June 19^th through the 22^nd will be the meeting of The North Carolina Provisional Annual Conference of the Global Methodist Church in Winston-Salem. I am looking forward to my first Annual Conference meeting of our new denomination; it will be the second meeting for regular business of the conference and the last as a Provisional Annual Conference. The Provisional Status of the conference will change at the conclusion of The Convening General Conference of the Global Methodist Church meeting in Costa Rica, September 20-26. 

Over the last month, more churches have joined in the U.S., and whole annual conferences in Africa and other parts of the world have left the UMC and joined the GMC. More are to come over the next year or two. Some U.S. UMC Annual Conferences have created pathways for congregations to leave with their property between now and the end of 2024, but neither of the NC UMC annual conferences has allowed congregations to continue to disaffiliate in any way. 

As we enter The Annual Conference Season, I invite your prayers for The Global Methodist Church and those who are now beginning to see what The UMC has become and is becoming. Many congregations in The UMC were either unaware of what would happen at their General Conference or living in the hope that it would not affect their congregation. If you know disaffected members of UMC churches who are starting to look for a new congregation, invite them to Christ Church! Let them be if they are content with where their congregation is headed. We do not need to spread discontent among the United Methodists; they are doing that just fine on their own. We need to be in prayer for our denomination and local church as we live into the God-given freedoms, theology, and practice that we have reclaimed in the Global Methodist Church.

To learn more about the theology of the GMC, join us on Sunday in the Combined Sunday School Class, where we will cover questions 4- 10 of the Catechism as the time allows. Sunday School starts at 9:20 and ends at 10:15 am! See you there