Key points:
- Bishop Rubén Saenz Jr. maintains, as a matter of church law, Highland Park is still United Methodist even after a congregational vote to cut ties.
- He is making plans to care for Highland Park members who wish to stay United Methodist.
- The litigation about changes to the church’s bylaws remains ongoing.
Bishop Rubén Saenz Jr. announced Oct. 29 he has made plans to ensure Highland Park members who wish to stay United Methodist have pastoral leadership and a place of worship.
At the same time, the bishop insisted that the congregation’s vote this week to cut ties with the denomination is not valid under church law and that the Dallas megachurch remains part of the United Methodist fold.
In letters to both Highland Park lay leaders and congregants, the Horizon Texas Conference bishop announced that he has appointed the Rev. Andy Lewis as the new senior pastor of Highland Park. Lewis most recently has served as assistant to the bishop, a senior leadership role in the conference office.
“As your pastor, Andy will care for you, preach the Word, offer the sacraments and walk with you through this season,” Saenz said in his letter to the congregants.
In his letters, Saenz announced that he was removing the Rev. Matt Tuggle, the church’s current senior pastor, and the Rev. Paul Rasmussen, the senior pastor emeritus, from the church’s leadership. United Methodist bishops, like their Catholic counterparts, appoint pastors to lead their denomination’s congregations.
Saenz also told the church council that as a matter of church law, “Highland Park United Methodist Church, chartered in 1916, remains a recognized United Methodist congregation and a charge of the Horizon Texas Conference.”
"No action taken by its Church Council changes that ecclesiastical standing," Saenz added. "The Conference will protect, to the fullest extent, the rights and benefits of the connection for Highland Park's United Methodist members, ensuring that they continue to have a place within the life and ministry of our denomination."
However, Highland Park congregational leadership no longer considers the church United Methodist. In a statement, the Highland Park church council said the bishop's declaration changes nothing for the congregation.
"This Sunday, we will worship as usual with our clergy, including our Senior Minister, Rev. Matt Tuggle at the pulpit — at our Church on the corner of Mockingbird and Hillcrest," the church council's statement said. "As we have said many times, we will continue to protect our beloved and incredible clergy including the Rev. Matt Tuggle and the Rev. Paul Rasmussen. They did not choose to be in this situation any more than our Church did, but we are committed to their care, just as they have cared for us. This retaliatory move by the bishop is one more example of the irrevocable broken bond of trust that once existed between our Church and The United Methodist Church."
For the time being, Saenz said Highland Park United Methodists will gather for worship with Lewis at 10 a.m. U.S. Central time Nov. 1 at University Park United Methodist Church, about three miles away.
“Out of respect for everyone involved, and to avoid unnecessary conflict while these matters are resolved, we will worship there temporarily as we continue caring for one another and moving forward together,” Saenz said in his letter to congregants. “I hope you will remain together as a community of faith. The relationships, ministries and shared commitments you have built over the years are worth preserving. Even in this uncertain season, you have an opportunity to carry that community forward.”
The changes come amid an escalating dispute between the conference and leaders of one The United Methodist Church’s biggest and wealthiest congregations.
In August, the Horizon Texas Conference filed a lawsuit in Dallas County civil court against the church — arguing the church council’s changes to Highland Park’s bylaws in 2022 improperly removed oversight by the denomination and the church’s own congregants. Among other changes, the revised bylaws stripped away earlier references to the denomination’s Book of Discipline, and the legal documents started listing the church’s official name as “Highland Park Methodist Church.”
The conference’s lawsuit followed meetings in October and December last year and this past March in which Saenz and other conference leaders urged the church to revise its bylaws to bring them back in line with United Methodist processes and with the Book of Discipline, the denomination’s law book.
In the response to the lawsuit, filed Sept. 21, the church leadership said it informed the conference of the changes at the time and strongly denied that the church was trying to cut ties with The United Methodist Church.
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However, on Oct. 15, Highland Park’s church council unanimously adopted an ecclesiastical resolution calling for the churchwide vote with a recommendation to leave the denomination.
That vote took place over Oct. 25 and 26, with 90.35% of the 4,775 votes cast in favor of a resolution for the congregation to “sever all of its ties, affiliations, and connections to The United Methodist Church.”
That still leaves more than 400 Highland Park members who voted against the resolution. About one-third of Highland Park’s 15,000 members participated in the vote.
"The bishop has said he will listen to our congregation, and our congregation has spoken loud and clear," the church council said in its Oct. 29 statement.
"We’re focused on our future as Highland Park Methodist Church while remaining who we are and have been as a Church for the past 110 years."
However, under the Book of Discipline, leaving the denomination with property is not a simple matter of taking a congregational vote.
The United Methodist Church maintains a centuries-old trust clause, first established by Methodism founder John Wesley, that says church property is held in trust for the benefit of the denomination. What that means is that while people can leave a church at any time, they can’t take property with them.
From 2019 to 2023, during the time Highland Park changed its bylaws, the denomination offered a limited release from the trust clause — allowing churches to leave with property if they met certain financial and procedural conditions, including congregational vote of least two-thirds to leave. More than 7,600 U.S. churches left the denomination under that provision.
But that policy expired on Dec. 31, 2023. The next year, General Conference — the denomination’s top policymaking body — took the additional step of removing it entirely from the Discipline. The United Methodist Judicial Council subsequently declared that the trust clause is now back in full force.
Civil courts across the U.S. repeatedly have upheld the United Methodist trust clause in adjudicating church-property disputes because many other nonprofits also have trust provisions for property.
What happens in the Texas courts remains to be seen.
The conference amended the suit on Oct. 15, adding a second count accusing the church of breach of contract and arguing that the church council’s changes are void. The conference is asking the court for a permanent injunction prohibiting Highland Park from breaching the articles and bylaws further.
A non-jury trial is set for Oct. 12, 2027.
"The decision to withdraw the litigation rests solely with the bishop," the Highland Park church council said. "If he chooses to continue, we are confident in our legal position and prepared to see the process through, while continuing to pray for a just and peaceful outcome."
The conference, for its part, maintains its goal remains unchanged: the restoration of Highland Park United Methodist Church’s corporate governing documents.
"We will not walk away from you," Saenz told congregants. "Our goal remains a vibrant United Methodist church at the corner of Hillcrest and Mockingbird: a congregation governed as a United Methodist church, connected to the wider church and open to all. We will keep pursuing that goal faithfully, patiently and through every proper path available to us. This is not the end of the story."
In the meantime, Lewis said it his great honor and privilege to serve as the Highland Park pastor. A native of Plano, Texas, Lewis has experience as senior pastor of Holy Covenant United Methodist in Carrollton and First United Methodist Lewisville, both Dallas-area churches.
“This has been a hard and painful season for many of you,” he said in a statement. “As your pastor, I look forward to listening to you and walking with you so that, with God’s help, you will find healing and your hope will be restored.”
Hahn is assistant news editor for UM News. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or [email protected]. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digest.
