Social, political issues dividing Methodists

Some United Methodist churches nationwide are opting to break away from United Methodism, including churches in eastern New Mexico.

A headline for a story in the January 2023 edition of “Christianity Today” sums up the situation: “United Methodists lose 1,800 churches in split over LGBT stance.”

“This is not about who can come to church,” said Bill Case, pastor of Clovis’ Kingswood Methodist Church. “Anyone is welcome. Human sexuality is a presenting issue, but at the heart of it one of the main issues is accountability and the lack of it, scriptural authority, scriptural inspiration and scriptural interpretation.”

Case said there are numerous social and political issues dividing Methodists.

“The issues have gotten more contentious over the years,” Case said. “It’s not the intention to alienate anyone.”

Case said last month, mid-April, the Kingswood congregation voted to leave the United Methodist church.

“We made sure everyone was well informed and then we had our vote,” Case said.

Case said each local church has the option to do whatever it wants. He said a large number of United Methodist churches in the region opted to go independent.

“Others are seeking affiliation with a church that has strong Wesleyan beliefs. Others are going into the recently formed Global Methodist Church, solidly Wesleyan. Kingswood is going with Global Methodists,” Case said.

On the Global Methodist website is a list of statements approved by the church’s 17-member “Traditional Leadership Council:”

“While council members bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to their work, they and the Global Methodist Church’s staff are committed to modesty when asked to speak directly on the Church’s behalf regarding specific political and social issues.

“We believe that human sexuality is a gift of God that is to be affirmed as it is exercised within the legal and spiritual covenant of a loving and monogamous marriage between one man and one woman (Exodus 20:14, Matthew 19:3-9, Ephesians 5:22-33).”

The United Methodist Church has adopted this position, according to its website:

“The Church affirms that all people are of sacred worth and are equally valuable in the sight of God. It is committed to be in ministry with all people. The Church implores families and churches not to reject or condemn lesbian and gay members and friends.”

Jeb Archey is the pastor of First Methodist Church of Clovis.

“For us it’s been a focus on staying true to the orthodox faith. I think for us our driving force is to associate with the Wesleyan understanding of God, living a more faith-filled life, guided by Scripture and our faith together,” Archey said.

Archey said the underlying issues are rules that aren’t being followed; people are picking and choosing rules.

“The Wesleyan faith focuses on faith and freewill. We believe all people have the freewill to accept grace. As you accept that grace, live a more faith-filled life, live a life more filled with grace,” Archey said.

He said his congregation voted April 23 to disassociate from the United Methodists. Archey said the church will also be joining the Global Methodists.

“For me it’s accountability. If we’re going to be who we say we are we must be who we say we are. We need to live accordingly,” Archey said.

Attempts to get comment from Trinity United Methodist church in Clovis and First United Methodist church of Portales were unsuccessful.

Officials with the New Mexico Conference of The United Methodist Church deferred comment on the issue until Monday when they will issue a statement.

The statement is expected after a conference-wide Zoom meeting scheduled for Saturday on the topic of member churches wishing to disassociate from the organization.