Our Future

Sunday, November 13, at the Church Conference, our congregation cast 1,283 valid ballots. 262 voted to stay UMC and 1,021 voted to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church. Since more than 2/3rds of the votes were to disaffiliate, we will become an Independent Methodist Church.

The past months have been very difficult for our church. Through this process we have seen “camps” form and divisions develop. Now we must remember that we are called to be the Church, united in Christ, the Body of Christ made up of many members with different gifts and abilities.

As we move forward, we will continue to be a church that welcomes everyone to come and grow in their faith.  We will continue to be a church that reaches out to our community and our world to share the love of Christ in word and deed. We will continue to worship our God and to give thanks for the honor it is to be God’s children. We will continue to provide a community where everyone can experience a Christ-centered life of purpose.

My prayer is that we move forward together knowing that Christ has called each of us to be part of His church. My prayer is also that we come back to the place where we can love, support, and encourage each other in our faith, where we can allow the divisions to fade, where the harsh words can be forgiven and forgotten, and where we can remember that, as the Body of Christ, we need each other and no personal opinion or agenda is more important than God’s call on our lives to be His church.

It is my prayer that we will each step up for serve, to give, and to do all that we can to lead Vestavia Hills Methodist Church forward to be the church that God is calling us to be now and in the years to come.

In Christ,