Episode 93
"The Disaffiliation Dilemma in One Local United Methodist Church" Part 1. Discernment and Divorce with Rev. Tracey Leslie and Lay Person Tonya Hess
Bishop Julius C. Trimble is the Resident Bishop of the Indiana Area of the United Methodist Church.
Bishop Trimble has the personal mission to encourage all people with the love of Jesus Christ to rise to their highest potential. It is his commitment to his personal mission that led Bishop Trimble to create the “To Be Encouraged” Podcast along with co-host Rev.Dr. Brad Miller.
Bishop Trimble says, “I am compelled by Jesus to share with you an encouraging word or two about Jesus, theology, the Bible, the pandemic, the environment, racism, voting rights, human sexuality, and the state of the United Methodist Church.”
To Be Encouraged with Bishop Julius C. Trimble is to be published weekly and is available at www.tobeencouraged.com and all the podcast directories.
https://www.inumc.org/bishop/office-of-the-bishop/
This is Episode 093 "Disaffiliation Dilemma Part 1 Discernment and Divorce"
In this episode, Bishop Trimble address the pervasive confusion that has been afflicting United Methodist congregations, surrounding the contentious issue of disaffiliation. We take a closer look at paragraph 2553, the catalyst for many church votes, some marked by a significant lack of clarity, leaving faith communities on the precipice of separation.
Our focus will be on the real and pressing concerns that arise when congregations consider disaffiliation: the tangible effects on church life, ministry, and their ability to influence the community. We confront the emotional and logistical complications that emerge, especially in churches divided by narrowly split votes.
Joining us in this critical conversation are Rev. Tracey Leslie and dedicated layperson Tanya Hess, who bring both expertise and experience to the table. Rev. Leslie will shed light on her role in guiding congregations through these turbulent times, particularly in welcoming and understanding those impacted by church divisions. Tanya Hess presents a heartfelt account of her personal journey with the North Madison United Methodist Church, revealing the hardships and consequences of their disaffiliation debate.
As we explore the difficult terrain of church splits, financial burdens, and the exodus of leadership, our goal is to uncover pathways towards healing and rebuilding. This episode marks the beginning of our exploration into recovery, with the promise of delving deeper in Part 2 (Episode 094 “The Disaffiliation Dilemma: Recover and Hope”.)
We invite you to listen with an open heart as we offer support and guidance to those navigating these troubled waters. Together, we'll seek to reaffirm our commitment to the fundamental mission of the church: to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Please join us for this important conversation here on "To Be Encouraged."
Rev. Tracey Leslie <tracey.leslie@inumc.org>;
Tanya Hess <tarhess@msn.com>
Transcript
The disaffiliation dilemma in
Speaker:a Local United Methodist Church.
Speaker:Part 1, discernment and divorce.
Speaker:Here on episode 93 of the
Speaker:To Be Encouraged podcast with bishop
Speaker:Julius c Trumbull.
Speaker:You are welcome to be encouraged
Speaker:with Bishop Julius c Trimble.
Speaker:Bishop Trimble is on a mission to encourage you
Speaker:with the love of Jesus Christ so you can
Speaker:rise to your highest potential.
Speaker:On to be encouraged, Bishop Treble speaks to a
Speaker:discouraged world with a good word
Speaker:on the pandemic, racism, the environment,
Speaker:human sexuality, and the state of the church with
Speaker:a focus on centering your life on
Speaker:the love of Jesus Christ. Has there ever
Speaker:been a more needed time for an encouraging
Speaker:word to our world? This is
Speaker:your time to rise to your greatest potential
Speaker:and to be encouraged with Bishop Julius
Speaker:c Trimble. Hello, good people, and
Speaker:we welcome you to the to be encouraged
Speaker:podcast with Bishop Julius C.
Speaker:This is the podcast where we look to offer an encouraging
Speaker:word to an often discouraged
Speaker:world. I'm your cohost, reverend doctor Brad
Speaker:Miller. And here in episode 93, we have
Speaker:part 1 of a 2 part series dealing with one of the more
Speaker:discouraging aspects of the current state of the United Methodist
Speaker:Church, the disaffiliation dilemma,
Speaker:particularly as it impacts a local
Speaker:United Methodist church. In today's episode,
Speaker:we're gonna be talking to a United Methodist staff
Speaker:person who, among other things in her portfolio, deals
Speaker:with discernment and disaffiliation issues in
Speaker:local churches along with the healing and wholeness aspects as
Speaker:well, as well as devoted local United
Speaker:Methodist layperson who's a part of that church. We're gonna
Speaker:get granular today as we discover as we discuss
Speaker:what happens in the disaffiliation discussion
Speaker:through the discernment process, through the voting process about whether
Speaker:to disaffiliate or not. So today's
Speaker:topic is gonna be part 1, discernment and divorce,
Speaker:and this is episode 93. And we'll follow it up on
Speaker:episode 2, episode number part 2 of this episode, which is
Speaker:episode 94. We'll talk about recovery and hope for
Speaker:the future of a local United Methodist Church.
Speaker:We are incredibly privileged to have a couple people been
Speaker:involved with the dynamic that's happening in many of our
Speaker:United Methodist churches right now. The very painful
Speaker:process of discerning whether you're going to have a vote to do
Speaker:disaffiliate or not, the inner workings of the church
Speaker:administratively and interpersonally, friendships,
Speaker:family relationships, mission events, community
Speaker:events, all these things which are impacted in the mission and ministry of a local
Speaker:church, which is going through the the process
Speaker:of deciding whether to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church or not.
Speaker:So we have with us as our guest, today with myself and
Speaker:Bishop Trumbull, Tracy Leslie, who's the C
Speaker:director of innovation, engagement and development
Speaker:of the Indiana Conference of the United Methodist Church. And
Speaker:she was intimately involved with one of the local United
Speaker:Methodist Church in the churches in the Indiana conference,
Speaker:the North Madison United Methodist Church in Madison, Indiana.
Speaker:And we're very pleased to have one of the very devoted and dedicated
Speaker:laypersons from the North Madison United Methodist
Speaker:Church, Tanya Hess. In this episode
Speaker:of To Be Encouraged, it is being done in,
Speaker:narrative or narration style. So I just wanted to say a word about what
Speaker:you'll be hearing here, today. I, inter I, Brad
Speaker:Miller, interviewed C, and later on
Speaker:was able to, offer his insights into the answers
Speaker:that Tracy and Tanya gave to us. So
Speaker:you'll hear, myself setting up the question, the
Speaker:setting up the the question, and then either Tanya or C,
Speaker:both of them commenting on the question at
Speaker:hand, and then Bishop, Bishop Trimble commenting
Speaker:on the statements that that they make. I think you'll get the hang of it,
Speaker:and it's a good it's a good thing. I hope that you'll listen carefully to
Speaker:this episode and to the follow-up episode, episode 94,
Speaker:where we talk about the next steps. It may very well
Speaker:be applicable to your church if you're a local church pastor or a
Speaker:local church layperson who's having these discussions as well. I
Speaker:think you're gonna find this incredibly helpful. And, again, a word of thanks for people
Speaker:who are sharing out of some painful experiences meant to
Speaker:be helpful to you and indeed encouraging
Speaker:to local churches, which are choosing to have the hard
Speaker:conversations around the, basically, divorce
Speaker:conversation regarding disaffiliation in their
Speaker:church. So, again, a big thanks to Tracy Leslie
Speaker:and to Tanya Hess. Let's join the conversation that
Speaker:I had with them and the comments from from Bishop
Speaker:Julius Trimble here on the to be encouraged podcast with Bishop Julius
Speaker:c Trimble.
Speaker:Let's begin by having a conversation with reverend
Speaker:Tracy Leslie, the associate director of innovation engagement
Speaker:development, Indiana Conference United Methodist Church, to understand a
Speaker:little more clearly what her role is and
Speaker:her connection between the conference staff and
Speaker:leadership in terms of serving and resourcing
Speaker:a church and the pastor and the lay persons
Speaker:of a church that's having the conversation
Speaker:around disaffiliation and how her
Speaker:role can serve people going through this
Speaker:very tough Trimble. Significant amount of
Speaker:the work that I do, it's around what are called lost congregations,
Speaker:And those are congregations that take training
Speaker:to, to learn how to better welcome
Speaker:folks who have experienced that pain and and that
Speaker:hurt from a congregation that disaffiliated
Speaker:or with even just divisive around this issue.
Speaker:And so I do train with congregations to help them
Speaker:the dynamics of that and how to welcome well.
Speaker:Well, I think there's nothing more critical than helping
Speaker:congregations understand how to welcome. My wife and I, we have an
Speaker:opportunity to visit congregations. And often, we
Speaker:we rate ourselves higher than we should in terms of our capacity
Speaker:to welcome strangers, people who are not already part of what I call
Speaker:the the collective community that we call church.
Speaker:So Tracy's leadership in this role, particularly at this
Speaker:particular junction, juncture in history,
Speaker:is is critical for the Indiana Conference. And, hopefully, we'll
Speaker:be setting some examples that best practices that can be
Speaker:used by other conferences as well. We don't just wake up
Speaker:knowing, I think, how, Brad, how to welcome others. I think that's
Speaker:something that comes with with some collective training and
Speaker:learning together and practicing. So this is something we
Speaker:think is a good investment for us at this particular time, not just
Speaker:because of disaffiliation, just be but because there are so many people
Speaker:in Indiana that don't have a place to call their spiritual
Speaker:home, their church.
Speaker:In a local United Methodist Church, any conversation around
Speaker:disaffiliation begins with some
Speaker:conversations in the hallways, in the parking lots, and other places
Speaker:about dissatisfaction. Such as the
Speaker:case at the North Madison United Methodist Church in Madison,
Speaker:Indiana, And dedicated layperson Tanya
Speaker:Hess begins to unpack for us and sort out in our
Speaker:conversation some of the background and some of the
Speaker:history behind the conversation which led to
Speaker:a eventual vote on disaffiliation at the North
Speaker:Madison United Methodist Church. Let's hear Tanya's story.
Speaker:Sure. It was probably back in September of
Speaker:2022. Our administration at the
Speaker:church had decided to enter into that period of discernment.
Speaker:And there were disaffiliation talks. There were many
Speaker:committee meetings, town hall meetings,
Speaker:surveys, question, answer sessions. And as the
Speaker:months progressed, I just kept getting very
Speaker:discouraged. And, throughout these years, even though I haven't
Speaker:lived back home for many years, I kept in touch with a lot of my
Speaker:former youth group members or adults that were mentors at the church
Speaker:or the nearby United Methodist churches. And kind of in a
Speaker:large, group text, I had a friend reply
Speaker:and said that, you know, you need to talk to somebody. And it was her
Speaker:United Methodist Church pastor and it was Pastor C who was
Speaker:in Lafayette at the time with the Trinity. And so I
Speaker:reached out to Tracy because, we're a connectional church. I knew she
Speaker:would help me and she answered every
Speaker:text, every phone call, email and with,
Speaker:a lot of factual information and encouragement.
Speaker:And, with our disaffiliation, I thought
Speaker:there was a lot of confusion, excuse me, with our disaffiliation talks, I
Speaker:felt there was a lot of confusion, not a lot of forthright
Speaker:information coming to our congregation. And,
Speaker:I just wanted to, you know, speak up and reach out and have
Speaker:my questions answered, and Tracy was very,
Speaker:very helpful with that. So, we had a, leading up to
Speaker:in April. It was, April 17th was our disaffiliation
Speaker:votes or vote to if you were gonna stay United Methodist or if we were
Speaker:gonna disaffiliate from the the denomination.
Speaker:And it turned out to be a very, very close vote and as a
Speaker:result, we we had lost between a half or 2
Speaker:thirds of our members. And, of course, Tracy was
Speaker:there after that and, with her new role and
Speaker:has has helped with our rebuilding process. You
Speaker:said There's a lot of Tanias out there. And, she said
Speaker:2 things that really touched my heart, and and I I
Speaker:feel for Tanya because I know she's not alone. She said, one, she's
Speaker:been discouraged. This affiliation and even the
Speaker:process of, quote, unquote, Brad, discernment
Speaker:can be this this discouraging because you're discerning
Speaker:not about what god's will is for us to grow the church
Speaker:or a God's will for us to our next mission focus, but
Speaker:you're actually asking people who are part of the body of Christ in
Speaker:a congregation to discern whether or not we want to divorce
Speaker:the United Methodist denomination. So that in and of itself,
Speaker:I know it's gotta be. It was discouraging for me, and I was not living
Speaker:it out as a member of a local congregation or a pastor of a
Speaker:local congregation, but as a bishop. The other thing she said, which
Speaker:I I also found to be encouraging, and that was she
Speaker:said and she said it matter of factly as as I C it and
Speaker:you say it. She said, we are a connectional church. She
Speaker:didn't use it as a disparaging word or a curse word. She
Speaker:said, we are a connectional church. So I reached out to
Speaker:get help. There's so many people who love Jesus and are United Methodist,
Speaker:but don't understand that and maybe don't have a person to
Speaker:call. That's the reason we've been get embarked on this
Speaker:commitment and this journey of reaching out to person who really wanna
Speaker:focus on the mission of being United Methodist and making disciples.
Speaker:We're not trying to bad mouth people that have made a decision to leave,
Speaker:but we think we need to really help people experience a
Speaker:period, a long period, maybe, of healing
Speaker:so that we can those of us who wanna be United Methodists and continue to
Speaker:focus on the cross and flame can really
Speaker:experience help from the connectional church. And
Speaker:that's the reason that Tracy's in her role, but it's not her job
Speaker:alone. It's all of our all of our responsibility to help
Speaker:people understand that we have a commitment to still
Speaker:make disciples of Jesus Christ, transform the world, and do it
Speaker:with healthy congregations. And some of our congregations have been
Speaker:literally decimated because of the discernment and disaffiliation
Speaker:process. In a local United
Speaker:Methodist Church, conversations around dissatisfaction
Speaker:eventually lead to conversations in meetings and
Speaker:eventually official process of discernment
Speaker:about whether a vote is to be taken regarding disaffiliation
Speaker:or not. In this part of our conversation, Tanya
Speaker:has goes a little deeper about what eventually led to
Speaker:a vote on disaffiliation taking place at
Speaker:Madison North United Methodist Church and some of the pain and some of
Speaker:the drama and some of the circumstances surrounding that. It's
Speaker:worth a listen to understand a little bit about the
Speaker:details of this process and some of the painful
Speaker:points and some of the important points which have to be
Speaker:addressed for a church that's considering disaffiliation.
Speaker:It It was decided to, to have the
Speaker:vote. And I think probably
Speaker:both sides, because now our church has been,
Speaker:I think what was so painful is those months you were watching
Speaker:your church, you know, family basically split
Speaker:and, and you didn't know how it was going to go down. So I'm going
Speaker:to say our church was on both sides. There were, we had people on both
Speaker:sides of the issue. And so you're, you're watching our, we're
Speaker:supposed to be in unity with each other and you're watching
Speaker:your church divide, so that was what was so painful. And I think
Speaker:both sides were shocked as, you know, you could you could
Speaker:hear a a pin drop really in the sanctuaries where we held the
Speaker:vote. And when it was decided that our church would
Speaker:remain United Methodist, where the one side who who wanted
Speaker:us to leave were for sure that they were going to, you
Speaker:know, get the church and the church property. And then those of
Speaker:us who wanted to remain United Methodist with their our
Speaker:church, our church had just celebrated that year, its
Speaker:175th birthday as Commissioned Methodist
Speaker:Church. So this church has a lot of history and heritage.
Speaker:And so to, you know, to sit in the pews with those who
Speaker:decided to, you know, kind of be dismissive of that was very
Speaker:painful. And so when it came down to the votes, I think
Speaker:everyone was just shocked in in in the room.
Speaker:Wow. There there there's nothing, there's no
Speaker:getting around that. Just to hear that as people
Speaker:describe their experience is palpable. It's it's
Speaker:it's, you know, people were experienced a visceral experience of,
Speaker:you know, you can hear a pin drop because where Jesus
Speaker:prays in John 17 that we all might be 1, he prays
Speaker:not just for the disciples, not just for those who who
Speaker:were 1st century Christians, but he prays for the church
Speaker:today. So it's almost counterintuitive. We're not
Speaker:our DNA is one of my colleague Bishop says, we weren't built to
Speaker:be, to be divided. We were built
Speaker:to really come around for congregations to be united.
Speaker:So it the discernment process brought drama. The
Speaker:disaffiliation brought drama. And when congregations actually came
Speaker:to the point of voting, there there was there was drama. It was
Speaker:it's a no win situation, no matter which way the vote goes,
Speaker:particularly when it's not a significant majority. Either
Speaker:as a significant majority of people who've discerned to
Speaker:stay or discerned that they want to leave. And here in the story of
Speaker:a 100 and 75th anniversary, I've preached at many of
Speaker:the churches that have experienced a 175
Speaker:years of ministry since I've been here for 7 plus years
Speaker:as the president bishop of Indiana. I know what it is to celebrate
Speaker:with churches that have celebrated a 150 years, a 175
Speaker:years. And that's how many years they've been connected
Speaker:to the Methodist movement. So for churches to discern,
Speaker:to stay, or discern to leave and then lose
Speaker:members as a result of that is very, very painful.
Speaker:Again, which is the reason that we really need to come around each come
Speaker:alongside each other, for a long season of prayer
Speaker:and and and create places where we can welcome folks
Speaker:who may wanna come back. I think there are people who may wanna come back
Speaker:to the United Methodist congregations that maybe they've decided to
Speaker:leave. When the
Speaker:United Methodist Church is going through the disaffiliation
Speaker:dilemma discussion, something that often happens
Speaker:is a sense of confusion
Speaker:and lack of clarity about process, about
Speaker:information. In this part of the conversation that we
Speaker:were able to have, with Tanya and with Leslie,
Speaker:we explore a little bit about this matter, about
Speaker:how important it is to be very clear about the discipline, about to be very
Speaker:clear about process, and be very clear about everybody to understand
Speaker:because confusion becomes a real
Speaker:consistent problem. So Tanya,
Speaker:Leslie speak to this, and Bishop Trimble responds to
Speaker:the matter of confusion during the disaffiliation
Speaker:dilemma conversation. Yes. So we were,
Speaker:deciding to the administration had decide to
Speaker:discern over the paragraph 2553 and
Speaker:we had a lot of talks of what that meant
Speaker:and, we had members, you know, answer
Speaker:surveys, but, you know, sometimes the questions may have not
Speaker:been the right questions for our congregation. And
Speaker:they, proceeded with the discernment and the disaffiliation
Speaker:talks based on, so far, like 80% of the congregation
Speaker:said that they wanted to, you know, have the vote. That
Speaker:did not mean that 80% of the congregation wanted to
Speaker:leave the denomination. It's just that they wanted to have the vote
Speaker:so that they would have that say on how they they wanna proceed
Speaker:with the church. And there were a lot of talks of
Speaker:what what we could be as a church if we weren't United
Speaker:Methodist and, I just felt some members
Speaker:were just, confused and with what was being presented to
Speaker:them. One of the consistent themes during this
Speaker:process, and I've talked with other bishops who experienced one of the
Speaker:consistent themes has been confusion, confusion about
Speaker:what United Methodist believe or don't believe, confusion about
Speaker:what happens if you vote to this affiliate or not, even
Speaker:confusion about what paragraph 2553 really said
Speaker:or really meant. So some congregations were making a
Speaker:determination to vote on something that they really weren't clearly
Speaker:that wasn't clearly understood, which I think it, to
Speaker:me, is cause not to have a vote, but maybe to remain United
Speaker:Methodist and wait for general conference or wait for a period of
Speaker:time of discernment where you do have a clear understanding of what
Speaker:it means. It's also a clarion call for us to
Speaker:double down on our commitment to teach what United Methodist actually
Speaker:believe. What is Wesleyan theology? What does it mean to
Speaker:live in a church that that believes in a heavy dosage of
Speaker:grace, understanding grace and practical theology
Speaker:and social witness and a commitment to prayer,
Speaker:a commitment to preaching from the scriptures that also
Speaker:applies to our everyday lives. So I think
Speaker:there's a great common theme that the church has
Speaker:experienced, and that has been a certain level of confusion about
Speaker:what this really meant to vote, to disaffiliate.
Speaker:Some some congregations really focus on owning their
Speaker:own property, when in fact, we all all
Speaker:churches really own their own property and trust. So it's not a
Speaker:that's not really something to me that reaches the level of one would
Speaker:want to necessarily disaffiliate for.
Speaker:So this is something that, you know, we're gonna be living with for for quite
Speaker:a while, and I think some of the dis some of the disinformation
Speaker:has almost been codified or concretized in the
Speaker:minds of people in such a way that it that time may
Speaker:not necessarily heal all
Speaker:wounds. One of the dilemmas of the disaffiliation
Speaker:dilemma conversation is
Speaker:trying to get your head around the impact of
Speaker:the results of a vote for disaffiliation,
Speaker:whether it be to remain a United Methodist Church or to disaffiliate,
Speaker:it has tremendous impact on the life and
Speaker:ministry and influence of the church and the community.
Speaker:In this part of the conversation, reverend Tracy Leslie speaks to
Speaker:the impact that it has and to what can begin the
Speaker:the process of sorting things out and what can be done next.
Speaker:And Bishop Trimble then responds to this, and we began to shift
Speaker:the conversation a little bit towards understanding the
Speaker:impact of a disaffiliation vote and then
Speaker:what's next. Yeah. These are the churches
Speaker:that I, at least in my role, are most concerned about.
Speaker:Because, you know, there are churches where the vote was not even
Speaker:close. And and so once the people that wanted to
Speaker:disaffiliate, you know, a lot of times they just left and and
Speaker:things kind of con went back to normal. Right?
Speaker:I mean, not that there wasn't pain in that, but, you know, but
Speaker:here in in churches like North Madison and other places that
Speaker:I'm aware of where the votes were really close,
Speaker:yeah, oftentimes, lot of people
Speaker:are lost, even if the vote doesn't pass, because as we've
Speaker:said, you need to hit not, not 51%, but
Speaker:66%. And, and so that's
Speaker:that's very difficult. Yeah. That's
Speaker:an understatement to say it's very difficult, and and it has been very
Speaker:difficult. And as a bishop, it pains me to know
Speaker:that congregations now have been wounded in such a way that
Speaker:carrying on their ministry has been handicapped. You know, how do you
Speaker:pay for a full time clergy person if you have a full
Speaker:time clergy person? And, you know, 2 thirds or
Speaker:40% or 50% of your giving is no longer
Speaker:committed to supporting the church with their prayers, their presence,
Speaker:their tithes, and their witness. And so we are really
Speaker:discerning how we can best come alongside as an annual
Speaker:conference and also best reach work. Our superintendents
Speaker:are really paying attention to those congregations,
Speaker:not not adding undue expectations upon
Speaker:that have lost some of their leader key leadership as well
Speaker:as their key financial support. We pray that we we serve a
Speaker:mighty good God and a gracious God who can do anything
Speaker:but fail. So we are expecting the congregations
Speaker:will rebound to a certain degree and
Speaker:also continue to extend their witness in such a way
Speaker:that people that don't have a church may find a welcome place in many of
Speaker:our congregations across the state of Indiana.
Speaker:We're going to conclude
Speaker:this first part of our conversation around
Speaker:the disaffiliation dilemma in 1
Speaker:local United Methodist Church, North Madison, UMC in Madison,
Speaker:Indiana. I hope you benefited
Speaker:from the conversation that we had around this conversation
Speaker:in part 1, particularly about discernment and
Speaker:divorce. I think the, the metaphor is appropriate.
Speaker:We talk about this decision whether to separate from the
Speaker:United Methodist Church or to remain a part of the United Methodist
Speaker:Church. It's a painful decision. I know that you heard
Speaker:that in the conversation that Tanya Tanya has
Speaker:had to the devoted layperson from Madison North. We
Speaker:thank her so much for being a part of our conversation as well as
Speaker:reverend Tracy Leslie. And I think you also heard how
Speaker:bishop Trimble really speaks poignantly to the situation
Speaker:at hand in this particular United Methodist Church, which
Speaker:certainly speaks to the to the, drama and
Speaker:the trauma that takes place. It has taken place and continues to
Speaker:take place in many United Methodist churches.
Speaker:You gotta go through the divorce in this process,
Speaker:unfortunately, in order to deal with the ramifications of
Speaker:ministry moving forward. I hope that you'll tune in for our
Speaker:part 2 of this series, our spec part 2, which is episode
Speaker:94. We're gonna talk about recovery and hope
Speaker:moving forward. If you allow me an analogy, divorce
Speaker:recovery and moving forward. And we're gonna talk particularly
Speaker:about one important ministry
Speaker:that Madison North United Methodist Church had in
Speaker:their local community, which was impacted dramatically by this
Speaker:decision about the disaffiliation dilemma. I think you're
Speaker:gonna find it very applicable to situations and missions and
Speaker:ministries and people in your local United
Speaker:Methodist Church. So if you're a local United Methodist Church
Speaker:pastor or devoted layperson or someone who cares about doing
Speaker:mission and making an impact in the world, then, please
Speaker:share this this episode of To Be
Speaker:Encouraged, which we kinda understand the problem and try
Speaker:to sort out the actual granular details as it
Speaker:were of the conversation around disaffiliation
Speaker:and the dilemma it opposes. But our next episode, we're gonna talk about next
Speaker:steps, about recovery and hope moving
Speaker:forward. Because here at the to be encouraged podcast, we're all
Speaker:about understanding and dealing with the real
Speaker:life issues that face the United Methodist Church.
Speaker:Sometimes they're really delightful and wonderful, and sometimes,
Speaker:they're really, really tough, like this discussion around
Speaker:around discernment issues and disaffiliation. This
Speaker:is as good a time as any to to be reminded that the mission
Speaker:of The United Methodist Church is to make disciples of
Speaker:Jesus Christ for the transformation of the
Speaker:world, and the purpose of the To Be Encouraged podcast
Speaker:with Bishop Julius c Trimble is to offer
Speaker:an encouraging word to an often discouraged
Speaker:world. We hope you join us next time here on To
Speaker:Be Encouraged. Until then, I am reverend doctor
Speaker:Brad Miller for Bishop Julius c Trimble,
Speaker:encouraging you to always do all the good
Speaker:that you can.
Speaker:Consider yourself encouraged
Speaker:and appreciated for listening to be
Speaker:encouraged with Bishop Julius c Trimble.
Speaker:Now please share the blessing and encourage others in your
Speaker:life to listen, to be encouraged. You can
Speaker:do just that by pointing your people to the website
Speaker:to be encouraged .com.
Speaker:That's tobeencougrad C,
Speaker:or connect through Apple Podcast, where you can
Speaker:follow, rate, and review to be encouraged
Speaker:with Bishop Julius c Trimble. When you do that, you're doing
Speaker:your part to bring a good word to a
Speaker:discouraged world. Remember, to listen next week, to
Speaker:be encouraged with Bishop Julius C. Trimble, and never forget,
Speaker:God loves you, and there's nothing you can do about
Speaker:it.
