LGBTQ+ Ministries

🌈 Located adjacent to Mars Hill University and minutes from downtown Weaverville and Asheville, Mars Hill United Methodist Church is a Reconciling Ministries Network congregation that welcomes and celebrates every child of God without exception. 🏳️‍🌈

Mars Hill United Methodist Church Welcomes Every Child of God Without Exception.

At Mars Hill United Methodist Church, we celebrate God’s gift of diversity and value the wholeness made possible in a community equally shared and shepherded by all. We welcome and affirm people of every gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation, who are also of every age, race, ethnicity, physical and mental ability, level of education, and family structure, and of every economic, immigration, marital, and social status, and so much more. We acknowledge that we live in a world of profound social, economic, and political inequities. As followers of Jesus, we commit ourselves to the pursuit of justice and pledge to stand in solidarity with all who are marginalized and oppressed.

What Does It Mean to Be Reconciling?

Reconciling ministries are churches, Sunday school classes, youth groups, regional groups, campus ministries, colleges, and others who have made the Reconciling commitment to intersectional LGBTQI justice.

That means that however, God made you, you are beloved and celebrated in these ministries. To date, there are nearly 1,400 Reconciling ministries with approximately 44,000 Reconciling United Methodists.

Scriptural Holiness

Scriptural holiness was central to Methodism’s founders, John and Charles Wesley. Enter a new resource for people part of the Christian faith tradition known as Wesleyan.

This new website is a dedicated online resource for people who want to be faithful to scripture while, also, becoming the most Christ-like Christians possible. It offers questions and resources about LGBTQ+ inclusion in the United Methodist Church and includes opportunities to welcome, learn and grow.

Responding to the Special Session of General Conference 2019

Pastor Lisa’s Response to General Conference

Feb. 27, 2019

Dear Mars Hill UMC Family,

The events of the General Conference that concluded yesterday are disheartening. The conference voted to reject the bishop proposed "One Church Plan" which would have allowed clergy, churches, and annual conferences to make their own spirit-led decisions about the marriage and ordination of our LGBTIA siblings in Christ. Instead they passed the traditional plan which provides larger punitive measures to attempt to assure Untied Methodist cannot be ordain or marry self avowed, practicing homosexuals. While I mourn for my beloved church, of which I have been a life long member. I can find hope in a few things.

The General Conference is not the church. This vote in no way diminishes the love and full acceptance that our congregation lives on a daily basis.

The vote was close: 438 to 384. Furthermore, looking solely at the votes of the US delegates the One Church Plan would have one. I don't say this to condemn our African siblings in Christ, but rather to point out that it was people from a culture vastly different from our own which caused this vote.

It is possible that the Traditional Plan might be ruled unconstitutional by the Judicial Council (the UMC supreme court). If that happens we wouldn't be ahead, but at least won't have fallen farther behind.

The chaplain at Mars Hill let me know that the very fact that our church welcomes brings hope and affirmation to LGBTQIA students who never come in our door!

Our larger community is rallying around the pain of this vote. Tonight at 6 pm at Trinity UMC in Asheville we will have a vigil to lament and profess our solidarity with the whole of the people of God. Please attend if you are able.

This Saturday at Green Street UMC in Winston-Salem there will be a worship service at 10:30 am followed by lunch and a strategizing session of the Western NC Reconciling ministries. If you are interested in attending and want to know more information or sign up for lunch please let me know.

Lastly, even in the face of the hypocrisy of choosing one perceived "sin" over all others, there is always hope. After all, we worship a Lord who rose from the dead! New life always springs forth, even when something beloved dies. 

In love peace, and hope,

Lisa

Blue Ridge District & WNC Conference REsponse

Local Churches, Congregations & District Superintendent Respond with Love, Vigil

As featured in the Asheville-Citizen Times, read more about how local churches, pastors, and our district superintendent responded with a vigil and love. Attendees included the pastor and congregation of Mars Hill United Methodist Church. Click to read the story.

An open letter to our LGBTQ+ siblings and their allies

From Sacred Witness Western North Carolina

United Methodist pastors, church leaders, and laity in the Western North Carolina Conference wrote to acknowledge the harm done recently by the global gathering of the United Methodist Church known as General Conference.

They say to our LGBTQ+ siblings: “you are beloved children of God, and you are beloved by us.” This action of the General Conference does not reflect our own hopes and dreams for The United Methodist Church. More importantly, we believe that it does not reflect the hopes and dreams of God.

The letter included 1,250 signatures from beloveds across the Western North Carolina District and was presented to Bishop Leeland by ten clergy and one lay person. After listening carefully, Bishop Leeland acknowledged the hurt some feel when they repeatedly hear they are not fully received into the life of the church, while also recognizing there were those of sincere conviction who feel differently. All conceded the conference, and the entire denomination, represents a divided house. The meeting ended with prayer for our laity, clergy, congregations, and denomination.