We had around 350 people attend our Matthew Vines event on Sunday, June 4. There were persons from several other United Methodist congregations from our Annual Conference as well as members of Episcopal, Presbyterian, Baptist, and Church of Christ denominations. We felt about half of those in attendance were persons from outside our congregation and we reflected that we believe hosting this event was appropriate leadership for our church.

We also spent time debriefing the address from retired South Georgia Bishop, Lawson Bryan, former Senior Pastor to Montgomery FUMC. We are glad Montgomery UMC chose to stay United Methodist but discussed our concerns over the tone and direction of Bishop Bryan’s remarks. We spent time discussing the benefits and concerns of regionalization and the likelihood of ongoing struggles within the UMC given the global makeup of our connection.

We then spent time discussing Bishop Thomas J. Bickerton, President of the Council of Bishops and Bishop of New York Conference, recent #BeUMC video. We noted how much more hopeful this content felt for our congregation. We loved the reclaim, revive, and renew language for the United Methodist Church and noted his regular mention of grace and welcome for ALL people.

We look forward to hosting our final Listening Session on Sunday, July 9 in the Loft at 4:00pm.  This is a time for our congregation to come ask questions and share their hopes for the future.  Our team plans to offer our discernment to our congregation in August after 9 months of prayerful conversation and study together about exploring our future.