The Dush family, from left to right, includes Andrea, Britt, Christin, Rev. Brad, Dereck, and Cameron.

In a historic move, the Fairfax United Methodist Church became the Fairfax Methodist Church on July 1, 2023. This congregation in Fairfax has a long tradition of serving their local community and surrounding area since it was founded in 1882. Through the years, the church’s name has changed, but their mission has remained the same. The last change occurred in 1968, when they became known as the Fairfax United Methodist Church after The Evangelical United Brethren Church and The Methodist Church merged to form the United Methodist (UMC) denomination. In recent years, there has been mounting tension in the UMC on a variety of topics that center around keeping a more traditional perspective and interpretation of scripture. In 2019, a process was created to allow United Methodist churches who wanted to maintain their current traditional beliefs to leave or disaffiliate from the denomination. The church in Fairfax joined this movement along with thousands of others across the country and voted to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church in November of 2022. Their vote was approved by the Missouri Annual Conference at the June 2023 gathering. Starting in July of 2023, the church became a part of a new Methodist denomination called The Global Methodist Church (GMC), and the congregation officially changed its name to Fairfax Methodist Church.

To commemorate this momentous occasion, the Fairfax Methodist Church has planned a special service for Sunday, September 10, 2023. The celebration begins with morning worship at 10:30 a.m., with a lunch following the service. There will be a special service at 1:00 p.m. with a guest pastor from The Global Methodist Church, Rev. Jan Dillard, to mark the entry of the Fairfax Methodist Church into the new GMC denomination. A cake and punch reception will follow the special service. The Fairfax Methodist Church extends a special invitation to the community of Fairfax and the surrounding area to come and celebrate that day with them.

As the church worked through the long discernment process concerning disaffiliation, they did so with their new pastor, Rev. Brad Dush. The Fairfax Methodist Church is excited to announce Rev. Dush chose to transfer to The Global Methodist Church and continue as their pastor. Rev. Dush grew up in Southeast Missouri. He first started filling in pulpits as a guest speaker in 1995. He entered the ministry in July of 1999 and pastored churches throughout Southeast Missouri and, most recently, in Jamesport and Gallatin before moving to Fairfax. Rev. Dush is married to Christin, the high school mathematics teacher at Rock Port. Together, they have four children, with their “baby,” a high school senior. Rev. Dush’s passion in ministry is preaching the Gospel in ways people can identify, connect to, and apply in their daily lives. His hobbies include woodworking and cooking. He loves to cook about anything he can put in his smoker or fryer.

Plan to attend the special services on September 10, fellowship together, and encourage the Fairfax Methodist Church as they embark on this new adventure!