What’s Happening To the Methodist Church? Part 5

Scott Field, Pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake, recently re-branded “First Church,” next moved on to the impact the late February St. Louis international convention would have on Crystal Lake. First he told a little of … Continue reading

What’s Happening To the Methodist Church? Part 4

Questions and and answers were the next order of business for Scott Field, the minister of the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake. I asked why we were sending any money to the Northern Illinois Conference. Part of Field’s … Continue reading

What’s Happening To the Methodist Church? Part 3

Crystal Lake First United Methodist Church Pastor Scott Field explained some of the background of the Methodist Church. It comes from an evangelical theology in which the United Methodist Church requires a three-fourths vote of the membership is required to … Continue reading

What’s Happening To the Methodist Church? Part 2

The United Methodist Church is what is called a “connectional”  church. For starters, that means all churches follow the same standards. Secondly, under the current Church Discipline, Crystal Lake Methodist Pastor Scott Field said, “If I were in a same … Continue reading

What’s Happening To the Methodist Church? Part 1

During the third week of February next year there will be headlines concerning what Methodists do at a special conference in St. Louis. A fight has been going on since 1972 in the church about homosexuality. At issue is whether … Continue reading

Time for Methodists to Talk Amicable Divorce

The term “no-fault divorce” was not used in Pastor Scott Field’s speech to the Northern Illinois Conference Evangelical Association Monday, but the comparison makes sense. The title of Field’s talk was “Somnambulating, Surviving, and Strategizing for the Coming UMC Implosion.”  (“UMC” means … Continue reading

Lay Methodists Say Bishop’s Statement Favoring Gay Marriage Does Not Represent Church Teaching

A press release from a lay group of the Methodist Church in Northern Illinois: Bishop’s statement does not represent Church on Gay Marriage In response to United Methodist Bishop Sally Dyck’s endorsement of gay marriage, the Northern Illinois Conference Evangelical … Continue reading

New Illinois Methodist Bishop Sally Dyck Calls for Same Sex Marriage, “Good News” Group Replies

In a complete contradiction of church policy, Sally Dyck, the new Bishop of the Northern Illinois Conference of the United Methodist Church has called on the Illinois Legislature to pass a bill authorizing same sex marriage. I would note there … Continue reading

Crystal Lake Methodists Note County Slot Machine Hearing

When the Illinois General Assembly was first debating legalizing casinos in 1992, Methodist Bishop R. Sheldon Duecker led the fight against them. In Minnesota in 2005, Bishop Sally Dyck took to the airwaves  in paid ads to oppose a state-run … Continue reading