When we first heard about the predicted changes coming in the United Methodist Church, we were overwhelmed with disbelief. Basically, our choices were to stay in a church that was changing our fundamental beliefs, to walk away and loose the property that our ancestors had been attending and taking care of for over a century, or to come up with, what at the time, seemed like an insurmountable amount of money. 

As I drive across South Carolina, I realize that there are a lot of small Methodist churches in the same situation as we were. We had about 100 members with 35 to 40 attending on Sunday and are part of a 3 point charge with an ordained, full time elder as our pastor. The amount of money to claim the property we have been maintaining was going to cost about $80,000 plus another $10,000 of associated costs. 

The first couple of meetings we had were very emotional, and we decided we just didn’t have enough time or resources to pull it off. Many of us left those meetings realizing there was a great possibility that we would have to walk away from a church we and our families before us had been attending for over a century. 

Proverbs 28:26 reads: “He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but whoever walks wisely will be delivered.” Then, we took a different look at what we had to do. We started taking a step-by-step business type approach and things started coming together. 

When we first see the conditions for leaving, we can’t help but get emotional, but if we take the emotions out and look at what is before us, we are being offered a property for 10% of its market value. The bottom line for our church was: 

Total amount given to UMC/year - $15,925.00

Total amount given to GMC/year- $4,310.00 

Total difference- $11,615.00 

These numbers could vary up or down 3% to 5% depending on if you have a full or part- time pastor and if full time, if he or she needs health insurance and participates in the saving and investment plan. The bottom line is, the money not paid out in apportionments to the UMC could be used to make payments on any money borrowed.