STEERING COMMITTEE ON DISCERNMENT


The committee was formed in November of 2022 after the congregation voted in a straw poll to begin the process of Discernment. This process is outlined in Rio Texas Conference Guidelines for disaffiliation under paragraph 2553 of United Methodist Church.
The process includes a six-month Discernment period in which our church is tasked with considering the many ramifications of disaffiliation. The tasks to be considered are outlined by Rio Texas Conference and the United Methodist Church. The steering committee is actively pursuing all aspects of this process.
The steering committee will attempt to engage the congregation as widely as possible with factual information leading to an eventual church vote on disaffiliation. Votes should be cast, and a decision made by an informed electorate.
We invite any small group (Sunday school classes or others), who would like to know more about the process of discernment, to contact Gary Gammage garytom10@icloud.com or call (325) 763-4021 to schedule a meeting. We welcome your questions and concerns.
The members of our committee include:
Rev. Scott Bradford
Gary Gammage-Chair
Connie Jeffers
James Dusek
Joe Jeffers
Kendall Hirschfeld
Larry Justiss
Lisa Lesosky
Fran Sentell
Meagan Hunnicutt
Vicki Draper

 

FUMC Discernment Process
FUMC Frequently Asked Questions

Disaffiliations Approved By Annual Conferences

The chart linked here shows UM News’ count of how many churches disaffiliations have been approved by annual conferences. The tally comes from a UM News review of U.S. annual conference reports, publicly available journals and reports of the 17 special annual conference sessions this year. The General Council on Finance and Administration, the denomination’s finance agency, is collecting the official data on disaffiliations and church closures. But the finance agency’s count of disaffiliations lags behind UM News’ data because it must wait for annual conferences to submit official reports.

Resources that represent both the UMC and GMC:

-Disaffiliation of a Local Church Over Issues Related to Human Sexuality 
-Proud To Be UMC 
-GMC Transitional Book of Doctrines and Discipline
-Why I’m not leaving The United Methodist Church
-Diving Up - The United Methodist Church
-General Conference (2024) - FAQs Regarding Church and Conference Disaffiliations
-Connectional Table’s U.S. Regional Conference legislation now available
-Methodists Shift Progressive
-GMC Centrist-Progressive Coalition Could Unravel
-Shreveport Informational Briefing
-Comparison Chart UMC to GMC (click on the PDF link on the page)
-Rio Texas Conference Discerning Pathways – Disaffiliation Documents
-The United Methodist Book of Discipline, 2016, The United Methodist Publishing House, Nashville, TN: 2016
-Good News (A now GMC Pastor, Retired UMC Pastor from The Woodlands, that has already voted to disaffiliate; six videos from Rev. Rob Renfroe
-The Bishop of Colorado and other confusing doctrinal teachings
-Methodist Seminary is ‘Abdicating’ Christianity, Says Theologian
-Is The United Methodist Church really...? (Part 1)