New Name, Same Church: Beech Grove Church may no longer be affiliated with the United Methodist Church, but they still worship the same way

Jun. 30—Traveling north on Clifty Road through the peaceful embrace of the northern Pulaski county countryside, Beech Grove Church sits atop Clifty Hill in the heart of the picturesque community of Beech Grove.

Founded in 1891, then Beech Grove Methodist Church served generations of the quaint northern Pulaski County community. The small local church switched over to be a United Methodist Church in 1972.

For well over a century nothing much has changed for the local Science Hill country church, until last week when the entire congregation of 30 members voted to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church.

Last December the Kentucky Conference announced that 57 of its churches had disaffiliated. In Kentucky alone, almost 400 congregations have left the United Methodist Church in opposition to gay clergies and same-sex marriage. Among Christian denominations in Kentucky, United Methodists trail only Southern Baptists with 904,352 members and Catholics with 356,064 members.

Taking over as the Beech Grove United Methodist Church's pastor in 2019, Cecil Bowling quickly fell in love with the small community church and congregation. Growing up, Bowling attended both United Methodist and Baptist churches, and eventually saw the Pentecostal Church as a mixture of both religions which led him to preaching at a Pentecostal Church in Texas for almost 10 years. Bowling and his wife eventually moved to Kentucky, where he preached at the Shady Grove United Methodist Church before making the move to the Beech Grove Church.

"Most of the conservative churches are afraid of the direction the United Methodist Church is headed," Bowling stated. "Several in this community have left the United Methodist Church, including Shady Grove, Science Hill, Trinity, and maybe one more in this county. I think we all didn't like the way the United Methodist Church was going."

In a special session of the General Conference in 2019, delegates did not change the denomination's position that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. But traditionalists still were not satisfied.

The Wesleyan Covenant Association said "a parting of ways is the only viable way forward." The General Conference signed off on a plan at the 2019 session to allow churches to disaffiliate based on views on sexuality. Disaffiliation votes have been occurring all over Kentucky for the last few years.

"I kept the congregation informed of everything that was going on," Bowling stated. "Our congregation made the decision of what they wanted to do and they wanted to vote on it. I didn't have a part in that because it had to be what the congregation wanted to do as a church. The district superintendent came in for the vote, counted the votes, and then made it official that they could leave [the United Methodist Church].

The congregation asked if Pastor Bowling still wanted to lead their new church, and he immediately responded 'yes'.

"I turned my [United Methodist Church] license back in and my first official Sunday would've been this past Sunday," Bowling stated. "I think we are officially out of the United Methodist Church on June 30th."

According to Bowling, the vote was unanimous among the small Beech Grove Church members, and nothing has really changed. Bowling says they still sing out of the same hymnals and they worship God out of the same Bibles as before.

"There wasn't a big change this past Sunday in our congregation's attitude or tone," Bowling admitted. "Most of these folks have always been United Methodist, but I really think for them it was more about being a member of the Beech Grove Church."

"It's been a tight community," he said. "When they come to church the name might have changed, but it was still Beech Grove. It was still home."

Despite the name change, Beech Grove Church will still meet for Sunday School at 10 a.m and morning worship at 11 a.m. each Sunday, followed by Sunday night services and Wednesday night services. The church also hosts monthly potluck dinners and gatherings of the Beech Grove Cemetery Association.

However, the biggest news for the small northern Pulaski County church has nothing do with with its name change, but rather their upcoming weeklong Vacation Bible School, which runs from Monday, July 3 through Friday, July 7.

"We are have been getting ready for next week's Vacation Bible School," Bowling said with a grin. "We are expecting about 40 to 50 kids. Vacation Bible School is a big thing out here and kids will come out from all over the place to come out here for our Vacation Bible School. I was amazed how the word got out about it and that we get so much participation from outside our little community."

Bowling explained that his small Beech Grove Church congregation has a mixture of young and old members, and he is able to give a very descriptive detail of each one of them.

"The youngest one we've got coming here is Cameron; he's about three (years old) and he comes with his great grandma," Bowling said as he gazed around the small sanctuary. "Our oldest member is in their 80's, and we have some teenagers.

"One of the pillars of our church is Margie Tilley, who works with our youth," Bowling explained. "She's an older lady, but the kids love her to death. She's like a teenager at heart and she keeps the whole youth group going."

A church attendance board is affixed on the sanctuary back wall, just behind the pulpit and to the left of the baptism basin. The small church's attendance doesn't change that much from week to week except for that one rare occurrence that is happening this week.

"We've got one family here that has four girls and they've been on vacation for the last little bit," Bowling laughed. "So when they are on vacation, our attendance does drop a little."

Contact Steve Cornelius at scornelius@somerset-kentucky.com.