After leaving Mt. Bethel Church over its dispute with the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church, some former members have been meeting in recent months for picnics and other gatherings, including worship services.
Some expressed a desire to form their own church, and over the summer began the process of starting what is now called Grace Resurrection Methodist Church.
They met at the tiny New Providence Baptist Church on Providence Road, as what was called the Mt. Bethel Resurrection Church Exploratory Committee was taking shape.
The leadership has included Rev. Randy Mickler, who was Mt. Bethel’s pastor for nearly 30 years, and Dr. Rev. Steven Usry, who had been appointed to the role of senior pastor at Mt. Bethel at the start of the controversy.
With attendance heading into triple figures at New Providence, they were running out of room to worship.
So the exploratory committee set out for larger, more permanent space. On Nov. 20, the first worship service of Grace Resurrection took place at that new venue, the former Lutheran Church of the Incarnation, which closed this summer.
More than 100 people attended, and the newly formed Grace Resurrection choir sang.
Among those in the pews was Donna Lachance.
“It just felt like coming home after a long dry spell,” she said.
She was a longtime Mt. Bethel member and church employee who was among the more vocal opponents of the church’s move to separate from the United Methodist Church.
Disaffected members stayed connected by starting the Friends of Mt. Bethel group, which had more than 600 names on its e-mail list until being shuttered last month.
“My husband and I have already started attending Roswell UMC, but we strongly support this initiative, and will attend periodically at the very least,” Lachance said about Grace Resurrection.
Even as the litigation between Mt. Bethel and the North Georgia Conference continued, she was hopeful the denomination would stand its ground and at least allow the church membership a vote on disaffiliation.
The mediated settlement in Cobb Superior Court required Mt. Bethel to pay $13.1 million to leave the UMC. Former North Georgia Bishop Sue-Haupert Johnson, whose reassignment of Mt. Bethel senior pastor Jody Ray in April 2021 triggered the controversy, met with Friends of Mt. Bethel members, some of whom told her they feel like they don’t have a church home.
(Haupert-Johnson was appointed the UMC’s Bishop of Virginia earlier this month.)
Grace Resurrection, which registered as a domestic non-profit religious organization in late October, has covered the former Lutheran church’s signage and included its name on the marquee.
Grace Resurrection is occupying the former Incarnation facility at 1200 Indian Hills Parkway that is now owned by the Southeastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.
There’s one Sunday service, at 11 a.m.
In response to an interview request from East Cobb News, Grace Resurrection sent out a brief press release saying that weekly attendance has averaged around 200 people.
It quoted a member saying that “rather than scatter or dropout altogether, we wanted to continue worshiping together and expand our welcome to new members. Now an excellent centralized location is available to us.”
The release said that interim clergy are leading services and that “Sunday School classes and other fellowship gatherings are forming.”
A second Sunday service, mission projects and a youth program also are being planned.
“The church has come together in unity, faith and love and is excited to provide a kind, welcoming and Christ-centered worship experience for people across the East Cobb community,” the release said.
Lachance said that while wishes her friends Grace Resurrection “the best, and will likely visit from time to time,” she is joining Roswell UMC, with established mission and youth programs “for our grandkids.”
She said that many former members of the Friends of Mt. Bethel were involved in the formation of Grace Resurrection, but so were others.
“But the leadership team of Friends of Mt. Bethel UMC made a group decision to close down that organization and that name. It existed for a time and a purpose, and that time and purpose have passed,” she said.
During Advent, Grace Resurrection is offering Sunday School classes at 9:30 a.m. A Christmas concert will take place Dec. 11 at 5:30 p.m. and a Candlelight Christmas Eve service is scheduled for Dec. 24 at 5 p.m.
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