ADDISON TWP. – The congregation of Lakeville United Methodist Church has already made it quite clear with their voices that they don’t wish to go gentle into that good night. Now, they’ve added their votes.

A meeting called a “special charge conference” was held Sept. 7 at the 1422 Milmine Rd. church and the congregation members who were eligible to cast a ballot voted unanimously against a recommendation to close the church, or “discontinuance” as it’s called.

“There was no other choice – we had to vote no,” said longtime member Joan Trevaskis, who’s been attending the church since the early 1980s. “I’ve talked to another pastor since then and he said all you’ve done is bought yourself a little bit more time, not a lot, but a little bit. If you had voted to discontinue, you would be done.”

What happens next?

“I will report the results of this vote to the Detroit Annual Conference,” wrote Rev. Elizabeth Hill, superintendent of the Blue Water District of the Detroit Conference of the United Methodist Church (UMC), in a Sept. 9 email to this reporter.

“In the future, the Bishop and the Cabinet will determine the next steps in the process. The Lakeville Church will be notified of these next steps once decisions are made.”

In the UMC, the annual (or regional) conference is the “basic unit” of the church. It has a central office and professional staff.

Headquarted in Flint, the Detroit Annual Conference is comprised of 442 churches, 723 clergy members and more than 90,000 lay members, according to its website. The conference’s full cabinet consists of Bishop David Bard and 13 other members including district superintendents such as Hill.

Mark Doyal, director of communications for the conference and a member of the cabinet, did not return phone calls seeking more information about the process the Lakeville church is going through.

Lakeville UMC is facing potential closure because its congregation is very small and no longer growing, consists of an aging membership and is not as active as the UMC believes it should be.

Trevaskis said she voted against discontinuance because she’s hoping Lakeville UMC could possibly join with another church.

“We still think we have a chance with a merger,” she said. “We’ve talked with a couple of different churches and we’d like the chance to renegotiate. (We’d like to) see if we can’t set up some type of merger that will give us some time and maybe some help, which the district doesn’t seem to want to do.”

“It’s been suggested that we write a letter to the bishop requesting some time, anywhere from 90 days to maybe six months, (and) explaining that we did want to consider a merger,” Trevaskis added.

Maxine Louwaert, chair of Lakeville’s Pastor-Parish Relations Committee, thought her ‘no’ vote might lead to a second chance for the church. “We just thought that they would kind of give us a reprieve,” she said.

If the UMC ultimately decides to close the Lakeville church, according to a June 28 letter from the Blue Water District, “members could transfer to another congregation of their choosing,” while “the building could be sold and any remaining assets allocated to churches, missions or ministries as the congregation decides.”

Maxine and her husband, Gene, have been attending the Lakeville church since the late 1970s. The Louwaerts believe the UMC wants to close their church to gain money and use it elsewhere.

“It seems that way,” said Maxine, who has been a member since the 1980s.

“Follow the money,” Gene said. “If you ask me, that’s the only reason they’re doing it.”

Trevaskis also feels it’s all about the money. “That might be a cynical way to look at it, but that’s the only thing that makes sense to me,” she said. “I don’t really see why you would close a church down that has money in the bank, buildings that are usable and does have a congregation. It’s not like we’re costing them money. It’s not like we’re the bottom of the barrel. We’re sustaining.”

Gene noted how much money and sweat has been poured into the church over the years.

“Everything we’ve done at that church, we’ve done on our own,” he said. “That’s been the people of Lakeville and the people who went to Lakeville United Methodist Church. They’ve provided everything over there – the steeple, any improvements to the church, any improvements to the parsonage.

“(It was all done) without any help whatsoever from the United Methodist Church. And now that we’ve got everything in pretty good shape, they’re using it against us (saying that the congregation is too small).”

Closure of the Lakeville UMC would mean the loss of an institution that’s been part of community’s history for nearly two centuries. Although the actual church building was constructed in 1856, the congregation had its start sometime between 1832-36.

The current situation with Lakeville UMC began with a March 3 letter from the church’s pastor, Jacque Hodges, to the membership notifying them that Hill had “invited” them to “participate in a process,” the purpose of which “is to help churches like Lakeville evaluate their current viability and vitality as a congregation and to develop a plan of action based on the evaluation.”

Based on that evaluation, the Blue Water District sent a June 28 letter to Lakeville’s leadership team informing them it’s been recommended the church either merge with an existing congregation or discontinue itself.

This letter cited several “key factors” behind the recommendation. Among them were the church’s “very small number of volunteers,” declining worship attendance, lack of a new member “in more than 7 years,” lack of handicap accessibility and finances.

Also cited was “the congregation has no current, viable, lived-out mission and vision for ministry.”

“Struggling simply to keep a building in good repair, with paid utilities, does not allow you the necessary vitality to look out into the world and discover the ways that God is calling you to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world,” the letter stated.

The letter noted “a primary purpose of the local church is to be outwardly focused and missional, for the good of its surrounding community and the world.”

Maxine said she initially thought the evaluation process was about getting “an overview of the church,” determining where it’s at, what needs to be done and what help is available.

Now, she sees that wasn’t the case.

“We went through that process and some of it was really not fair,” she said. “We were in a predicament and we needed help. (But) all they did was (take) the statistics and what we said, and said, ‘Okay, you’re either going to close or merge.’ They didn’t try to give us any advice . . . They didn’t give us any help. We would like to have had some help or advice.”

Gene agreed.

“It’s almost like a trap,” he said. “They used (the evaluation) against us.”

Trevaskis feels as though the UMC has not been forthright in its dealings with the Lakeville congregation and the way this whole situation has been handled.

“You can’t believe anything they say,” she said. “We are totally fed up with it. Even outsiders are shaking their heads.”

Maxine doesn’t deny Lakeville UMC had become “lax (about) getting things done,” but she felt that stemmed from a “lack of enthusiasm from the preacher.”

“She left a lot of things up to us,” she said. “I realize that we needed to do (things), but we needed some guidance.”

Gene feels the same way.

“If we had some decent pastors there . . . . somebody who is enthusiastic and gave an inspiring sermon, I think they could draw more people into that church,” he said.

When called for comment, Hodges declined to speak and referred all questions to the Blue Water District office in Fort Gratiot.