Friday, April 26, 2024
After voting earlier to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church, members of First Methodist Church of Gatesville voted on Oct. 3 to apply for membership to the newly formed Global Methodist Church.
The church membership had voted in August to officially leave the United Methodist. Other area Methodist churches – including ones in Pidcoke, Jonesboro, and Evant, also voted to disaffiliate from the UMC.
Although the issue of same sex marriages was often prominently featured in the media as the reason for the split, there were actually several factors leading many churches – 81 from the Central Texas Conference – to disaffiliate from the UMC. Among those are an adherence to traditional orthodox Christian beliefs and values and the authority of Scripture as well as the Methodist Book of Discipline.
Ronnie Sullins, chairman of the First Methodist Church of Gatesville's Church Council, called the Oct. 3 congregational meeting to order, and the 63 church members who voted unanimously chose to seek membership in the Global Methodist family of churches. Another option that had been considered was alignment with the Free Methodist Church.
Before the vote, Pastor Stephen Schmidt prayed that the church would follow God's will and do "what's pleasing in your sight and best for our congregation, and that we are patient through the process.”
Schmidt said the Gatesville church will have until Oct. 31 to get all the necessary documents submitted to the United Methodist Church, and that the official date of disaffiliation will be Nov. 1.
"I've had a lot of people ask me about what I'm going to do," Schmidt said. "I've served as a pastor in the United Methodist Church for 37 years and five months. I will retire from the United Methodist Church, affiliate with the Global Methodist Church and end my career there."
Schmidt, who is from Moody, said he hopes to continue serving as the pastor of the Gatesville church. He said he has been asked to serve as one of the elders of the Western District of the Global Methodist Church's Western District.
"We will wait until all the checklist items for disaffiliation are complete and turned in to apply to be part of the Global Methodist Church and the Mid-Texas Conference," he said. "This has been a long, arduous journey but I believe the church is following God's will."
The Mid-Texas Conference is based in Waco and is the first conference of the Global Methodist Church that is "up and running officially," Schmidt said. He added that the Mid-Texas Conference will accept churches all the way to Oklahoma in the north, to McAllen in the south, Winters and Abilene in the west and Lufkin to the east.
"Once we are officially affiliated with the Global Methodist Church, we will have a celebration. We believe that this is God's will for the church, and we believe it wholeheartedly."
While there has been division and disagreement within the United Methodist Church for decades, the timing of disaffiliation was led by a UMC decision to allow churches to disaffiliate within a certain timeframe.
Nationwide, churches that want to leave the UMC must do so by Dec. 31, 2023. Several Central Texas Methodist churches, some of those in Waco and Temple, are among the first to seek affiliation with the Global Methodist Church.
