The church leadership is stupid. Blocking a member church from leaving will just result in the members of that congregation finding a new church to attend. The church leadership just needs to accept the results that these congregation members of selected and move on with life.
I think many Methodist churches and facilities are built and owned by the United Methodist church as a whole. So I could see some problem with an individual member church wanting to break away and take an asset with it (though the money should not be the primary concern of the larger church organization).
I grew up Methodist in GA back in the 60’s and 70’s, but I have been a non-denominational Bible-based church constituent for many decades since then.
Church politics are sad. It takes so much away from the real message. Non-denoms that own their own facilities seem to get that.
It’s about grabbing the property and endowments of the churches that are trying to leave.
Yep. 15 years ago, I lived in a small town that had four Baptist Churches within a crossroad. Actually three on a crossroads and the fourth at the other end of the block.
Funny thing there was a new church and a slightly older one, a slightly older one and another older one.
We, Baptist are a contentious lot.
You’re missing the point. The Bishops say they own the church real estate. They want the gelt.
The Bishops say it’s o.k. for them to revolt against the world Methodist Church on gay priests, but not the local churches to revolt against them.
” just result in the members of that congregation finding a new church to attend.”
No, because the denomination owns the building and many of the people in these congregations worked to raise money to purchase and build the churches. So they don’t want to go to another church. They want their church to be faithful to scripture.
“The church leadership is stupid. Blocking a member church from leaving will just result in the members of that congregation finding a new church to attend. The church leadership just needs to accept the results that these congregation members of selected and move on with life.”
I disagree. They are not stupid. The real and unspoken issue with the church leadership is not about members fleeing to other churches, but instead it is about maintaining control of the “property” and facilities. We are talking about millions upon millions of dollars in real estate.
The church leaders are more concerned about the almighty dollar rather than the immortal souls of their flock.
JMHO
I think that’s kind of the point, I think what the church really wants is the properties and anything else of value attached them
The Georgia conference leadership doesn’t care. They will cut off their nose to spite their face. Their point is not to keep members but to destroy the structure while they still can. They are wholly satanic.