Why is a Baptist-affiliated news service spending so much time writing about the Methodists these days?
The answer is simple: Because the legal battle between Highland Park United Methodist Church and The United Methodist Church has implications for all churches — especially those with denominational identifications.
If you need to catch up on the story, start here and then here and then here. If you’re up to speed, keep reading.
“At its heart, this is all about money and assets.”
At its heart, this is all about money and assets. There’s a unique Methodist angle to the story because of the so-called “trust clause” that says the UMC holds all local church property “in trust” for the denomination. HPUMC is the wealthiest Methodist church in America, sitting on prime Dallas real estate with a massive Gothic-style campus adjacent to Southern Methodist University.
While the two sides tell the story differently, the gist is this: In 2022, leaders of HPUMC unilaterally changed their governing documents to grant the church the right to manage its own affairs, apart from the demands of the UMC’s Book of Discipline. There’s a who-knew-what-when dispute that muddies the waters but isn’t the main debate.
In short, a Methodist megachurch wants to be like a Baptist or nondenominational church — claiming its own autonomy — while insisting it’s still a Methodist church.
(Photo Courtesy of Jeremy Smith via UM Insight)
That brings us to Question No. 1: Does denominational identity still mean anything today?
We live in a country where the largest Protestant denomination is no denomination at all. There are more nondenominational churches today than there are Southern Baptist or United Methodist churches.
The influence of nondenominational churches — usually led by a small group of elders with accountability to no one outside the congregation — is appealing to churches with more connectional forms of governance — Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans and Episcopalians — especially when the connectional churches are so big they don’t require denominational support.
HPUMC’s membership of about 15,000 “professing members” constitutes about 20% of the size of an entire average UMC conference. The membership of HPUMC accounts for nearly 9% of the total membership (176,988) of the Horizon Texas Conference of the UMC.
“HPUMC is 72 times larger than the typical UMC congregation.”
The standard median U.S. Methodist church averages 212 members. HPUMC is 72 times larger than the typical UMC congregation.
The denomination needs HPUMC more than HPUMC needs the denomination.
This is not true of Methodists alone. The same dynamics play out in every major denomination when a few churches are so large they could be denominations unto themselves. This is like comparing Amazon to a local Ace Hardware Store.
America’s denominational structures were not built with megachurches in mind because megachurches didn’t exist back then.
First UMC Birmingham
That brings us to Question No. 2: Should denominations allow megachurches to operate with different rules?
HPUMC leaders have said due to their size and the assets they manage, they cannot be subject to the UMC’s Book of Discipline the way other churches are. By one perspective, they have sought to force the denomination to change its one-size-fits-all ways.
“While 40% of U.S. megachurches are nondenominational, about 16% are affiliated with the SBC.”
This question is relevant for Southern Baptists as much as Methodists. While 40% of U.S. megachurches are nondenominational, about 16% are affiliated with the SBC. Another 5% of megachurches are Assemblies of God. Only 2% of all U.S. megachurches are affiliated with the UMC today.
Within the SBC, some pastors of average-size churches have complained that denominational officials cater more to megachurches than their churches. This debate easil crosses denominational lines. It is the nature of the modern church.
About 5,000 people attend a service at Second Baptist Church in Houston, May 30, 2004. (AP Photo/Michael Stravato)
That brings us to Question No. 3: Where’s the line between “ecclesial” matters and legal matters?
Let me set this in a different context to explain the question. A friend of mine is a trial lawyer who in the past offered his expertise to help a Southern Baptist associational director of missions fight off “pastors” who were stealing the properties of dying churches.
The scam went like this: A person claiming to be a loving pastor swoops to the rescue of a small and declining congregation. Rather than reviving the church, the “pastor” presides over its decline and then claims the remaining funds and property as his own. This is theft, pure and simple.
Yet according to the stance of many a modern U.S. court, the ecclesial abstention doctrine prevents secular courts from intervening in matters of theology and church doctrine. In reality, there is no doctrine involved in someone pretending to be a pastor in order to enrich themselves at the expense of a dying congregation.
Yet when the scale is larger, it’s easier for the court to wash its hands of making a decision — just like the Texas Business Court recently did with Second Baptist Church of Houston, where control of all assets of the church and the ability to call a pastor were handed over to a small group of five people handpicked by the pastor.
The state court said the ecclesial abstention doctrine prevented its intervention in deciding whether changes to the church’s governing documents were made according to Texas law for nonprofits or not. In a shocking statement, the court said churches cannot be held to the same scrutiny as other nonprofits regarding adherence to state law.
This was complicated by the small group of leaders at Second Baptist claiming their changes were necessary to remain a “biblical church.” That worked like chum in the water to help the Texas court reel itself out of the debate.
The same situation is developing at HPUMC. In its latest communication to church members, the Church Council states:
We want to be clear about what this decision means for our church’s identity and future. HPUMC’s Methodist identity is grounded in our faith, our Wesleyan theological tradition and the ministry to which God has called us. Regardless of the vote’s outcome, none of this will change. Our theology, our commitment to following Jesus Christ, and our mission to help people become deeply devoted followers of Jesus Christ will continue.
The church-wide vote is an ecclesiastical decision about our church’s denominational affiliation. The separate civil questions before the court concerning our corporate documents will be resolved through the legal process under neutral principles of Texas law.
“The word ‘ecclesial’ is not in that last paragraph by accident.”
The word “ecclesial” is not in that last paragraph by accident. That is code language to the court. They might as well have thrown in “biblical church.”
If other Texas courts follow the lead of the Texas Business Court’s decision about Second Baptist Houston, the bishop’s lawsuit against HPUMC will be thrown out — not on its merits but because the court won’t enter an “ecclesiastical” dispute. That would have ramifications for every other United Methodist conference and church.
And it could have application for even autonomous churches like Baptists. If secular courts will not enforce the governing documents of churches and denominations, all churches become free agents — and there’s little need for denominations at all.
For now, the bishop of Horizon Texas Conference has asked the Dallas County Court to grant an injunction prohibiting HPUMC from moving forward until the lawsuit is settled. After all, as the old saying goes, “possession is nine points of the law.”
Imagine the mess if members of HPUMC vote to leave the denomination next weekend and six months from now the court rule the church didn’t have the right to vote on that question at all.
Meanwhile, the word “united” hangs in the balance. Will the church located at Mockingbird and Hillcrest in Dallas be Highland Park United Methodist Church or just Highland Park Methodist Church?
The outcome matters far beyond Dallas.
Mark Wingfield serves as executive director and publisher of Baptist News Global.