First Methodist Church of Rockingham, formerly First United Methodist Church of Rockingham, voted to disaffiliate from the UMC and joined the Global Methodist Church on Jan. 1, 2023.

First Methodist Church of Rockingham, formerly First United Methodist Church of Rockingham, voted to disaffiliate from the UMC and joined the Global Methodist Church on Jan. 1, 2023.

WADESBORO — In the 2001 book “Confronting the Controversies: Biblical Perspectives on Tough Issues”, author Adam Hamilton correctly prognosticated that within the next 20 years, the issue of homosexuality (and now LGBTQ rights) would prove to become a major dividing line in many churches, specifically the United Methodist church.

Presently, concerns regarding LGBTQ issues are one of the major reasons that some Methodist churches have chosen to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church denomination.

Since language regarding the disaffiliation process was amended by the United Methodist General Conference in 2019, over 2,000 churches have disaffiliated, including 30% of UMC churches in North Carolina.

Under paragraph 2553, effective as the end of the 2019 General Conference Book of Discipline, it states that “Because of the current deep conflict within the United Methodist Church around issues of human sexuality, a local church shall have a limited right, under the provisions of this paragraph, to disaffiliate from the denomination for reasons of conscience regarding a change in the requirements of the Book of Discipline related to the practice of homosexuality or the ordination or marriage of self-avowed practicing homosexuals as resolved and adopted by the 2019 General Conference, or actions or inactions of its annual conference related to these issues which follow.”

One proposed plan, the Protocol of Reconciliation and Grace Through Separation, would allow more traditional churches to remain on their property and form a new denomination, the Global Methodist Church. A major concern before this plan was that disaffiliating churches could lose their property.

“[The sexuality issue] has come up at every general conference and the UMC has been debating about it for 50 years,” said Dan Blair, pastor for First United Methodist Church and Fellowship United Methodist Church in Hamlet. Primarily, the issue most pertinent to the church is the ordaining of practicing gay and lesbian preachers and permitting homosexual weddings. “But over the last ten years, the temperature has gone up on it some,” he added.

Blair said that the disaffiliation language from 2019 didn’t address the core concerns over the topic. Meetings of the General Conference have been continually delayed to 2024 due to COVID-19, postponing any sort of resolution to the issue. Disaffiliating churches, which requires 2/3’s of the church congregation to vote to leave, would lose the United Methodist banner and join the Global Methodist Church.

“Some of the churches decided that they’re just done with it, and decided to take advantage of that clause to disaffiliate,” Blair, who was ordained in 2009, said.

Churches in Richmond County that have decided to disaffiliate include the former West Rockingham United Methodist Church and First United Methodist Church of Rockingham, now the First Methodist Church of Rockingham. The latter joined the Global Methodist Church on Jan. 1, 2023. Longpine United Methodist in Anson County has also voted to disaffiliate. It’s unclear at this time what the total number of churches that have chosen to disaffiliate is.

“We are essentially the same church we have always been,” Rev. K. Darrel Bowles, pastor of First Methodist Church of Rockingham, shared in an email. “Our continued desire is to be a church that worships passionately, loves extravagantly, and witnesses boldly. The early Methodist movement had one goal, to spread Scriptural Holiness across the land. We are embracing our Methodist heritage by aligning with the Global Methodist Church.”

Church councils ultimately determine the vote at each individual church, but a pastor and a church can sometimes make separate decisions, depending on what is best for each party.

The Lewis Center for Church Leadership conducted a study and found that disaffiliating churches are overwhelmingly in the South and more located in rural area. Churches with smaller congregations are also more likely to disaffiliate. South Central and Southeastern Jurisdictions comprise 52% of UMC churches, but 84% of total disaffiliations.

Human sexuality debate rages

In 1972, the UMC’s General Conference decided that all individuals, including homosexuals, are of sacred worth to God and should have protected rights, but it did not offer any guidance on sexual activity.

“Once [that] statement got put into our Book of Discipline, we’ve been fighting over it since 1972,” Reverend Stacey Lundy of FUMC in Wadesboro explained. “At times that’s been a little cooler, and times that’s been a little hotter. It really kind of flamed up in 2016.”

In 2016, United Methodist ordained their first openly lesbian bishop, Bishop Karen Oliveto. Her ordination sparked debates about LGBTQ acceptance and inclusion within the church. This debate was also fueled with the vote to accept the “Traditional Plan,” which would narrow down LGBTQ acceptance by prohibiting bishops from ordaining openly gay individuals, and penalizing clergy members for performing same-sex marriages. Many clergy members voiced their disapproval of the plan.

While sexuality tends to be the focus issue for disaffiliation, it’s not the only one. Some members in the denomination believe that future changes in the language in the Book of Discipline could violate some of the basic tenets of Christianity and the expression of its divinity. Blair added that he believes that fears that the UMC would ditch long-held standard Christian doctrine are “unfounded.”

Churches meet to discuss

In October of 2021, now First Methodist Church in Rockingham met to discuss the issue candidly with about 50 members of their congregations. It’s unclear how many more meetings there were to before a consensus was reached to vote to leave. Rev. Bowles declined to sit down for an interview for further elaboration.

FUMC-Hamlet and Fellowship UMC, both under the leadership of Blair, voted to remain in the First United church.

“There was obviously a lot of discussion,” Blair said. “I was well pleased in that there was no ill-will, no anger, no hostility. What it came down to was awful lot of worry about whether the language of the Discipline would change in 2024…and we don’t know. No matter which side of the fence you are on, you don’t know what General Conference is going to do.”

Blair said the general feeling was that many individuals and churches are tired of the turmoil that this topic has created, and that ultimately, these external tensions won’t effect his sermon preparation or how his churches conduct their worship.

“We knew what we had in the United Methodist Church,” shared Judy Gibson, chairperson of the FUMC church council, and that the older congregation was more comfortable with staying put. “We decided to stay with what we felt secure in and didn’t want to deal with the hullabaloo of disaffiliating and not knowing exactly what we were getting into.”

Other local churches that decided to remain include East Rockingham and Cordova United Methodist. Both did not respond to requests for comment.

“We met each church individually, we met and sat down, had discussions and theological talks of what they wanted from the church and the future and everything,” said Reverend John D. Moffett of Polkton United Methodist Church, who’s church did decide to disaffiliate.. “And then from there, they took a vote of the membership that was present.”

Although a congregation can vote to disaffiliate for any reason, Moffett said they have to say, on paper, that the “reason” is over human sexuality. It is the only way that a church can go through the disaffiliation process, whether they agree and disagree with the church’s stance on LGBTQ inclusion, according to him.

Lighthouse churches

“If there are those that wish to remain United Methodist and their church is disaffiliating and they are looking for another church,” Reverend Luke Christy of Peachland United Methodist Church explained, “There are lighthouse churches in the areas that are there to support them through that transition and to either adopt them into their church membership or to find another church that is suited for them.”

“In fact, First has become what we call a lighthouse congregation,” Rev. Lundy picked up. “That’s a new initiative in the conference and several other ones just trying to signal to the community that we’re not considering leaving the denomination and we want to deliberately provide as safe and welcoming space, especially for folks whose churches are closing, or if you were disaffiliated that wanted to remain United Methodist.”

FUMC and Fellowship in Hamlet have also become Lighthouse churches.

“My impression is that even if a church decides to disaffiliate that…their style of worship, sermons don’t automatically change,” Blair said. “And with any really big organization or church body, there’s always going to be things that you scratch you’re head about and may not agree with, but it’s my church.”

Despite different churches and congregations not always agreeing on topics of human sexuality and LGBTQ inclusion, Rev. Christy said there are no hard feelings between United Methodist and churches that have disaffiliated. The church has an emphasis on grace and the beliefs and practices, at their core, remain the same between the churches.

“At least from where I sit, there’s no hard feelings, we haven’t fallen into a state of bitterness,” Rev. Christy said. “Stacey mentioned the emphasis on grace, and I think that’s, from a United Methodist standpoint, where we’re moving forward with, that we got important work to do.”

Ultimately, there are no changes in the United Methodist church that will alter their fundamental beliefs within the denomination.

“Those are our commitments, things like trinity, resurrection, Jesus as the way to salvation, our deep commitment to scripture and upholding that as a way to follow Jesus above all else,” Rev. Christy said. “And I hope we get to focus on those things as we move into the future.”

Does your church have anything interesting to contribute to this issue? Would you like to share your thoughts or concerns? If so, contact the writers at ogriffin@ansonrecord.com or msasser@yourdailyjournal.com

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Reach Matthew Sasser at 910-817-2671 or msasser@yourdailyjournal.com to suggest a correction.