The Global Methodist Church will also collect far less money from its churches for the larger mission of denomination. Churches in the Global Methodist Church will be expected to contribute 1% of their operating budget annually to the denomination, and no more than 5% to the geographic conference they are a part of.
In the United Methodist Church, by comparison, each church contributes what’s called an apportionment of between 12% and 15% of its budget to support the work of the denomination beyond the local church.
In addition, the Global Methodist Church will not own church buildings in a trust clause as the United Methodist Church does. (That trust clause was lifted for a five-year period to allow churches to disaffiliate with their buildings.)
Neither will bishops appoint pastors to churches on an annual basis. Instead, pastors will remain at a church until a church decides it no longer wants them or the pastor asks to be appointed elsewhere.
“What they’re doing is they’re responding to those things that churches have often been the most critical of — paying too much in apportionments, getting a pastor they didn’t like and, of course, the trust clause,” said Lovett Weems, director of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership at the United Methodist-affiliated Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. “Conservatives who have joined, when they see that, they’ll say, ‘Oh, good. It’s about time.’”
The denomination plans to hold another general conference in 2026, when it expects to have a larger contingent of overseas churches. After 2026 it expects to hold general conferences every six years.
But Boyette, who served for the past two years as chief operating officer and visionary, will be retiring. He will be replaced by the Rev. Mike Schafer of Lubbock, Texas, who will serve as the denomination’s top leader — a position for which there is no corollary in the United Methodist Church.
In 2026, when the Global Methodist Church next meets, it will most likely be again abroad.
“We felt it was very important to make a statement that we were not a U.S.-centric church,” Boyette said. By comparison, he added, “The United Methodist Church has never had a general conference outside the United States.”
This article originally appeared here.
