The End of a Long Year...

The Year (and a half) of Disaffiliation

To start, this is my first Substack publication. After having a few friends begin publications and following a few personalities I listen to on different podcasts, I decided to give this a shot.

To begin this journey together, let me tell you a little bit about me.

My name is Bryan Rogers. I am a 38 year old (39 on January 19, 2024) Senior Pastor at a small town Global Methodist Church in Llano, TX. I grew up in the United Methodist Church as the son of a UMC Elder turned GMC Elder, and the Grandson of a UMC Elder who transferred his membership from the Church Militant to the Church Triumphant in 2015.

I have a wife, to whom I have been happily (she would say most times :) ) married for almost 14 years, a 12 year old Son, and two daughters 10 and almost 9.

When people ask where I grew up, I generally say Corpus Christi, TX, where my dad served at Asbury Church (now also a Global Methodist Congregation). My family lived in Corpus from 1997 until 2006 when my dad started working for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. That’s a topic for another post.

I however moved from Corpus after I graduated from High School in 2003 where I then attended Texas A&M University (Gig ‘em!), and graduated with a Bachelors of Arts in History and English. It was my plan, at the time, to become a Junior High History Teacher. But as you can guess, God had different plans for me.

In 2009, I began my first church ministry job as the Director of Youth Ministries of Fredericksburg United Methodist Church, and I began seminary in 2011 at Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky. I started with some online courses, moved there in 2012, and started my first Appointment in the U.M.C. as a Student Pastor in Odem, TX in 2014. I graduated with my Masters in Divinity in 2015, was ordained in the UMC in 2018 where I was serving in my second appointment in San Angelo, TX.

Smack dab in the middle of the Global Pandemic of 2020, my family and I were appointed to my current ministry post in Llano and have been loving this beautiful town ever since.

There’s a lot more to my story, of course, but for the purposes of this first publication, that’s enough about me. On to the topic at hand.

This last year (really since August of 2021) has been a challenging time in Ministry, mostly because of all the discussions surrounding the process of disaffiliation of Churches from the United Methodist Church. Throughout these last 18 months, Lutie Watkins Memorial Methodist Church has held listening sessions and a 6 month discernment period which ended in a vote where 97% of the congregation felt God was calling us to disaffiliate from the U.M.C. and subsequently align ourselves with the newly formed Global Methodist Church.

Since March 5 (the day of our vote), we have removed all of the Cross and Flame logos from our buildings and signage, we have changed our name by dropping the word United, and began the process of switching titles and deeds of our 4 properties.

I would love to say that everything has been completed, however, because our congregation did not agree to the “ransom” required by the Rio Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church, and we did not sign any of the documents in a desire to negotiate better terms, the RTC believed it was in their best interest and those of the churches within their conference to spend money on a lawsuit. Since May of this year we, along with 27 other churches, have been spending money to defend ourselves from a lawsuit that we did not want, nor could the conference really afford, if there really was the Unfunded Pension Liability they assert they have.

The challenging part about all of this is that even while I was ordained into a broken system, I was appointed to lead the people of this Church here in Llano. Since I have been here it has been my goal and my desire to preach the Gospel and lead our congregation in proper discernment of all issues and challenges. It has been my responsibility to lead the Church in Word, Order, Sacrament, and Service according to the vows I took at my ordination, and now I am having to spend time and energy protecting a church from an overreaching, and honestly, bureaucratically inefficient Conference staff. I could spend a lot more time on my concerns about bureaucracy, but I do not believe it would be beneficial to anyone…including myself.

At the end of the day, however, I have found myself in a very reflective moment, this being the 2nd to last day of 2023.

Every single day, I am thankful for the season of discernment. In fact, I wish more pastors and churches would have gone through that process. While understanding it is a naive statement, I truly believe it would have been in the best interest of every congregation to be mandated by their respective conferences to enter into a season of discernment. After all, if a congregation went through a period of discernment and had a 97% vote to stay in the U.M.C., I would applaud them for following God’s will for them.

But instead, heavy-handedly, pastors in our conference has squashed any discussion, let alone votes on the issues at hand. Pastors, not far from where I am located, have caused harm and discouragement, even disillusion, in their congregations because they have acted like nothing is going on, or “nothing is going to change.” Or my personal favorite, “It’s not going to happen here.” In doing this, these pastors have killed once thriving congregations because they became instruments of division as apposed to instruments of peace and unity. Sure, the war-cry is “we need to be unified,” but in my experience, this is solely unity for unity’s sake, which does nothing more than the exact opposite of their intent.

I have heard a lot over the last few weeks about “Keeping the Rear View Mirror Small,” and I believe this is a great way of looking at things. Our focus must be on the road ahead of us, but I truly believe as a Church (and as a Pastor) it is important for us to remember where we have come from, and remember the lessons, both good and bad, from the past. After all, those who forget their history are condemned to repeat it.

As I wrap up my first Substack post, I want to finish with what I believe to be the most important thing you will read from me today. I want to end on a positive note that I hope will set the tone for all my future posts, and what I hope to make my working Scripture for 2024.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” ~Romans 12: 1-2

It is my prayer for anyone reading this post that you know that God, through his Word, has called us to not get caught up in the patterns of this world, but to constantly look toward where he is leading us. To test and to approve what God’s will is. In other words, DISCERN. I hope you will never stop discerning, and you will constantly seek the will of God in everything, testing everything only by his Word, allowing His Spirit to guide you.

May you be blessed in 2024!

Pastor Bryan