Posted on 05/08/2022 1:49:02 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
A staggering 107 United Methodist congregations based in Florida plan to leave the mainline denomination for the newly launched conservative Global Methodist Church.
The Florida chapter of the Wesleyan Covenant Association, a theologically conservative Methodist group, announced Tuesday that 107 churches in the state had “chosen to initiate the process to depart the Florida Conference of The United Methodist Church.”
The number of congregations planning to leave represents nearly 20% of the total number of churches belonging to the UMC Florida Conference.
"This broad group of churches include both large and small congregations along with Anglo, African American, Latino, Korean, and other ethnic communities of faith. These churches will align with the new Global Methodist Church,” stated the WCA chapter.
Keith Boyette, a leader in the WCA who served as a Transitional Connectional Coordinating Officer for the Global Methodist Church, told The Christian Post that he believes “there will be additional churches that will emerge as we move forward.”
“It is my understanding that all of these churches have taken votes to leave,” Boyette said when asked how firm the congregations were in leaving the UMC.
“The Transitional Leadership Council of the GMC will organize local churches like the 107 from Florida into regional conferences. The regional conferences are called annual conferences.”
Meant to serve as a conservative alternative for the UMC, the Global Methodist Church was originally planning to launch after General Conference, which had been slated to take place this fall.
However, the GMC opted to launch this month after UMC leadership announced that the General Conference would be postponed until 2024 due to ongoing pandemic concerns.
Boyette told CP that he anticipates the departing congregations will face early challenges, contending that the Florida Conference “is certainly not an ‘easy’ conference” for a congregation to disaffiliate from.
CP reached out to the Florida Conference to get a response to this development and to confirm that 107 congregations had begun a formal disaffiliation process. However, the regional body did not respond by press time.
For decades, the UMC has been debating whether to change its official stance labeling homosexuality “incompatible with Christian teaching.” This stance includes banning the ordination of noncelibate homosexuals and barring clergy from blessing same-sex marriages.
Although the stance has survived numerous attempts to change it, theological liberals have continued to resist the Book of Discipline's rules and refused to enforce them in some instances.
In January 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns began, a theologically diverse group of UMC leaders announced a proposal to have the UMC fund the creation of a new Methodist denomination that conservative churches could join.
Known as the “Protocol of Reconciliation and Grace through Separation,” the proposal would have allocated $25 million to create the new denomination, but it had to be passed at General Conference first.
Although three annual conferences had voted to send the Protocol to General Conference for consideration in early 2020, the pandemic prompted UMC leaders to postpone the General Conference multiple times.
Florida is just the tip of the iceberg.
“... a theologically conservative Methodist group ...”
I honestly didn’t know such a group existed. The UMC abandoned their congregants a long time ago.
That’s what they should do, the old line protestant churches are gone and infested with SJW and woke people.
The Untied Methodist Church.
I left them years ago when they couldn’t find anything in the Bible to condemn abortions and homosexuality.
Luke 17:28-30
King James Version
28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;
29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.
30 Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2017%3A28-30&version=KJV
Luke 17:32-37
King James Version
32 Remember Lot’s wife.
33 Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2017%3A32-37&version=KJV
(sharing a bed was common practice back then; I mention lest anyone in the Leftist world try to use it improperly - and ignore Romans 1:24-28).
The liberal congregations and the leadership should be the ones leaving. They are smaller in total.
Go woke—go broke.
"The church also urges congregations to advocate for laws that prevent or reduce gun violence, such as:
Same here. I left the ELCA in 1998 after my home congregation brought in a queer pastor that was engaged in an openly queer relationship. I was mortified catching a glimpse of him kissing his partner during coffee hour after the service. Drove down to the synod office and cancelled my letter of membership in person the next day.
Haven’t been back since.
And what happens 10 years from now when the liberals/communists infest the new “conservative” split off branch and take that over too?
Good. We left the UMC many years ago.... One reason was the theological liberalism.
“And what happens 10 years from now when the liberals/communists infest the new “conservative” split off branch and take that over too?”
You set up bylaws and doctrinal statements in advance that prevent it from happening.
I didn’t either. I wonder just how “conservative” the Global Methodist Church will be?
Would love to find resources on where to find affiliated churches to the Global Methodist Church.
Do the parishes own the buildings or does the UMC? That is often an ugly sticking point for these types of things. If the denomination owns the buildings they can tell the parish to get out. They might prefer to have an empty building than sell the building to the parish (sour grapes). But if the parish owns it then the demonination has no claim.
When you leave the Methodist church do you get to keep the building? I think the denomination takes everything.
When you leave the Methodist church do you get to keep the building? I think the denomination takes everything.
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