Dishonest disaffiliations

 are addressed in a lesson for the online UMC laity course Life Together in the United Methodist Connection.

According to that lesson, disapproval of the current UMC policy regarding the LGBTQ community isn't necessarily the reason why some congregations disaffiliated from the UMC.

Pride Month 2025 at Duke Memorial United Methodist Church

Here is an excerpt from the lesson:

". . . many disaffiliations have given a bare nod to 'reasons of conscience related to' inclusion of LGBTQ folks in church leadership.  Some pastors and leaders have openly acknowledged  (and some have not admitted openly) that their motives in pushing for disaffiliation are for other reasons, such as the desire: 

 to hire their own pastors, escaping from the connection and the itineracy 

 to avoid paying apportionments 

 not to be accountable to district or conference authorities regarding property 

 not to be accountable regarding salary and benefits minimums for staff

In any case, the important thing for you as a leader in the church is to know and speak honestly about these matters, without anger. For Christ will continue to work through Christ’s churches in all their formats, but a decision based on misinformation or even disinformation (such as that which is far too common) is an unhealthy way to begin."

If congregations disaffiliated for the other reasons listed above, then I do not see the loss of those congregations as being harmful to the UMC in the long run.

Sure, a loss of revenue from those congregations might have a short-term negative effect on the operations of the global UMC. 

However, if the leaders of those congregations were grumbling about the way that the UMC operates, then those congregations were probably not a good fit for the UMC.

As I see it, it is better for the UMC to be a smaller cohesive group than to be a larger non-cohesive group.

Money . . . It's a gas . . .

 so says the British band Pink Floyd.

Pink Floyd is correct. Money fuels the work of the global United Methodist Church.

I want to share a segment of a lesson about UMC polity that pertains to the UMC's collection of money. 

The lesson is from the online laity course Life Together in the United Methodist Connection provided by Southwestern College, a United Methodist-affiliated university in Kansas.

"The United Methodist Church denominational budget is established at General Conference to cover the next four years, or 'quadrennium,' the normal period between General Conferences. 

This budget supports the seven 'general funds,' which are the World Service Fund, the Ministerial Education Fund, the Black College Fund, the Africa University Fund, the Episcopal Fund, the General Administration Fund and the Interdenominational Cooperation Fund.  

. . .

Your congregation’s apportionments, sometimes called mission shares, are its share of the annual conference’s share of the total of general church apportionments and its own annual conference apportionments.

The budget is apportioned, or divided, to U.S. annual conferences according to this formula: 'AC apportionment equals its total local church net expenditures times GC’s base rate'.

Net expenditures means what the AC’s churches spend, in total, after capital expenses, apportionments and benevolent giving." 

. . . 

So, the base rate passed at General Conference is the figure intended – and hoped! – to yield the total needed to fund the budget – and be something the AC’s and their churches can and will give."

Not every UMC congregation can give as much as the General Conference wants each congregation to give.

Is that a problem that the global UMC should worry about?

To answer that question, consider a particular incident recorded in the New Testament.

During that incident, Jesus instructed his disciples to provide a meal to 5,000 men.

The disciples initially responded to the instruction with worry. They worried about the resources that they did not have.

Then one of them pointed out the resources that they did have: 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread.

In the hands of mere sinners, those resources would not have been enough to feed 5,000 men.

However, those resources were placed in the hands of God-Incarnate.

Once the resources were in the hands of the Master, he made them enough to accomplish what he wanted accomplished.

I believe that, when we place the UMC's financial resources in the hands of the Master, he will do for the UMC what he did for those 5,000 men.

Sure, the UMC should strive to acquire financial resources without loading people down "with burdens they can hardly carry" (Luke 11:46).

However, to worry about "what financial resources that the UMC doesn't have" strikes me as contradicting what Jesus teaches in Matthew 6:25-34.

Yes, I could be mistaken about this issue. Still, I see no benefit to my congregation, my district and my annual conference if I were to worry about it. 

5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .

 and we have launch!

I feel nervous as I launch this blog. I am hoping that it will go as smoothly as the launch of NASA's Max Launch Abort System shown in the above image. Here is an excerpt of the Wikipedia description of that particular launch:

"The unpiloted launch tested an alternate concept for safely propelling a future spacecraft and its crew away from a problem on the launch pad or during ascent. . . The flight demonstration began after the four solid rocket motors burned out. The crew module mockup separated from the launch vehicle at approximately seven seconds into the flight and parachuted into the Atlantic Ocean."

Unlike NASA's creation shown above, this blog is not unpiloted and definitely does not have a parachute. So, if my efforts here end up crashing, then my landing may not be gentle.

Then again, launching this blog is not nearly as risky as what I did in November of 2024. It was then that I became a member of the United Methodist Church. 

It might seem odd that a new United Methodist would already be a UMC Certified Lay Servant. Well, I might be new to the UMC, but I am not new to faith in Messiah Jesus. I began my walk with Jesus on 22 February 1981. 

Although I am not a professional theologian, I am not a dummy even if this blog does crash. 

"Hi, David!"

I have never met those two in the car. Pay no attention to them.

Now where was I? Oh yeah.

My goal for this blog is for it to be an extension of the UMC Lay Servant ministry that I hope to accomplish.