Global Methodist Church Bishop Scott Jones led a workshop for clergy on Thursday for the new denomination’s North Alabama Conference at ClearBranch Methodist Church in Trussville.

Afterward, he spoke to a reporter about leaving the United Methodist Church and becoming one of two active bishops overseeing the worldwide work of the Global Methodist Church.

“Most of us were United Methodists, and we are grateful for the wonderful parts of that denomination, the way it shaped us in positive ways,” Jones said in an interview.

“But as I’ve written in a book called ‘The Once and Future Wesleyan Movement,’ there was some baggage, some things that needed to be dropped and left behind. We’re in the process now of figuring out, what of our former practices are valuable and need to be preserved, and which ones need to be changed.”

Jones, 70, was the former bishop of the Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church based in Houston, and before that, of the Great Plains Conference. He quit the United Methodist Church in 2022 and joined the Global Methodist Church in 2023.

“What broke it were the relationships, where people who used to be my friends no longer speak to me,” Jones said. “I want to love everybody and be friends with all my former colleagues. And yet, the pain of this separation is such that, well, they’re just not ready to be friends to me.”

Jones said he was aware of efforts by more than 40 United Methodist churches to leave the Alabama-West Florida Conference who have been prevented from doing so, after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled the matter had to be handled in church courts, not secular courts.

“I have been following that,” Jones said. “I’m deeply regretful that it’s so hard.”

The Global Methodist Church will accept those churches if they are able to leave and want to join, but Jones said he has avoided any direct involvement in the situation of churches trying to leave but being blocked.

“I don’t have that kind of advice,” Jones said. “When they’re still part of the United Methodist Church, I try not to meddle with their disaffiliation process, but what I do say is, if they’re ever able to leave, or form a new church, they’ll be more than welcome to join us in Alabama.”

In North Alabama, more than half of all United Methodist Churches left, and 200 joined the Global Methodist Church.

“North Alabama has had an easier time than many other places because the bishop of the United Methodist Church was fair and allowed the process to play itself out,” Jones said. “Other parts of the country have had bishops that were much more obstructive. North Alabama has been blessed in that way.”

One of the key issues in the Methodist split has been Global Methodists’ opposition to same-sex marriage, with the United Methodist Church voting to update its policies to allow same-sex marriage and ordination of LGBTQ clergy during the recent United Methodist General Conference that concluded May 3 in Charlotte.

Jones said opposing same-sex marriage is not hating LGBTQ people.

“We do not hate anybody,” Jones said.

“We have taught, as Methodist people have forever, that God loves everybody, but marriage is between one man and one woman, that your gender is fixed at birth and that while we welcome everybody, we need to teach what holiness looks like. When the United Methodist Church started changing its teaching and not enforcing its rules, then we needed to form a place that would provide an organization for traditional Methodism. We’re still teaching the same thing we always taught.”

Modern biblical interpretation has shifted with culture, he said.

“I believe it’s clearly spelled out in Scripture,” Jones said.

“Jesus said that about marriage. The New Testament teaches it clearly. This is what we’re supposed to be doing. And yet there are people who read the Bible a little differently, not quite as literally as I do. Those are good friends of mine who reached a different conclusion. I think God has a purpose in store for the United Methodist Church. As a progressive denomination, they will reach some people that Global Methodists will not.”

Jones said he is aware of the theological arguments for a full embrace of LGBTQ practices in the church.

“There are people who say that modern science has brought new knowledge and understanding of things,” Jones said. “I’m well familiar with all those different arguments. I just landed with the people who want to read a traditional view of the Old and New Testaments.”

Jones oversees all Global Methodist Churches in Alabama, including 200 in the provisional North Alabama Conference. He shares worldwide oversight with Bishop Mark Webb.

“There are two active bishops,” Jones said. “I have 18 annual conferences, including the Philippines, Kenya and Ethiopia, as well as about 10 of them in the United States. Bishop Webb has the northern and western part (of the United States).”

On Saturday, Scott will ordain 18 clergy, 9 elders and 9 deacons.

“We are refocusing the future of the Methodist movement by creating Global Methodist congregations all over the world that are focused on the basics of Wesleyan Christianity,” Jones said. “When we gather as clergy and laity here, we are inspiring them, we are teaching them.”

The Global Methodist Church is planning its first General Conference in Costa Rica, Sept. 20-26, to focus on missions.

That will be discussed during the meeting at ClearBranch.

“We’re also focused on our mission work,” Jones said.

“We’re not quite ready to name our foreign mission partner, but North Alabama Conference will have a foreign mission partner. My wife, Mary Lou, and I just finished a 47-day trip around the world in 9 countries, where we’re seeing Methodist conferences formed in Africa and Asia. I just learned of a Methodist conference this week in Central America. We are moving forward, shaping a new movement. It’s an exciting time to be involved.”