New United Methodist churches emerge in Georgia after disaffiliations

They were left behind when their previous churches split from the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church, largely over LGBTQ issues. But these church goers, sitting in their makeshift sanctuary in Thomson, a small town about 35 miles west of Augusta, still want to attend a UMC church.

And they’re not the only ones.

Since 2022, more than 330 churches have left the UMC’s North Georgia Conference, which covers the entire state north of Macon. That represents about 38% of the conference’s churches and 27% of its members.

Today, the conference has about 440 churches remaining — but nearly a dozen new congregations are forming, wanting to remain with the UMC conference.

Some say they are relieved to escape the divisive disagreements over the future of the UMC churches.

The Book of Discipline, which contains the law and doctrine of the United Methodist Church, bans the ordination of practicing gay clergy and bans same-sex marriage. But many traditionalists feared the denomination would change its position or that it was becoming too progressive. Others feared there would be changes to basic Christian beliefs, like the virgin birth of Jesus.

Since 2019, more than 7,600 churches nationally have disaffiliated over these and other disagreements.

“It’s humbling to see what God can do with broken pieces,” said the Rev. Sargent Nelson, a former prison chaplain and now senior pastor of the newly created New Thomson United Methodist Church. “In the midst of the chaos of disaffiliation, God is creating a beautiful tapestry of faithful United Methodists. Now we can truly worship today and not worry about the divisiveness of theological disagreements.”

‘Emerging Congregations’

Inside New Thomson there are no pews. Congregants sit in red and gold upholstered armchairs. The altar is a converted sofa table. The cross and candlesticks that sit on it, along with engraved offering plates and choral music, were all donated by other United Methodist Church congregations that didn’t disaffiliate.

Last year, Nelson found himself without a pulpit when the church he led in nearby Augusta decided to leave the UMC denomination. He joined others with a desire to stay with UMC.

Credit: Nell Carroll

Credit: Nell Carroll

New Thomson, which started out in the home of one of its members, is one of several “emerging congregations” that have sprung up in the wake of the schism.

The split was like an acrimonious divorce. It divided families. Friendships were strained or ended. People who used to hug and sit next to each other in church, barely nodded.

Bishop Robin Dease, episcopal leader of the North Georgia Conference, hadn’t been in the job long when she and others were sued by nearly 200 churches that wanted to go through the process to disaffiliate.

“They had never met me, they had never seen me ‚” she said. “It’s sad that they made that decision to disaffiliate before they had the opportunity to have a conversation with me or to know my values and what I was working towards. That was the sad part of it. They believed all the misinformation on social media.”

And like a divorce, the toll has been emotional and costly in several ways.

“It was, of course, very painful,” said Judith Wilson, New Thomson’s adult Sunday School coordinator who previously belonged to the larger Thomson First United Methodist Church located nearby.

Wilson was part of a study group at her former church to examine the facts surrounding disaffiliation but decided she wanted to stay United Methodist.

“This church is such a happy place,” she said of New Thomson. “Here, there’s none of that division, there’s none of that tension. It’s such a happy and loving place. I feel it every week being in this new place. In the old place I felt angst.”

Of the 71 counties covered by the North Georgia Conference, six are are left with not a single United Methodist church after disaffiliation; and eight are left with only one United Methodist church. Of those that left the conference, most have fewer than 50 members.

The loss of so many churches has also affected the conference’s budget, resulting in a 32% drop in revenues

Many of the churches that disaffiliated planned to join the conservative Global Methodist Church, other Methodist denominations, or become independent. It’s not clear how many of the disaffiliated churches have followed through with those plans.

Credit: Nell Carroll

Credit: Nell Carroll

Meanwhile, most of those churches that stayed are “doing well, strong and thriving,” said Dease.

In January 2023, the North Georgia Conference launched The Harbor UMC, an online-only church for people whose churches were leaving to enable them to still have a worship community. The first worship service was Easter. The Harbor held its final worship service at the end of the year and participants transferred their membership or were connected to other United Methodist churches.

“The Harbor UMC was a great success in that it was a bridge,” said the Rev. Terry Walton, executive assistant to the bishop. “What The Harbor did for a season was offer a temporary landing place for pastoral care and an online faith community.”

As new congregations emerged, the members were able to transfer to a congregation in their community or a United Methodist church offering online worship, he added.

Rebuilding

Dease said she has heard from some of the churches that left, but now want to return to the fold. A reentry process has not been put in place just yet, but she thinks some will eventually return.

”Some churches don’t have pastors, for instance, after disaffiliation. We’ve gotten calls: ‘When are you going to send us another pastor?’ They didn’t understand what it meant to be disaffiliated.”

At least 50 pastors stayed in the conference while their congregations left.

Credit: Nell Carroll

Credit: Nell Carroll

“Everybody felt like, ‘Now we move forward,’” said Dease. After a special called session in Athens in November where delegates voted to let 261 churches leave, she described it as “like a weight had been lifted off our shoulders.”

Since then, she’s been going from district to district to get the pulse of the community. “I want to give clergy the ability to touch the bishop, to connect with the bishop. To meet and see the superintendent. We’re going back to our roots.”

Part of that rebuilding includes the formation of new congregations like New Thomson.

The North Georgia Conference “is in a season of pruning,” Dease has said previously. “No matter how painful the pruning might be, it is a way to make room for new life, new growth. It reminds us how God continues to work in and through us just like God works in all creation.”

At least 10 other congregations are in various stages of becoming full-fledged churches.

New Thompson and Community First United Methodist Church in Carrollton both are now chartered and official UMC churches. Community First United Methodist Church in Carrollton, for instance, was formed after Carrollton First United Methodist Church (now Carrollton First Methodist Church) voted to exit.

Three other congregations are ‘constituted’ meaning they have bishop-appointed clergy and are beginning to organize and receive people into membership to become chartered as an United Methodist church.

The rest are in the so-called ‘gathering phase’ of their journey, meeting regularly and worshipping as they decide how to proceed.

There are other tests looming.

From April 22 to May 3, UMC delegates will meet in Charlotte for the General Conference, which was delayed from 2020 because of the pandemic. Over 1,000 are expected to attend from around the globe.

There are more than 1,000 resolutions scheduled for a vote, including whether to keep the Book of Discipline language prohibiting the ordination of “practicing” gay clergy and same sex marriage.

Dease would like to see the language go away.

“I can’t predict what will happen, but my hope and prayer is the future of the North Georgia conference will look more diverse.”

Nelson, the pastor of New Thomson, whose son is gay, agrees.

He said he didn’t like that while his son and other members of the LGBTQ community were welcome to attend services, they couldn’t be an ordained leader or get married in the church.

Karen Shaw Burch previously belonged to the larger Thomson First United Methodist Church before a majority of members decided to disaffiliate. “It became increasingly difficult for me to be able to worship as the build up to the vote dragged on. ... I chose to attend other churches rather than sit in a church and be angry.”

She is in favor of the denomination accepting LGBTQ members and treating them equally. Judgement, she said “should be God’s job, not mine.”

She grew up in Meridian, Mississippi and remembers when the church that her family attended voted not to seat African Americans if they came to worship. “It broke my father’s heart, who was a founding member of the church. He said he couldn’t go back unless they changed that vote and they did. I can’t be part of a church that says who is welcome to worship.”