Mt. Bethel will pay $13.1M, exit United Methodist Church

Settlement deal will resolve high-profile legal battle.

East Cobb’s Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church must pay $13.1 million to the Methodist denomination in order to leave and become an independent church, lawyers involved in the case confirmed Thursday.

The price tag for Mt. Bethel to disaffiliate from the UMC with its property and other assets intact is part of a settlement agreement that will resolve a high-profile legal battle between Mt. Bethel and the North Georgia Conference, a regional body that governs nearly 800 UMC churches.

Robert Ingram, a lawyer representing Mt. Bethel, and Tom Cauthorn, a lawyer representing the conference, told the MD J that the parties have agreed on a final settlement agreement. The agreement is being executed in the coming days and will soon be submitted to Cobb County Superior Court for approval by a judge.

Mt. Bethel and the conference announced in early May that they had agreed on the general terms of a settlement but declined to publi- cize details at the time.

Mt. Bethel will have 120 days to raise the money, Ingram said, and will embark on a fundraising drive to do so.

“The church leadership is hopeful that they’re going to be able to raise the money among their members,” Ingram said. “But that’s (how the payments will be financed) yet to be determined.”

Mt. Bethel’s congregants will not vote on disaffiliation. UMC protocols stipulate that under normal circumstances, a two-thirds majority of a congregation must vote in favor of disaffiliation for a church to leave the denomination.

Under the settlement, Mt. Bethel will drop the UMC language from its name, becoming known simply as Mt. Bethel Church.

The settlement also includes provisions that limit the usage of some of Mt. Bethel’s real estate, Cauthorn said.

Mt. Bethel, which dates back more than 175 years, is the largest church in the North Georgia Conference. According to conference data, in 2020 it had about 10,200 members, and the market value of its land, buildings, cash and other assets was about $36.7 million. It also operates Mt. Bethel Christian Academy, a K-12 school with nearly 700 students.