Property in the UMC is held in trust for the Conference - read, Bishop - by the Board of the local church. The last General Conference created a structure for the division to occur without rancor. The leadership of the US conferences has abrogated that agreement making it impossible for the division to occur without hostility.
The will be whole local conferences leave the UMC. In most cased individual churches are seeking to leave with their facilities in tact. Again, the leadership is bitterly and illegally opposing this forcing the matter into court.
The leadership of the UMC in the US and especially the liberal conferences have long been under the authority of Satan. For many years they have rejected ministries that are Biblically based. This has finally come to a boiling point.
“the leadership is bitterly and illegally opposing this forcing the matter into court.”
Is there such a thing as independent Methodist churches, or are all of them under some next-level entity? Technically, could the membership buy the facilities from the UMC, or is that not possible? I guess it would be double paying since they’ve already paid once, but via the organization.
My friend was Methodist and an organization assigned pastors to churches, which I thought was weird. Some of them were 100% disliked by the congregation, yet there they were. The pastors were shuffled around every couple of years.
And it seems that the organization controls the money, too.
Having someone other than God as “leadership” over a local church body seems to be a problem.