The beginning of the Big "8" Conference can be traced back to its predecessor, the Little "C" Conference, which was founded in 1931 and began play for the 1932–33 school year. We are amid a period of reformation, which is not a bad thing, but it is a challenging thing.The Big "8" Conference is a MHSAA athletic conference in South Central Michigan consisting of Class B and C schools from Branch, Eaton, Hillsdale, and Jackson counties. “But there are other challenges we must face systemic racism, persistent sexism, and impacts of colonialism. “The issue of homosexuality and same-sex marriage is the presenting issue currently,” Olewine wrote. However, the crossroads the denomination finds itself at may also be a window to modernize. Olewine said that amid the internal divide over the United Methodist Church’s stance on LGBTQ+ issues, along with the challenges of the pandemic, about 20% of its congregations have disaffiliated.įunds generated by churches paying to leave the organization and the sale of Surf City Church’s campus are necessary to ensure that the conference can continue its mission, especially in communities where previous members have disaffiliated, the superintendent said. “They’re thinking: ‘If a church gets weak, we can take it over and sell it.’” “I think the conference and the district have been looking at this property for some time,” Haworth said. Housholder, Leonard, Mitchell and Haworth claimed the goal of placing Yoon at the congregation was to undermine Surf City Church. Membership started rapidly shrinking even before the pandemic hit, said David Housholder, lead pastor of the Well, a nondenominational congregation that rents part of Surf City Church to conduct worship. Those factors created an impossible financial situation, resulting in conference officials’ decision.īut Leonard and fellow board member Marge Mitchell said that, during Yoon’s stint at Surf City, a popular men’s choir and various committees were disbanded. Olewine said pastor Amy Yoon attempted to create new programs and worked with members who had recently stepped into leadership roles.ĬOVID-19, lockdowns and a subsequent decline in attendance were a struggle for Yoon and the local church to overcome, Olewine said.
Then distrust grew after a stint by a recent pastor sent by the United Methodist Church. The church began distancing itself from UMC about 10 years ago as conflict was already brewing within the larger organization over its stance on LGBTQ+ issues, said John Leonard of the church’s board of trustees. The UMC superintendent added that Surf City Church did not raise the issue of disaffiliation until after its closure was approved, and members labeled unviable are not typically eligible for the separation process. Olewine said the church had been deemed “unviable” after “10 years of efforts to revitalize and focus the mission and ministry there.” As a result, conference leadership voted to close it. “And the progressive end of the church wants to basically negate all of the teachings of the Bible that have to do with sexual morality.” “It’s the Bible that we disagree on,” Haworth said during an interview on June 19. The small congregation of the Fount began considering the option shortly after the Western Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church, which the California-Pacific Conference is part of, proclaimed that their region was a “ safe harbor” for clergy who identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community, said Glen Haworth, the Fount’s lead pastor. There are 22 churches in the region attempting to cut ties with the denomination in a process called “disaffiliation.” Two Orange County churches, Surf City in Huntington Beach and the Fount in Fountain Valley, are among them. A number of Southern California churches whose congregations disagree with the California-Pacific Conference of the United Methodist Church’s inclusion of the LGBTQ+ community into its leadership want to leave the organization but say they’re being held for ransom.
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