journeys-page

I write this in anticipation of the Great Plains United Methodist Church’s Annual Conference meeting, Wed., June 7 – Sat. June 10. By the time you read this, Annual Conference will be over. I’m also anticipating that what will make the news will be the fact that around 250 United Methodist Churches in Nebraska and Kansas will have disaffiliated this year. Most of those were smaller congregations. Kansas had double the number of churches leave than Nebraska. At the 2019 General Conference, a process for leaving with your church property was created. That window of opportunity ends in December 2023. Our Great Plains Conference started that window with approximately 1000 churches and will end with 750. Nationally, approximately 12.5% of United Methodist Churches chose to leave the denomination this past year. So the vast majority of churches in the U.S. stayed United Methodist. The number of pastors who also chose to leave is far less. For example, in my wife Cindy’s two districts, 38 churches were disaffiliated, and seven of those pastors also left the denomination. The rest stayed United Methodist. The process created by General Conference was that 67% of the membership of a congregation needed to vote leave. Many of those church conference votes were very close. So in a couple of cases, (Lewellen and Imperial UMCs), those 30% who voted not to leave have already organized new UMC congregations at storefronts in their towns. The nearest UM churches that voted to disaffiliate would be the Phillips, Giltner, and Trumbull UMCs. I am fortunate. The church I grew up in, (Albion Methodist Church), stayed. And none of the churches I have served as pastors (in Nebraska, North Carolina, and South Carolina) have voted to leave. I have colleagues who are heartbroken to learn that churches they poured their hearts into have left the denomination. So our United Methodist Denomination is in a time of transition, grief, healing, and hope. The hope is around the idea that we can now begin to move on from this 50-year battle over the full inclusion of LGBTQ folk in our church and begin to focus on making disciples of ALL nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Grace & Peace,