaign's motto "Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors" came under attack from delegates who called it hypocritical in light of Tuesday's votes to reaffirm the church's condemnation of the practice of homosexuality and to uphold the ban on the ordination of openly gay people.

Instead, they argued, the church had closed its mind and heart and slammed its doors in the face of gay people. But some delegates who voted to soften the church's position on homosexuality defended the slogan, among them former Clinton administration press secretary Mike McCurry, a delegate from the Baltimore-Washington conference. His greatest fear is that the church will descend into the same bitter polarization that characterizes secular politics, he said.

"No one issue defines an open mind ... and no single controversy can break an open heart," McCurry said. No matter how the General Conference votes, the doors of his own congregation "will be open to persons from all walks of life."

Brad Laurvick of Colorado, quoted Methodist patriarch John Wesley, who said that the cure for a lack of faith was to "preach faith until you have faith."

"We need to preach open hearts, open minds, open doors until we have open hearts, open minds, open doors," Laurvick said.

The attempt to drop the slogan failed 726-170. The delegates then voted to spend $22 million instead of the proposed $33.5 million over four years on the advertising program. It was a move applauded by Homitsky, 50, who lives with his wife in Cranberry and is the father of five children. He began his path to ministry as a religion major at Thiel College. He wanted to play semi-pro baseball, but a sports accident injured a retina, forcing him to change directions.

After Thiel, Homitsky went to Drew University for a master of divinity degree. He was soon ordained a United Methodist elder and began to preach. His pulpit journey from inner-city street ministry to suburban pastoring provided Homitsky with the bridge-building skills needed to bring diverse congregations together. That has meant, among other things, gathering truckloads of shoes for children in Malawi, assembling emergency kits for disaster relief and sending enough books to Zimbabwe to fill six public libraries.

During a break from his volunteer duties at the General Conference, which wraps up a two-week run tomorrow, Homitsky said he believes the slogan represents the way United Methodists live. "That shows in the debate taking place," he said. "Otherwise, you would not be able to hear all the voices you're hearing. The slogan is relevant and representative of who we are and who we hope to be."