THE NEW CONSERVATIVE METHODIST DENOMINATION SOUGHT TO EXPAND IN THE SOUTHWEST.

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, January 21, 2024

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One of the conservative theological options offered by the United States Methodist Church was recently created with the aim of expanding its presence to the Southwest and West Coasts of the United States.

The Global Methodist Church, which was founded in 2022 and already has more than 4,200 congregation members, is expanding to the westernmost states.

These include recent efforts to establish new churches in the Southwest and the possible creation of the Western States Provisional District, a new GMC regional body.

Keith Boyette, GMC transition liaison officer, told The Christian Post that the GMC transition leadership council was working on formation documents for the Western States Interim District. The goal is to begin its operation as an official temporary district on May 3.

Boyette explained, "Some of the local churches that will be members of the Western State Provisional District are new church factories; others are churches that are not affiliated with the United Methodist Church and choose to affiliate with the GM Church."

According to Boyette, in contrast to previous UMC conferences, the requirement for disaffiliationism for churches in UMC's Western jurisdictions was "prohibitively expensive and bureaucratic," and congregations seeking dismissal had to "pay exorbitant fees, take legal action in hopes of winning exemption from UMC, or abandon multimillion-dollar property and assets."

UMC pastors in the region, who "increasingly espoused progressive theological and social attitudes" beginning in the 1970s, were held responsible for the lack of an overall methodology in Western states today.

The GMC is confident of growing and multiplying local churches in the West without the rebellion and dysfunction of the UMC's Western Jurisdiction. Boyette stated that when Methodists turned to their traditionally warm expressions of the Christian faith, they always attracted people to their churches.

We are honored and humbled by the faithful and determined pastors and lay people who have stepped forward to lead the renewal of Methodism in the West, and we will grow and multiply in the West in the long run as the GMC shares its mission and vision.

River Network, a church planting resource organization associated with Crossroads Church of Oakdale, Pennsylvania, partnered with the GMC to help accelerate their efforts west.

Steve Cordle, executive director of River Network and founder of Crossroads Church and pastor, told CP that, since the denomination in 2022, his organization has had close ties to the GMC.

Cordle stated, "I am a GMC pastor and believe in its mission. When GMC was launched, the leadership invited River Network to become a strategic partner in the field of church planting."

As executive director of the River Network, I'm excited to be able to mobilize or do what we can to advance the multiplication of churches around the world, and I'm excited about his plans to make church planting a priority.

Cordle said River's network has helped more than 700 church planting leaders based in three countries over the past 18 months as a GMC strategic partner.

Cordle added, "Personaly, I see great potential for church multiplication anywhere in the US. We have seen several people who have left UMC become members of the launch team for the new GMC churches."

Over the past few years, UMC has been divided into two groups. One is whether they should change their disciplinary books to remove content that prohibits pastors from blessing same-sex unions and ordaining them in same-sex romantic relationships.

Many theologically progressive leaders within the UMC have often refused to follow or enforce the rules of the quadrennial general conference, although attempts to amend the book of discipline have always failed.

At a special session of the General Conference in 2019, delegates voted to add paragraph 2553 to the discipline book. This resulted in discontent for the congregations who wanted to leave UMC because of the LGBT debate.

More than a quarter of the total number of member churches in the country—7,660 congregations—managed to leave UMC from 2019 to the end of 2023, when the paragraph officially ended.

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News Sources: https://www.christianpost.com/news/new-conservative-methodist-denomination-eyeing-expansion.html