I grew up a United Methodist. When I accepted Christ as Savior when I was 19, I became a regular member of the UMC. I was vice-President of the Wesley Foundation at Mississippi State. I worked at Lake Junaluska Assembly (home of the United Methodist Church in the Southeast) one summer. I met my wife at Christ UMC in Jackson, got married there, raised my kids to go there, and was very active.
However, there was always that nagging feeling I had in the back of my mind...I felt that our church (a bible-believing, Conservative church) was simply put out there as a cash cow for the State Conference and the National Church. I had a bad taste when, growing up, I had heard that they opposed the war in Vietnam yet had no words for the millions slaughtered in the Killing Fields of SE Asia in the wake of our cutting and running. My bad feelings about this were affirmed when they came out against the liberation of the Iraqi people.
When we moved out of Jackson, MS, I decided to NOT transfer to a UMC. We tried a Baptist church for a while, but the Lord led us to a Congregational Methodist Church (Wesleyan teachings, but was congregational instead of hierarchial). My family is VERY happy there. Plus, the Lord has truly blessed us.
I don't condemn the UMC as the Church of Satan. There are many honest, sincere, bible-believing Christians still attending the UMC. Many are trying to change it from the inside. However, I have 4 kids and I don't have the luxury of trying to fight from the inside while my kids are subjected to lukewarm, leftist indoctrination.
Now that they've cursed Israel, I expect calamity to come upon the United Methodist Church.
Thank you for your testimony.
I was a UMC elder for 15 years. My ministry ended when my DS condemned me for having “a congregation of sheep who will follow you anywhere.” These were social outcasts, severely disabled, many mentally troubled people who the same DS said, “excluded the middle class.”
There was more, much more, said and done by ecclesiastical tyrants that convinced me that the church of my childhood and of my fathers no longer existed.
That was 20 years ago. The continued demise of the presence of Christ in the UMC has continued unabated. They have become a coven of worldly witches and warlocks bearing no resemblance to Christ.
You weren't the only one!
I do, too. It's been a long time coming. This is a Church that has become infected with the sin of pride.