United Methodist churches examine future as some vote to disaffiliate

At First United Methodist Church of Irwin over the past month, there’s been more than a few new faces in the pews.

According to congregation member Bonnie Judy, her church has started to attract people looking for a new church home, after their own churches decided to leave the denomination.

“We are already seeing new people from other churches coming to our church,” she said in mid-March. “Just within the last month, we have seen maybe five to 10 new families. That is unusual.”

Judy is the Greensburg District Lay Leader for the Western Pennsylvania Conference. Her husband, Bruce, is pastor at First UMC Irwin.

About 260 churches in the 800-church Western Pennsylvania Conference are taking steps to leave the United Methodist denomination over debates around same-sex marriage and ordaining gay pastors. First UMC Irwin is part of the other two-thirds of the conference that plans to remain with the denomination.

Judy’s church met to discuss disaffiliating but voted “overwhelmingly” to stick with United Methodism, she said. As a result, some families who have had their churches vote to disaffiliate have joined First UMC Irwin.

“Since we are such a big church and we are very active in the community, it is not unusual that we would be picking up lots of people who are looking for someplace to stay within the United Methodist Church,” she said.

Because the church’s Book of Discipline has not changed any policies regarding same-sex marriage or gay pastors yet, she said, the congregation didn’t see a reason to leave.

“In order for that to change, there has to be a vote at the annual conference,” she said. “That vote is not going to take place until 2024. Nothing has changed in the church yet.”

Related:

• United Methodist congregations contend with process of disaffiliating
• From 2019: Western Pennsylvania weighs in as Methodists uphold church LGBTQ bans

If the United Methodist church at large approves same-sex marriage and gay pastors in the future, her church may again discuss disaffiliating, she said.

“We do have a conservative bunch, but we also have people in the church who are very liberal,” she said. “We have a nice cross-section of people.”

For Judy, being United Methodist is a family matter. Along with her husband, who’s been a UMC pastor for 30 years, three of her children also serve as pastors in different parts of the country.

“It is a huge part of our family, and we all are staying with the United Methodist Church,” she said.

A big decision

Community Church in Harrison City hosts 350 to 400 members at church services each weekend. The congregation holds small-group gatherings, a student ministry, a preschool and even a morning pickleball group.

The church came close to leaving the United Methodist denomination in February but decided against it in a 3-1 vote.

“I would say this congregation has a DNA that is traditional overall, but at its heart it is welcoming and loving, and I think that was probably represented in our process and in the vote,” said Seth McPherson, lead pastor of Community Church who joined the congregation as pastor three years ago.

The church’s council formed an eight-person subcommittee for “denominational matters.” That committee, along with clergy, put together informational videos about the disaffiliation process and held gatherings to discuss it. The district superintendent answered questions through the process, McPherson said, and some informal polls were taken to gauge interest before the vote.

McPherson praised the thoughtfulness his congregation exhibited.

“I feel the leadership and the congregation in general really thought to take the time to listen to one another and value that diversity of thought that is definitely in a larger church,” he said. “(We) wanted to take the time to care for a person’s thoughts and opinions to be heard and valued.”

Since the February vote, for the most part, the church has stuck together. A few families have left, but most people “for whom the vote didn’t go their way” have still remained in the congregation.

“I think that’s awesome and a testament to the church’s care for one another,” McPherson said. “I think that sense of welcome, that sense of care, even if there’s still some underlying disagreements or questions that might always be there, the way you can journey through that disagreement well … that’s really our mission.”

Open doors

At First United Methodist Church of Pittsburgh in Bloomfield, newcomers are drawn in not only by the church’s status as a congregation remaining with the UMC but also by a number of rainbow pride flag banners wrapped around the entrance of the building.

The Reconciling Congregation makes it a priority to be visibly accepting of LGBTQ+ people, especially since 2019, when the international UMC General Conference voted no on accepting same-sex marriage, said Tracy Cox, church pastor.

While they cannot perform or host same-sex marriages or ordain LGBTQ+ individuals, members of the congregation still finds ways to promote inclusiveness.

“Our response as a congregation was that it is not changing us,” Cox said. “We know who we are supposed to be, who God has called us to be, and we know the leadership of the last 20 years has guided us to be a welcoming and inclusive congregation.”

First UMC Pittsburgh has been a Reconciling Congregation for upward of 15 years, meaning the congregation is committed “to achieving LGBTQ+ justice and full inclusion in the life and leadership of The United Methodist Church, both in policy and in practice,” according to the Reconciling Ministries Network website. The congregation also holds a “Wrestling with Racism” ministry and several social justice-focused programs.

When First UMC Pittsburgh decided to join the Reconciling Ministries Network, some congregation members decided to leave, Cox said.

“Congregations used to be politically and theologically a little bit diverse,” she said. “Through the Trump years, we have had people leave who are superconservative who just felt like they couldn’t worship here. That made me sad because congregations should be full of so many different thoughts.”

On the other hand, focusing on areas of growth, such as LGBTQ+ rights and antiracism, has drawn new members, she said.

“It’s not so much the disaffiliation talk that has brought people into First Church. We get people because we have those rainbow banners out,” she said, noting that younger people and college students are part of the church. “(The students) grew up United Methodist, and they want to be United Methodist, and they can’t go back to their home churches, so they are here.”

Lighthouse churches

At Leechburg First United Methodist Church, the Rev. Sara Wrona and the church’s 13-member council are considering formally opening their doors to United Methodists looking for a new church home.

The congregation, which usually numbers 60 to 70 worshippers each Sunday, is exploring participation in a proposed Lighthouse Church program through the Western Pennsylvania Conference.

If the council votes to join during a meeting to be scheduled for this month, Leechburg First UMC will be included on a list of other Lighthouse Churches that welcome individuals who want to stay in the denomination but whose home churches voted to leave.

“It gives folks whose home church has decided to disaffiliate a place to land, so to speak, whether that be temporarily just for a season or whether it be on a permanent basis,” Wrona said.

“I have talked to several people whose home churches have voted to disaffiliate, and some folks, even though they’re not happy about it, have said, ‘I’m sticking with this church; it’s been my church my whole life,’” she said. “Other folks have said, ‘Now I’m at this point in time where I need to find a new place to belong.’”

Being a Lighthouse Church would be less about gaining members and more about providing a “time of care” for others, Wrona said.

“What is happening is there’s grief — there’s grief all around and across the spectrum,” she said. “It’s providing a safe place. It’s also providing a pressure-free landing space.”

As the denomination shrinks, some regions will no longer have a United Methodist church.

“I know that the conference is hoping, because there’s going to be a lot of areas that will no longer have a United Methodist presence, that there could be opportunities for starting a new United Methodist presence in certain areas,” Wrona said. “That might mean that these folks come to us for a time but will have the opportunity in the future to have a United Methodist presence back in their own location.”

When it comes to welcoming newcomers, Wrona said, the church building shouldn’t have any seating issues.

“As in most small towns, parking is always at a premium, but you work around that,” she said. “If we move forward with this, the conference is going to be providing specific training for how we welcome and either enhance the ministries we are already doing or perhaps start some new ministries in this process.”

Outlook

Tracy Merrick, a member of First UMC Pittsburgh who has also served as a delegate to past international UMC General Conferences, sees a potential for growth in the church even amid some congregations’ departures.

“I think that we are going to find that those of us who are staying are excited about a new form — I don’t want to say a new church but a new future for the United Methodist church, which will be more inclusive of and welcoming of certainly LGBTQIA folks but will also be more concentrated on the long-term Wesleyan commitment to social justice,” Merrick said, citing First Church’s antiracism work as another ongoing project.

Merrick serves on the conference’s Intentional Missional Alignment Process task force, which has been working to create the “household” system that will allow congregations to designate themselves as traditional, blended or progressive.

“My passion around this is, I believe that this will create a safe place for churches, clergy and laity to be about the ministries that they feel called to be about, without judgment coming from other parties,” he said.

As the disaffiliation process continues among congregations, it leaves some raw edges and brings shifts to professional and personal connections, Wrona said.

“Folks that have been my colleagues in ministry for these last 17 years, they’re still going to be my colleagues, but I don’t anticipate our paths crossing as often, especially those who are in other areas of the conference,” she said.

She said she hopes that the heart of the church remains focused.

“I hope and I pray that, whether you’re United Methodist or independent or wherever someone lands, that our focus becomes centered on growing and building the body of Christ,” Wrona said. “That’s one of the things I have tried to stress to my congregation in Leechburg, is that if we get bogged down in all of this, then we are not being who Christ calls us to be.”