FUMC Jonesboro
Video republished with permission from Holly Hall.
A United Methodist Insight Column
There's a legend among musicians that the great bluesman Robert Johnson got his talent for guitar playing by selling his soul to the Devil in a midnight encounter at a Mississippi Delta crossroads. Lately I've begun to wonder if the same tempting spirit is rampaging across the denomination this summer as social media teems with constant lament about churches holding votes on leaving The United Methodist Church.
Social media groans under the weight of anxious United Methodists describing disaffiliation meetings at their beloved congregations. Many posts express frustration at members being unable to refute skewed information about the denomination before the disaffiliation vote.
One group, Stay UMC Jonesboro, went so far as to set up a Facebook page in advance of a July 31 meeting on why their congregation, First UMC of Jonesboro, Ark., should "Stay UMC" (see accompanying photos). A longtime church member, Holly Hall, contributed the accompanying 4-1/2-minute video explaining why she supports First-Jonesboro remaining in the UMC.
Please see all the excerpted graphics below
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Jonesboro Reason 3
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Jonesboro Reason 9
First UMC in Shreveport, La., supposedly was scheduled to hold a disaffiliation vote on July 12, but so far no one has confirmed the meeting or announced the vote. An anxious First-Shreveport parishioner emailed United Methodist Insight July 10 pleading for us to urge Louisiana Bishop Cynthia Fierro Harvey to intervene to stop the vote. Being independent of church authority, we steered the inquirer to Shreveport's district superintendent, but we also referred them to the excellent article written this week by the staff at Ask the UMC, aptly titled "Is the United Methodist Church Really ...? (Part 1)." I'm glad our colleagues at Ask the UMC labeled their article "Part 1" because I feel sure there will be more debunking needed in the coming weeks.
In my observations, this latest round of angst appears to have been intensified by a recent column by the Rev. Jay Therrell, new president of the Wesleyan Covenant Association. Rev. Therrell wrote a July 8 post, "Ten Reasons Why I'll Join the Global Methodist Church." Several longtime United Methodists alerted Insight to this column, a thoughtful but unnecessary gesture as we subscribe to the WCA's mailings. One correspondent noted that Rev. Therrell's rationales, conversely, were as much reasons for staying in the UMC as they were reasons for leaving – an interpretation borne out by Ask the UMC's rebuttal and the Stay UMC Jonesboro post.
Funding Bread Graphic
This graphic prepared by United Methodist Communications shows how each dollar that goes into the local church offering plate is divided up for church spending. (UMCom Image)
I won't try to refute Rev. Therrell point by point, but I'm particularly befuddled by item No. 6 – "A Less Expensive Church = More Money for Local Ministry." This assertion simply isn't borne out by facts. According to a past financial graphic produced by United Methodist Communications (at left), 85 cents of every dollar that goes into the offering plate stays in the local church. Of the remaining 14 cents, 6 cents go to benevolent giving, 7 cents go to the annual conference and only 2 cents go to denomination-wide ministries.
A recent chart calculating 2020 spending (below) from the General Council on Finance and Administration puts the local-church portion even higher: 92 cents stays at home, 5.8 cents go to the annual conference, and 2.1 cents goes to the general funds. However it's calculated, the portion of apportionments that goes to the UMC's general funds is miniscule compared to what stays in the local church.
Funding List
Image Courtesy of General Council on Finance and Administration
Another fact behind the erroneous interpretation of funding: For decades, the problem with local church finances hasn't been the burden of denomination-wide ministries, even though the large totals of the four-year budget make it seem so. The real problems with local church funding stem from expenses over which the congregation has no control, especially the cost of health insurance for clergy and church employees. I know this unequivocally because I've investigated the skyrocketing rise in church-related health insurance costs many times in the past 30 years as a reporter, a publishing executive, and a member of my own church's finance committee. In other words, blaming denominational costs solely for the UMC's financial woes is a convenient scapegoat not based in fact.
Unfortunately, these nuances are being overlooked or intentionally skewed in the disaffiliation blues now jangling discordantly across the UMC, as Ask the UMC's article clearly demonstrates. Like the witnesses who have come forward in the congressional hearings on the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, counteracting the malevolent effects of this misinformation requires well-informed, courageous United Methodists like Holly Hall willing to stand up to poorly presented data and outright misconceptions.
Our current situation brings to mind another apt reference, namely the encounter between Jacob and Esau in Genesis 25:29–34, when Esau the ravenous huntsman "sells" his firstborn birthright to Jacob, his wily younger brother, for "a mess of pottage." According to Wikipedia, "a mess of pottage" is an archaic phrase that "connotes shortsightedness and misplaced priorities."
Will our sibling church members give up the treasures of our Methodist tradition for the arguably ill-formed and ill-informed stew of the Global Methodist Church? Or will they renew their committment to working out our differences for the sake of our witness to the reconciling power of Jesus Christ? Like many on social media who are suffering the dissonance of disaffiliation blues, I pray they'll make a well-informed decision before putting their faith in a dubious future.
A veteran journalist who has reported on The United Methodist Church since 1988, Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011. She has covered the issues and events of The United Methodist Church since 1988. To reproduce this content elsewhere, please email Insight for permission.