Easter Sunday is the central celebration of the Christian year. We would love for you to join us in worship this Easter! We will have worship at our typical times of 8:30 and 11:00. If you have not worshipped with us before and have questions, this page may help.
We are excited to be celebrating this day, where we remember Jesus Christ defeating death, and we remember the hope we have that is only found in him. We hope to see you!
This year Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday, so there will be several opportunities to worship together. Sunday morning we will have a combined worship service at 11:00 with lots of Christmas music and celebration.
Then join us for our Christmas Eve candlelight worship service! We will have services at 6:00 and 10:00 in the evening of December 24th. During this service we will read and retell the story of the first Christmas in Luke 2 as well as share in communion and close with singing “Silent Night” by candlelight.
We hope you are able to worship with us!
Our Blue Christmas Worship service will be held at 7:00 on Friday, December 15.
Sometimes the holiday season can be a difficult one if you are struggling or grieving. The Blue Christmas worship is a place where we can hear the good news of Christ’s birth in the midst of the real difficulties of life. This meaningful service has times of prayer as well as a message of hope for all of us during the Advent and Christmas season.
We hope you can join us!
The Website for the Michigan Conference of the United Methodist Church: https://michiganumc.org
A recent article on the Conference website on Methodists looking for a home:
Two sermon series from Pastor Andy on aspects of Methodism from 2018 and 2020 can be found here:
The Wesleyan Covenant Association has some ‘Critical Articles in a Time of Transition’:
Chris Ritter’s take on why Methodism was ‘coming untied’ in 2019
S2 E5 Announcing the Global Methodist Church
S2 E7 Transitional Book of Doctines and Discipline of the Global Methodist Church
S2 E8 Perfect Love: Entire Sanctification and the Future of Methodism with Kevin Watson
S2 E11 Recap of the 2021 Global Legislative Assembly
1968 United Methodist Church is formed as the Evangelical United Brethren and the Methodist Church join together to form one denomination.
1972 The denomination attempts to join together very diverse theological groups by taking an official stance of “Theological Pluralism.” It was an attempt to be a ‘big tent’ theologically speaking and to have room for the variety of theologies within the denomination.
1972 The denomination develops its initial stance on human sexuality, affirming that all people are of sacred worth, but that the United Methodist Church does not condone the practice of homosexuality, and considers the practice of homosexuality as incompatible with Christian teaching.
1988 The language in the Book of Discipline is changed away from ‘Theological Pluralism.’
1988 General Conference formed the “Committee to Study Homosexuality” to study the issue and report back at the next General Conference in 1992
1992 At General Conference, the Committee to Study Homosexuality came back with the recommendation to change the denomination’s stance on homosexuality. General Conference voted to maintain its current stance instead.
1996-2018 With every General Conference the debate over human sexuality was more intense and heated.
2000 There were demonstrations from protesters and arrests at General Conference, as people fought to change the denominational stance on homosexuality.
2008 and 2012 There was a movement within the United States, to provide a resolution to the constant political fighting over homosexuality and the church. The suggestion was especially pushed by two large church pastors in the United States and was called, “The Local Church Option.” This would allow each individual church and conference to decide where it stood on issues of human sexuality. It was voted down each time.
2016 As another contentious General Conference was playing out and the denomination looked to be on the verge of splitting, the Bishops paused the Conference and called for the formation of “The Committee on the Way Forward,” whose purpose was to find a way forward for the deeply divided denomination. The Committee was to report back in either 2018 or 2019 with its findings as a specially called General Conference.
2016 The Western Jurisdiction (US) elected the first openly lesbian Bishop.
2019 In February 2019, the special session of the General Conference was held. The Committee on the Way Forward brought forth a plan titled, “The One Church Plan,” which had much in common with “The Local Church Option,” which had been voted down twice before. It was voted down again. Instead, an alternate plan titled, “The Traditional Plan,” was passed in part.
The 2019 session was very ugly and the fallout was brutal. The divide in the church was even more acute. As an example, retired Bishop, Will Willimon wrote, “At some point I shifted my own prayers to, “Lord, please melt the hardened hearts and smite everyone who intends to vote against the One Church Plan.” https://www.christiancentury.org/blog-post/guest-post/methodist-mess-st-louis
2019 In December, after several meetings with a third party, professional negotiator, an agreement was reached on the “Protocol on Reconcilliation and Grace through Separation.” The Protocol would provide a way for conferences as well as local churches to decide whether to stay with the United Methodist Church or join a new traditionalist or more progressive denomination. There was to be a special General Conference to vote on this in May of 2020
2020 Covid-19 pandemic cancels the Special Session of General Conference for May and eventually cancels the rescheduled conference which was to occur in October of 2021.
2022 The special session of General Conference to address the Protocol is scheduled for the end of August, 2022
Throughout the history of the United Methodist Church, there has been a growing theological divide along foundational theological lines such as Bishop Sprague’s contention that Jesus did not bodily rise from the dead nor was he born of a virgin, the voting down of the Nicene Creed in committee in General Conference, forms of cultic worship, how we understand scripture, Trinitarian language, as well as sin and salvation and the centrality of Christ. While issues around human sexuality are the focus, they are, in reality, the presenting issues of a deeper divide.