Will be visiting a UMC church soon

[HumbleMan]

'Ola, amigos!

I posted here a few months back, saying we were thinking about visiting a UM Church. Well, it looks like it might happen in the next week or two (I had to put it off due to health issues. Haven't been to our regular church in about a month, as well).

I was just wondering about a few things;

• Do children stay in the sanctuary for service, or do they do their own thing? I have a fifth grader and a seventh grader.
• Do I have to affirm all teachings of the UMC if we ever decide to join (still having issues with infant baptism. I think I'm reading your doctrinal statements through a baptist lens, which might make it harder for me).
• How evangelical is the UMC? What types of international missions are supported? (I realize that this might be a church/diocese specific answer)

One thing I do like about the UMC is it's charitable behavior in regards to social issues. I've always beleived that the church is supposed to be servile and the believer is known by the fruits of the spirit.

Thanks!

 

[RainsInApril]

Since WP is quiet this afternoon, I hope you don't mind a non-Methodist jumping in. (I grew up in the UMC, though, so I'm not a total stranger!)

Regarding your kids: Children/youth ministries vary greatly by church. On Sunday mornings, most UMC congregations have Sunday School before (or after) the worship service, and some offer youth worship services alongside the "normal" service. Your children would be welcome to stay with you regardless of what's offered, though, if that would make you or them more comfortable. The website of the congregation you plan to visit should have more information for you.

The UMC isn't a confessional church, so you don't need to worry about agreeing with everything. If you can profess the "basics" of Christianity (as in, the Nicene/Apostles Creeds) you'd be welcome to join the UMC.

I'll leave your question about missions to someone more closely connected with the UMC. I hope you enjoy your visit, whenever it happens.

 

[GraceSeeker]

RainsInApril did a good job answering your questions. The answers to the first and third question are going to be congregation specific. The 2nd is just as she said.

In my present congregation, we offer a children's church program half way through the service, though we target kids younger than yours. Some congregations have more than that, some have less. But even if it is offered, you don't have to insist on your kids attending, nor will the church.

In 30 years I've never served a church where everyone thought the same. When you get to the church, check out the front the hymnal where the order for baptism and joining the church is located (p. 33). You can read for yourself what questions are asked and determine whether you feel you could affirm them or not.


Across the denomination we claim as our mission one of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. We just finished a 4-year program to fund a fight against malaria. So successful was this that when we started there was 1 malaria death every 30 seconds. It is now 1 every 60 seconds. While that remains far too many, in cooperation with our partners we did succeed at cutting it in half. We have more than 5000 different international mission projects that we support. Obviously not every church supports all of them. Sadly, some don't support any. But the goal is that every church would support a global mission project, a local annual conference mission project, a missionary, fully support our World Service apportionment (which is mostly a unified fund for international missions ), a project related to UMCOR (the United Methodist Committee on Relief) which responds to emergencies and crisis situations around the world.

While few UM congregations are fundamentalist, I would classify more as evangelical than liberal. Of course this varies quite dramatically from one part of the country to another. Such a statement is, I think, true overall, but it won't be in the Northeast or Northwest. On the other hand, in the south you will probably find your small town UMC having about the same set of beliefs as the local SBC. But in a city, two UMCs across the street from one another might have dramatically different ways of expressing the faith just depending on the congregation's history and present leadership. And on the whole I would say that the UMC is pretty middle of the road when compared to the full spectrum of ideologies one finds in the varieties of denominations that make up the Church nationwide.

 

[HumbleMan]

Thank you both for your responses.

I'm looking forward to visiting this church. As I grow older, I'm appreciating more the formality of a "higher" church/liturgy than what offered in our typical baptist churches.

 

[circuitrider]

As Graceseeker has said, there is a wide variety in the UMC. In this part of the country (Iowa) the churches are generally pretty middle of the road with some more liberal churches and some more conservative churches.

As to baptism, though almost everyone in my church was baptized as an infant we have a family or two who prefer their child to be baptized at confirmation so they waited until the child was in my confirmation class. No problem.

We only occasionally do immersion baptisms in Iowa but we are more than happy to immerse, pour, or sprinkle on request for a baptism. So if you just can't wrap your head around infant baptism it doesn't mean you have to have your children baptized that way.

 

[circuitrider]

As Graceseeker has said, there is a wide variety in the UMC. In this part of the country (Iowa) the churches are generally pretty middle of the road with some more liberal churches and some more conservative churches.

As to baptism, though almost everyone in my church was baptized as an infant we have a family or two who prefer their child to be baptized at confirmation so they waited until the child was in my confirmation class. No problem.

We only occasionally do immersion baptisms in Iowa but we are more than happy to immerse, pour, or sprinkle on request for a baptism. So if you just can't wrap your head around infant baptism it doesn't mean you have to have your children baptized that way.

 

[RainsInApril]

Thank you both for your responses.

I'm looking forward to visiting this church. As I grow older, I'm appreciating more the formality of a "higher" church/liturgy than what offered in our typical baptist churches.

You're welcome. I can definitely relate to your desire to attend a more liturgical church. Some Methodist churches still use a liturgy and have traditional worship services, others are more contemporary (or VERY contemporary), still others offer both or sometimes "blended" services (ie liturgy plus contemporary music). Every church is different.

 

[HumbleMan]

Thanks, CR. I think I understand the reasoning behind infant baptism, and it's by no means a "dealbreaker" for me.

RiA, this church has two services; one more traditional and one more contemporary. Unfortunately, the traditional service is the early service, and I have a hard time getting going if I haven't had time for at least 4 cups of coffee.

 

[GoingByzantine]

Good luck on your church visit HumbleMan, it will be exciting to here how it went!

 

[AlexLL]

Any updates on how it went?

 

[Marc1969]

Well, we finally we able to go to the neighborhood UMC. I must say I quite thoroughly enjoyed it. We're going to the early service, which is more informal (the pastor's not in robes, the tone is more laidback, etc.)

What surprised me, is my kids, 11 and 12, enjoyed it, and were asking questions about the church.

Thank you all for information and fellowship.

Marc
(formerly HumbleMan before I forgot what email I had originally signed up with in 2004)

 

[circuitrider]

Glad you had a good experience Marc!

 

[Marc1969]

I really did. The pastor was wrapping up a five week series on reclaim (family, time, finances, fire), and it was so refreshing to hear a call to holiness and love that didn't bullet point specific things that we were doing wrong or turn in to a cherry picked verse version of a self help tutorial.

I do have a question. I think next week is Communion Sunday. I would love to partake, but would also feel uncomfortable as we just started attending regularly two weeks ago. This might be from being in a baptist church before now. If we aren't members yet, is there any prohibitions or things I need to do, like speak to the pastor first?

Thanks

 

[circuitrider]

I do have a question. I think next week is Communion Sunday. I would love to partake, but would also feel uncomfortable as we just started attending regularly two weeks ago. This might be from being in a baptist church before now. If we aren't members yet, is there any prohibitions or things I need to do, like speak to the pastor first?

Thanks

Marc,

United Methodists have the most open table I know. It is Christ's table and you are welcome at it.

You don't have to be a United Methodist to partake or a member of any particular local church. John Wesley believed communion could even be a converting element and that a non-believer might come to Christ at the table.

When I'm in a church I've not communed in before I usually don't sit in the first few pews so I can see how they commune.

At my church we commune by intinction. You go forward and are given bread from a common loaf and then you dip it in a chalice of grape juice. Almost all Methodists use grape juice.

A few church still have you kneel at the rail and take communion with wafers and small coups. Seldom do United Methodists pass communion in the pews.

 

[mrfun83]

Funniest thing - I attended a UMC in So. California one weekend several decades ago while on business there. Being from E. Texas, I had never seen intiction, we always took communion in the pews or at the altar. I was seated in the rear of the sanctuary. They did it from the rear of the church to the front, and was in first in line. I had been to many Roman Catholic services with the friends in college, and they came to the priest and drank out of the chalice after taking the bread. So I did. And every eye in the place - including the preacher - watched me, and I watched back in horror as the other folks behind me dipped their bread in the cup.
I just kept on walking to the back of the church and out the front door....so don't ever feel bad about not knowing what to do. I laugh about it now, and am probably the subject of discussion still at that church......

 

[circuitrider]

The move to intiction has been a more recent move as the UMC has adopted more carefully thought out guidelines for communion in our official communion statement, "This Holy Mystery." A number of practices that churches used to use in communion are either no longer done or at least no longer recommended. As we believe in the real presence of Christ in communion and that communion is a sacrament we have sought as United Methodists to give clearer guidelines than we used to give about how to administer and receive communion.