Congrats to the Methodists who moved their local churches out of the hedonist pushing UMC denomination into the Bible centric GMC denomination. I know many of you took on much in legal and financial hardships to do the right thing.
We belonged to two UMC churches (two cities, two states).
In one case the congregation left the UMC. The pastor has since been ordained in the global Methodists.
In the other case, the minister promised discussion before we had a vote. She broke her promise and rushed a vote. Not knowing what was going on, a majority voted for no change. Since that time, a third of the congregants have bolted and formed their own, currently unaffiliated, church.
So, in the first case we kept the building. In the second case those who left are now renting a building.
In the first case, the pastor is a young man. In the second case the UMC pastor is a lady in her 60s. Her retirement is tied up with the UMC.
Money plays a role. In the first place the young pastor faced no conflict of interest. So it was easy for him to do the right thing. The congregation and pastor left as a group and kept the building.
In the second case, the pastor was looking forward to her retirement. I think that guided her thinking, though she will probably rationalize otherwise. The UMC kept the church building that we all bought. Kudos to those who left the church to start over. It is not the path of least resistance.