Lighthouse Congregations Guide United Methodists to Where They Can 'Stay UMC'

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Disaffiliation has cast gloom over some church members whose congregation votes to leave – and leave them behind if they want to stay in the UMC. Piercing the gloom, however, is a new light emanating from North Carolina that brightens the present and shines on a new future.

Lighthouse Congregations represent a movement to provide a "safe place" for church members who don't want to leave The United Methodist Church and need to recover spiritually and emotionally from disaffiliation stress. How the idea came about also has excited church leaders as the fruit of a new collaboration across annual conference boundaries.

The Rev. Laura Wittman, coordinating pastor for Lighthouse Congregations in the North Carolina Annual Conference, described the idea's genesis.

"Back in November, we were having a lot of conversation about how to serve the folks who didn't want to disaffiliate," Rev. Wittman told United Methodist Insight in a telephone interview. "Around the time of jurisdictional conference, we had started something called the UM Collective as a way to reach out to those folks.

"About the second week of November, the Rev. Tim Catlett, our conference director of new church development, called me to say that he and his Western North Carolina counterpart, the Rev. Rob Hutchinson, had been talking about an idea that they didn't have a name for," said Rev. Wittman, who also is appointed as pastor to Mills UMC in Rocky Mount, N.C.

"Tim asked me if I'd be interested, since I'm a church planter, and I said sure. Then Tim said, 'As of now, you're assigned to be the coordinating pastor.' It was just that fast."

Rev. Hutchinson said the soon-to-be-named idea came from some email conversation he had with the Rev. Dr. Steve Harper, a retired seminary professor in Florida who has been working with Western North Carolina on an online faith community for United Methodists, UMsConnected.org.

"Steve sent me an email about collaboration in general and I sent it on to Tim," Rev. Hutchison told Insight in a telephone interview. "Tim and I kept talking and what resulted was the product of our conversing about what the idea might look like in our respective conferences."

In North Carolina Conference, Lighthouse Congregations are required to commit to:

  • "Providing worship opportunities, whether online or in person. These services should be intentional about engaging and welcoming new people into the fold.
  • "Creating space to learn and grow, through small group gatherings, Bible studies, and prayer opportunities.
  • "Inviting fellow United Methodists into opportunities to serve through hands-on ministries. This can include things like backpack ministries, community gardens, literacy and C4C programs, or anything that involves making a difference and sharing the love of God with others.
  • "Offering Communion ... at least one Sunday a month, but also may include invitations to communion outside of traditional worship, such as mid-week gatherings and in small groups.
  • "Offering care such as hospital visits, gatherings at coffee shops, and finding ways to be available to those who are in need of pastoral care. This is not just the responsibility of the pastor but includes ways in which the congregation may engage in visitation ministries, meal trains, and communications ministries."

In Western North Carolina Conference, Lighthouse Congregations are described as "a United Methodist faith community that will serve as a resting place with people who will care for you while providing a haven of peace and grace. Whether you are an individual or a group of people who have become displaced or churchless because of closing or disaffiliation, Lighthouse Congregations will be there for you during this difficult time."

The Western North Carolina description reflects the conference's main concern with the spiritual and emotional pain inflicted on church members by the often-acrimonious disaffiliation decision, said its new church development director.

"People are really hurting," Rev. Hutchinson said.

Word of the collaboration's success is spreading rapidly. Early adopters of the Lighthouse Congregations model, such as Western Pennsylvania, are using examples from North Carolina for creating a version suitable to their own contexts.

And there's lots of cross-conference conversation going on.

"It's been crazy!" Rev. Wittman laughed about the initiative's momentum. "We've had calls from the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference, the Kentucky Conference, Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas.

"We didn't get the program up in time to influence disaffiliation votes – we've had 289 churches disaffiliate in North Carolina," said Rev. Wittman. "But by late December into January, we had 600 people sign up wanting to go to a Lighthouse Congregation, and now we're up to 780. We've assigned Lighthouse chaplains in four districts of (the eigh districts) the conference to serve the people until we get more churches set up."

Western North Carolina took a different route, opting to train and equip congregations while it also invited "stay UMC" members to express their interest, said Rev. Hutchinson.

"We've had 110-115 churches that have gone through training and equipping," Rev. Hutchinson said. "After we train leaders, we ask them to take the idea back to their church council. We want to make sure the whole church is on board with this idea. Right now, we're at 52 churches that have registered as Lighthouse Congregations, and we have an interactive map with contact information on our conference website to make it easy for members to find them."

Rev Wittman said her North Carolina Conference is having similar results.

"We have close to 80 Lighthouse Congregations now, and our goal is to have 100 by annual conference time over Father's Day weekend (June 18)," Rev. Wittman said. "It's been helpful for our churches and our people. It counters negativity to say, 'this is what we're doing and this is what we believe.'"

Looking further into the future, Rev. Hutchinson said he sees Lighthouse Congregations as an inspiring example of how annual conferences can collaborate on mutually beneficial ministries.

"The coolest thing that's happened is the energy among the churches that have chosen to pursue this," Rev. Hutchinson said. "We see it on social media. Folks are looking for a safe place to be while they figure out what's next (in their religious life)."

Those moments of contact are the short-term application of Lighthouse Congregations, Rev. Hutchinson continued. He said he finds longer-term implications are even more inspiring.

"For me, what's most exciting is the collaboration across the connection," he said. "It's so exciting to be part of our whole connection and to see its values being spread."

A veteran communicator who has reported on The United Methodist Church at all levels for 35 years, Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight. She founded the online journal she founded in 2011 as a media channel to amplify the voices of marginalized and under-served United Methodists.