Without pretending to offer advice to the Methodists, instead I’ll offer a bit of advice to a large spectrum of churches for these times.
Maybe it’s time for some churches to eschew owning property, buildings, etc. Maybe it’s time for churches to seek out spaces to rent, or lease — such as hotel conference room areas, for Sundays only, while finding a nearby vacant office space, such as in a strip mall, to lease for clerical needs and for meeting spaces during the week.
That way, the landlords are on the hook for insurance, also building and parking lot maintenance. The church takes out a liability policy at a comparatively small price. Then the church would have funds to share with the poor, the persecuted, and for evangelism.
It’s a model that I think would work. And it would obviate the problem stated in this article.
>> Maybe it’s time for churches to seek out spaces to rent, or lease
Many already do that. (Not Methodists, but non-denoms.)
I’ll add another idea to yours: maybe it’s time for churches to conduct spontaneous gatherings in public places and/or homes. (We already do “home church” on Sunday evening, in addition to regular worship at an “established” church building Sunday morning.)
FRegards, and Blessings!
All part of a general trend - Luke-warm Christians falling away, the faith becoming unfashionable in society, and increasingly aggressive political persecution. Christians are headed back to worship in the catacombs, while we live in the rising Whore of Babylon
“Maybe it’s time for churches to seek out spaces to rent, or lease….”
Maybe before “cancel culture” came on the scene.