Since 2023, The United Methodist Church lost a third of its congregations to disaffiliation-a schism that tore through the heart of America Methodism. Among those departing was Buncombe Street United Methodist Church, a historic downtown congregation that had been Methodist for nearly two centuries. This is the church that made Will Willimon a Methodist. In this deeply personal yet instructive memoir, Willimon returns to his home church to understand how a prominent congregation came to sever ties with the denomination that birthed it. Through extensive interviews with leaders on all sides and careful analysis of sermons and congregational meetings, he reconstructs the painful story of how Buncombe Street moved from occasional grumbling about denominational policies to voting itself out of United Methodism entirely. The Church We Carry is more than a case study of one church's disaffiliation. It's a penetrating examination of the fores reshaping American Christianity: the decline of denominational loyalty, the rise of congregationalism, the challenge of pastoral leadership in polarized times, and the difficulty of maintaining Christian unity amid deep disagreements. With characteristic honesty and pastoral insight, Willimon also tells the story of the new congregation formed by those who chose to remain Methodist-a testament to the possibility of resurrection even in the midst of institutional dissolution.

Neither a defense of The United Methodist Church nor an attack on those who left, this book offers hard-won wisdom for pastors, lay leaders, and anyone concerned about the future of the church. Willimon reminds us that while human institutions are fragile and fallible, the church ultimately belongs to Christ, who has a way of making all things new.