Bishop Robin Dease began her sermon on Saturday with an apology.
“For those of you who may be discouraged because of the state of the Church, I’m sorry,” said Dease during her closing sermon at the annual conference of the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church. “For those of you who have been beaten up trying to hold your congregations together, I’m sorry.”
It’s the first conference meeting since the denomination struck down the church’s controversial prohibitions around homosexuality, which has driven away many of the denomination’s churches over the past two years.
Dease assured those gathered that they were not failures, before turning defiant.
“For those of you who lost members who told you that they were taking their family and their money somewhere else, and I know because I received a lot of emails and letters after General Conference, for that I am not sorry. I’m not sorry.”
Those gathered in the Classic Center broke into applause, a far cry from the mood at last year’s annual conference which saw some 200 or more churches leave the denomination, some becoming independent, others joining other Methodist denominations or the more conservative Global Methodist Church.
Pastors, she said, may feel frustrated because people have left, but “now you truly know what it means to be a pastor.”
The Church, she reminded them, has been in similar situations before and that they should not feel like failures.
Perhaps, it’s true that God might be separating the wheat from the chaff, she said.
“Maybe, just maybe, this is a season of pruning.”
People have left the denomination before. There have been disagreements before. There have been declines, persecution and suffering.
In addition to Dease’s sermon, a choir made up from members of seven new churches performed. Even as churches have left, new congregations have launched.
Today, the UMC North Georgia conference has about 440 churches remaining. Since 2022, more than 330 churches have left, which was about 38% of the conference’s churches. The smaller South Georgia Conference of the UMC has lost about half of its congregations since 2020.
“We still have a lot of work to do, but It feels so good to be on this side of it,” said Rebecca Wallace, a member of St. Paul United Methodist Church in Grant Park.
Most of the legislation adopted by the General Conference goes into effect Jan. 1, 2025, but some took effect immediately.
Some General Conference legislation, particularly around regionalization, must be ratified by annual conferences. The North Georgia Conference will vote on those constitutional amendments in June 2025.
The window for disaffiliations using Book of Discipline paragraph 2553 ended Dec. 31.
“While churches do close each year,” the season of disaffiliations is behind us,” according to spokeswoman Sybil Davidson.
McEachern United Methodist Church in Powder Springs was among three churches that were not allowed to leave during a special called meeting in November.
Senior Pastor Craig Hutto spoke briefly in Athens about how the church, which averages between 150 and 200 on Sunday mornings, today is rebounding.
He said the conference determined that the procedure to leave was not followed correctly and denied the request.
“We had a number of folks leave, and many of those folks said the church would never survive, he said.
While December and January were tough months for the congregation, since February, the church has welcomed 30 new members, elected new leadership and had three baptisms.
“I think it looks brighter,” he said. “We’re at a place now where we’ve struggled with conflict and division, now we’ve beyond that and of one mind, want to be inclusive and move forward with the Church.”
Just as Dease began her sermon with an apology, she ended it on a note of hope. The Church will be inclusive for all, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and class. Injustice, extreme political and cultural divisions will not stop the spread of the Gospel, she said.
She stopped and sniffed the air.
“It’s the aroma of hope,” Dease said.
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