Praying for myself as it happens…
I’m feeling very ticked off today at the United Methodist Church Conference. They pulled the “let’s rename the process to get the results we want” trick on churches that want to disaffiliate. Now it’s called “closure” and they gave themselves the power to “review” the “closure” to see if it’s okay with them (probably depending on the value of the property and how much money the congregation brings in). If it’s not and if the process is not “ok’d” they can acquire and sell off the building out from under the congregation (and any other property the church may own). It was sneaky and underhanded and they did it because they are panicking at all those leaving.
First let me say that while I believe we should love everybody, not everybody is fit to LEAD the church. We should care for our neighbors and love alcoholics – but they shouldn’t be in the pulpit if they continue in it because the Bible says we should lead by example and not do that. The same goes for those who are sexually promiscuous – they shouldn’t be up there in the pulpit and many churches have fired pastors who have been found to lead that lifestyle or committing adultery. Jesus cared for the prostitute but he also said “Go and sin no more”. So why are they making an exception for gay people?
I truly believe the reason is because it’s part of the liberal agenda to break up the nuclear family – and of course the traditional churches have stood in the way of that agenda. So of course, the answer is to change the church with the excuse of “it’s hate” to not let them preach. How can a person who says they believe in the Bible allow a person who is practicing an “abomination” feel like they want to allow such a person to preach to others? Yes, we all sin – definitely. But there are different levels of it, and we are supposed to renounce the sin we have done and not continue it. In my life I had cheated on my marriage (the 2nd one), but I came back to God (with a huge push from him) and renounced that and did not in my third marriage, nor will I should there be in any future one (which is doubtful).
Anyway, other churches disaffiliated earlier and were allowed to leave by that process. But the UMC is panicked because more left than they were counting on and it is impacting their budgets. So now they passed something to “rename” the process and force a committee style (members from the pro-remain people of course) “review” the church and see if it is “ok” to leave and calling it closure instead. (By which means they could retain the building and kick the members out basically.)
Our church has not left yet – we are starting the process and hope we can leave (obviously we do not want to lose the building which is owned by the church membership). But I feel it is wrong for me to continue to put in the collection plate that which is partly apportioned to the UMC. So, I found out if I designate a certain “fund” on the check, it can only go to that and they can’t take a portion for the conference. So I will do that – designate it for the “electricity fund” on the check. They do this for building funds and so on and so forth. That will help our tiny church to pay the bills and I won’t feel resentment at having to donate to the Conference. They won’t be getting any from me anymore and I can still support our congregation.
There’s another thing we need answers on. In the documents, it talks about voting members of the congregation being “in good standing”. But there’s no definition. Is it defined by attendance? Or tithing? Or what gets put in the offering plate? Or something else. By leaving ambiguous definitions, the conference gave themself more power to define what they meant as situations arise. In our case, there’s about 15 members or less who attend every Sunday and most are on the church council. They lost a lot during Covid and many who used to attend have passed away. We remain small, but devoted
In any case, I’m praying that those of us who support it (and we all want to disaffiliate) get to keep our church. If that doesn’t happen, I plan on going to the church that disaffiliated earlier. They seem to be doing alright and I have been there enough I am familiar with the members.
We know this is the same process by which the Constitution will be undermined and changed – pack the Supreme Court with judges who will vote to change it. “Rename” processes in order to get the desired results. Switch out candidates in order to achieve their desires. Did y’all notice that Harris was not “voted in” by delegates to be the nominee? Democrats went around the process in order to do that – a very un-democratic process. And no one in the democratic caucus raised a stink > why? Because they didn’t want Biden to run, that would have been worse, if possible, for their party. And before the end, they will switch her out as well and bring in another candidate because she can’t garner enough votes to be able to go forward. They’ll use her to gather more support than Biden would have had and then at the appropriate level, bring in the other candidate and she’ll be out. So much for “democracy”.
Pay close attention anytime a person or entity changes the language. It’s a trap. Say a prayer for me and my patience with what is going on. I have faith that God wins in the end, but the process by which that occurs is excruciating. It isn’t so much that it affects me personally (except I would like to continue in a church and a Constitution that I love). But I was born with a strong sense of Justice and when I see forces using “tricks” to undermine those things, I tend to want to do something about it. And if powerless to stop it, I feel a bit angry. I need to work on that and realize it is all part of the process and pray for the right results coming sooner rather than later.
Loving your neighbor does not mean encouraging them to continue down a path that you don’t believe follows your faith. Loving your neighbor does not mean handing them a venue where they may encourage others to follow a path that is against your faith. Jesus was loving toward sinners – but he didn’t set them up so that others could follow them either.
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In another matter, I have DNA matches to people who have most of the same ancestors as my dear Emma (unofficial adopted mamma). It follows that I may be related to her, and I’ve been digging and digging to try to find out. Well, she’s in her 80s and I am thinking it is too long to find out exactly before she passes. So I’ve decided to order a DNA test for her and get that done and see if we match up. If not, at least I won’t work overtime (like until 2:30am last night) trying to figure it out. I did not intend to stay up that late, but once I got re-involved it was hard to stop researching until I was exhausted. But I got through the morning okay.