Oxford spent this past Sunday at Lake Ludlow planning for the future and the role that the Methodists in Oxford hope to fill in that future. McDonough still had worship and therefore a sermon, so if you missed worship at McDonough or if you missed the planning at Lake Ludlow, this is your opportunity to briefly be caught up on the sermon you missed.
We talked about the way the United Methodist Church is governed and also it's policy on closing churches. First I mentioned that just like our Country which has various levels of government (national, state, county, town, village, etc.) so the United Methodist Church has several levels as well (global, jurisdictional, conference, district, local church). So in the United Methodist Church the highest level is global, represented by General Conference, which occurs every four years (we use the word quadrennium). The next highest level, is Jurisdictional, and in our case represents the northeastern portion of the United States, and unsuprisingly is called the Northeast Jurisdiction. The next level is the conference level, and in our case we are the Wyoming conference (Wyoming because of the Wyoming river valley, which runs through our conference and at one time was an important geographical reference). Next we have the District level, and we are the Oneonta District. Finally there is the local church level, and for us that looks like the Oxford UMC and the McDonough UMC.
All of this was just to give everyone some sense of how the United Methodist Church was set up and to hopefully show people that no one person has all the authority/power in the church. The United Methodist Church is a church of the people and it's most important decisions are made at Conferences (General, Jusidictional, Annual, and Church/Charge). If you have further questions about the above information, I would love to better explain it to you, but quite frankly for most people, just like U.S. government, it can be rather tedious.
From here we went to the Book of Discipline (the written guidelines, rules, and laws for the United Methodist Church). I read from paragraphs 201 and 202 which define the local church and give the function of the local church respectively. I pointed out that primary in the definition of the local church is "the maintenance of worship, the edification of believers, and the redemption of the world." Or more simply, holding worship services, teaching members, and offering (both in word and deed) the good news of the gospel to those we encounter. Notice no mention of a necessary number of persons, or a specific minimum budget that must be maintained. The paragraph on the function of the church followed a similar line of thought.
I also pointed to passages of scripture that described churches as meeting in homes (ie small) and pointing out that only two or three must gather in order for the presence of the Lord to be in that place.
All of this was in response to a question about the ability of the United Methodist Church to close small local churches. My answer, given the information above, was that "yes" there is provision for the United Methodist Church to close local churches (not only small, but also large ones) if those churches are no longer functioning as churches (as defined by paragraphs 201 & 202 in the Book of Discipline). Having said this, as long as a congregation/church continues to function appropriately, by holding worship, edifying believers/members and offering the gospel (in word and deed) to the surrounding community, there would be no reason for the larger church to close them.
Rest easy brothers and sisters. The congregations of Oxford and McDonough are doing proud their longstanding traditions of living out their faith in Christ before their neighbors and both congregations are following positive paths that will lead them to greater and more faithful manifestations of being the people of God, each and every day!
Grace & Peace,
Pastor John
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