Stay UMC Report to the Annual Conference | Presented by Rev. Melinda Young Britt on June 3, 2025

In 2023, our Annual Conference set aside $3 million to support local churches facing the financial and emotional toll of disaffiliation, division, and the trauma of that season. By June, congregations were already reaching out for help. In response, the bishop appointed a team of six leaders to design and steward a process to distribute the fund — a team that became known as the Stay UMC Response Team: BJ Brack, Sue Carrigan, John Pearce, Drew Shelley, Paula Smith and me.

We quickly recognized that what was needed wasn’t just a grant process — but a faithful, grounded approach rooted in deep listening. We spent hours in conversation, asking not only what we were called to do, but how we were being called to do it. We understood that this was a season born out of broken covenant, and we knew that equity, trust, and integrity had to guide every step. So we began with covenant — creating one for our team and one we could share with the churches, shaping expectations and commitments we could all live into together. That covenant became our anchor whenever we felt lost or overwhelmed, reminding us that God was ultimately guiding us through uncertain waters.

We designed an application process that resembled a conversation that began among the leadership of the congregations. The questions on the application were the questions that we discovered were helpful to congregations and leaders during our initial conversations with them.  Questions that helped acknowledge and articulate the current, disorienting, new context of their congregation and community. How is the emotional and spiritual well-being of your leaders? What has changed beyond the number of people and financial status? What are the changes that staffing has gone through? How would you describe the trauma and grief the church has endured? What changes have the leadership needed to make immediately? Where has God sustained you during the past few months? Where are you noticing God is at work and providing what is needed? Who is stepping forward with a new call to lead? What we witnessed is God providing resilience through new leaders stepping forward and a renewed, strong focus on discipleship for many congregations. 

As we listened through many conversations, we heard amazing statements of faith. “There are fewer people but all 70 of us have recommitted ourselves to following Jesus is a deep way.” “God has renewed us with an emboldened purpose in our community.” God was making a way and as a team we realized that we were not the rescuers of congregations, and that not even the Stay UMC Response Grant was the rescuer. Our role as the response team would be to point congregations and their leaders toChrist, the One who was already beginning the work of renewal. The grant could however provide a bridge or respite so that the congregation could discern their next faithful step – which in most situations has led to an awareness of the need for a radical reorientation toward mission and discipleship. 

There is a common thread among most of these congregations.  The trauma of division had drained even the strongest leaders, and accessing support took extra encouragement and connection. Thankfully, our United Methodist connection is built to offer exactly that. Across the conference, clergy and laity have come together, offering skills and expertise, coaching, spiritual care, and practical resources — all helping one another imagine new ways of being church and being in relationship with our communities.

Sometimes that has meant letting go of buildings, land, and other assets — shedding burdens from the past to make room for what God is doing now. Through this process, more than 32 churches have been supported. Some churches began the process and, through conversation and discernment, realized there was funding, collaboration, and new financial practices available to meet their needs through other means than this grant. Twenty-eight churches have received direct financial grants.  Thirty churches have been granted services including trauma intervention and healing, innovation coaching, staff support for discerned gaps in leadership, strategic consulting, marketing and rebranding support, collaborative financial advice and services, facility improvement required for new community partnership, real estate consultation, collaborative support for exploring new ministries, facilitated congregational visioning, stop gap bill payments to get them over the hump, … the list goes on. Two more churches are in the application process right now. 

And still, we know: the financial strain continues for many churches. This season of affirming our identity as United Methodists has been critical. And we are now in a season ready to move into the future with a renewed focus on discipleship and learning what it means to be the church in the world in new and innovative ways that God is equipping us for. We are called to move forward — with a fresh focus on discipleship, innovation, and the mission of Christ in our communities.  These are the congregations who are ready to help write a new chapter for the UM witness in the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference. 

As the Stay UMC Response Team prepares to conclude its work in 2025, we give thanks that the risk-taking, forward-looking work will continue through our conference’s Faith and Innovation Team who is ready to assist those congregations discerning a step into the future. It’s time for this chapter to end and for us to step boldly, courageously and faithfully into the future together. 

I’m deeply grateful for this volunteer team — for their willingness to sit in difficult and beautiful conversations, to pray, to discern, to walk with churches in pain and hope. God gave us what we needed to respond. And through this connection, God continues to provide — through gifted people, shared resources, and a commitment to walk together.

Churches that received grants have expressed deep gratitude. Again and again, we’ve had the joy of telling them: You are receiving this support because your sister congregations wanted to help you. We have had the joy of hearing this gratitude and now we want you to hear it too in the video below.