Yet, even as they face great challenges, North Carolina’s rural areas are home to some of the state’s most vibrant ministries, says Jeremy Troxler, director of Thriving Rural Communities, a Divinity School-based program that works to support and strengthen rural congregations.

“Sometimes there is a view that we don’t have much in rural North Carolina””that it is a place of barrenness, loneliness and loss of economic opportunity,” says Troxler D’02.
“But it also is a place of beauty and abundance.”

Consider Solid Rock United Methodist Church, which opened in 2001 in Spout Springs, just a few miles north of Fort Bragg, the U.S. Army base near Fayetteville. Worship attendance at the church, housed in a blue metal building, has grown from a single family to more than 300 on most Sundays.

Rev. Gil Wise D’88, who has led Solid Rock United Methodist Church since its founding in 2001.Solid Rock’s ministries include two daycare programs; Angel Food, a pantry that feeds nearly 500 people each week; and a prison ministry that reaches 240 inmates. At a time when churches worry about aging parishioners, Solid Rock’s congregation, which includes many military families, has a growing membership of those 20 or younger.

“Part of my job is to inspire people to believe that they can do big things right where they are,” says Gil Wise D’88, lead pastor at Solid Rock. “They’re making a difference in the Kingdom, and they don’t have to go to a bigger place for that.”

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As their congregations dwindle, churches across the country are starting to merge, shoring up their numbers and strength.

In most cases, two churches of the same denomination ”” Methodist, Episcopal or Lutheran, for example ”” will come together in one building. That will happen in Simi Valley next month, when two Lutheran churches merge.

Less common is the merger of two different denominations. But that’s happening here, too. In Santa Paula, Episcopal and Lutheran congregations have agreed to share a pastor and a building.

“Unfortunately, too often we see each other as competitors instead of partners,” said the Rev. Gary Stevenson of Our Saviour Lutheran Church in Simi Valley. “But our calling from God, no matter what our denomination, is ”” or at least should be ”” the same.”

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THE METHODIST Church in Britain is launching a new credit card, but it will not be used to make purchases.

The ”˜Buy Less Live More’ credit card is being distributed to act as a reminder to people to think twice before making a purchase. The card is designed to be placed in a wallet or purse in front of other credit cards as part of a campaign to get people to curb their spending.

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A federal judge has ruled that New Jersey officials can continue an investigation into whether a Methodist group violated the rights of two lesbian couples when it refused to rent a seaside pavilion for their civil union ceremonies.

U.S. District Judge Joel Pisano dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association as a pre-emptive strike. The association claimed its constitutional rights would be violated were it forced to allow civil unions, which conflict with Methodist doctrine, to be performed at the pavilion in Ocean Grove, N.J.

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In what is believed to be a first for the Diocese of El Camino Real, a United Methodist Minister has taken a role in the celebration of the Eucharist. The 8 a.m. service at Trinity Cathedral, San Jose, Calif., on Nov. 11 included the installation of Canon-vicar Lance Beizer.

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The more telling SBC statistic is baptisms, which have been declining. And the SBC annual meeting, held in June in San Antonio, drew the same kind of relatively small, definitely graying crowd that the more moderate BGCT drew in Amarillo.

One problem struggling denominations have in common is infighting. Whether it’s over gay clergy (United Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Lutherans), or biblical inerrancy and women in the pulpit (Baptists), it’s still fighting.

Fighting ”” especially when it seems to be as much about power as principle ”” is lousy advertising.

Another shared problem is competition from the many independent churches that have sprung up, unencumbered by denominational requirements or politics, and often offering stirring worship and relevant programming for young families.

Baptists, with their loose organizational structure, face the added problem of post-denominationalism within the ranks.

Many Baptist churches have dropped “Baptist” from their name, seeing it as a turnoff to potential members. And some bigger churches are doing for themselves what Baptist churches have traditionally done together through state conventions and the denomination

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“I’m convinced there are young people who are searching for churches which will embrace their passion for caring for the earth. These folks can help the church remember its connection to creation, and the church can give them a sense of wholeness in their lives by relating their passion to Christ,” said the Rev. Pat Watkins, a United Methodist clergy member of the Virginia Annual (regional) Conference and environmental coordinator for the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy.

The task force joined Muslim, Jewish and Christian clergy for a breakfast to discuss the role of faith communities in caring for creation. The breakfast was co-sponsored by the British Embassy and the Greater Washington Interfaith Power and Light.

Speakers included the Right Rev. James Jones, bishop of Liverpool in the Church of England, who described how he called for a “carbon fast” last year for Lent in the Diocese of Liverpool. He said such a fast was more valuable than giving up chocolate or candy or other more typical seasonal sacrifices. “We are caught up in a disease of consumption, and that is what is afflicting the earth,” he said.

Jones said that, by the end of the carbon fast, “people weren’t ready to resume their previous consumption levels; it made them think about their life

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The United Methodist Church here is the kind of politically active place where parishioners take to the pulpit to discuss poverty in El Salvador and refugees living in Meriden. But few issues engage its passions as much as the death penalty.

The last three pastors were opponents of capital punishment. Church-sponsored adult education classes promote the idea of “restorative justice,” advocating rehabilitation over punishment. Two years ago, congregants attended midnight vigils outside the prison where Connecticut executed a prisoner for the first time in 45 years.

So it might have been expected that United Methodist congregants would speak out forcefully when a brutal triple murder here in July led to tough new policies against violent criminals across the state and a pledge from prosecutors to seek capital punishment against the defendants.

But the congregation has been largely quiet, not out of indifference, but anguish: the victims were popular and active members of the church ”” Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and her two daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11. On July 23, two men broke into the family’s home. Mrs. Hawke-Petit was strangled and her daughters died in a fire that the police say was set by the intruders.

The killings have not just stunned the congregation, they have spurred quiet debate about how it should respond to the crime and whether it should publicly oppose the punishment that may follow. It has also caused a few to reassess how they feel about the punishment.

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The Rev. Drew Phoenix is many things to many people.

To congregants of St. John’s of Baltimore, he’s the fun-loving pastor who counsels them, takes their children hiking, explains Scripture and plunges into worthy causes.

To conservative Methodists, Phoenix embodies another front in the culture wars: a rebel who has defied God and nature and should be removed from ministry.

To mainstream society, Phoenix is an enigma who transcends traditional sexual boundaries, provoking uncomfortable questions about the interplay between body, mind and soul.

To the Judicial Council of the United Methodist Church, he’s number IV on the docket for its Oct. 24-27 session: “A Review of Bishop’s Decision . . . Whether Transgendered Persons Are Eligible for Appointment in The United Methodist Church.”

The issue of transgenderism seems too hot to touch for religious Americans already bitterly divided over sexual orientation. A number of Methodist theologians and ethicists asked to comment for this article declined.

But as scientific advances and changing sexual mores allow transgender people to slowly move into the mainstream, religious leaders will soon have to grapple with the theological implications of sexual identity, scholars say.

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In the spirit and tradition of St. Paul, Clement (Bishop of Rome) wrote to the church at Corinth in order to deal with a problem. That problem? Schism. Some fifty years after Paul’s letters, in which he pleads with them to avoid party strife, Clement writes to exhort them for the exact same thing. Ouch! Imagine it: A whole generation lived and died in the Corinthian church, expe-riencing “church” as broken, full of strife and hostility. Hmm.

I’m thinking about Corinth because of General Conference. Delegations are meeting to get ready. In nine months they will gather in Ft. Worth, TX. The tension is already building. We are dealing with the scuttlebutt on various kinds of tactical and contentious matters: “What do you think of the Connectional Table?” “What will happen if the United States becomes a Central Conference?” “Will the homosexuality vote split the church?” What about the Commission on the Study of Ministry recommendation to go another four years?

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“You are stupid.” “You are a failure.” “You will never amount to anything in life.”

Young people often hear such messages from others – to the point that they begin to believe these words and feel that way about themselves, according to Ray Buckley, a Native American storyteller and United Methodist layperson from Palmer, Alaska.
“I meet many young people across the world who describe themselves this way, and the sense of some youth in our communities is one of despair,” Buckley said during a workshop focusing on both “names of derision” and how names are sacred during Youth 2007, a July 11-15 event sponsored by the United Methodist Board of Discipleship.

Buckley said he frequently talks with young people who have been told all their lives that they are worthless, that they won’t graduate from high school or college because no one in their family ever has, that their future is to become alcoholics, and that there is no way out of the situation in which they live.

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John Wesley had only one condition previously required for those who wished to be admitted to the United Societies (small groups) of Methodism: “A desire to flee from the wrath to come, a desire to be saved from their sins.” Yet, Wesley quickly added that “wherever this is really fixed in the soul it will be shown by its fruits.” Repentance is one variety of those fruits. Further, Wesley required that those seeking membership respond to a series of probing questions including: “Have you the forgiveness of your sins?

Has no sin, inward or outward, dominion over you?” This is language of justifying grace. If clear lack of repentance and faith was apparent, admission was denied. If members failed to progress in sanctifying grace they were disciplined, and even expelled, from the societies.

In similar fashion, our United Methodist vows of membership place repentance in the first position. Persons to be received into membership in a local United Methodist congregation covenant together with God and the members of the local church to keep the vows, including the first: To renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness, reject the evil powers of the world, and repent of their sin.

In the circumstance that generated Judicial Council Decision 1032, the man who presented himself for membership was a practicing homosexual. The United Methodist Book of Discipline is clear in stating that while “homosexual persons no less than heterosexual persons are individuals of sacred worth” and “all persons need the ministry and guidance of the church in their struggles for human fulfillment, as well as the spiritual and emotional care of a fellowship that enables reconciling relationships with God, with others, and with self,” yet “the United Methodist Church does not condone the practice of homosexuality and considers this practice incompatible with Christian teaching.”

Consistent with Wesley’s offering of the means of grace to all, the elder in charge welcomed the man to the worship, sacraments, fellowship, and programs of the church. However, in light of our Methodist heritage and the clear statement of the Discipline, the pastor recognized that examination of readiness for assuming the vows of membership was needed if the church was to be both a redeemed and redeeming fellowship. To offer grace without repentance is to reduce grace to mere acceptance without the power of the Holy Spirit to produce holiness of heart and life.

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British Methodists say the Anglican-Methodist Covenant is facing challenges that some here might call a “bumpy patch.”

Signed in 2003, the covenant agreement sets out plans for greater cooperation between the two traditions. Commenting on a report about its implementation during the 2007 annual conference, British Methodist officials say the process has yielded “some encouragements and some disappointments.”
The role of women in church leadership and the role of bishops themselves are among issues that still have no formal agreement between Anglicans and Methodists. The British Methodist Church has no bishops.

United Methodist Bishop William Oden, ecumenical officer for the denomination’s Council of Bishops and a representative to the British Methodist Conference, expressed concern about the covenant’s progress.

“It seems (the covenant) is stalled at the moment when U.S. United Methodist and Episcopal relations are going forward,” Oden told United Methodist News Service, referring to progress in dialogue between those denominations. “The Church of England is busy with other issues, and British Methodists seem to have backed off.”

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Dell, who never backed down even when the United Methodist Church convicted him in 1999 of violating a ban on blessing homosexual unions, is being forced into retirement by his condition. Next Saturday the church will host a farewell event for Dell as he abruptly ends his career two years earlier than planned.

The crippling neurological disease has caused Dell, a pastor for nearly four decades, to question his own words on the power of faith. In frustration, the pastor asked himself: Do you really believe what you’ve been preaching? Do you believe that God is dependable, even in the worst of circumstances?

“This has pushed me in terms of my faith,” Dell said during an interview in his office. “First, this sense of anger and loss. Why is this happening? How dare the universe conspire to take away my last two years? Not God, but the universe! So the challenge for me, then, was to be open to what I’ve said in my preaching for 37 years and that is: God doesn’t cause human suffering. But in the midst of it, God always works to open another door or another window.

“I’m at the end of one rope, but it’s more like a trapeze, letting go of one and looking for the next one that’s coming toward me.”

Part of the struggle in facing the disease, Dell said, is that clergy are usually trained not to be angry or grieve. They are taught that God’s got it all under control. “Well, I don’t see it that way,” Dell said.

“I think anger and grief are signs of how precious life is. Precisely because life is precious and valuable, we should be angry and we should grieve when life is assaulted. I remind myself that there is legitimacy in being angry. But not to get stuck there. To be open to that next door, that next window that might be beginning to open.”

Dell’s 1999 conviction sent repercussions throughout the 8 million-member United Methodist Church, the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination, leading to deeper divisions on homosexuality and talk of schism. He was suspended from ministry indefinitely, but an appeal limited the suspension to one year and he returned to Broadway United in July 2000.

Even after his highly publicized church trial and suspension, Dell continued to allow gay couples to affirm their unions in his church, almost a dozen times in the last seven years.

To abide by church law that bars Methodist clergy from marrying people of the same sex, Dell says he does not marry the couples. Instead, he provides couples who already consider themselves wed an opportunity to share their vows in the church.

“I often talk about ministry of the loopholes,” Dell said. “But it’s not the kind of thing that makes headlines because technically we’re legal.”

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United Methodists have a deep love for their church and passion for their beliefs, but they are less satisfied with its structure and say too many resources are used in administration and bureaucracy.

They are also both hopeful and concerned about the future of The United Methodist Church.

So say the results of surveys that are the basis for a State of the Church report scheduled for churchwide release in mid-June. The surveys were conducted between June and September of 2006, and involved interviewing a cross-section of about 3,000 United Methodist clergy, lay leaders and members from across the globe.

The report was commissioned in 2005 by the church’s Connectional Table, the leadership entity that coordinates the mission, ministries and resources for the denomination. The project represents the first time the church has attempted to produce a comprehensive overview of the life of the church, according to Twila Glenn, a Connectional Table member from the denomination’s Iowa Annual (regional) Conference.

Emerging from the findings were opinions on topics as diverse as prayer, clergy leadership, church cliques, homosexuality and war.

The surveys found that United Methodists strongly affirm their belief in God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Church members generally rank the denomination’s open table for Holy Communion as extremely important. And they identify the church’s highest priorities as Scripture, children, reaching out to the unchurched and ending racial divisions within the church.

Seventy-two percent of clergy and 61 percent laity who were surveyed agree at least somewhat that the church “uses too much of available financial and human resources in administration and bureaucracy.”

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A proposed change in the United Methodist Church’s 25-year-old stance on homosexual behavior that would condone same-sex marriage “where legally possible” was tabled by a committee at the Council of Bishops meeting this month near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

The denomination’s Book of Discipline says the church “does not condone the practice of homosexuality and consider[s] this practice incompatible with Christian teaching.” The stance of the worldwide, 11-million-member church has withstood many challenges in past conventions, but the issue is expected to arise again next year.

A council subcommittee had recommended replacing the 1972 language with wording saying the church does not condone sexual relationships between people of heterosexual or homosexual orientation “outside the bonds of a faithful, loving and committed relationship between two persons; marriage, where legally possible.”

The proposed change also declared that the present stance “is based on highly questionable theology and biblical understanding and causes profound hurt to thousands of loyal United Methodist members and potential members.”

But the bishops’ administrative committee voted May 1 to table the recommendation, and the measure never formally went before the Council of Bishops, according to the United Methodist News Service.

Had the council approved the recommendation, it would have gone to a committee of the 2008 General Conference for action by 1,000 delegates at the quadrennial meeting in Fort Worth, Texas. Bishops do not have a vote at the General Conference, but they may propose legislation for delegates to consider.

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A year ago, the Rev. Ann Gordon received her routine reappointment as minister of a Charles Village Methodist congregation.

Yesterday – after undergoing a sex-change operation and taking on a new symbolic name – the Rev. Drew Phoenix received another one-year contract to head St. John’s United Methodist Church.

“This is about more than me,” Phoenix said after the decision by the bishop of the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church. “This is about people who come after me, about young people in particular who are struggling with their gender identity. I’m doing this for them.”

The decision came after a 2 1/2 -hour closed meeting with Methodist clergy, as well an emotional open session with about 1,600 clergy and laypeople gathered in Washington. While Methodists do not permit non-celibate gay clergy, no rules deal with transgendered ministers.

“I am here to say today that as of July 1 Reverend Phoenix will be reappointed to the St. John’s congregation,” Bishop John R. Schol told the conference, which represents nearly 700 churches in Washington, central and eastern Maryland, and parts of West Virginia.

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