Report from our Stay UMC Response Team

Posted: June 25, 2024 | Author: wtmcalilly | Filed under: Bishop's Blog | Tags: TWKUMC, united methodist |Leave a comment

During the 2023 annual conference, the body voted to set aside a fund of approximately 3 million dollars to assist churches who were impacted by disaffiliation and the process of Par 2553 in the life of their church. I appointed a Response team to create a process of application to discern the disbursement of this fund. 

The team is chaired by Melinda Young Britt, and members include BJ Brack, Sue Engle Carrigan, John Pearce, Drew Shelley, and Paula Smith.

Unfortunately we did not have time to hear the team’s report at the 2024 Annual Conference last week. I would like to share it with you now. Please read below and make sure to watch the accompanying video that tells the story of the boundless work of the Holy Spirit through our TWK connection and Calvert City UMC, Columbia FUMC, and Fresh Start Recovery Church.

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The work of our team has been intense, rich, and fruitful. We quickly learned so many things! 

We learned that we needed to listen: God was at work in these impacted congregations. 

We learned that we have many resources that God has placed within reach, right in our basket, resources that we as a conference together can afford, that we as a connection have as spiritual gifts and curated skills, that we are also willing to offer one another when in need.

And so the application process for the grants began to look like conversations with congregations and their leaders, discovering their gifts, strengths, challenges and needs. Our role has become a team who asks good questions,  acts with thoughtful urgency, connects each congregation with spiritual, strategic, financial, emotional, and connectional resources, and decides on allocation of funding and other resources that can be offered. 

We have been in prayer and in conversation with over 20 congregations and/or pastors considering application and 16 of those congregations are currently actively engaged in various stages of the grant process. No two grant applications have been alike. Churches need different things in different contexts. The grants have included funding for unexpected or dramatic changes in staffing, programming, membership, and engagement. They have also included support for strategic coaching and work with Innovation Lab to consider the new context of their church. The list is long of what we have collected from you, your congregations, our connection, to offer. 

Several members of the participating congregations have approached the Response team with deep gratitude for the grants they have received – but those gifts are not from the Response team! We have been able to send the letter – but the gift is from you. Local churches with the deep desire to help sister local churches become restored and healed through our connection. The decision you made last year to help one another has produced fruit.

The funds set aside last year have been a great gift.  At this point in the journey we have disbursed just over $525,565.42. And we are committed and scheduled to disburse an additional $514,041.24 through June 2025. And there are a few requests that we will be looking at right after annual conference. 

And we have continued to learn these important things:

• That despite the trials, congregations exhibit resilience and a solid commitment to God and community. We have become confident that out of the embers of our present challenges, new beginnings await. 

• That we desperately need help moving beneath the poorly framed debates we’ve had about disaffiliation and human sexuality so that we can better understand what it means to love each other well, share the Gospel with the world, and follow Jesus together.

• That because of our connection, we have many resources to help churches who are rebuilding and renewing. 

• That by offering connection and resources to local churches, we have allowed churches to have some breathing room. Instead of being caught in survival mode, they can dream about the future and explore how God is calling them to live out their mission of making disciples in a new context. Our connection is giving congregations the space to be led by the movement of the Holy Spirit to receive healing and hope. In many instances, this hope has led to signs of new life and resurrection.   

• That the United Methodist church is uniquely positioned to lean into the prayer Jesus is praying for us in John 17. We have an evangelistic opportunity to demonstrate to the world another way beyond polarized views. When the rest of the world sees the United Methodist church live out the prayer for unity in the Spirit, not agreement or conformity but unity, they notice that it must be a power beyond our own that makes that possible. 

Our connection is powerful, and beautiful, and of God. It’s been a blessing to see the resources come together to encourage, heal, and support new beginnings. We are grateful to be able to walk alongside congregations and have a front row seat to the transformation the Lord is providing. We wanted you to hear one of those stories today.

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