Religion · Atlantic City, NJ Metro · September 29, 2026
South Jersey Churches Appeal Ruling in Fight to Exit UMC Conference
What Alinsky tactic is being used
3 of the thirteen rules are in play here — campaigns rarely run just one.
Rule 3
“Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.”
The congregations' grievance is theological — the conference's stance on same-sex marriage and gay clergy — but the fight has been moved onto ground where pastors and trustees are amateurs: trust clauses, summary judgment, First Amendment jurisdiction, appellate procedure. Judge Malestein never reached the merits; he held that a secular court cannot interpret the Book of Discipline at all, so the churches lost on a question of judicial power, not conviction. The case is now in a confidential settlement program, a forum where the party with standing counsel has the advantage.
Counter-Rule 3 · Preparation and Width
Prepare the unfamiliar ground before you are dragged onto it. "I don't know, I'll find out and come back" beats an improvised answer.
Before your own church is in this position, read the two documents that will decide it: the paragraph of your denomination's governing book that says how local property is held, and your actual recorded deed from the county clerk. Ask your trustees to get a written opinion from a lawyer who does church property work, not general practice, and put it in the minutes. When someone asks you a procedural question you cannot answer, say you will find out and come back.
Rule 10
“The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition.”
Time is doing the work here. The narrow window that let congregations leave with their buildings closed on December 31, 2023, and the bishop's position is simply that no rule now allows it — so every month of litigation runs in the conference's favor. The churches sued in January 2024, lost in May, appealed June 19, and are now in mediation; legal bills fall on seven congregations while the conference litigates as an institution that outlives any of them.
Counter-Rule 10 · The Long Game
Plan in decades against a campaign built on attrition. Succession and endurance beat any single victory.
Plan on your church's timescale, not the news cycle's. Ask your board this month to write down, and minute, what the congregation would and would not do if a property question arose — who is authorized to sign, what reserve exists, who succeeds the current trustees. Read the deadlines in your own denomination's provisions and diary them; the single most expensive thing in this story was a date that passed while people were still discussing.
Rule 11
“If you push a negative hard and deep enough, it will break through into its counterside.”
The word doing the most work in the coverage is the churches' own: they call the conference's financial conditions "ransom." That framing may or may not survive contact with the actual figures, and the story does not give them. If the numbers turn out to be an unpaid-pension and apportionment calculation the congregations agreed to under the old provision, the word costs them more than it gains.
Counter-Rule 11 · Proportional Truth
Refuse to overclaim, even where it would help. One exaggeration hands the other side the only weapon that works permanently.
If you repeat this story at a meeting, repeat what is documented: the disaffiliation provision expired December 31, 2023, and a trial judge dismissed on First Amendment grounds without ruling on the money. Ask your own conference for the itemized exit terms in writing before you characterize them, and quote the figures rather than an adjective. One overstatement you cannot back up is the only thing an opponent needs.
Chapter 3 sets out the rules; Chapter 15 answers each of them in turn. This is that pairing applied to this story.
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