UMC church torn by same-sex bugaboo

Over the past 20 years, LGBTQ issues have caused seemingly irreparable ruptures in some of the country’s largest mainline denominations, including the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church and the American Baptist Church.

Beginning in January the United Methodist Church became the latest casualty of the schism over the acceptance of same-sex unions and the ordination of LGBTQ pastors. A new study by the Lewis Center for Church Leadership at Wesley Theological Seminary found that between 2019 and 2023, the United Methodist Church lost a quarter, or 7,631, of its total churches — half of which were affiliated with the Global Methodist Church, a splinter group formed in 2022 as a more theologically conservative alternative.

The largest group of disaffiliated churches is in the South and Southeast; only a fraction of churches that have broken away are in the western part of the U.S. In this area, United Methodist churches in Orofino, Cavendish and Anatone were among the defectors.

Ted Leach, a trustee of what used to be the Orofino United Methodist Church, said there were more problems than simply the LGTBQ issue that led to his church breaking away from the national organization.

“About 10 years ago, like all churches or most, our congregation began to dwindle for various reasons,” Leach said. Members moved away, or died, or found other places of worship. The Orofino congregation shrank from a weekly attendance of about 35 to five to seven members.

“So we couldn’t afford a minister anymore,” Leach said. The church tried to work out an arrangement with a pastor on a part-time basis, but that didn’t last.

“Part of the problem, our relationship with the northwest division of the UMC — they never seemed to be responsive to our concerns.”

Leach said the district continued to expect the struggling Orofino church to maintain its level of apportionments — or tithing.

“Even though we dropped in numbers, couple that with the minister’s salary and we just couldn’t afford it,” Leach said.

Church members then discovered that, even though they had bought and paid for the church building at 337 College Ave., Orofino and the adjoining parsonage, the district held the title to the two buildings.

After much paperwork and legal finagling, the congregation regained title to the property and sold the parsonage to the Rev. Henry Henschle, who is the pastor of the former Methodist church at Cavendish, and the church building to Breathe Back Ministries, a relatively new church headed by Jovi Harp and Greg Cook, of Orofino.

These days, the former Methodist Church is called the Little Brick Church. Harp and Cook lead two services each Sunday — one for their own congregation that is loosely affiliated with the Reformed Baptist Church — and the second for the remnant of the Methodists.

Leach said so far the arrangement has worked out well with both congregations sharing the same church building.

“So we had buildings without people and they had people and were looking for a building. So it has matched up,” Leach said. “So far it has been quite a good relationship and the church has kind of come back to life and we like to see that.”

Leach acknowledged, however, that even though the financial issue was foremost, the LGBTQ stance of the United Methodist Church also was a factor. The congregation has never faced an actual situation where it was asked to accept a same-sex couple or an LGBTQ pastor, he said.

According to the Lewis Center study, United Methodist Churches had until Dec. 31 to decide whether to secede and, if so, they were able to retain all their properties. Of the 25% that did break away, half of those were in the Southeastern jurisdiction. Twenty-one percent were in the South Central jurisdiction; 18% in North Central; 10% in North Eastern; and 1% in the Western jurisdiction.

Attempts to reach spokespersons for the Anatone Community United Methodist Church were not successful.

Henschle’s church at Cavendish is now called the Bedrock Creek Church. Like Leach, he said there was more to the schism in the United Methodist Church than only the LGBTQ controversy.

“I know (the LGBTQ) is a sensational issue,” Henschle said. “Everyone likes to say those words. But those churches (that broke away) were scriptural-based churches that no longer lined up with the UMC broadly. It’s not just same sex (issues); the authority of scripture is the biggest thing — whether that is something that we can trust or something that is just a good go-by.

“My position,” Henschle said, “is that scripture is the (inspired) word of God and we can trust it. Sometimes it’s harder than others, but we can trust it.”

He also said the matter of the national UMC holding church properties in trust that individual congregations had bought and paid for was frustrating for church members.

“There were a number of issues, not just one,” he said.

Henschle said being an independent church has its advantages as well as disadvantages, “but overall it has been a very positive move for the church to move away. (The members) are a lot happier.”

Cody Stauffer is pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Lewiston and the Clarkston United Methodist Church. Steve Kazda shepherds the United Methodist Church in Asotin.

Both Stauffer and Kazda said their congregations chose to stay with the national organization and support its doctrines.

“In our churches … they had long ago decided to be welcoming and affirming, so that’s always been their position,” Stauffer said.

When he first interviewed for his position, Stauffer said he made it clear that if he was ever asked to perform a same-sex marriage ceremony, he would say yes, and the congregations agreed with that.

At one point, the Clarkston church hired an LGBTQ person as a worship leader who had a same-sex partner and the congregation was accepting of that, Stauffer said.

At Asotin, “our church decided to stay the course,” Kazda said. “We will welcome anybody who walks through the door and be a loving example” of Christ.

Hedberg may be contacted at khedberg@lmtribune.com.