The first
time I remember going to a United Methodist Church was in the mid 1980’s. A
young female cooperative student at work—also the daughter of a friend and
coworker—invited me to her church across the river in Tuscumbia. It wasn’t a
Sunday morning service, but rather a Christmas program. Her sister was going to
be performing, so my wife and I decided to attend. It was a good show, and we
enjoyed it.
My next time
in a United Methodist Church was for a wedding. A daughter of some good friends
in the Church of Christ was having her wedding at the First United Methodist
Church in Florence. She wanted my friend Ron and me to videotape it. At that
time Ron and I shared duties in the sound booth at Chisholm Hills Church of
Christ. We were happy to oblige, so we set up a couple of video cameras and
microphones at the church and recorded the wedding.
It would not
be until 1993 that I would attend an actual worship service at a UM church, and
the story behind that visit is quite interesting. Kathy and I were members at
the Chisholm Hills Church of Christ (CHCC). Our preacher was Joe VanDyke. In
the early 1990’s Joe began to occasionally speak about other denominations in a
more positive light than usual. He talked about how as a child his family would
visit churches of other denominations when they were having revivals and such. While
many in the Church of Christ believed that they were the only ones interpreting
the Scriptures correctly and thus the only ones going to heaven, Joe began
questioning that belief. This was fine by my wife and me since we had never
believed we had a lock on the truth anyway. Joe spoke this way so frequently
that I just assumed the elders of the church were on board with him. However,
one Wednesday evening I found out differently. The elders fired Joe. I was out
of town with my job and found out about it from my wife on the phone. I was
shocked.
Apparently
the elders were not very forthcoming about the reason for the firing, asking
the congregation to just trust them. At Joe’s request they did tell everyone it
was not over an issue of morality. But other than that no other information was
put forth. This did not set well with many of the congregants. Eventually a
Sunday afternoon meeting was held to hopefully clear the air, but it still left
many dissatisfied. Interestingly, Joe and his family continued to attend CHCC.
I asked him one day why he was still coming there given he was fired. He
answered, “Where else am I going to go?” In other words, this congregation had
been his home for many years. Where else would be a better fit?
Over time
the dissatisfaction with the situation increased. A meeting was held at one of
the church members’ home. The house was overflowing with people, my wife and I
being two of them. We all pretty much agreed that the elders should have been
more open with us about the firing so we could decide for ourselves whether or
not the right decision had been made. But as it was, we simply did not have
enough information to make that judgment. Ultimately the dissenting group
decided to have a separate worship service one Sunday. It was held in the
Magnolia Room at a local hotel. Joe VanDyke was invited to speak at that
service. Long story short, we ultimately decided to break away from CHCC and
form a new congregation. Members were asked to submit their suggestions for the
new congregation’s name. Someone suggested Magnolia Church of Christ (MCC)
since our first meeting had been in the Magnolia Room at the hotel. That was
the one selected. Joe was hired as the preacher.
We knew we
couldn’t stay in the hotel forever, so we later made arrangements to start meeting
at the Little Angel Day School building. This school was just a short distance
from North Wood United Methodist Church (NWUMC). The school had limited
parking, so NWUMC graciously offered to let us use their parking lot for
overflow. Now having a connection with NWUMC, our churches eventually planned a
joint service. It had to be held at NWUMC’s building for space reasons.
The big
event took place on the evening of September 19, 1993. MCC members converged
along with NWUMC members to participate in the joint service. Some of the music
that evening had instruments, some didn’t. Our local newspaper called it a
historic event. But to me it just seemed like people trying to get along. At
one point during the service I had to use the restroom. When I emerged from the
sanctuary I noticed a good friend that had stayed with CHCC after the split.
Apparently he was there “spying” on the meeting so he could report back to his
church. I found it a bit amusing. As it turned out, this friend became ashamed
of what he had done and now regrets ever having done it.
Our historic
meeting sent shock waves throughout the Church of Christ community. MCC was
being chastised in a number of publications. Several local congregations even
took out a full page ad in our local newspaper to let people know that they did
not approve of MCC’s actions. I found a couple of lingering writings about the
evening on the Internet: Truth
Magazine and Seek
The Old Paths. There are probably more.
Later MCC
found an old building in downtown Florence to meet at. Lots of renovations had
to be done first. Once settled, MCC invited NWUMC to a joint service at our
building. This ultimately led to having alternating annual joint meetings on
the anniversary of that first joint meeting.
By the time
of the CHCC split, I had already declared myself an agnostic although most
people didn’t know it. Given Joe VanDyke’s willingness to take heat over his “liberal”
position regarding people in other denominations, I decided I needed to confide
in him about my deconversion. I set up a meeting with him one Sunday afternoon
at his home. I explained to him my newfound beliefs and how I came about acquiring
them. He was a bit surprised and of course didn’t agree with me. But he
remained cordial throughout our conversation.
The only
other times I have attended a United Methodist Church was for those joint services
with NWUMC. That wasn’t very often since it was just a few years later that my
wife began going to a Baptist Church and I followed along as I reported in my
previous post.
The CHCC
split and the supposed falling away of MCC by meeting with the NWUMC was my
first major exposure to how divisive religion can be. Of course, I was viewing
the events as an outsider, but from within. I was already an agnostic, but I
was still involved with the church. It reminded me of a line spoken by Deanna
Troi in a 1989 episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” entitled “Who
Watches the Watchers”. She says, “Are you sure you know what he wants? That's
the problem with believing in a supernatural being - trying to determine what
he wants.”
Throughout
the world there are people with widely varying beliefs. Many think that they
are right and others are wrong. Even within the same religion, say
Christianity, many different beliefs about God, the Bible, Jesus, and so forth
are prevalent. Hey, even within a single church building you can find people
who disagree about what is pleasing to God and what is not. If you have to be exactly
right about everything in order for God to save you, then I would say that at
most one person will make it, but more likely none. The way I look at it is this.
We have all been put here on this Earth through no choice of our own. We have a
limited time to live in our fallible human bodies. We’re all trying to make
sense of our situation. How we got here. What our purpose is. Where we are
headed. How we should live, and why. Given our differences in DNA, personal
experiences, and learning backgrounds, it seems highly unlikely that there will
ever be widespread agreement on these matters. We need to grant each other a
lot of leeway in our search. And as long as others are not using force to
impede our search, we should follow Idina’s and Demi’s recommendation: “Let It
Go!”
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