The Monday evening light was fading behind the stained-glass depictions of Bible stories in the simple sanctuary of Unionville United Methodist Church. About a hundred people sang guitar-led praise songs in a regional Methodist gathering at the small congregation in Rochester, Beaver County, which has worked to revitalize itself through everything from a children’s program to a food pantry.

Small-town congregants, simple worship, earnest social service — are all common images of the United Methodist Church, the second-largest Protestant body in the nation and the region.

But the denomination, which is headed for a high-stakes 10-day legislative gathering starting Tuesday in Portland, Ore., is far more diverse  — and divided — than its traditional Main Street image.

That diversity can be seen in a vast, unadorned North Fayette sanctuary, where a high-octane praise song brings hundreds of worshipers to their feet at one of numerous weekend worship services hosted by Crossroads United Methodist Church.

It also can be seen at a small chapel at historic First United Methodist Church of Pittsburgh in Bloomfield, where a dozen people gather by candlelight on a Wednesday night for drumming, chanting, discussions and a playful crafting of a make-shift sea creature depicted in the evening’s text of Psalm 148.

The General Conference, which is held once every four years, greets delegates with a crowded agenda and includes an urgent question:

Can United Methodists stay, well, united at a time of deepening tensions over their current ban on ordaining and marrying gays and lesbians? The denomination’s Book of Discipline says all persons are of sacred worth but that the “practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching” and “self-avowed, practicing homosexuals” are not to be clergy.

While most U.S. Protestant denominations have tacked left or right on such questions, United Methodists are the last major U.S.-based Protestant denomination still having a fierce debate over them.

Regardless of what the General Conference does, a deeper question looms:

Can United Methodists reverse a half-century trend of membership declines at a time when indifference to organized religion is growing and many historic churches are losing members, particularly in declining small towns and urban neighborhoods where Methodist churches are numerous?

Don House, a Texas economist and active United Methodist, told a gathering of top church leaders last year that the denomination is on pace to lose two-thirds of its churches and attendees by 2050 — and if it doesn’t turn things around by 2030, it will be too late.

The long-term declines mirror other mainline Protestant groups in this country.

In contrast, United Methodists are growing rapidly in Africa, where they were long a minority but now are rapidly drawing close to American membership.

The U.S. church had 11 million at its peak in the late 1960s. It now has 7.2 million members, down 6 percent in just the last five years.

At the same time, the overseas part of the church, mainly African, grew 11 percent to 5.1 million.

These growing parts of the church are most resistant to any changes in church law on homosexuality, even as Americans grow more accepting of gays and lesbians.

But the fault lines do not cut neatly between continents. They run right through Western Pennsylvania and even through individual churches.

“What I’ve tried to say here in Western Pennsylvania is our public witness is at stake,” said Pittsburgh Area Bishop Thomas Bickerton. “Our greatest demonstration will not be a demonstration that we all agree. Our greatest witness will be that we love one another in the midst of our disagreements.”

But, he acknowledged: “That’s a challenge when you’ve got a diverse population.”

The nation’s largest Presbyterian, Episcopal and Lutheran churches all went through a generation-long debate over sexuality before allowing the ordination of gays and lesbians in recent years and flexibility on same-sex commitments. Some conservatives in the three denominations left for breakaway bodies.

While some African counterparts to these denominations also cut or loosened ties with them in opposition to the changes, those overseas churches are separate organizations.

But United Methodists from numerous countries all form part of the same denomination, complete with voting rights, and a recent joint statement by African bishops urged the denomination to maintain its bans on ordaining and marrying gays.

Several American clergy have defied the bans, most notably the Rev. Frank Schaefer, who was defrocked for presiding at his son’s same-sex marriage while he was serving at an Eastern Pennsylvania church, then was reinstated on technical grounds. Now working in California, he’ll be urging the General Conference to overturn the bans.

The conference will also be weighing proposals to stiffen enforcement of the bans, and a so-called “middle-way” proposal by denominational leaders to allow local option.

“My expectation is there will be some change, not the change we pray for, but some compromise,” said Rev. Schaefer. “Both sides are very much aware that something has to give.”

Tracy Merrick, a member of First United Methodist in Pittsburgh, said if there’s any change, it will likely be toward a local option.

He said his church, while bound by church rules, finds ways to be an “oasis” for LGBT people.

“We just wouldn’t be who we are if these people weren’t among us and actively participating,” he said. ”Their ministries are incredibly vital.”

Such acceptance made such an impression on Brenda Seevers that, after some visits, she got baptized and joined. “I feel very safe here, and I feel accepted,” she said at the recent Wednesday night service. “I feel a lot of love in this circle.”

Even if the General Conference upholds the current bans, “the larger issue is whether the denomination nationwide is willing to live with the decision,” said the Rev. Thomas Lambrecht, vice president of the conservative advocacy group Good News.

Two regional conferences have already stopped enforcing the bans. 

“That whole approach undermines the unity of the church and makes General Conference itself a meaningless exercise,” he said.

Some say an amicable separation of the denomination should at least be discussed — and not for the first time. That was a hot topic 12 years ago when the General Conference met in Pittsburgh.

“We’ve raised the question of how two groups within the church that have such diametrically opposed worldviews can coexist and profitably work together in one denomination,” said Rev. Lambrecht.

He would like to see the denomination focus more on conveying “the gospel message in a way that’s relevant today without changing the content of the message.”

Membership growth, he said, is strongest in areas that adhere to traditional doctrine.

Not that such churches are bound to traditional methodologies.

At Crossroads Church’s main campus in North Fayette, one would see little sign that it was a church in the main auditorium beyond one large cross to the side. 

The church has much the feel of independent megachurches with people standing for extended singing of contemporary praise songs. Three large screens project close-ups of the preacher and worship leaders, alternating with lyrics and sermon notes.

The Rev. Steve Cordle, the founding pastor, said when the church’s five weekend services were overflowing a dozen years ago and it lacked space to expand, it began planting satellite campuses — now in East Liberty, Bridgeville, Cranberry and Weirton, W.Va. Combined weekend attendance is about 1,800.

But such tactics, along with organizing of members into a fleet of small fellowship groups, can’t fully explain the growth. 

“It’s somewhat of a mystery of God because other churches can do things like that, too” without getting the same results, he said.

“People are not interested in your theories,” he added, but in seeing lives “transformed when they experience the love of Jesus Christ.”

He said the congregation would abide by current rules even if the General Conference allows a change. “I’m enough of a realist to recognize the church is split,” he said. ”The question is, can we learn to live together?”

Bishop Bickerton said that other growth, even if less dramatic, can be seen at congregations around the Western Pennsylvania Conference, which he oversees.

But nine-tenths of the conference’s 830 congregations draw less than a hundred in weekly attendance, and net membership in both the conference (168,185) and the county-wide Pittsburgh District (21,394) are down 8 percent from five years previous. The conference covers 23 counties ranging from Johnstown to the Ohio line.

“The challenges that are unique to the small membership church are very difficult to overcome,” he said. ”What we’ve tried to do is instill a spirit of hopefulness. They are resilient.”

The Rev. Joel Barrett, superintendent of the Butler District, said some churches in his region are in communities that have lost half their population in four decades.

“The most important thing we need to consider is how do we be good stewards of the resources we have and have a meaningful ministry and help people understand God’s love?” he said.

At the Unionville church, the congregation bounced back from a decline in the 1980s and expanded its building in the 1990s. While the membership is still modest-sized and aging, it now cooperates with other churches to stock its growing food pantry. Some recipients are now joining the church.

The church also relaunched a children’s program and hosts an interdenominational youth group in its spacious recreation hall, used for such things as glow-in-the-dark dodgeball and fellowship.

“Any time you open your doors, you have an opportunity to bring somebody in,” said longtime member Jack Boyde.

Peter Smith: petersmith@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1416; Twitter @PG_PeterSmith. 

First Published: May 8, 2016, 4:00 a.m.