Next Steps

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This page is a resource for the Next Steps Task Force to share information with the members of Tri-Lakes UMC.

More information will be added regularly, so be sure to check back!

This page is a resource for the Next Steps Task Force to share information with the members of Tri-Lakes UMC.

More information will be added regularly, so be sure to check back!

Town Halls

TLUMC Town Hall Meetings

Understanding the 2020 United Methodist General Conference

In May of 2020, the United Methodist General Conference will meet to discern the future of the denomination, which may result in a separation over issues of theology, doctrine, and human sexuality. Actions taken at General Conference may affect the future of local churches and as they determine the denominational body with which they will affiliate.

In order to keep the Tri-Lakes UMC congregation as update and informed as possible, the Next Steps Task Force has put together a series of educational Town Hall meetings to present information about what will be happening at General Conference and to answer your questions. No votes will be taken at these meetings--they are for informational purposes only--but this information will be vital for each member of TLUMC when or if a decision about the church's future needs to be made. Each Town Hall will address a specific topic.

Town Hall Schedule:

January 13 - "How We Got Here: A History of the UMC Conflict."

February 10 - "United Methodist Polity and Discipline 101" - learn how local churches, annual conferences, juridisdictional conferences, and the General Conference work and make decisions.

March 9 - "General Conference 2020: Plans and Proposals" - learn about what may happen in the various scenarios that are possible for the denomination and TLUMC.

April 20 - "Pre-General Conference Briefing" - this session will focus on the up-to-the-minute situation and give you a primer on what to look for as General Conference unfolds.

May 18 - "Post-General Conference Briefing" - Pastor Bob Kaylor will be attending the General Conference and will give a final briefing on all that transpired and how it affects TLUMC.

Each session will be on a Monday evening beginning at 6:30pm and will take place in the Fireplace Room downstairs at TLUMC.

TLUMC Members and Friends,

By now you have seen reports in the news media about a potential split in the United Methodist denomination. There are lots of differing reports out there from media outlets and I wanted to give you a concise account of where things stand at the moment.

Since the failure of the 2019 special United Methodist General Conference to provide a solution to the decades-long impasse in the denomination, numerous caucus groups and organizations within the UMC have proposed plans for the 2020 General Conference in Minneapolis in May 2020. Concurrent with those proposed plans, another group convened by Bishop Yambasu of Sierra Leone, Africa, brought together a group of leaders from various major groups in the UMC to work with a mediator to see if a negotiated, amicable solution could be found that would divide the UMC between centrist/progressives who wish to remove the current language in the United Methodist Book of Discipline concerning the prohibition of same sex marriages and ordination of practicing homosexuals, and traditionalists who wish to maintain the traditional definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman. Human sexuality is the presenting issue but bear in mind that are other longstanding disagreements between these groups concerning biblical authority, theology, and the practice of ministry that have gone unresolved since the creation of the United Methodist Church in 1968.

The group assembled by Bishop Yambasu, working with a professional mediator, came to an agreement on a plan to separate the UMC. That plan, however, must still be ratified by the 2020 United Methodist General Conference before it can be implemented. In effect, the plan creates two separate denominations: a “post- separation United Methodist Church” that will maintain the current UMC structure but change the language in the Discipline concerning human sexuality, and a new traditional Methodist denomination that will maintain a traditional view of human sexuality, marriage, and ordination. If this plan passes at General Conference, Annual Conferences (regional bodies) and local churches will have the opportunity to vote concerning which expression of Methodism they wish to join. Churches who join this new traditional Methodist denomination will be able to depart with their property and assets and with no additional penalties or fees.

What that means for Tri-Lakes UMC is that we may have a vote sometime in the future where the membership will vote to either stay in the post-separation United Methodist Church or move into the new traditional Methodist denomination. There is much more to the plan than I have space to cover here, so I urge you to read the plan document and follow the United Methodist News Service (umns.org) for more information and details.

Our Next Steps Task Force will be providing the TLUMC congregation with ample opportunities to learn about this proposal, to learn about General Conference, and to ask questions. We want you to be fully informed in the event a vote takes place (which would likely not occur until fall of 2020 at the earliest). I urge you to attend our Town Hall meetings so that you can be fully informed and apprised of the situation.

For now, we will continue to move forward in our ministry as a local church and continue to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with our community. I’m excited about what God is doing with our journey through the New Testament, our new small groups, our new mission initiatives, and so many other things that are happening in this great church. Regardless of what happens at the denominational level, our mission remains the same: to build followers of Jesus Christ who love and serve God and neighbor.

Rev. Dr. Bob Kaylor

Lead Pastor

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