Recent email below


Important Church Council Announcement Upcoming Informational Meetings
First United Methodist Church (FUMC), Cleburne


Friends in Christ,

As promised in our previous announcement, the Church Council has now scheduled informational meetings for members to learn more about the possible changes in the United Methodist Church (UMC) to be considered at the 2024 General Conference, as well as the options individual churches have pertaining to these changes. Please read this narrative in its entirety.

Informational Meetings Schedule:

Session 1

Leader Rev. Danny Tenney*

Location FUMC Sanctuary

Day/Date Wednesday/Feb. 8, 2023

Start Time 6 P.M.


Session 2

Rev. Bob Rainey

FUMC Sanctuary

Sunday/Feb. 12, 2023

1 P.M.


*Rev. Tenney is the Superintendent for the North and West Districts of the Central Texas Conference and therefore is the District Superintendent for FUMC.
We strongly urge you to attend at least one of these sessions where, in addition to hearing any presentation provided by the leaders, you will have the opportunity to ask questions, raise concerns and listen to the questions and concerns of others. However, if you are unable to attend a meeting in person, please know that a recording will be made of Session 1, and members can request a link to the recording from the church office beginning February 14th. The recording will also be available to view at FUMC on Sunday, February 19th starting at 10 a.m. (Exact location to be determined.) In addition, please continue to feel free to present questions and concerns to our pastors and/or members of the Church Council.

Three things to be aware of pertaining to the informational meetings:

Handling of questions: If you know your questions in advance, you are welcome to write them individually on note cards or pieces of paper (one question per card or paper) and give them to a designated Council member when you arrive for a meeting. The Council member will then turn them in to be addressed by the Leader. Or you may ask your question via a microphone that will be provided, or you may use both methods!
Conduct: Please remember to treat one another with grace and love at all times.
Exit poll: As you may recall, the process to explore disaffiliation can be terminated prior to taking an actual vote regarding disaffiliation. Therefore, as an attempt to gauge whether members wish to terminate or continue the process, you will have the opportunity to express your feelings via an exit poll. To do this, you will receive a slip of paper which you can fill out (anonymously) and deposit in a box that will be provided. THIS IS NOT A VOTE TO DISAFFILIATE. Again, it is simply a method the Council will use to try to determine if the membership wishes terminate the disaffiliation process or prepare to have a vote.
What Happens Next

The Council is scheduled to meet on Tuesday, February 21, 2023, to discuss results from the exit polls. We ask that you please continue to participate in the 30 days of prayer for our church, the UMC and your personal discernment.

90…

In response to the edict issued by the now departed North Georgia bishop to "pause" disaffiliations until the 2024 General Conference, our church has decided to move forward with legal action. My understanding is that a significant number of other N Georgia UMC churches are doing the same. Our church is also continuing to pay its normal apportionments.

There is a strong belief that our lead pastor will be reassigned this year as retribution, even though the new N GA bishop just started in Jan. Stay tuned.

In reply to TheRatt87 Gotta start withholding apportionments to get their attention.

In reply to nortex97 I think everyone recognizes it is beyond reconciliation at this point. In my opinion, continuing to pay the standard apportionments is solely to support the legal position that our church has followed the process set out per Paragraph 2553 to the letter, and it is the N GA conference that has acted in bad faith (no pun intended).

Forgive me if is been posted already, but is there a website that of the Globalist churches. Specifically looking for those in north Texas. TIA!

In reply to BoDog https://globalmethodist.org/provisional-annual-conferences/

Depending on what you mean by north Texas, click one of the links for the provisional conferences in Texas and they should have a link for Finding local churches.

I'm glad Rev Chaffin isn't around to witness this mess.

In reply to Fishing Fools Roughly 6% of UMC churches leaving is a mess?

In reply to 12thMan9

12thMan9 said:

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Roughly 6% of UMC churches leaving is a mess?

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It's where those churches are located and the number of attendees/members that are eye-opening. The vast number of tiny churches attended by 60+ years old members comprise the majority of UMC churches staying, usually in the northeast, upper Midwest and west and with scant or negative growth. Those leaving have much larger, younger membership and are located in the southeast and south central states.
Example: the last figures I saw indicated the Western jurisdiction of the UMC (everything west of the Kansas-Colorado state line, including Hawaii) had only 300,000 members. The UMC used to be the dominant Protestant denomination in the region. Probably 1/3 of those attend services regularly.

If you want to follow this more closely, try this;
https://goodnewsmag.org/the-early-growth-of-the-global-methodist-church/ or

https://juicyecumenism.com/2023/02/07/texas-global-methodists-turn-from-denominational-decline/

In reply to The Shank Ag TSA. My prayers are with you.

As my many posts above indicate, we left our long time PCUSA church for an ECO church along with several other families. It was excruciatingly difficult, but we knew it had to be done.

Our new church is so amazing, that it is almost like we never went to the old one. Our new church is Bible based, active, and full of families. There is no "woke" liturgy, hymns or sermons. Furthermore, the ECO is not politically active, as opposed to the PCUSA. Our change in congregations has truly been a real blessing for our Faith.

I know it is difficult, but God will lead you.

What I am debating sending to a church wide email thread. Let me know if you think you'd also reply in a way such as this?




I have debated numerous times wether the reply all button was a good idea, and I'm still not convinced this will be. However, here I am.

I start with saying I love how our church worships together and have for 2 decades when I joined from a different Methodist Church in town that had a major split as a sophomore in high school. I've never felt more at home and more connected to the Father and Son than I have at our church despite being a member of different churches before moving back to Cleburne.

I also come into my future statements with people that I love on both sides of this discussion. Family, friends, family friends. People that have loved on me and my family through familial health scares, deaths, weddings, and many other seminal moments in both my life and those of my greater family.

I also come into my position with the recognition that I have people in my life that I love dearly that identify as part of the LGBTQ community. I began my questioning to Rev Tenney a little over a week ago with the statement: "As Methodists and as Christians, I recognize we have not treated the LGBTQ community as we should", and firmly believe that to be true. There has been rhetoric, actions, and a lack of discussion towards this community for longer than I've been alive that unfortunately has turned into hatefulness and alienation. I want it to be known to all brothers and sisters in Christ that no matter what your sexual orientation, gender affiliation, race, background, sin struggle, I aim to pray with you. I aim to grasp your hand and discuss God's grace and love on our journey to both be closer to Christ. And most of all, I want you to know you are welcome where I worship be that in church, my home, or anywhere in public we find a place to witness to others.

As a volunteer with the youth group when I was 19, I discussed in frank terms my struggle with sin and how God's word and repentance is what kept me moving forward. While my struggle with sin was not by any means over at that age, and will more than likely ever be over until I enter paradise, I hoped and prayed that my message would reach others that would soon be venturing out of their own parents' homes and would be able to set their own guidelines for what they felt was honoring of Christ or otherwise.

That all being conveyed, I do have several points that I feel if not shared, will forever go unsaid. For to have strong convictions and not let them be known or thoroughly explained throughout this process (that I loathe has come to where it has) would be to turn a blind eye or silent mouth to others that may agree or even disagree.

First, as John Wesley has been recited time and time again in our church during this process, I present a quote from one of his sermons with a commentary that hopefully conveys thoughts from the 1700s with a contemporary retrospection:

"All scripture is given by inspiration of God; consequently all scripture is infallibly true"

If the Bible is infallibly true as John Wesley preached, it is God's self-revelation to all of us. As such, it should inform our self-experience, not the other way around. It should inform our human reasoning and scientific understanding, not the other way around. God's word, not society's should be our guided path, less we become subservient to ideals that a society that statistics show is becoming further and further from His teaching with each passing year.

Another point that I both understand and respect is that the UMC has been many of our homes, perhaps across just this church or a cornucopia of others, for the entirety or a majority of our lives. Dedication and loyalty to a church or denomination is most definitely an attribute to be lauded and celebrated should that loyalty or dedication come with the qualifier that that church and denomination remains God-centric and obedient to his word. While FUMC Cleburne has lived up to that expectation, it has become abundantly obvious that the greater UMC has not. Sin, be it the overwhelming topic de jour of LGBTQ pastoral leadership and the preforming of weddings between same sex individuals, or the numerous instances evidenced by video, audio, or printed means of UMC clergy, theological proctoring, or of future UMC pastors in theological seminary, is not being confronted or reprimanded. Rev Tenney told us this was due to a "wait and see" approach with regards to the two forefront topics in this debate based on what the overwhelming majority believes will happen at the General Conference in 2024. However that doesn't take into account the heretical debates many have towards things we have known to be true our entire lives. While things such as debating the virgin birth of Christ, and his resurrection may still be outlandish as minority espoused thoughts now within the UMC, the movement towards bending and "interpreting" scripture and teachings to fit agendas that make sure that no toes are stepped on has become too commonplace in a people that proclaim that God's word is at the forefront of our belief and lives. I'm reminded of a response we all have recited in our time at FUMC Cleburne. "The word of God, for the people of God". "Thanks be to go God"

Despite my secular life as an accountant, I will not venture into the financial and property discussion other than to reiterate Rev Tenney's information on Feb 8th. If you have not disaffiliated before July 1, 2023, clause 2553 will expire. With the measurable losses of UMC affiliation in our conference and state, would you as a lawyer, administrator, or voter loyal no matter what to the UMC choose to let that statute continue? I think that rhetorical question is pretty obvious.

Another question I have very much struggled with lately follows. With such a loss of traditional voices that will be voting at General Conference, will a block vote of non traditionalists become the only voice within the church? I'm reminded of a voting block that has had such a firm grasp on results in our back yard at a university a little over 2 hours away. Despite having a student population of over 55,000 students, Texas A&M typically has a voting contingent of 5500-8000 students in student elections for things such as student body president, and Yell Leader. The corps of cadets that encompasses 2500 students in the ROTC program as well as the band (of which over 50% sign military contracts between both) votes as a block in these elections. When they nominate the exact number of electable seats towards a position each election cycle, the entire 2500 strong votes for others from the Corps in a block voting movement. I know this both as an observer in my time at the university, and from the fact my father was elected Yell Leader for the '78-'79 year with help from this system. While it occasionally (read once, at most twice a decade) does happen that the corps block is defeated, when a large group that has a huge block of the voting contingency votes all in one direction, another group that could even be split or a majority in the opposite direction is at such a disadvantage that results are often an afterthought in what is supposed to be a democratic process. What is going to happen when traditionalists such as myself and others are so out numbered in a voting process that even our heard voices fall upon deaf ears. Such a conundrum has bitten voting contingencies on the nose throughout time in democratic processes when a single side obtains power that is insurmountable.

While this entirely too long email may have lost many at this point, I hope those that have stayed with the wall of words will take this thought away with them:

We all have differences. We all have our own personal connections with God. But at some point we need to recognize that relationship comes with honoring his word. It comes with honoring a 2 millennia history and understanding of scripture. The Bible since the final Council of Nicaea has not changed be that through translations through Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek, Italian, German, and finally English and other 6th generation languages. Society, with regards to the most talked about issues has changed and been vocal since 1972. If we are to, as Rev Tenney said, answer personally for our chance at being wrong, do we want to be one of those that have died on a side of a different new interpretation within the past 51 years as opposed to the billions of believers that have died in the prior near 2 millennia? Simple math says that either a categorically small contingent or giant contingent will be on the correct side of that debate.

While for the past few years reading and monitoring this topic I had been firmly on the fence, my mind is now made after many late nights of discussion, prayer, and even tears.

Loyalty to the UMC for sake of being loyal to the UMC is, despite my entire life in the denomination, misguided. Devotion to God's word, and a future that will not continue to be a moving target based on the whims of a society that is more dedicated to not stepping on toes over The Word, has shaped this very difficult decision.

I believe using the short time allotted to separate from a greater force that appears to have a complete lock on dictating the future of this denomination is the choice that most protects the future of our church. It is the best path that keeps us on the path of God as opposed to the path of societal norms that as earlier stated is moving further and further from God, following a path of ignoring scripture or tradition for the sake of making sure even the smallest of pinky toes are not stepped upon.

I for one encourage us all accept our toes becoming a little sore. For us to hear truths that are not always going to have us leave feeling happy despite our sins is truly being introspective in his word. I advocate for leaving the UMC, be that with more discussion to becoming an autonomous independent body, or an arm of the Global Methodist Church, feeling the growing pains and rising above the struggles any new entity must face.

I pray these words are read both with the understanding that such a decision was not made lightly or without pain and difficulty. That all who read these words know that even disagreement with them doesn't disqualify you from my love, prayers, and invitations to be my brothers and sisters in Christ. You are all, and have always been, my church family.

Your brother in Christ,
Tyler Shanklin

In reply to The Shank Ag Excellent reasoning, but God is going to work despite our denominational ties. Wesley remained Anglican despite deep rooted and longstanding opposition. Where does God lead you in this? I pray He gives you direction: I know He will.

In reply to The Shank Ag I think it's way too long in its current form but I'm in the camp of "send it". I wrote and sent a similar but much shorter and less eloquent version of this to my own very small congregation. I got several supportive public and private emails, some from folks I thought were likely on the other side of the argument. Conservatives /traditionalists have been far too passive IMO, and I'm including myself in that critique. But I'm trying to change. Good luck.

First Frisco UMC took a vote to disaffiliate last year, but it barely failed to pass.

Now they have removed the UMC emblem, changed their name to "Global" (it's on the website), and are suing. A friend sent me this letter.

In reply to rynning That's going to be an ugly legal battle. I am surprised the pro-Global folks didn't just leave the church and start their own congregation.

In reply to UTExan Yeah that's gonna be an ugly/expensive one, but I think that letter/memo is probably less than the full story. Clearly, UMC is going to fight tooth and nail to keep anything they possibly can.

https://firstfrisco.org/

The other UMC church in Frisco (First Frisco is the old one, really), and I've heard that Grace Ave. UMC has elected to stay/go down with the ship. They've had a large youth program though, since we moved here 20 years ago, and I am a little surprised at that decision.

In reply to nortex97 Sounds like they used the nuclear option. From what I understand, the courts in Texas don't like the trust clause for church property ownership.

https://www.chapelwood.org/sanctuary/watch/sermon-videos/freely-receive-freely-give-the-way-of-the-teacher-945-am-contemporary/3048/

This is from Chapelwood UMC where we are members. I thought this was a good sermon around what the church is going through. He made some very good points about where the church is today and what we as Christians need to consider.

You can go to the 30 minute mark where it begins. He incorporates the reading of the day into his message about where our church falls in this discussion. The 9:45 service is a contemporary service, a little more relaxed than the 11:10 service that follows.

I've been intrigued by this thread & what is going on in the Methodist church. I just thought I'd offer this up.

Our previous leader, Dr. Jim Jackson, has a daily note he sends out. He indicated some time ago that this was about money, not so much what sex one prefers or practices. I tend to believe he's correct.

In reply to UTExan

UTExan said:

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That's going to be an ugly legal battle. I am surprised the pro-Global folks didn't just leave the church and start their own congregation.

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If the current UMC has fulfilled all apportionments and disaffiliates by June 30, then the UMC is supposed to just deed the church and adjoining real estate to the new Global Methodist Church. That is why the current UMC in Georgia wants to delay the process until 2024. By doing that no disaffiliating churches can retain the real estate.

And these big churches can be worth a lot of money, so there is certainly a financial advantage to disaffiliating now. Probably is worth the lawsuit.

In the Northwest Texas conference, which also covers SE New Mexico, this process is proceeding very well. My old Methodist church in Sweetwater voted the end of October to disaffiliate and the UMC has already deeded the property to the new Global Methodist Church of Sweetwater. Or whatever the new Global church's name is now.

In reply to 12thMan9 Depends on what definition of "mess" one uses.

Since all of the disaffiliating churches are more conservative, the UMC will be much more liberal without the conservative churches reigning them in. So the UMC will be able to run amuck and pay no heed to the Book of Discipline.

So some can consider that a mess in the making.

SAUMC Plano confirmed via disaffiliation vote:

Quote:

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Last night, our congregation gathered and voted overwhelmingly to approve the terms of settlement and final disaffiliation from the United Methodist Church. Of the 871 members in attendance, 98.6% voted in favor of the Executive Committee's motion asking for approval of the settlement and final disaffiliation terms. After almost everyone had filed out, one long-time church member told me "that vote was unifying not dividing." Once again, we have accomplished something in the St. Andrew way.

….

One question we expect to get in coming days is: What next? Regarding the disaffiliation, there is a final step that is required for the North Texas Conference (the structure we are affiliated with in the United Methodist church) to vote on March 4th. Last night's adoption of terms followed months of negotiations geared toward aligning the North Texas Conference leadership with verifiable evidence that St. Andrew met the requirements for disaffiliation, even if our church went about it the St. Andrew way. We anticipate the Conference members' approval of St. Andrew's disaffiliation and our exit within the next couple of weeks. For our future affiliation, we have a lot of work to do with like-hearted churches who are interested in focusing primarily on the mission of the church but are looking for accountability and connection. That process will take time, but we will keep our church informed throughout that process. Mostly, we will be doing what we always do relentlessly focusing on our mission of making passionate servants for Jesus Christ.

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It's not going to join the GMC though, preferring to set up some sort of collegiate Methodist network on its own. It will be interesting to see how that evolves. I am actually glad/relieved this seems less divisive/acrimonious than other parts of the country seem to have been.

Yes. I just don't know what the new name of the "old" Methodist church in Swee****er is. That is why I generally said Swee****er Global.

In reply to SW AG80

SW AG80 said:

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Yes. I just don't know what the new name of the "old" Methodist church in Sweetwater is. That is why I generally said Sweetwater Global.

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Hilarious you can't write the name of the west Texas town known for hosting the largest rattlesnake roundup, without auto-redaction.

In reply to TheCurl84 I hate posting from a cell phone!!

In reply to SW AG80

SW AG80 said:

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I hate posting from a cell phone!!

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It's not you; it's the filter.

Most of the churches I know that have disaffiliated simply reverted back to their names prior to joining the UMC. This generally just involves removing the "United" from the name that got inserted in the 70s when the UMC was formed.

Most "First Churches" predate the United Methodist denomination. The ones I know that disaffiliated just went to "First Methodist Church", a name that is likely carved in stone somewhere on the building.

I don't know of many that put "Global" in the actual name. Most have been "NAME, a Global Methodist congregation" or something like that.

In reply to nortex97

nortex97 said:

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Yeah that's gonna be an ugly/expensive one, but I think that letter/memo is probably less than the full story. Clearly, UMC is going to fight tooth and nail to keep anything they possibly can.

https://firstfrisco.org/

The other UMC church in Frisco (First Frisco is the old one, really), and I've heard that Grace Ave. UMC has elected to stay/go down with the ship. They've had a large youth program though, since we moved here 20 years ago, and I am a little surprised at that decision.

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https://baptistnews.com/article/texas-megachurch-relents-follows-united-methodist-rules-to-exit-denomination/

Plano isn't getting away w/o paying.

Also appears the decision was made by about 15%
of the congregation.

In reply to 12thMan9 Plano was continuing to withhold funds for payment the whole time, it just wasn't passing them on until an agreement was reached. There was never an attempt/effort to leave without paying.

Personally, I think it's sorta obvious why the vote was held on a Tuesday evening; only the active members on board with the disaffiliation would be most likely to show up, as was the case. There was already no going back though, clearly.

Folks should realize the clergy in UMC (and those disaffiliating maintain of course) the defined benefit retirement pension/plans. None of them would want to risk that in the congregational movement(s).