North Texas UMC Conference Sues Highland Park UMC in Property/Governance Dispute

Why Bible-Believing Christians Should Care

Whatever the specific trigger, a regional conference suing its own flagship congregation signals a denomination in open fracture. The UMC has, at the national level, moved to remove restrictions on same-sex marriage and LGBTQ clergy ordination — a departure from the biblical sexual ethic this publication holds as authoritative. Congregations and members who assumed institutional stability, or who joined believing in a settled biblical position, should recognize that denominational structures can shift beneath them, and that property and governance battles often follow doctrinal ones. Bible-believing members inside any UMC congregation should know their conference's current positions and understand what legal and financial ties bind their local church to it before conflict arrives.

Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? — 1 Corinthians 6:1

From the book

Rule 8 depends on the ability of activists to bring endless motions and resolutions to disrupt governance. The answer is hardening the structure. Governance documents should prevent small minorities from hijacking the agenda. That means super-majority requirements for changing doctrinal standards and property clauses that protect a local congregation's assets from a predatory hierarchy.

— Chapter 17, “Defensive Strategy”

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