Written by Emma Weber // Photo by Emma Weber
Two of the formerly United Methodist Churches in Searcy have disaffiliated and changed their names, one to St. Paul Global Methodist and the other to Searcy First Methodist Church. St. Paul Global Methodist held its vote prior to Sept. 25, while Searcy First Methodist held its vote on Sept. 25, the last deadline recommended by the Arkansas Conference of the United Methodist Church’s board of trustees.
Thousands of churches are voting to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church, the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination. According to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Mark Tooley, president of the Institute on Religion & Democracy, said, “It’s been a much larger exit than both friends and adversaries of [the] exit expected.”
Since 2021, Arkansas has had over 100 churches disaffiliated. At least 6,410 of the nation’s 30,000 United Methodist churches have left since 2019. According to Frank E. Lockwood in an article published by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, a provision in Paragraph 2553 of the denomination’s Book of Discipline allowed local churches to disaffiliate if they were dissatisfied with the denomination’s handling of issues such as same-sex marriage and the ordination of gay clergy.
From this split, however, a continuation of the denomination has sprouted locally and goes by the name First United Methodist Church of Searcy. They have been meeting in the First Presbyterian Church of Searcy’s building at 5 p.m. on Sundays. Recently, however, the United Methodist Church of Searcy has partially moved into office space in downtown Searcy. This congregation was appointed leadership by pastor Michael Bolin.
“Our congregation is a congregation that has come together from the division of the two prior United Methodist churches,” Bolin said. “This space begins to give us something that makes us feel concrete in our presence. We’re a nomadic tribe, and being nomadic is not a bad thing.”
The church had a ribbon-cutting ceremony Oct. 11 to celebrate its new location. Bolin shared the congregation’s excitement about the opportunities this space can provide for their ministries. As they focus on the future, their first priority is the community.
“How do you do ministry when being nomadic, when you’ve been conditioned to do ministry from an existing structure?” Bolin said. “The ribbon cutting helps us to feel that we have a place that can be used for a community ministry.”
Sara Dacus, a member of the First United Methodist Church of Searcy’s leadership board, looks with excitement to the future of the church.
“We’ve got to start looking forward,” Dacus said. “We’ve got to move past the hurt. I think we have done a good job of doing that. The office is just one step towards us, you know, returning to a congregational life.”
The transitional period has allowed the congregation to make bonds with different churches around the community. Dacus said working with other churches on events such as Vacation Bible School (VBS) has allowed the community to be served and the congregation to be the hands and feet of Jesus, despite their nomadic style.
“VBS was kind of a three-congregation effort,” Dacus said. “So that has become one good thing about all the heartache that we went through; we have formed some bonds with some other bodies in town. We are going to be a part of Trick-or-Treat on the Square. We’re still here, and we’re wanting to do good in our community, and we’re wanting to partner with other people.”
Bolin said the church’s current focus is on spiritual building instead of physical. The current circumstances are not deterring the congregation from serving those in their community.
“There is great opportunity for new ways of doing ministry that are not necessarily driven by numbers but driven by interactions, and bridging the gap to bring about new relationships, and helping people come to really know the Lord, to have a relationship with God, and to have that fullness of what it means to be a born again Christian,” Bolin said.
