American Protestantism has largely moved beyond denominations.

American Protestantism has largely moved beyond denominations.

With 16,000 members, Highland Park United Methodist Church, which now identifies internally simply as “Methodist,” is the second-largest church of its denomination. The church is located in a tony Dallas neighborhood adjacent to Southern Methodist University, and its worshippers include former President George W. Bush and Laura Bush, with many other well-heeled Texans. The United Methodist Church (UMC) underwent a schism over theology and sexuality issues between 2019 and 2023, with nearly 8,000 U.S. traditionalist congregations exiting the denomination with their church property under a temporary rule. Half have joined a new Global Methodist Church. Highland Park UMC did not, and remained part of the UMC. But now being sued by its bishop, the church says it no longer recognizes the “ecclesiastical authority” of that bishop. The litigation from UMC’s Horizon Texas Conference complains that Highland Park UMC has created new self-governing rules for itself in defiance of denominational law. For example, the church’s bylaws removed any reference to the denomination and its _Book of Discipline_. It even removed “United” from its name in its bylaws, identifying as Highland Park Methodist. And it claimed power over appointing its clergy, which the larger UMC denomination reserves to its bishops. After the denomination’s schism, United Methodism liberalized its sexuality standards, no longer affirming heterosexual monogamy in marriage and celibacy in singleness. Highland Park Church is not taking a stand on sexuality. The congregation is philosophically diverse. But it clearly sees little purpose in meaningful connection to its denomination. This attitude matches a national trend of post-denominationalism. The only growing segment of American Christianity is nondenominational churches. Many denominational churches now disguise their affiliation, often requiring deep research on their websites. And church members, even in denominational churches, are increasingly indifferent to those ties. It’s not unusual for churchgoers to migrate across multiple churches and denominations across their lifetimes, unlike their more denominationally loyal grandparents. Whatever Texas courts may decide about Highland Park Methodist, the post-denominational trend will continue. But defying this trend is the new Global Methodist Church, founded in 2022to collect churches exiting United Methodism. The denomination now has more than 4,000 churches in the U.S. and another 3,000 overseas, and its governing General Conference just met for the second time. By all accounts, the assembly of more than 400 international delegates was unified and successful. But how will Global Methodism fare in post-denominational America, where congregations and individuals are increasingly averse to commitments beyond their local church? Continue reading at _The Dispatch_ here. _Mark Tooley is president of The Institute on Religion & Democracy (IRD). He is also editor of IRD’s foreign policy and national security journal, ‘Providence.’_ **More from IRD** : Why Am I Still United Methodist? Whither Methodists & Baptists? The post Can Global Methodism Thrive in Post-Denominational America? appeared first on Juicy Ecumenism.

American Protestantism has largely moved beyond denominations.

American Protestantism has largely moved beyond denominations.

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Methodist Evangelicals Together (MET) seeks to encourage evangelicals within Methodism to read and study the Bible, pray, engage in theological study, participate in decision making at every level of ...