By Sarah Melotte for The Daily Yonder.Broadcast version by Shanteya Hudson for North Carolina News Service Service for the Public News Service/Daily Yonder Collaboration Reverend Katie Black had been serving her United Methodist Church (UMC) congregation for less than a year when a member knocked on her office door and told her the congregation had been praying about withdrawing from the denomination. “I had heard a lot of stories about churches [disaffiliating] in bigger cities and it becoming a very contentious and ugly fight,” Reverend Black said in an interview with the Daily Yonder. “But this is a small town. .
Many small or rural churches that are part of the United Methodist Church will have to decide whether to stay with the denomination because of its stance on LGBTQ issues.