Posted on 04/15/2016 6:39:02 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
One of the first United Methodist Church congregations to join the LGBT lobbying group, Reconciling Ministries Network, will close next month.
St. Paul United Methodist Church of Denver, Colorado, a theologically liberal congregation that became the third church to become a Reconciling congregation, will soon close its doors.
The Rev. Jessica Rooks, head of St. Paul UMC, told The Christian Post the final worship service will be held on Sunday, May 22.
"St. Paul has opened its doors and built relationships with the LGBTQ community, the homeless and hungry in Denver, those struggling with addition, and individuals who struggle to fit into the current culture. St. Paul UMC created a safe and welcoming place for all to experience the love of God," said Rooks.
Rooks also told CP that members are discerning where to attend after the final worship service takes place.
"Our members are in conversation about where they will go next, and many are reaching out to neighboring United Methodist churches to decide which congregation is the best fit," she continued. "They have a number of options in and around the city of Denver, and I am prayerful they each find a church home soon after the closing of St. Paul."
Advocacy History
Founded in 1860, St. Paul was one of the first congregations to join what became known as Reconciling Ministries Network, an advocacy group that works to make the United Methodist Church more accepting of homosexuality and transgenderism.
In 1984, the St. Paul congregation joined RMN, being the first of several hundred congregations to have voted to affiliate with the LGBT advocacy organization.
M Barclay, spokesperson for RMN, provided CP with a statement regarding the news of one of their founding congregations shutting down.
"Reconciling Ministries Network is grateful for the ministry of St. Paul's United Methodist Church of Denver, especially for welcoming LGBTQ people at a time when so few were offering a safe place to worship," read the statement.
"Their witness was a catalyst for what has become a steadily growing network of more than 750 unique Reconciling communities across the country."
While some celebrate the history and actions of St. Paul UMC, others denounce their departure from traditional theology and argue that such a departure contributed to their decline.
Mark Tooley, president of the theologically conservative Institute on Religion & Democracy, told CP that St. Paul's fate comes as "no surprise."
"Few churches can long survive when primarily focused on political or social causes instead of Gospel evangelism," said Tooley.
"More broadly, only declining denominations surrender their biblical marriage teaching and invariably their decline accelerates. Reconciling type groups boast they're about open doors, but their cause inexorably leads to closing church doors."
At its peak, St. Paul had approximately 800 members. The nadir came in 1989, or five years after becoming a Reconciling Congregation, when the church had only 15 members.
By 2010, local media reported that the membership increased to about 250, with hundreds more active in the various charities that the congregation oversaw.
When asked by CP if she thought there was a connection between the Reconciling affiliation and St. Paul's membership woes, Rooks responded that she did not believe there to be a link.
"After becoming a Reconciling Congregation - one of the first three in the nation - the community experienced an increase in worship attendance, membership and community involvement," replied Rooks.
"In the last 10 years the congregation has experienced decline for a number of different reasons, and this spring the leadership and members decided it was time to close."
'A Death and Resurrection Story'
St. Paul UMC is one of three churches being closed in the Metropolitan Denver District, according to District Superintendent the Rev. Paul Kottke.
"Rising out of the closure of this historic church will come a new ministry, with a new vision for people who are not presently in our churches," said Kottke to CP. We're closing three churches in my district this year, and starting five new ministries, two of which are Hispanic.
Bishop Elaine Stanovsky, resident bishop for the Mountain Sky Area of The United Methodist Church, told CP that the start of the new ministries within the district show they are " leading into a season of new Wesleyan vitality in our region."
"We are helping churches in decline re-engage their neighborhoods, and when that's just not possible, we help them make 'end of life' decisions that give birth to new initiatives," said Stanovsky.
"We see St. Paul as a death and resurrection story. Just as St. Paul reached out to people outside the church in the 1980s, we continue to learn that new forms and styles of ministry can engage people who are not in our current congregations."
Couldn’t keep the sodimites in church huh?
Did they ever bother to say what the actual address of that church in Denver is? You know like what is its location?!
RE: Did they ever bother to say what the actual address of that church in Denver is? You know like what is its location?!
Google gave me this:
1615 N Ogden St, Denver, CO 80218
>> “Our members are in conversation about where they will go next, and many are reaching out to neighboring United Methodist churches to decide which congregation is the best fit,”
Oh great. Go screw up a different congregation with your anti-scriptural garbage.
But they had to include the perverts with the people a church should be helping. The holeless, addicts, etc.....
BIG DIFFERENCE !!!!!
A somewhat novel ministry even for the Methodist Church.
Those struggling with addition? Like first graders?
>> This is the plan for all churches unless Christians stand strong.
“...upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Chin up — we win in the end.
>> Those struggling with addition? Like first graders?
I bet the finance committee struggled with addition when they added up the contributions each week.
That’s what happens when you run off your faithful to chase after the latest queer fad.
They’re BIG on ‘addition’ = $$$$$$.
It’s just part of “The Great Falling Away”.
Paul reached out to people outside of Judaism in order to let sinners know they could repent(!) and be saved.
“Our members are in conversation about where they will go next, and many are reaching out to neighboring United Methodist churches to decide which congregation is the best fit,” she continued. “They have a number of options in and around the city of Denver, and I am prayerful they each find a church home soon after the closing of St. Paul.”
The cancer is just metastasizing and looking for other parts of the Body to destroy.
***”Our members are in conversation about where they will go next, and many are reaching out to neighboring United Methodist churches to decide which congregation is the best fit,” ***
Like a virus when it destroys a cell, they spread out and infect other cells, destroying them.
Maybe those struggling with addition can go to a United Mathnasium Church.
An “end of life” decisicion for a congregation?
Didn’t the Revelation of John address the alternative to not repenting when given congregations were involved in bad doings, they either repent or ... something lamp-stand-like was taken away from someplace important?
***The holeless,***
Kim Jong Un?
I don’t think that the Methodist Church is struggling with addition. More like it is struggling with subtraction.
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