When Harvest Church in Dothan was founded by Pastor Ralph Sigler in 1996, he aligned it with the United Methodist Church.

When the growing congregation bought a 10-acre campus and built a 1,200-seat worship center, church leadership did not include a “trust clause” that made the United Methodist Alabama-West Florida Conference an owner of the property.

“We didn’t put a trust clause on our documents,” Sigler said. “We never had ‘United Methodist’ on our sign.”

When Harvest Church voted to leave the denomination in November 2022, it didn’t think it owed the denomination any money.

Some churches its size that decided to leave were paying settlements as high as $4 million to leave, he said. Most of the more than 1,600 people who attend the church weekly weren’t even aware of the United Methodist affiliation, Sigler said.

The church is now independent, though Siegler said he has always considered it part of the Methodist Holiness movement, emphasizing the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It always has been on the conservative end of Methodist theology, he said.

But the Alabama-West Florida Conference would not let the church leave without paying and going through procedures that other disaffiliating churches were required to follow. Now the case is in the state Supreme Court.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard arguments on Harvest Church’s claim to own its own property. The conference had asked a Houston County court to dismiss the case, saying it was a church matter and shouldn’t be decided by the courts.

The court did not dismiss it, and the conference appealed to the state Supreme Court. “They appealed the refusal to dismiss,” Sigler said.

Sigler said Harvest Church leaders believe the United Methodist Church has failed to enforce its Book of Discipline bans on same-sex marriage and ordination of openly gay clergy since the 2016 election of the first openly lesbian bishop, Karen Oliveto.

“We are saddened by this litigation, but we are confident the process we have adhered to is fair and just,” the conference said in a statement about its other lawsuit before the state Supreme Court involving a group of 45 churches that filed a lawsuit against the conference asking to leave.

Those churches said Bishop David Graves had delayed the disaffiliation process trying to “run out the clock” to keep them from leaving. Those churches lost at the circuit court level when a judge ruled it was an internal church matter, but appealed to the state Supreme Court and are hoping for a hearing.

A major deadline passed on Dec. 31 for the disaffiliation process that allowed 348 churches to leave the North Alabama Conference and 248 churches to leave the Alabama-West Florida Conference.

The passing of the end-of-year deadline for disaffiliation makes it harder for churches to leave and take church property along with them in 2024.

Nationwide, over the past four years, 7,600 congregations left the denomination– 5,600 in 2023. That’s about a fourth of all United Methodist churches. They left under 2019 guidelines that made it possible for churches to negotiate to leave and take their property with them until the end of 2023.

In Alabama, more than half of United Methodist congregations disaffiliated – about 555 churches. Most of those departures have taken place since 2022.

Sigler said that in documents filed every year with the conference, Harvest Church answered a questionnaire asking if the church had a trust agreement on its property with the conference. It said that it did not, Sigler said. “We noted that every year,” he said.

The conference has argued in court that the church admits it did not follow conference rules on how to disaffiliate.

Sigler said he believes the conference’s refusal to let Harvest Church leave is just about money, but he says they have contributed plenty to the United Methodist Church in annual apportionments, which churches are asked to send to support denominational work.

“We paid $2.5 million in support to the denomination,” Sigler said. “They’ve already benefited quite a bit.”

See also: United Methodist disaffiliation deadline passes: retired Alabama bishop calls split ‘traumatic’

United Methodist split: changing signs reflect upheaval

United Methodist split: 45 churches who sued bishop to disaffiliate file appeal to state Supreme Court

United Methodist split: 8 more churches disaffiliate, including 1 of Mobile’s largest

United Methodists urge repeal of ban on same-sex marriage, openly gay clergy

United Methodists ask for loyalty from leaders, tighten rules on disaffiliation and downsize

Another 132 North Alabama United Methodist churches disaffiliate: Trussville, Helena, Gardendale

‘Division is of the devil,’ United Methodist bishop says as 193 churches disaffiliate