There will be an informational meeting on the 16th of May at FUMC Lamesa at 6:30 pm. All those that are interested are encouraged to attend. Below is a brief letter to the members of Northridge.
Dear Northridge Family,
I want to take a little bit of time to let you know about some very important happenings within the United Methodist Church and specifically within our Northwest Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. For years and even decades there has been fundamental disagreement over issues of theology and the primacy of God’s Word. Over the last 10 years these differences have resulted on the one hand in the strengthening of our commitment to the teachings of scripture but on the other hand to the radical acting out of progressive elements within our denomination. Our episcopal leaders (Bishops) in many annual conferences across the United States have been unwilling to uphold church teachings on issues of human sexuality and essential theology.
All of these concerns were to be addressed in a very amicable way at General Conference in 2020 with a plan called “Protocol of Reconciliation and Grace through Separation.” This General Conference was originally postponed due to covid in 2020 and then in 2021. This year’s postponement to 2024 definitely seemed like a major institutional delay tactic.
In case you don’t know, our Northwest Texas Annual Conference is a very theologically conservative annual conference. Our laity and our pastors really do believe the Apostle’s Creed, that the Bible is God’s Word, that Jesus is the only way to salvation, and that Jesus is alive and working this very minute in our world and in us via His Holy Spirit. We are ready to move on beyond this debate that has been raging and sidelining Jesus’ church for decades. We are ready to move on with brothers and sisters in Christ who are passionately committed to sharing the good news of Jesus with a world that so definitely needs Him.
This year, our Northwest Texas Annual Conference will be meeting in Lubbock, June 16-17. We will be discussing and hopefully passing actions that will facilitate conservative churches to move forward to uniting with the newly born Global Methodist Church by December 31, 2022. I want to invite you to attend the meeting on the 16th of May. If you have any questions, please reach out to me.
Al