Where are you and/or your local church at on the potential of leaving the United Methodist Church/Conference?

In our conference-district, we are now aware of two churches initiating the discernment process. Our more conservative bishop is retiring ( the looming split may be a contributing factor). Our own church, the leadership, both pastoral and laity, have a await see approach. The contention is that there is nothing concrete to trigger actio. Our Senior Pastor doesn’t think we would get to a two thirds majority to disaffiliate.

The opposing contention is that without beginning the process, we risk not having control of our local property if the terms of dis affiliation change after the next general conference.

Like many people, we’re caught in the middle for many reasons and aspects.

I’m not necessarily starting this post to rehash and argue, but certainly welcome your insights.

Our situation is exactly what you described. We aren’t taking any action until we have to. Instead, we are just focused on continuing our ministry in the community.

The same for us.

We are not members of a methodist church but the largest UMC in N GA is right around the corner (Mt Bethel UMC, 10k members) and is leaving the denomination after a long legal battle over pastoral reassignment, which stems from the gay ckergy/same sex marriage issue. It is a conservative congregation.
They are settling for $13.1 million to keep their facilities. I think about 70 of 900 congregation in N Ga voted to disaffiliate.

Our church is in the conservative category. The United Woke-o-dist movement has caused a number of churches like ours looking to disaffiliate, and one of my best friends is very involved.

My e-mail is in my profile if you’d like to discuss this offline.

Religion is a strong emotional and psychological tie. I suppose this is just a reflection of how we got so many Christian denominations over the centuries.

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Originally posted by YellowJacket:
We are not members of a methodist church but the largest UMC in N GA is right around the corner (Mt Bethel UMC, 10k members) and is leaving the denomination after a long legal battle over pastoral reassignment, which stems from the gay ckergy/same sex marriage issue. It is a conservative congregation.
They are settling for $13.1 million to keep their facilities. I think about 70 of 900 congregation in N Ga voted to disaffiliate.

As a Catholic and just asking, is Christianity different in your faith? Same sex marriage is prohibited in the Catholic Church, as part of the religion and its teachings. The holdings in your church different? Not looking to flame just a curiosity as to the doctrines in Christianity.

One of the largest UMC congregations is Asbury in Tulsa (nearly 7K), and they have disassociated already in June. Our local church, also in the Tulsa area, is also definitely leaning in that direction.

I'm not trying to derail the thread here. But I don't get how this denomination even got to this point. The Bible is very clear on the matter.

There are some silly things or gray areas that cause churches and denominations to split. But the subject of homosexuality is not one of them. God is not cool with it. Letting openly gay leadership in your church is opening yourself up for attention from God that you don't want.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is RUN! And don't look back unless you really like a Lot of salt.

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Originally posted by spunk639:

As a Catholic and just asking, is Christianity different in your faith? Same sex marriage is prohibited in the Catholic Church, as part of the religion and its teachings. The holdings in your church different? Not looking to flame just a curiosity as to the doctrines in Christianity.

For the last 50 years the policy/discipline of the United Methodist Church is that actively homosexual clergy and same sex marriages are incompatible with the Bible and the United Methodist Church. This policy is in contention at every general worldwide conference with the policy be upheld (in part because of more conservative voices from African countries. Also this policy is being violated and ignored by individual clergy and their supervision in various conferences and locales. Also in recent years there have been concerns that the balance will be shifting and the policy could be reversed. There is a level of dissatisfaction with the disobedience occurring without consequences. There are also factions advocating for a denominational split and alternate conference , the Global Methodist Conference being formed. Tentative proposals that would facilitate churches leaving , and would replace existing rules could be voted on in 2023 or 2024.

Local Methodist churches do not own their local property outright but in conjunction or trust with the United Methodist Conference. (Hence the earlier post about the GA Church settling and paying $13 million to leave.) Concerns that the terms of disaffiliation might change is prompting many churches to consider leaving now.

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Originally posted by BGULL:
Our Senior Pastor doesn’t think we would get to a two thirds majority to disaffiliate.

It's possible he is spreading this around to protect his paycheck.

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Originally posted by walker77:

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Originally posted by BGULL:
Our Senior Pastor doesn’t think we would get to a two thirds majority to disaffiliate.

It's possible he is spreading this around to protect his paycheck.

While I don’t particularly feel that is necessarily the case with our pastor, it is a component and reality of this situation. Under the United Methodist appointment system, the clergy are members and employed by their conference, evens as they are paid by the local church. So as a practical, career concern in addition to any spiritual issues, this is something a pastor deals with.

Thanks BGull, the Catholic Church is full of its own issues, thanks for explaining.

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Originally posted by Rey HRH:
Religion is a strong emotional and psychological tie. I suppose this is just a reflection of how we got so many Christian denominations over the centuries.

And many butt hurt people.

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Originally posted by Rey HRH:
[H]ow we got so many Christian denominations over the centuries.

As an outsider (now) looking in, that’s exactly what should be expected to have happened as a result of a primary aspect of Christianity as it’s practiced today.

The various bibles in existence and use are not any sort of effective unifying force, and not only because of their obvious differences. In the days when I occasionally participated in discussions about religion I quickly lost track of the number of times I was told that something I quoted directly didn’t mean what it said. Because almost any bit of doctrine or even statement of supposed fact that can be pointed to in scripture has been confidently interpreted in significantly different ways, the result is that there is a tendency for people to just shop around until they find an interpretation they like. That’s something I even see referenced here when people move from one church to another. And if you can’t find someone who interprets and preaches the way you like, well then, just form your own sect—as has happened countless times and led to countless different denominations.

The Methodist church I was raised in, and my mother played the pipe organ for services there for 40 years, was torn down 15 years ago. I was married in that church. Hasn't really been the same since. But, the problems back then were the same. Old people with the money want no change, but that is causing the church to die out. Church has to appeal to younger members, but that causes the old people supporting the church to leave.

The Lutheran Church I was born and raised in, and raised my children in, went through this 15 years ago. Just about the time I was moving from the area. The local church voted about 99% to leave the national ELCA church body. Technically the property issue was the same as the Methodist churches described. But no one ever pushed it, and the property stayed with the local church after they left the ELCA.

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Originally posted by goose5:
The Methodist church I was raised in, and my mother played the pipe organ for services there for 40 years, was torn down 15 years ago. I was married in that church. Hasn't really been the same since. But, the problems back then were the same. Old people with the money want no change, but that is causing the church to die out. Church has to appeal to younger members, but that causes the old people supporting the church to leave.

And therein lies the rub. Wanting to appeal to younger members looks good on paper but what exactly are you getting in real life? Some tough decisions have to be made.

Our church has a good number of younger people and new ones get added frequently. But, this is a very conservative area. In the more densely populated areas it could be a very different story.

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Originally posted by walker77:
So I guess what I'm trying to say is RUN! And don't look back unless you really like a Lot of salt.

I read somewhere that his wife was a real pillar of the community.

It does boil down to what does the Bible say. It has few things to say about false prophets.

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Originally posted by wrightd:

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Originally posted by Rey HRH:
Religion is a strong emotional and psychological tie. I suppose this is just a reflection of how we got so many Christian denominations over the centuries.

And many butt hurt people.

Getting butt hurt people is the least of the problems. If you know anything about the history of the denominations, you know there have been many people of one christian belief system killed by another.

When people have differing ideas of what would jesus do, then emotions can get pretty high.