Latest: Texas Megachurch Votes This Sunday on Leaving United Methodist Church

She stood in front of about 800 people in a church sanctuary and asked the question nobody had dared to say out loud for years: "Knowing what we know now, should our church remain part of The United Methodist Church?" Caroline Nowlin, chair of the Highland Park United Methodist Church council, let the silence do the work — then said the decision would not be made by the council, but by the congregation.

On October 25-26, one of the most influential churches in American Methodism will hold a congregational vote on whether to sever all ties with The United Methodist Church. Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas — the second-largest church in the entire denomination, with more than 15,000 members — could walk away. And this Sunday, its people get the final say.

Highland Park UMC Disaffiliation: Why the Church May Leave

The road to this vote did not start this month. The dispute traces back to 2022, when changes to the church's bylaws and incorporation removed denominational oversight — a move the Horizon Texas Conference challenged in court. On August 10, the conference sued, arguing the removal of oversight was improper, and the two sides have been in a legal battle ever since.

Bishop Ruben Saenz Jr. and the Horizon Texas Conference oppose the move, but church leaders say this is about something deeper than paperwork: self-governance. Who gets a voice in selecting the clergy who lead the church? And does a congregation of 15,000 have the right to leave the denomination if its members vote to do so — the questions church council member David McAtee says it all comes down to.

"The dispute comes down to two issues: the say that we have in selecting our clergy, and whether this church has the right to leave the denomination if the membership votes to do so." — David McAtee, HPUMC church council member (via Christian Post)

Methodist Church Vote October 2026: A Unanimous Council, a Divided Future

On October 13, the church's 23-member council voted unanimously to recommend disaffiliation. Two days earlier, about 800 members packed a town hall to hear the case laid out in person. Nowlin's message to them was clear: the council's recommendation is just that — a recommendation, and if the membership votes to stay, the church stays.

"Knowing what we know now, should our church remain part of The United Methodist Church? If the church council recommends severing our ties with The United Methodist Church, the decision to do so would come to a vote to you." — Caroline Nowlin, chair of HPUMC Church Council (via Christian Post)

That framing matters, because HPUMC is not a struggling congregation limping away from a sinking ship. Located adjacent to Southern Methodist University, it is the second-largest church in the UMC — a historic, wealthy, deeply rooted institution whose exit would shake the denomination. The christain press has already called it one of the most consequential Methodist votes in recent memory.

Dallas Church News: Texas Is Watching

Texas has become the front line of American church news this year. While Dallas braces for a vote about leaving, believers elsewhere in the state have been celebrating a different kind of milestone — 882 baptized in one day at a Texas church, a reminder that the same state can hold both turmoil and triumph in the same season. The contrast is almost startling: one sanctuary debates its future, another fills its baptistry to overflowing.

The leadership questions at the heart of this fight are not unique to Dallas. When Andy Stanley announced he is stepping down as North Point senior pastor, it was another landmark church facing a turning point in who leads and how. And when 80,000 Christians packed AT&T Stadium for a night of prayer, it showed what Texas believers still do best: gather, pray, and leave the outcomes to God.

For Highland Park, the path after the vote is anything but settled. A vote to leave would mean untangling decades of denominational ties — property, pensions, apportionments, and a lawsuit already moving through the courts. A vote to stay would mean learning to live with a conference it just fought in court — and either way, the congregation that walks into that sanctuary on October 25-26 will not be the same one that walks out.

So the question Nowlin asked 800 people now belongs to 15,000. Should they stay, or should they go? Watch this Sunday — because whatever Highland Park decides, every Methodist church in America will be reading the result, and somewhere in that sanctuary, with ballots in hand, a congregation will learn what its own answer has been all along.

But the most surprising part of this story is yet to come — keep reading.