The Global Methodist’s want to “Make Methodism Great Again”
The Global Methodist Church formed in May of 2022. Based on my research, their leaders took a page from Donald Trump’s playbook, and want their “old” church back.
This post was started in early 2024 and was completed in 2025.
Over the last few years, Joe and I started talking with our sons about what it means to “have faith,” what it means to go to church, the idea of believing in something that’s “bigger than yourself,” and how that belief is important for a valued life. He and I also discussed, whether our current place of worship, Ebenezer Methodist Church, will be a the church for our family moving forward. Every time I am ready to formally step away which you can read about in my previous posts HERE, my kids say or do something that makes the little voice inside my head say “not yet.” During a Sunday service a while back, a senior lay leader formally announced that Ebenezer met with denominational leaders from the Global Methodist Church (GMC) and were considering it as a denominational home for our church. This idea was echoed when Mark Danzey, an Elder in the Global Methodist Church, served as our guest pastor while ours was on vacation.
This post will focus on what I’ve learned, My unCommon Sense on the status of our congregation, and “the church” as a whole.
RECENT HISTORY
If you do not want to read any of my previous posts about the Methodist Church, our congregation, etc., here are some cliff notes… If you want to read them, you can find them here.. Church Posts
The United Methodist Church (UMC) had more than 6.2 million members in the United States, according to 2020 data. This made it the largest mainline Protestant denomination in the nation. As of 2018, the UMC had more than 12 million members worldwide. Methodism has grown more outside of the USA than inside of it based on historical missionary work.
Over the past 10 years, UMC leaders have been divided how to better welcome LGBT members and clergy into the fold. The majority of the UMC delegates (clergy, bishops, etc.) located in the USA tasked with voting on Beliefs and Governance changes for the UMC have been increasingly more supportive of families like ours; however, the UMC is a global denomination and the large number of International Delegates are more conservative and less welcoming. Since there are more International than Domestic delegates, the UMC has maintained their policy that marriage is “between one man and one woman.”
In more recent times, the UMC has inched closer towards more officially welcoming families like ours and changing its views on marriage. This progression has caused many members, churches, etc. to become uncomfortable and in some cases, vehemently opposed to the UMC considering such an abomination. In Georgia, this culminated on November 18th, 2023 when 261 churches from the North Georgia UMC Conference were approved to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church.
The church that we have attended for many years, Ebenezer UMC, officially disaffiliated in 2022 from the UMC and became Ebenezer Methodist Church. If you want to know more about my feelings on our church and it’s disaffiliation, you can read my previous posts. Now that the church has split on this social issue, many former United Methodist Churches, are looking for a new denominational home.
THE GLOBAL METHODIST CHRUCH (Est 2022)
On their website, the Global Methodist Church (GMC) states that “Our Mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ who worship passionately, love extravagantly, and witness boldly.” This is the first statement I saw after arriving at their website. I then looked up some news articles about their founding to get the 411 about this new Methodist denomination. This article in the Tennessean was the first page I stumbled upon, here are the main takeaways:
The Global Methodist Church formed to maintain historical Methodist views on same sex marriages.
The Global Methodist Church will hold “traditionalist” stances on sexuality and gender.
In general, the GMC was created after a small group of conservative clergy met and began preparing for the UMC to openly change their policy on families like ours. The GMC's main creation story centers around the traditionalist view on marriage and a bold, more outward stance towards families like ours.
Here are a few articles that illustrate my point from mostly Christian News outlets.
https://www.christianitytoday.com/2021/03/conservative-umc-split-postponed-global-methodist-church/
I did not want to solely trust in any news outlets and decided to do some research on my own. After reviewing the GMC’s Belief’s and Governance Document, I found that the “one man and one woman” phrase it mentioned at least (4) four separate times. Comparatively, the old UMC Book of Discipline only mentions the phrase twice.
As a part of our witness, individuals employed by the church shall subscribe to the doctrinal and moral standards of the Global Methodist Church and give evidence of the same in their life and ministry, including faithfulness in marriage, understood to be between one man and one woman, or chastity in singleness. (GMC B&G pg. 85)
Engaging in sexual activities outside the bonds of a loving and monogamous marriage between one man and one woman, including but not limited to sexual abuse or misconduct, the use or possession of pornography, or infidelity. (GMC B&G pg. 90)
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. (GMC B&G pg. 21)
Nurture and cultivate spiritual disciplines and patterns of holiness consistent with the General Rules, including responsible self-control by exhibiting personal habits that are conducive to bodily health, mental and emotional maturity, integrity in all relationships, fidelity in a Christian marriage between one man and one woman, chastity in singleness, social responsibility, and the knowledge and love of God. (GMC B&G pg. 52)
The GMC also allows the church to discriminate against families like ours, the church’s staff, membership, and the community at large due to the policies listed below:
5. Nondiscrimination. The Global Methodist Church is committed to open and fair processes in its commissions and institutions, including in the hiring, retention, compensation, promotion, and retirement of staff. There shall be no discrimination on the basis of gender, race, color, national origin, disability, current or potential pregnancy, or chronic or potentially terminal illnesses, provided that the individual is able to adequately discharge the duties assigned to her or him. (GMC B&G pg. 85)
¶ 202. OUR WITNESS TO THE WORLD
13. We believe that each person should have the right to exercise their religious beliefs without fear of persecution and that governments should respect freedom of religion and the important role of faith communities within the greater society. We further denounce discrimination or persecution which may target any because of their gender, economic status, ethnic or tribal identity, age, or political views (Isaiah 1:17, Matthew 5:44, Romans 8:35). (GMC B&G pg. 20)
¶ 306. CALLED TO INCLUSIVENESS. We recognize that God made all creation and saw that it was good. As a diverse people of God who bring special gifts and evidences of God’s grace to the unity of the Church and to society, we are called to be faithful to the example of Jesus’ ministry to all persons. Inclusiveness means openness, acceptance, and support that enables all persons to participate in the spiritual life of the Church and its service to the community and the world. Therefore, inclusiveness denies every semblance of discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability, or gender (defined throughout this Transitional Book of Doctrines and Discipline by a person’s immutable biological traits identified by or before birth). The services of worship of every local church of the Global Methodist Church shall be open to all persons and church activities wherever possible should take place in facilities accessible to persons with disabilities. Similarly, inclusiveness means the freedom for the total involvement of all persons who meet the requirements of our Book of Doctrines and Discipline in the membership and leadership of the Church at any level and in every place. (GMC B&G pg. 24)
The Global Methodist Church seems to have (2) themes coursing through its Beliefs & Governance document:
The GMC strives to have a simpler and more organized church without a lot of “middle management.” In my opinion, this is a good thing.
The GMC strives to “Make Methodism Great Again” by taking the church back to where it was verses where we are and seem to be headed.
From a business perspective, there are many great things about the GMC, but as our church continues to court or be courted by the GMC, Ebenezer ceases to be the right home for our family.
CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE
When Joe and I joined the Ebenezer UMC, we met with our pastor prior to joining, got the lay of the land, etc. Not surprisingly, Ebenezer UMC’s view on families like ours was no different than the view that I grew up with as the son of a Methodist minister; however, we were welcomed to join. We took that to mean that Ebenezer followed the UMC book of discipline but might do something different in the future if it was able to make it’s own decision on how to treat families like ours, but made no guarantees. When Ebenezer UMC chose to disaffiliate from the UMC, Joe and I almost left, but chose to stay because we had 2 sons that needed consistency, and we wanted to see the outcome. Our family has also been a topic for discission in our church since we walked in. Some of this discussion has been incredibly beneficial for the church and our family, some is nothing more than religious gossip. One thing I’ve learned from our pastor (a former newspaper reporter) is that gossip is corrosive. What is factual “gossip” put into print? He might call that, reporting.
On November 6th, 2023, I met a senior leader in our church for coffee. They asked for the meeting to discuss something that was "eating at their soul.” During our chat, he communicated how frustrated he was by other leaders' open and vocal opposition to same-sex marriage and our family's presence and membership in the church. We chatted for almost 2 hours. After our meeting, I was shocked and frustrated. Despite learning all of this, Joe and I again elected to stay for our kids' benefit. At the same time, our church was restarting their children’s ministry and was very enthusiastic about having our kids in children’s church/Sunday School. At first, I was very concerned about what our church was going to teach our kids behind closed doors; however, we elected to give our kids the choice about whether they wanted to go and they decided to participate.
A few months ago, I got a phone call from one of their Sunday school teachers and learned that our kids question things as well as we do. During a class discussion about the creation story, our youngest questioned certain key details about the story and cited “homo naledi” as evidence. Apparently this line of questioning may have frustrated one of their older teachers, but it was handled very well, everyone involved got a good laugh, and we all moved on.
Our family is caught in the middle of a pseudo religious war concerning families like ours in the “Church.” We (Joe and I) do not agree with the Traditionist Views on Same Sex Marriage but we also appreciate marriage being limited to (2) consenting adults. We do not agree with progressive congregation’s that encourage the use of fictional pronouns, are NOT ok with marriages that include more than (2) individuals, or not encouraging marriage at all. Our family is caught in the middle, all we want a place where our kids know that our family is fully welcomed and the progressiveness does not jump into crazy territory.
Around the time I began this post, the UMC finally met for the previously rescheduled General Conference in Charlotte, NC. During that meeting, several big steps were taken:
The UMC approved four (4) changes to church law intended to remove restrictions on families like ours.
The UMC passed a measure that explicitly allows clergy to choose which weddings they perform or don’t perform, which would allow Joe and I to get married at any UMC church where the pastor agreed to perform the service.
While I was VERY pleased with the changes, I am remaining cautious until we see what happens when these changes are put into practice.
MY COMMON SENSE in 2025
I recently met with another senior leader in our church (within the last 30 days) after I announced via email that I was resigning from our church’s Finance Committee as of 1/15/25. The reasons for my resignation are only partially in part to what is mentioned in this post. We discussed many comfortable and uncomfortable topics. I hope that he gained some insight into the younger generation, successful church transparency, and is able to carry these insights back to the elder leaders. Those elder leaders are not getting any younger and Ebenezer will soon face a shortage of people to serve on leadership after the next year. If Ebenezer is able to pull together and discuss tough topics as a church body, there will be short term arguments, but they will thrive long term. If church leadership continues to meet secretly, make decisions as a segregated group, and expect the rest of the congregation to move forward without question, they will continue to disintegrate.
Towards the end of our chat, I mentioned that our family is planning to leave Ebenezer. Our sons want to attend a church that has a larger population of kids their age and while Ebenezer is great at growing real estate, they are not good at growing in the younger population. Our 2 sons make up around 50-75% of the elementary age congregation depending on the Sunday.
Church’s everywhere are showing their age, especially those with denominational ties. The (2) largest churches in our area are Woodstock City (Andy Stanley) and First Baptist Woodstock. Both have large, thriving congregations and tons of kids, but I have heard the term “religious factory” dropped for at least one of them. I believe their main strength comes from the small groups that meet outside of the larger Sunday services. For Joe and I, we want our kids around other kids their age and older that will be a positive influence in their lives. That is not likely going to happen in the near future with Ebenezer.
We know of at least 2 churches in our area that would welcome families like ours: Hickory Flat UMC and Action Church and plan to begin visiting them over the next few weeks, months, etc.….
If you know of other churches in Cherokee County that would welcome families like ours, if you want to chat about your own church experience, or if you are a Member of Ebenezer wanting to learn more, please send me an email dan@thrailkill.us or drop me a message using the button below. Would love to meet for coffee or a beer.
Have a good one,
Dan
As always, you are very perceptive and sharp writer. Dad