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Thread: United Methodist Church Announces Plan to Split over Same-Sex Marriage, LGBT Ordination

  1. #1
    Administrator fuego's Avatar
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    United Methodist Church Announces Plan to Split over Same-Sex Marriage, LGBT Ordination

    The United Methodist Church announced on Friday that they are planning to split the denomination.

    According to The Washington Post, UMC church leaders shared in a nine-page announcement that an agreement had been reached allowing for the creation of a new denomination for traditional-minded churches within the UMC.

    If the plan is approved in May at the UMC's annual General Conference, the new denomination will be called "Traditionalist Methodist" and will be made up of all of the churches opposing same-sex marriage and LGBT ordination. The plan would also give the new denomination $25 million in UMC funds and allow the churches that are breaking off to keep their local church properties, United Methodist News reports. The plan also designates $39 million toward ensuring that "there is no disruption in supporting ministries for communities historically marginalized by racism."

    According to The Washington Post, the majority of the UMC's African churches along with several American churches are expected to adopt the Traditionalist Methodist denomination.

    Following the split, the remaining part of the UMC will hold a second conference in order to remove bans on same-sex marriage and LGBT clergy. The remaining part of the UMC will maintain the denominational title of United Methodist.

    UM News reports that the plan – which is still officially being drafted – was created by a 16-member group of UMC bishops and church leaders and renowned mediator Kenneth Feinberg. Feinberg first gained public attention for his work on the federal September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.

    One member of the group, New York Conference Bishop Thomas Bickerton, said after a years-long debate, it was necessary to find a compromise.

    "It became clear that the line in the sand had turned into a canyon," Bickerton said, according to UM News. "The impasse is such that we have come to the realization that we just can't stay that way any longer.

    "This protocol provides a pathway that acknowledges our differences, respects everyone in the process and graciously allows us to continue to live out the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, albeit in different expressions."

    Other writers of the compromise agreed, noting that breaking apart is "the best means to resolve our differences, allowing each part of the Church to remain true to its theological understanding, while recognizing the dignity, equality, integrity, and respect of every person," The Washington Post reports.

    The Friday announcement came just as new sanctions were set to go into effect in the church. The sanctions, which have now been put on hold until the UMC can vote on the new compromise in May, would have put any minister who performed one same-sex wedding at risk of a one-year suspension without pay. After performing more than one wedding, the minister would face removal from the clergy.

    The UMC is the largest mainline Protestant denomination and the third-largest religious denomination in the United States.

    United Methodist Church Announces Plan to Split over Same-Sex Marriage, LGBT Ordination - Christian News Headlines

  2. #2
    Senior Member Cardinal TT's Avatar
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    Better to expel the apostate churches or leave with all the other scriptural UMC and start your own denomination

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Cardinal TT View Post
    Better to expel the apostate churches or leave with all the other scriptural UMC and start your own denomination
    I agree. "Come out from them and be ye separate". There can be no agreement unless the godly compromise. There needs to be a divorce. There cannot be two under the one.

  4. #4
    We need a divorce from the seeker friendly movement. They have changed the message from, Philippians 2:12 "So work with fear and trembling to discover what it really means to be saved," to something milder like have a coffee and donut and everything will be ok !

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  6. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by LionHeart View Post
    We need a divorce from the seeker friendly movement. They have changed the message from, Philippians 2:12 "So work with fear and trembling to discover what it really means to be saved," to something milder like have a coffee and donut and everything will be ok !
    Not when muffin messages fill churches and pet the pastor's ego.

  7. #6
    The liberals have lost ever vote on gay marriage and gay ordination since the early 1970s. The international churches are more evangelical and tip the balance of power in favor of the conservatives.
    As I understand it, no congregational vote is required of UMC churches that want to remain in the UMC. The liberal faction views this as tantamount to booting out the evangelicals, even though liberals are in the minority. The liberal hope that conservative churches will not want to offend the very few liberals in their church and will therefore decline to vote and thus, over time, be overwhelmed by the liberal pastors assigned to them. Therefore, I hope the proposal will be amended to read that the defeated liberal churches must vote on whether to remain or leave. Then I hope ex-members who left in protest years ago will return to tip the scales in favor of the evangelical faction, so that the liberal churches are forced to remain in the newly created "Traditionalist Methodist" Church!

    btw, there were tongues speakers in the UMC church I used to pastor and we often sponsored joint spiritual retreats and services with the nearby Assembly of God church.

  8. #7

    Wheat and Weeds: A Prediction About the Coming Split in the United Methodist Church
    By Michael Brown
    Published on January 5, 2020
    Wheat and Weeds: A Prediction About the Coming Split in the United Methodist Church | The Stream


    If the reports are true, then "a tentative plan" has been put in place "to split the [Methodist] church over differences on same-sex marriage and the inclusion of gay clergy."

    In 2019, "The division, which has been brewing for years, came to an impasse last May when delegates in St. Louis voted 438-384 to ban gay marriage and the inclusion of gay clergy.

    "A majority of U.S.-based churches opposed the 'Traditional Plan' but were outvoted by conservatives in the U.S., Africa and the Philippines."

    Assuming that this split actually takes place, what will happen to these two branches, one conservative and the other liberal?

    The answer is easy, based on history and common spiritual sense.

    History says that the conservative branch will grow and the liberal branch will diminish.

    The Traditional Branch Will Blossom


    ....For a host of reasons, this pattern will continue with the two Methodist branches.

    The conservative branch, preaching the Scriptures without apology, adhering to timeless moral values, and offering adherents a true encounter with the risen Lord, will gain members.

    The liberal branch, reinterpreting the Scriptures and apologizing for the Bible and redefining morality, will lose members.

    "Liberal Churches are Dying"

    Writing in the Federalist in August, 2014, Alexander Griswold noted "Every major American church that has taken steps towards liberalization on sexual issues has seen a steep decline in membership." (His article was titled, "How to Shrink Your Church in One Easy Step.")...


    ...Roughly 120 years ago, the Center claims that there were about 80 million Evangelicals and less than 1 million Pentecostals/Charismatics worldwide. (These terms might be anachronistic for the year 1900, but they are being used to trace particular groups over the last 120 years. And, of course, there is overlap between the two groups, which are both very conservative theologically.)

    Today, those numbers, globally, are put at 354 million Evangelicals and 694 million Pentecostals/Charismatics. Projection for 2050 puts these groups at 581 million and 1 billion, 89 million respectively.

    This is the growth-curve of Bible-based Christianity, especially one that emphasizes the ongoing ministry of the Spirit....



    ...To be sure, if the conservative congregations are hypocritical, dead, and legalistic, they too will dwindle away. But if the preach Jesus, welcome the Spirit, exalt the Word, and reach out to their community, they will thrive.

    And this leads us to the subject of spiritual common sense.

    The liberal branch will become more liberal.

    Even More Liberal

    Specifically, they will question some of the fundamental tenets of the faith (including the inspiration of the Scriptures, the virgin birth and the resurrection, the second coming, and more. Much of this is happening already). They will become more universalistic (meaning, salvation is not exclusively through Jesus). And they will move further and further away from biblical morality.

    In short, fidelity to LGBT activism will trump fidelity to God's Word....



    ...In contrast, the conservative churches will remain steady, since they are not reacting. They are simply maintaining their historic stance, believing what John Wesley, the founder of the Methodists believed, and affirming what Jesus and Paul taught.

    As one African Methodist leader stated in early 2019, "I'm happy to go back to old ladies and old men in villages who received the Bible from missionaries and let them know that the Bible hasn't changed."

    In the end, while it is sad to see division and separation, some of it is necessary and even for the best.

    When it comes to the Methodist Church, as the years unfold, it will be not be seen so much as a separation between fellow-Christians.

    Instead, it will be seen as a separation between the wheat and the weeds or the sheep and the goats, to use the imagery of Jesus.

    Watch and see.












    This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity (futility) of their mind, having the understanding darkened...
    (Ephesians 4:17-18)

    Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly...
    (Psalm 1)

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  10. #8
    Very well written.

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