The article is from the Bee but in reality-land, African Christians should send missionaries to Europe and America. They might start with Hollywood, Stockholm, Oxford, and Chapel Hill, NC.
The Methodist schism has already occurred. The Epworth Congregation in Phenix City, Alabama voted 190 to five to disaffiliate from the UMC and now they have settled into life without the corrupted higher-ups. Of the thousands of congregations that have left, many were the most dynamic that the UMC had. There were other issues as well such as the theology of liberation movement that subverted many Roman Catholics as well as Protestants.
Concur. Of the three Methodist churches in my home town, the liberal one is dying. The second one is hanging on and the third one has joined the new Global methodist church and is growing very well. Interestingly enough, the one that joined the Global Methodist church was the largest and most established. Now a lot of their new growth are people like me that just joined because my church voted to stay. In a good manner, were are called the refugees and refer to ourselves the same.
Here is another point, the traditionalist that left the UMC for the most part are the ones that tithe (give 10% of income). So the churches we left have seen a great decrease in revenue and my new church is actually having a hard time ensuring that the new found funds are used appropriately. OBTW, the Global Methodist Church has organized so that that they hopefully will not fall into the old organization. The Global Methodist Church has put in its charter that it will not require funds from the individual church of more than 1% of church offerings. This was a big friction point while I was a UMC member, because the UMC required about 10% of offerings and funded "BS" and liberal causes. I have glossed over some details, because who wants to wander through that?