Thank you to everyone who participated in preparations for and attended HOMECOMING Sunday, September 18, 2022 with The Rev. Jon Strother, NC Sound District Superintendent. Watch the video Building Walls and Digging Wells

I have been asked recently for some clarity about the disaffiliation process for churches wishing to leave the United Methodist denomination, and in particular where our church stands in this moment. I believe this is a moment for honesty and integrity and so I begin by saying that the Leadership of Ayden United Methodist Church has not discerned a need or desire among our congregation to entertain the process of disaffiliation from the United Methodist Church. Contrary to a disinformation campaign going around, there is no need or requirement for congregations to vote on continued membership in the United Methodist Church. We just simply go on loving God and loving others in this town as we have done for more than 100 years.

United Methodist churches who are interested in disaffiliation are working within a timeline that requires them to begin the process by September 1, 2022 and hold a congregational vote on disaffiliation by late September. There will be a called Annual Conference in November of 2022 to affirm of deny these disaffiliations. This means that by November of this year we should have a clearer picture across the conference of the number of churches who are actually disaffiliating. More information about the process is available on our Annual Conference website.

There’s no denying it – this is a turbulent time for the United Methodist Church. As I’ve said before, it is a time that requires us to be unified in love for one another and for the world even if we are not always unified in our understandings of scripture, practice and polity.

In all of this, I think that John Wesley said it best: “Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion? Without all doubt, we may. Herein all the children of God may unite, notwithstanding these smaller differences.”

We mourn division in the church. We see it as brokenness, but we also admit that even within our celebration of the sacrament of Holy Communion that there is a mysterious power in the broken Body of Christ when it is offered to the world in love. In this moment, I do not imagine God putting this broken church away in a box to sit in a corner and someday be mended. I imagine the one who created all things lifting this broken church up, just as clergy all across the denomination lift the broken bread saying “this is the body of Christ, given for you.”

Let us continue to give ourselves for others in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

In our vulnerability we speak to a world that is wounded and hurting. In our honesty about where we are we speak to a world longing for a word of truth. If we are able to lift up the mysterious power of this moment with integrity and love, I truly believe that whatever the United Methodist Church looks like moving forward, it will continue to be a means of grace to a world where grace and love is in short supply.

Pastor Jim

AydenUMC will be holding a church Clean-up & Cook-out Saturday, August 20th. We will begin at 9 am and conclude at 3 pm. Hot dogs will be provided. Please bring a side or dessert to share.

Come help prepare the education building for the next season of ministry. There will be an assortment of jobs to be completed for the fall season, including landscaping, classroom preparation, closet decluttering, bulletin board clearing, as well as the usual housekeeping duties in the kitchen, pantry, and restrooms. In short, there’s something for everyone and we need anyone who can show up and pitch in. We look forward to this time of fellowship together and appreciate your dedicated service to the upcoming fall ministry.

When John and Charles Wesley began the revival movement that would become Methodism, they did so with no intention of ever breaking away from the Anglican church. Both ordained priests, neither wanted to start a church, they simply saw a need for renewal within their own church. But, movements sometimes have a mind of their own and although John was able to fend off division within his own lifetime, just after his death in 1791 his followers broke away from the Church of England and formed the Wesleyan Methodist Church in his name.

Ideology mixed with enthusiasm has a way of running roughshod over relationship.

Now, three hundred and thirty one years later it is no secret that the United Methodist Church is deeply divided once again. We are divided over issues of governance, autonomy, scriptural interpretation and inclusion. How shall we relate to one another? How much autonomy should the local church have? How do we read and interpret the holy scriptures? Who is welcome and how far does that welcome extend?

These are all big questions with no easy answers.

On May 1, 2022 the Global Methodist Church officially launched as a separate entity from the United Methodist Church. Although this new expression of Methodism shares many theological commonalities with the United Methodist Church, there are significant differences in matters of practice and polity that mark this new denomination. Most notably, the GMC will place more autonomy with the local church, do away with the itinerant appointment system, and solidify their prohibitive stance on the ordination of LGBTQ clergy.

The Global Methodist Church exists as an alternative for those churches wishing to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Connection.

In lieu of the decision on disaffiliation from General Conference which was scheduled in 2022 but will now be postponed until 2024, Annual Conferences throughout the world are currently working to craft plans of disaffiliation for individual churches who wish to leave the denomination. The North Carolina Annual Conference intends to issue their plan on May 17, 2022 and our Bishop, Leonard Fairley, has issued a statement on this upcoming announcement.

The leadership of Ayden United Methodist Church does not intend to pursue disaffiliation but I am certain we will see other churches leave the United Methodist Church in the near future. Some of these will be churches you drive past every day. Some of the members of those churches may be your friends, neighbors, co-workers and family.

I share this news with you now as something of a prayer for all of our brothers and sisters in faith across the connection that we might disagree without disparagement, choose humility over hubris, and offer grace to one another as we seek out the future God has in store for us.

Jesus tells his disciples that others will recognize us because of the way we love one another, so let us do that well.

Pastor Jim