Free Methodist Church Totally Explained

Everything about The Free Methodist Church totally explained

The Free Methodist Church, so named for its rejection of slavery during the years before the Civil War, remains a denomination of broader Methodism. It is considered to be Evangelical and Protestant, and its theology is similar to that of the Wesleyan Church, the Church of the Nazarene, Church of God (Anderson) and other Holiness churches, being largely Arminian with Moravian Church influences, touting free will. The Free Methodist Church's highest governing body is the World Conference, which is composed of representatives, both lay and clergy, from all countries with a Free Methodist General Conference.

History

The Free Methodist Church was founded in 1860 in New York's Burned-over district by a group, led by B. T. Roberts, who was defrocked in the Methodist Episcopal Church for criticisms of the supposed spiritual laxness of the church hierarchy. The Free Methodists are so named because they believed it was improper to charge for better seats in pews closer to the pulpit. They also opposed slavery and supported freedom for all slaves in the United States, while many members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South didn't actively oppose slavery. They also supported (and continue to) the equality of women in ordination and laity in church leadership. However, female ordination didn't widely exist before the latter part of the 20th century. The participation of laity varies widely between individual churches. Beyond that, they advocated "freedom" from "secret" societies such as the Freemasons.
   At first the church consisted of many former Methodist Episcopals who had been actively involved in the Underground Railroad. A few of the stations are still centers of Free Methodist activity today, such as North Chili, New York, site of present-day Roberts Wesleyan College, a Free Methodist school named after the founder, and NorthEastern Seminary. From there fugitive slaves were taken to Lake Ontario and boated across to Canada. Another Underground Railroad site was Pekin, New York, near the Niagara River, where escaping slaves also crossed. This was the site of a Holiness camp meeting and the site of the organizational conference of the church in 1860. The denomination also has numerous churches in the Midwest, some of the oldest ones also being in communities that were abolitionist centers and Underground Railroad stops along the southern shore of Lake Michigan.
   The denomination is more conservative and significantly smaller than the United Methodist Church (politically and theologically) with regards to drinking, smoking, gambling, jewelry and modern dancing. Contrasting liberal aspects of its doctrine (eg. female ordination) differ widely when compared to historical (pre-industrial) Protestantism, Catholicism and Orthodox Christians, who hold that it's contrary to the Bible.
   While some (North American) church planters are starting emerging church ministries, denominational support is at times incongruent with stated planting objectives in the [Bookof Discipline] (External Link

)
   (details):
   "Formation of New Churches ¶ 6800 A. The fulfillment of the Great Commission and the mission of the Free Methodist Church requires larger,growing and more effective local churches as well as more and varied churches. Reaching unreached people is the motive for the planting of new churches. Each church should be eager and open to win all people to Christ and incorporate them into membership. Yet within each population group there are persons who, because of geographic distance or language or cultural differences, can more readily be reached by new churches than by existing ones. Creative strategies and multiple styles of ministry are required."
   Some Conferences have focused instead on a "mega" (large) Church format which follows the "[Saddleback](External Link

)" and, or, [NelsonSearcy's Journey Church](External Link

)model. This model differs from historical Methodism & Free Methodism, which focused primarily upon [smallgroup worship & study](External Link

). In this sense, the cultural and doctrinal distinctives of this small denomination have been shed in an effort to reach a more mainstream audience in the North American Church. Related article(External Link

).This has met with limited success, as membership remains flat.
Free Methodist headquarters were located in Winona Lake, Indiana until 1990 when the denomination moved its headquarters to Indianapolis.(External Link

)

Publications

Free Methodist Communications is the publishing division of the Free Methodist Church. Publications may also be printed or distributed under the name Light & Life Communications.

Light and Life is the official magazine of the Free Methodist Church in the United States and is also available online.
Free Methodist World Mission People is a quarterly magazine about world missions offered free of charge upon request.
Free Methodist Ministries Today is a monthly publication about news items within the church.
FM Communicator is quarterly newsletter.

Membership and church attendance

The Church has about 77,000 members ^{citation needed} in the United States and an average attendance of [107,000] (External Link

)at its Sunday services. Worldwide its membership is over 800,000 with large segments of membership in the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, and Rwanda. As the church in each country develops, its status progresses from Mission District to Annual Conference to General Conference. There are currently 14 General Conferences in the world, which are linked together through the articles of religion and common constitution of the first two chapters of the Book of Discipline and the World Conference..

Higher education

The denomination currently maintains a relationship with the following educational institutions:

Central Christian College, McPherson, KS

Greenville College, Greenville, IL

Roberts Wesleyan College, Rochester, NY

Spring Arbor University, Spring Arbor, MI

Seattle Pacific University, Seattle, WA In addition, the Free Methodist Church is one of several denominations supporting Azusa Pacific University(Azusa, CA). Wessington Springs College is a former, now closed institution which was located in South Dakota. Internationally, there's Osaka Christian College of the Japanese Free Methodist Church, Hope Africa University, a recently founded school in Bujumbura, Burundi, and the Faculdade Teológica Metodista Livre, São Paulo, Brazil.
Through the John Wesley Seminary Foundation(JWSF)

graduate students who are preparing for full time ministry in the Free Methodist Church are provided a grant/loan at the following (JWSF) affiliated schools:

Asbury Theological Seminary – Wilmore, KY and Orlando, FL campuses

Azusa Pacific University/Graduate School of Theology, Azusa, CA

George Fox Evangelical Seminary, Portland, OR

Northeastern Seminary at Roberts Wesleyan College, Rochester, NY

Wesley Biblical Seminary, Jackson, MS

International growth

The church currently has ministry in 72 countries around the world. These are:

AFRICA	SIA	a href="http://www.fmc-europe.org" title="http://www.fmc-europe.org">EUROPE	ATIN AMERICA	ORTH AMERICA
Botswana	Australia	Belgium	Antigua	Canada (External Link)
Burundi	Cambodia	France	Argentina	United States
Cameroon	Hong Kong	Greece	Bahamas
Democratic Republic of Congo	India	Hungary	Bolivia
Egypt	Japan	Italy	Brazil
Ethiopia	Malaysia	Portugal	Chile
Gabon	Myanmar	Romania	Colombia
Ghana	Nepal	Slovakia	Costa Rica
Kenya	Philippines	Spain	Dominican Republic
Liberia	South Korea	Ukraine	Ecuador
Malawi	Sri Lanka	United Kingdom	El Salvador
Middle East	Taiwan		French Guiana
Mozambique	Thailand		Haiti
Nigeria			Mexico
Rwanda			Nicaragua
South Africa			Panama
Tanzania			Paraguay
Togo			Peru
Uganda			Puerto Rico
Zambia			Uruguay
Zimbabwe			Venezuela

Further Information

Get more info on 'Free Methodist Church'.

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