New Denomination Urges United Methodists To Walk Out of the Wilderness

Wesleyan Covenant Association
Congregants at Mount Zion UMC Church in Garner, North Carolina, attend a livestreamed worship service from the Wesleyan Covenant Association meeting in Indianapolis on May 7, 2022.

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GARNER, N.C. (RNS) — Fourteen United Methodists gathered in a sanctuary of a church Saturday (May 7) to watch a daylong broadcast of inspirational sermons from a group of Christians promising to lead them out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land.

The 6th annual gathering of the Wesleyan Covenant Association was broadcast live from Indianapolis to dozens of local churches across the country that are considering leaving the United Methodist Church for a new denomination they said is more orthodox in its adherence to Scripture.

The Global Methodist Church, a new theologically conservative denomination, was formally launched last week, emerging after decades of rancorous debate over the ordination and marriage of LGBTQ United Methodists. The liberal wing of the church would like to extend full rights to LGBTQ people; conservatives adamantly oppose it.

Mount Zion United Methodist Church, a 200-year-old congregation that sits amid sparsely spaced ranch homes and lush, green empty lots, 16 miles south of Raleigh, is one of those churches. Though it has not formally voted to leave the United Methodist Church, the congregation is expected to do so.

“We’ve been interested in renewal in the United Methodist Church and what might come of that for a long time,” said the Rev. Leonard Rex, the pastor of Mount Zion, which holds one Korean-language and three English services each weekend.

RELATED: After years of loud debate, conservatives quietly split from United Methodist Church

Rex said he attended the first gathering of the Wesleyan Covenant Association, which has been helping usher churches into the new denomination, in Chicago six years ago and that his interest in joining the new group has only grown since.

The dozen mostly elderly members of his congregation who watched the live broadcast from Indianapolis’ Kingsway Christian Church mostly agreed.

“We are concerned about the future of our faith,” said Elaine Heintzelman, the church’s pianist.

Heintzelman said she felt the United Methodist Church was “following the world’s culture and dictates rather than sticking with the principles of the Christian faith.

“We’re not dictated by politics but by God’s laws,” she said.

The theme of Saturday’s conference was “More than Conquerors,” a reference to the Apostle Paul‘s Letter to the Romans, which encouraged the early Christians through persecution and struggles.

While some conservative churches have formally declared their intention to leave, the process of officially separating from the United Methodist Church is still being worked out, and many churches are in a holding pattern as they weigh their next step.

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Yonat Shimron
Yonat Shimron joined RNS in April 2011 and became managing editor in 2013. She was the religion reporter for The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C. from 1996 to 2011. During that time she won numerous awards. She is a past president of the Religion Newswriters Association.

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