On New Year’s Day 2023, Grundy County had four United Methodist Churches. On New Year’s Eve 2023, it will have one.<\/p>\n
Two of the churches, in Conrad and Grundy Center, disaffiliated from the UMC in May (officially June 30) in the church’s slow-motion schism. Reinbeck is one of 59 that’s out at the end of November following a second special meeting<\/a>. Beaman is the only one left.<\/p>\n In Tama County, five of eight remain part of the UMC, after all three “G” churches \u2014 Garwin, Geneseo, and Gladbrook \u2014 split in May. The most recent list includes “Gladbrook Chapel”, which is a rural church just over the Marshall County line west of Union Grove State Park (so technically not Tama County). The chapel building was\u00a0destroyed in a fire in 2020<\/a>.<\/p>\n Also Tama County-adjacent in the November wave is Belle Plaine. Other places with a notable number of churches leaving are Linn County and about a 50-mile radius around Ottumwa.<\/p>\n The Des Moines Register<\/em> has a statewide map<\/a>, although it put Gladbrook Chapel in Gladbrook. (Gladbrook’s Methodist Church was in the previous flight. Its previous Facebook page<\/a> said it would switch to a new one in July, but I am unable to find it. A message from the pastor on the church’s website<\/a> said that church would join the splinter Global Methodist Church, but the website hasn’t quite eliminated all UMC markings.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On New Year’s Day 2023, Grundy County had four United Methodist Churches. On New Year’s Eve 2023, it will have one. Two of the churches, in Conrad and Grundy Center, disaffiliated from the UMC in May (officially June 30) in … Continue reading