Author: Daniel Dalton

For decades, Florida has stood as a legal island in a shifting sea of religious property law. While the majority of the United States has moved toward treating church property disputes like any other secular contract or trust, Florida has remained steadfast in its “hands-off” approach. However, a recent and potentially earth-shaking decision by the First District Court of Appeal (DCA) in First United Methodist Church of Hobe Sound v. The Board of Trustees of the Florida Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church has signaled that the status quo may be about to crack.

The landscape of American Methodism is changing, and for many churches, this has brought them to a crossroads. Recently, our team had the privilege of

The trend of disaffiliation is accelerating in 2026, but the “flavor” of these departures has changed. We are no longer just seeing mass exits from the United Methodist Church (UMC) under temporary provisions like Paragraph 2553, which expired in 2023.

The recent announcements regarding the financial troubles of major religious denominations raise significant concerns for local churches. These developments not only threaten the stability of larger organizations but also cast a shadow on the resources and support available to individual congregations.