The Rev. Paul Rasmussen gives his last sermon as senior pastor of Highland Park United Methodist Church on Sunday, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026.
HPUMC Dallas
The legal dispute between Highland Park United Methodist Church leadership and its regional United Methodist conference escalated Wednesday as the parties traded accusations in public filings and statements.
The Horizon Texas Annual Conference, the regional governing body of the United Methodist Church in North Texas, has accused Highland Park UMC of quietly trying to cut ties with the denomination years ago and has accused the local church of refusing to cooperate when asked to reverse course.
The conference said it filed new court documents in Dallas County Tuesday, including copies of the local church’s bylaws that are at issue in the case. On Wednesday, the former longtime senior minister of Highland Park UMC wrote a public letter defending the church and criticizing the bishop of the conference. The letter was posted on the church’s website and sent to the congregation.
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“Before this lawsuit and the pernicious acts towards our Church by the bishop, I had never discussed the totality of these United Methodist projects publicly,” minister-in-residence the Rev. Paul Rasmussen wrote.
“It’s interesting that the first violence in the Bible is between two brothers,” Rasmussen wrote, referencing the Biblical story of Cain and Abel.
A conference spokesperson declined to comment on Rasmussen’s criticism of the bishop, saying the conference is focused on “the restoration of governing documents.” Rasmussen and a spokesperson for Highland Park UMC did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the new court filings.
Related: Grief, betrayal: Highland Park UMC senior minister addresses lawsuit from Sunday pulpit
Bishop Ruben Saenz, who leads the Texas Horizon Conference, has said he has a moral duty to the members of the Highland Park congregation today and in future generations. He has said he could not look away after he found out about the alleged changes the church made.
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“The life, identity and future of this church are larger than any one leadership team or any one point in time,” Saenz said last week.
The dispute centers around changes the church made to its governing documents about four years ago that removed reference to the United Methodist Church, the conference and the Book of Discipline.
The conference has said these changes were made without the knowledge of the congregation or conference, which it said is out of line with the denomination’s procedures.
Rasmussen, who served as lead pastor since 2013, stepped down from his position earlier this year after he was previously diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
Dispute over steps taken before the lawsuit
In the week since the lawsuit was filed, the church’s leadership has disputed the timeline of events and emphasized that it was blindsided by the conference’s legal action. The conference’s response in court filings Tuesday seeks to counter that claim.
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In messages to the congregation, including from the pulpit, Highland Park UMC senior minister Matt Tuggle has taken issue with the claim that the church has not worked with the conference to resolve the matter.
Tuggle said the church leaders met with the bishop twice in recent weeks and offered proposals on “how to move forward together.”
“We now know that when we met with the Bishop on Monday, he had already filed the lawsuit,” Tuggle said Sunday, referring to Aug. 10.
The conference said in a statement Wednesday that it has not received a proposal for resolution that is consistent with United Methodist rules and procedures.
“Any proposed resolution must follow the requirements of The United Methodist Church for the Conference to consider it,” the statement said.
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In an amended petition provided to The Dallas Morning News, the Horizon Conference said it made “repeated good-faith efforts to resolve the dispute amicably,” including through efforts in October, December and March.
“Despite these efforts, the parties were unable to reach an agreed resolution, leaving the Conference with no reasonable alternative but to seek judicial relief,” the amended lawsuit said.
Highland Park UMC, a prominent and large church that neighbors Southern Methodist University, has also said that it worked with the Horizon Conference to change its corporate name in 2022. The conference has maintained that the local church did not submit notice to the conference as required by UMC processes.
Related: Regional body of United Methodist Church sues Highland Park UMC
Court documents include copy of bylaws
In November 2022, records with the Texas Secretary of State show that Highland Park UMC amended its original articles of incorporation – which are legal documents outlining the structure of a nonprofit corporation.
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The 2022 amended document changed the church’s corporate name to Highland Park Methodist Church, removing the word “United.”
Shortly thereafter, the church filed an “assumed name certificate” with the state, designating Highland Park United Methodist Church as its “doing business as” name.
The Horizon Texas Conference has alleged that these changes, along with changes the church made to its bylaws, removed all references to the United Methodist Church, the conference and the Book of Discipline, which is the UMC’s governing text. The conference has also alleged that the amended bylaws removed the rights of church members to “participate in determining the denomination of HP Church.”
In its Tuesday filing, The Horizon Texas Conference included copies of what it said are those bylaws. The exhibits, the lawsuit said, include a copy of Highland Park UMC’s bylaws from 1999 and a copy of the bylaws that allegedly govern the church today. The lawsuit said the original bylaws were amended in November 2022 and minor amendments were made in 2024.
According to the 2024 document in the court filing, the name of the nonprofit corporation is Highland Park Methodist Church, but it may use the assumed name Highland Park United Methodist Church.
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The document appears to remove all other references to the United Methodist Church and the Book of Discipline that are found in the 1999 bylaws.
A spokesperson for Highland Park UMC did not immediately respond to a request to verify the copies of the documents.
The church has said little publicly as to why these changes were made. Tuggle has said that in 2020, Texas courts “gave important guidance on managing church affairs under neutral principles of Texas law,” which prompted the church to revise its corporate documents.
A spokesperson for Highland Park UMC told The News last week that court guidance was an opinion from the Texas Supreme Court in 2020 in a case between the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth and the Episcopal Church. The spokesperson, Ann King, has declined to specify how the opinion influenced the church’s actions.
Former minister strongly disputes allegations
In his letter to the congregation Wednesday, former senior minister Rasmussen defended the church. He detailed the church’s role in numerous ministries over the years locally in North Texas and abroad in countries such as Costa Rica and Haiti.
“We put our full support behind the conference and other churches in our UMC community,” Rasmussen said. “HPUMC has launched a staggering 41 United Methodist churches over the years, the most of any conference partner.”
Rasmussen wrote in his letter that over the last four years, the church has provided $5.5 million in apportionments, or payments, to the conference and more than $6.2 million to organizations of the UMC.
“In fact, the conference accepted our most recent apportionment in August while planning to sue us,” Rasmussen wrote.
“Highland Park UMC is a church with a long history of faithful ministry and a congregation known for its generosity, service and love of Christ,” the conference said in a statement Wednesday. “It is a strong, thriving church with committed Christ followers. But its current governing documents and structure are inconsistent with United Methodist polity.”
Rasmussen strongly condemned the allegations, calling them unfair, unwarranted and “frankly mean.”
“From theological practice to connectional support, HPUMC has set the standard for 110 years. To say otherwise is lunacy,” Rasmussen said.