Although conservative leaders within the United Methodist Church announced in late April they would launch the Global Methodist Church, no Chicago-area churches have made any move to switch denominations, officials said.
The Global Methodist Church, launched May 1, is mostly an effort to accommodate the conservative wing of the Wesleyan theology. It offers itself as an alternative while also giving more control to local church communities.
Even so, splitting away from the United Methodist conference isn’t an easy process. Conference guidelines require two-thirds of a congregation must approve to disaffiliate, pay a pro rata share of the conference’s pension liability and possibly pay to purchase its property. The departing clergy may lose retirement packages.
For years, the United Methodist Church has been divided by deepening disagreements over LGBTQ issues in its leadership. Officially, the church forbids same-sex marriage and LGBTQ clergy, though a growing number of churches have ignored the prohibitions without penalty from the denomination.
For years, the denomination opened itself to a more liberal theology some local churches or pastors do not support, with talk of a vote at some point to possibly split up the United Methodist Church altogether. Due to COVID-19, that vote was pushed to 2024.
But Scott Field, the northern Illinois coordinator for the Wesleyan Association, a more conservative group within the community, says he believes the denomination will lose churches, even in northern Illinois, to the Global Methodist Church. Though he said the denomination stands to lose more congregations globally.
“I think if you would follow the demographic trajectory of the sister mainline denominations, the UMC is following the same trajectory,” he said.
Field said he believes conservative branches are shoring up, preparing for a separation in some form over the coming years.
“It’s not going out of business next year,” he said. “But it won’t have net growth and in northern Illinois, there’s not been any net growth in church attendance.”
That said, the period has been over a pandemic when public attendance has declined among churches, movie theaters and restaurants. But even so, Field said he thinks church leadership is basically out of touch.
“The general age of ministers is in their late 60s,” he said.
After the annual Northern Illinois Conference meeting in mid-June, interim Bishop John Hopkins said he saw no signs any churches in the Chicago area are preparing to leave the denomination for the Global Methodist Church, even as he acknowledged some parishioners might want a more conservative alternative.
“Sometimes the leaders of the congregation say, ‘yes, we need to do this,'” Hopkins said.
Field said the only reason leadership hasn’t heard of breakaway churches is because of a general uncertainty or fear of recrimination. But, he said, traditional leadership leans conservative.
“The deal is, if you will, the traditionalists or the conservatives have prevailed at all the general conferences since 1972,” Field said, meaning the church still defines marriage as between a man and a woman even as they don’t do much to prohibit same-sex marriage or marriage ceremonies.
Besides the expense of leaving, another problem is pastors are assigned churches. Hopkins compared it to the military, insofar as pastors do not decide where they go, they’re ordered to communities. This makes it more difficult for pastors to unilaterally separate from the United Methodist Church without upsetting the congregation, if the congregation doesn’t approve of such a move.
“We want to make sure there’s not just an authoritarian pastor,” Hopkins said.
He said the denomination has always had a way for a church to leave, if both the congregation and the pastor choose, but it rarely happens. Even now, amid the culture wars and loosening standards on LGBTQ marriages and clergy, he said he’s only heard of “one or two” churches even inquire about the process and none has initiated an exit.
But elsewhere in the church, it is happening.
According to Christianity Today, one church in Georgia is leaving for the Global Methodist Church though, again, the process will take months. Also, this month, at the Florida Clergy Conference, members voted to deny a longtime pastor a senior position in the United Methodist Church because is he gay.
Hopkins said the Chicago area churches aren’t immune from this division and he said the denomination could still split later this year or next, though he hopes no church leaves the United Methodist conference.
“We’ve also said we’ll be weakened if anyone leaves,” he said. “If there’s anything we’re doing, we’re saying we’d be less diverse if we lose anyone.”
Part of this effort is through a social media campaign. The denomination launched a #beUMC campaign on social media where pastors and parishioners tell why they’re part of the church. In a series of videos, the church is highlighting its strength through unity.
So far, the denomination — which formed in the late 1960s as a merger of two denominations — has tried to be a big tent organization, and because of that it isn’t just being pushed by the conservative wing. In fact, the church is trying to lean in to its big tent history.
“I am UMC because of our stand against racism,” the Rev. Tennille Power, pastor of Hazel Crest Community United Methodist Church, said in a YouTube video. “We have a lot of work before us, but it starts with our stand against racism.”
“It’s a church for all people,” said the Rev. Barbara Morgan. “It’s a church for today. It’s a church without borders and I’m so happy to be a part of this great church.”
Hopkins has been interim bishop for the North Central Jurisdiction for 17 months and in that time he said he’s also seen pastors who want to open the church up and be more progressive.
“A lot of pastors would like to perform gay weddings,” he said. While some do and generally they’re not penalized, the church doesn’t officially condone it. “We’ve made huge progress but were not there yet.”
For Hopkins, culture wars aren’t new and, he said, he’s hopeful the denomination will survive the current iteration.
“I’m 76 and I came of age before the Vietnam War, so I’ve seen a lot happen,” he said. “So yes, these are tough times and I’ve seen people get divided, but the spirit of Christ says we’re one.”
In the meantime, he said he hopes the penalties of leaving the church as well as the advantages of staying part of the United Methodist denomination are enough to keep both parishioners and pastors satisfied. So far, this has been the case.
“I’ve found, when people start looking at all the issues about being a part of the church, the issues aren’t sufficient to leave the church,” he said.
Jesse Wright is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
