Why Black Churches Did Not Disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church
Photo by Andrew Seaman on Unsplash
On November 18, 2023, the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church (UMC) voted on the disaffiliation of more than 250 churches in its territory under a time-limited provision in the Book of Discipline, ¶2553. The disaffiliation process was the result of negotiations after a contentious vote on human sexuality at the Special Called Session of the General Conference in 2019. The Taylor Disaffiliation Plan, which also passed at the 2019 General Conference, allowed for a church to leave the UMC based upon “the actions or inactions of its annual conference related to these issues.” This means that if a same-sex marriage was conducted by a UMC pastor, and the annual conference suspended the pastor, then liberal churches could disaffiliate because of the actions of the annual conference. Conversely, if a same-sex marriage was conducted by a UMC pastor, and the annual conference chose not to suspend the pastor, then traditional churches could disaffiliate because of the inactions of the annual conference.
This legislation was enacted in the North Georgia Conference (the Conference) more than two years later at the 2021 Annual Conference. In 2022, 70 churches successfully disaffiliated from the Conference with very little acrimony, sans Mt. Bethel UMC in Marietta, which attempted to leave the Conference in April 2021. Of the 70 churches that left the Conference, six of them were black churches, and the overwhelming majority of the 70 were small rural churches. There was some speculation that these churches were slated for closure by the Conference.
Then the roof fell in. The Conference paused the disaffiliation process in December 2022 over concerns of misinformation being given to churches about the UMC. This led to a subsequent lawsuit filed by more than 180 churches in March 2023, which drew national attention. After a Cobb County Superior Court Judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, the disaffiliation process resumed, and Robin Dease (who became the Conference bishop in the middle of all of this in January 2023) called for a Special Session of the Annual Conference on November 18, 2023.
Two black churches were a part of the list of disaffiliating churches at this Special Session of the Annual Conference: Pleasant Hill UMC in Villa Rica and St. James UMC in Alpharetta. While it was difficult to find any public records on the history of Pleasant Hill, the history of St. James is on their website. A group of former slaves formed the Alpharetta Colored Methodist Church in 1867, a little more than two years after the South surrendered in the Civil War. In 1967, the church changed its name to St. James Methodist Church, and for many years it was one of the few black churches in North Fulton County. Unlike the other black churches that disaffiliated from the Conference, St. James averaged more than 800 people in attendance before the COVID-19 pandemic began and has an annual budget of more than $2 million. So it came as a surprise to many that they would choose to enter the disaffiliation process, since they were not a part of the lawsuit against the Conference. Some have questioned whether St. James was just trying to protect its undeveloped 18 acres and was not really opposed to same-sex weddings. Both topics were addressed at their Family Gatherings on July 15, 2023, and July 29, 2023, and it is safe to say that St. James UMC is a traditional church. However, one could argue that most of the black churches in the Conference are traditional. So why didn’t more black churches disaffiliate from the UMC?
The previous scenario was about black churches in the North Georgia Conference that disaffiliated before ¶2553 expired, but across the country very few black United Methodist congregations left the denomination. The Lewis Center for Church Leadership issued a report on the more than 7,600 UMC congregations that disaffiliated, and they discovered some findings that may help explain some things.
The disaffiliating churches were primarily southern, and 71% were located in the South Central and Southeastern Jurisdictions. These two jurisdictions accounted for 52% of all UMC congregations prior to disaffiliation. Sixty-three percent of the members of the UMC in the United States were from these two jurisdictions prior to disaffiliation, but they made up 79% of disaffiliating church members. These churches were whiter (97%) than the UMC average and were led by a higher percentage of male pastors (81%). Only 1.6% of the churches that disaffiliated were black churches. However, these numbers are only representative of the churches that completed the process, and some churches wanted to leave the UMC, but could not afford to, as some conferences added arduous requirements to disaffiliate.
Despite this, black churches were having conversations around disaffiliation, led by Black Methodists for Church Renewal. There had been some in the black UMC who wanted to go to the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), until it was revealed that $90 million were missing from the AME pension fund and the AARP had joined a class action lawsuit to recover those funds. That halted all actions to join the AME Church, so I’m told. This process prompted questions about the financial transparency of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion and the Christian Methodist Episcopal Churches, two other black Methodist denominations.
The black church tends to be politically liberal, theologically conservative. It subscribes to a liberation theology rooted in the teaching of the Messiah at the synagogue in Nazareth, and an evangelical theology that was formed after many freedmen and slaves were converted to Protestant Christianity during the First Great Awakening. The black church is also independent. Freedmen and slaves were forced to form their own congregations after experiencing racial discrimination in White Anglo-Saxon Protestant churches. The black church has been the cornerstone of the black experience in America, and black Methodists preach a holistic gospel that would save your soul and free you from physical bondage. Yet, there would eventually develop a division within the black church between “the Conservative and Progressive,” as noted by Carter G. Woodson, and also by Raphael Warnock. Despite this division, most black UMC members remain committed to the gospel and to justice and liberation. For these reasons many black churches chose not to disaffiliate.
The conservative attacks on Black Lives Matter; Critical Race Theory (CRT); AP African American Studies; and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) sealed this fate. Even as Black Methodists gathered together to plan and strategize for the future, with disaffiliation on the table, the gains that have been made for racial equality in the UMC cannot be abandoned for a cultural war over the basic understanding of what black people mean when we use the aforementioned terms. There are still racist laws on the books, and their removal is the first tenet of CRT. In November 2022, five states voted to do just that with slavery after black activists pushed to have these measures on the ballot. Only Louisiana chose to keep a nineteenth century law intact for prisoners, as allowed in the thirteenth amendment. After Florida’s Stop W.O.K.E. Act was struck down by a federal court, repeatedly, state education leaders and its governor canceled a planned AP African American Studies course. Some black residents of the state pushed back and threatened to file a lawsuit in order to save the course. There is also a feeling that the assault on DEI initiatives is directly related to black economic progress. We are talking past one another.
What we in the black church see is not just mere philosophical differences of opinion; we feel that there is a concerted attack on anything black. This movement is being led by Ron DeSantis, Bob Woodson, Thomas Sowell, Candace Owens, John MacArthur, Voddie Baucham, Charlie Kirk, and others. The co-option of terms like “woke” shows that there is an intolerance for anything that is perceived to be a threat to white folks, including Christians. While Promise Keepers tried to end racism a quarter of a century ago, it ultimately failed. The concerns for justice between some black and white Christians are unparalleled.
The black church is willing to have a conversation with anyone who is interested in hearing about our views on the gospel, justice, and liberation. And disaffiliation is still an option, as Strengthening Black Churches for the 21st Century has authored a resolution entitled Jubilee Freedom Today. However, we cannot walk together unless we agree.
Come now, and let us reason together.
Odell Horne, Jr. has a master’s degree in African and African American Studies, is a doctoral student in Contextual Theology, and is a Lay Servant at Impact Church.