What is it like to lose a church property? Ted Johnson, pastor of what used to be a United Methodist local church body, spent some time with me to tell his flock’s story. They have now come out on the other side, but it has been somewhat of a rough ride getting loose of the Alabama-West Florida Conference of the UMC. He and his people thought they had gotten free in 2021 when they changed their legal documents to reflect an independent status. Little did they know that, a few years later, the UMC would be demanding the property.

I have covered Warrington a couple of times on my live stream, picking up first the statement from the conference and then reading an article published at AL.com. Many details were lost on me around how it was that the congregation may or may not have been acting in good faith. I have already done a good deal of coverage on this annual conference, on legal insights from Dan Parsons and Lloyd Lunceford, and on the Association of Independent Methodists, which is the new home for this congregation.

I decided to be a platform for this conversation because I still very much have a heart for those left behind after disaffiliation was ended. Hundreds of congregations remain within the UMC because they are not altogether sure what might happen to their properties, their pocketbooks, or their spiritual wellbeing if they entertain certain options. It is only by talking through particular cases that local churches can do the calculus needed to make informed decisions. I hope that this conversation helps you and your congregation to discern your way forward.

Consider Warrington Church at www.warringtonchurch.com.

———————————

If you would like to join my Locals community, where I give a full morning briefing (where this came from), go to plainspoken.locals.com and become a supporter!

If you would like to subscribe to my pastoral Substack, where I publish articles on topics pertaining to pastoral ministry and Methodism, you can go to jeffreyrickman.substack.com.

If you would like to subscribe to the PlainSpoken Podcast Substack, where I publish articles, video, and audio pertaining to Methodism and the culture war, you can go to plainspokenpod.substack.com.

If you're not interested in any of that stuff, but you want to give directly to my church, you can go to https://tithe.ly/give?c=2198808 and make a donation there. Thanks!

Get full access to PlainSpoken at plainspokenpod.substack.com/subscribe