New Butler Global Church welcomes first worshippers
BUTLER TWP — A new church officially got off the ground in Butler County on Sunday, Feb. 2.
Butler Global Church — part of the Global Methodist Church — officially welcomed its first members during a special “Founders Day” service at American Legion Post 117 in Butler Township.
This marked the last act in the Global Church’s split from the First United Methodist Church, a fracture which started forming shortly after the United Methodist Church’s General Conference in Charlotte, N.C., last spring. At that conference, the UMC made major changes to the bylaws of the church, mainly concerning prohibitions on homosexuality.
This planted the seeds for an exodus, 298 churches in the Western Pennsylvania region formally disaffiliated from the United Methodist Church.
First United Methodist Church in Butler chose not to do the same, but over 100 of its members decided to join the Global Methodist Church and build a congregation from the ground up.
“Whenever we saw that starting to happen, we started to talk about forming a new church,” Rob Deemer, a member of the new church, said. “We had to have a lot of town hall meetings where we tried to educate the congregation as to what the options were. And at the end of the day, this is what we ended up with.”
“We want to follow the Wesleyan tradition. We very strongly want scriptural based preaching,” said LuAnn Patterson, who is part of the 14-person transition team for the Butler Global Church. “And those were the things that we feel that we can provide here.”
While the Butler Global Church has been holding services since the start of December 2024 at the American Legion, Sunday was a special occasion, as it was the service where all 113 current members of the congregation were officially welcomed into the Global Methodist Church.
Deemer said he has taken to his new spiritual home quite well.
“Every day that I come to church here, I've got a big smile on my face, because I'm coming to worship the Lord without any encumbrances,” Deemer said. “I'm coming to worship without worrying about anything.”
Deemer says that Butler Global Church will welcome more worshippers in the near-future, and that it will soon outgrow the space of the American Legion building.
“Every other month, we’re going to be bringing in new members,” Deemer said. “The American Legion has been so gracious in letting us use this space, but we will eventually outgrow this room and we will find another building.”
Despite the roots of the split, Patterson denies that LGBTQ+ individuals are unwelcome in the church.
“This church is welcoming to everybody,” Patterson said. “I think there’s been a misconception for a lot of people. The Global Methodist Church is a welcoming church to anybody and everybody.”
Serving as the interim pastor for the church is Chuck Hildbold, formerly of Jennerstown Community Church. Hildbold recently retired from full-time pastor duty, but was contacted by one of the members of the transition team to preach on Sundays.
“I think they’re doing a great job bringing everybody together,” Hildbold said. “It’s just been going really, really well so far.”
Hildbold will be serving as pastor until the end of February. J.D. Lowry will take over at the beginning of March.
Sunday’s service was marked by a special video welcome from Jeff Greenway, leader of the Allegheny West Global Methodist Church.
“I especially want to thank all of you for the courage, faith and resolve you've exhibited in stepping away from all that is familiar in our former denomination to form a new congregation,” Greenway said. “Thank you for the faith you've had to join the Global Methodist Church. I hope you're beginning to be able to see it's worth it.”
Despite being only two months old, Butler Global Church has ambitious plans for its future. Already, it is looking for volunteers for a weeklong mission to Honduras this July. The church is seeking applications from between seven and 10 people. At least six have already applied.
“We work with a mentoring center for at-risk children. It’s in a small town, about the size of Butler, and it works with children who are at risk of living on the street,” said trip organizer Deb Kruger, who has been to Honduras for nine such missions in the past. “We'll do construction projects, we do skill sessions with them, we visit in family's homes, and then we also do a vacation bible school.”
