Gull Lake UMC Embraces “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors”

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Special to United Methodist Insight

Gull Lake UMC in Richland, Michigan has been on a discernment journey. We’ve used this difficult time in our denomination as an opportunity to discern and celebrate our identity as a church. It’s been a time of learning and growth for us. We called the process: The Path Forward. The result was that we embraced the motto: Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors.

The two specific recommendations we approved with a congregational vote on May 19, 2019 were the following:

1. “What’s our church’s motto and focus? Our congregation embraces the motto: Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors. Our “Open Hearts” lead us into outreach and mission both locally and beyond. Our “Open Minds” lead us to interpret Scripture using reason, experience and tradition. Our “Open Doors” lead us to fully welcome all.

2. Do we fully welcome LGBTQ persons? We welcome all to serve in any aspect of our church’s life. We welcome all, including same sex couples, to be united in marriage in our sanctuary in a service officiated by our pastors.”

The process of discernment started for us in the fall of 2018. We invited Rev. Jerry Toshalis to lead us in four sessions on discernment and congregational vitality. These were evening sessions for everyone in the congregation. Jerry concluded his teaching by leaving us Ten Guidelines for Discernment. We used these often throughout the upcoming process.

The next step was the creation of a Path Forward Task Force. This involved three key lay leaders joining the two co-pastors to form this group. This Task Force met often over the next six months to guide the Path Forward process.

The two co-pastors, Len Schoenherr and Mike Tupper, preached a sermon series in January, 2019 entitled: Is God Still Speaking: Discerning of Difficult Issues Using the Bible. They preached on four topics: slavery, women, divorce and LGBTQ persons. Each Sunday one pastor would take the conservative perspective from the Bible and the other would take the progressive perspective from the Bible. Each message would conclude with the personal reflections of each pastor.

Pastor Len trained about two dozen facilitators to lead our twelve Focus Discernment Groups. He expanded on the discernment guidelines shared by Rev. Toshalis in the fall. He encouraged these facilitators to listen: to listen to those in their group and to listen to God.

The active membership of the congregation was divided into 11 Focus Groups. This meant that each group would have 6 to 12 people in attendance. They stayed together for all three sessions. A 12th Group was led by Pastor Len for those who were not assigned to a group.

Our first Focus Group meeting was held immediately after a shortened worship service on February 24. We discussed the following questions: What attracted you to our church? Why would a new person want to join our church? What makes our church unique from other churches?

After this meeting the facilitators gathered to debrief and report the results of each of the 12 focus groups. We heard many references to the motto: Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors. We kept all the results for the Path Forward Task Force and Governance Board to ponder.

We had a Town Hall meeting after worship on March 10 to discuss the results of the 2019 General Conference. It involved a presentation by the pastors followed by a time for questions and answers.

The second Focus Group meeting was on March 17. Once again everyone divided up into their Groups immediately after worship. The facilitators asked everyone the following questions: What were your views about gays and homosexuality when you were young? How have your views changed to the present? Should we fully welcome LGBTQ persons? Are we ready to allow LGBTQ persons to serve in any aspect of our church’s life? Are we willing to allow our pastors to officiate at same sex weddings using our sanctuary? The results of this discernment and discussion indicated support for the full inclusion of LGBTQ persons in our church’s life, including same sex weddings.

The Governance Board met on April 9 to ponder and pray about the recommendations of the first two Focus Groups. They approved the two recommendations that were mentioned at the front end of this article.

Four of our youths shared in the sermon on April 28. They talked about some of their experiences with and as an LGBTQ person. They spoke about their perspective on same-sex weddings. This was followed by the third Focus Group meeting on that same Sunday. The groups talked about the recommendations of the Governance Board. Most everyone seemed comfortable with the two recommendations.

The Governance Board met on May 7 to hear reflections from the April 28 Focus Groups. They decided to hold a Congregational Vote for May 19 immediately after worship. They set up the ground rules for this vote, including allowing absentee ballots for those unable to make it on May 19. They set a minimum percentage needed for confirmation to be 66.6 percent.

The Gull Lake UMC voted after worship on May 19. Over 140 youth and adults voted on the two recommendations of the Governance Board. We embraced the motto: Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors. This was confirmed by a 95 percent vote. We decided to fully welcome LGBTQ persons including allowing same-sex weddings. This was confirmed by an 82 percent vote.

We concluded our Congregational Vote with these words: “Whichever way you voted today; you are part of God’s family here. We might not all agree on everything, but we can continue to work together for the Lord and fellowship together.” The day was concluded by celebrating the 80th birthday of one of our members with birthday cake for everyone in the fellowship hall.

Rev. Mike Tupper is a retired clergy member of the Michigan Annual Conference. He serves in a part-time pastoral appointment at Gull Lake UMC.