One of SC’s largest churches has decided to leave Methodist denomination. Here’s why

The largest Methodist church in South Carolina will soon sever its connection to the country’s largest Methodist denomination.

The congregation at Mt. Horeb United Methodist Church in Lexington has voted to separate itself from the United Methodist Church over what the church sees as a theological and scriptural divergence between the conservative Lexington church and a denomination that has become more accepting of LGBTQ people.

The move is a culmination of a long process that has seen other churches around the country reconsidering their connection to the United Methodist Church.

The S.C. Conference of the United Methodist Church offered churches the opportunity to decide if they wanted to continue their affiliation with the denomination by March 1. More than 97% of worshipers at Mt. Horeb voted to separate from the United Methodist Church at a meeting on Feb. 26, church communications director Stephanie Malone confirmed to The State. The decision still has to be accepted by the annual meeting of the S.C. Conference in June.

“For decades, leaders in The United Methodist Church have been distracted and divided by disagreement regarding Christology, biblical authority and interpretation, sexual ethics, and the definition of marriage,” Mt. Horeb says in a separation guide posted to the church website. “Where practices deviated from church doctrine as outlined in Holy Scripture and The Book of Discipline, the denomination has suffered from a lack of accountability and enforcement.”

The Book of Discipline is the foundational rulebook that lays out the official doctrine and organization of the United Methodist Church, which all member churches are expected to follow.

Among other advantages in separating from the larger denomination, “it allows us to fulfill our mission without interruption or redirection by progressive agendas currently being set by some United Methodist leadership,” the online booklet says. That includes following what the church calls “scriptural authority in regards to marriage and human sexuality.”

“We believe in celibacy in singleness and fidelity in marriage, with marriage being defined between a man and woman,” it says. “Mt. Horeb relies on the Scriptures and what orthodox Christians have always believed about God to guide all matters of human relations, including sexual ethics.”

Mt. Horeb isn’t the only church leaving. On the same day its congregation voted to separate, the 750-member Chapin United Methodist Church voted by the same margin to drop the “United” from its name.

“The issue that gets all the press is the issue of human sexuality, but it goes so much deeper than that,” said Chapin pastor Jody Flowers, who said relations within the United Methodist Church have grown increasingly divided and contentious on basic understandings of both Scripture and how the church should be governed.

“Many of those in positions of key leadership, those setting the direction ... they go away from those mutually agreed upon values that have not changed in writing. The Book of Discipline is unchanged, but it’s not upheld,” Flowers said. “Do we want to continue to fuss and fight about it, or do we want to be a church? If we stay, we’re seen as either condemning or condoning, but we want to be a converting church.”

Christianity Today reports that more than 1,800 churches in the United States have disaffiliated from the United Methodist Church since 2019, or about 6% of the denomination. Information about the number of South Carolina churches that have the United Methodist Church was unavailable. S.C. Conference spokesman Dan O’Mara said no final resolution will be made until the conference’s June meeting, and the separation process of individual churches is being treated as confidential until then.

The split is similar to those in other major Protestant churches in recent years that have faced internal struggles over whether and how to welcome LGBTQ people into the church. As some churches have named openly LGBTQ clergy or blessed same-sex marriages, other believers have peeled away from established denominations they feel no longer share their values.

“We grieve any loss of connection within the body of Christ, acknowledging the potential for impact such departures could have,” said the Rev. Fran Elrod, superintendent of the United Methodist Church’s Columbia district. “Still, United Methodists are praying that the future ministry of these congregations will be fruitful in forming and growing disciples.”

“We are focused on strengthening the churches that are remaining with the denomination, supporting and resourcing them as we have always done in The United Methodist Church,” Elrod said.

In its 30 years of existence, Mt. Horeb has grown to a congregation of more than 5,000, at one time including former governor, former UN ambassador and presidential candidate Nikki Haley.

On its website, Mt. Horeb notes that a release from the state conference will allow the church to keep all of its property. Meanwhile, delaying the separation could push a final decision to the 2024 state conference meeting, which could leave “fewer churches left to fund operations of the continuing United Methodist denomination” while “A new senior pastor could be appointed to Mt. Horeb with a revised mission and ministry focus. Existing worship and programs may be redesigned in a more progressive direction.”

The church has not decided if it will join another denomination, according to a questions page on its website. Among the options mentioned there are the conservative Global Methodist Church, largely made up of congregations that previously broke away from the United Methodist Church, or the older evangelical Free Methodist Church.

Flowers said the Global Methodist Church has become the “default” option for former United Methodist congregations, but that Chapin Methodist will hold meetings to discuss other options, including the Free Methodists, the smaller Congregational Methodist Church, or the Foundry, a looser connection of independently-run Methodist churches.