umportal org Tattooed preachers


Ink can be medium of faith, some say | 4B


Hospitality rules


Growing churches offer big welcome | 6B


Wesleyan Wisdom


Methodism’s message deserves confidence | 7B


Section B September 30, 2011


Bishops told to enforce Discipline


BY SAM HODGES Managing Editor


A group of United Methodist


clergy, including from some of the de- nomination’s largest churches, wants the Council of Bishops to issue a state- ment promising to enforce church law against clergy who have pledged to conduct same-sex unions. “The church needs you to lead,” the


TWO CHURCHES TALEOF


PHOTO BY MAUREEN A. COYLE, CHARLOTTE OBSERVER st Church in Charlotte through major change, with a focus on again becoming a Survival means re-connecting with neighborhood


BY TIM FUNK Charlotte Observer


CHARLOTTE, N.C.—When Buck


Lankford started going to Kilgo United Methodist Church in the early 1960s, it was so crowded“you had to get there early if you wanted a seat.” Today, this church in the heart of


Charlotte, N.C.’s Plaza Midwood neighborhood ropes off half of its pews so the Sunday worshippers— usually 50 to 80 souls—will sit toward the front. Attendance at 54-year-old Hickory


Grove Presbyterian, in east Charlotte, is also way below what it was during its heyday. To keep costs down, “the sanctuary is only air-conditioned on Sundays,” says the Rev. Kate Murphy. Clearly, for both churches, like so


many others with similar histories, the glory days are past. But far from giving up, these two


mainline churches are aggressively at- tempting a comeback. And they’re doing it by returning to their original mission: to be a neighborhood church. In an age of megachurches, they’re


among a growing number of strug- gling Charlotte churches where the new focus is serving people next door, down the street, up the block. For Kilgo United Methodist and


Hickory Grove Presbyterian, this new spirit of outreach is also a belated ac- knowledgement of past mistakes: When neighborhoods change, they now realize, churches need to change with them. The churches’ recent efforts to


build younger and more diverse con- gregations have been painful for older members, many of whom have been attending since they were children and still treasure the tradition and the old hymns. Both churches have gotten a time-


to-change nudge from their denomi- nations. This summer, Kilgo was made part


of a “cooperative parish” with two smaller churches—a setup designed to make all three stronger. And Hickory Grove Presbyterian


was one of 10 local Presbyterian Church (USA) churches that became part of a pilot program for churches that will need transformation if they’re to stay open in their changing neighborhoods. Six of the 10 agreed to go to the next stage, which means fol-


lowing some radical“prescriptions” from a consultant. “The churches were told, ‘If you


want to be a vibrant and engaged church, you need to relate to the com- munity around you,’” says Sam Rober- son, general presbyter of the Presbytery of Charlotte. The community around Hickory


Grove Presbyterian—an aging, pre- dominantly white church—is increas- ingly African-American and Latino. When the church was launched in 1957, its neighborhood was country/suburban and, according to U.S. Census records, was between 96 percent and 98 percent white. According to the 2010 Census, the


area around the church has grown urban and multiracial: Blacks make  See ‘Connect’ page 3B


Rev. Ed Robb


59 pastors wrote the bishops on Sept. 2. “We need you to act before the promised disobedience occurs. We need you to issue a public statement that you understand the proposed dis- obedience to be a grave threat to the unity and life of the UM Church and that you stand together in your com- mitment to defend and enforce the Book of Discipline.” The group’s leaders include the


Rev. Ed Robb III, pastor of 9,000- member The Woodlands UMC, in Woodlands, Texas. The letter was trig- gered by the action this summer of about 900 UM clergy from various conferences who signed statements pledging to officiate at same-sex unions, despite language in the Book of Discipline, the denomination’s law book, prohibiting that.


 See ‘Enforce’ page 2B


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