Free Republic

The Wesley brothers were central figures in the 18th century Evangelical Revival in Great Britain. Theirs was one of the most effective partnerships between brothers in ministry.The Industrial RevolutionThe Wesleys grew up during the Industrial Revolution. Their lifetimes and ministries spanned a time of rapid change. Revolutions in smelting, spinning and distilling created whole industries. The 18th century saw some of the first experiments in electricity, photography and the steam engine.A Desperate SituationWhen the Wesleys began their itinerant preaching, there were no railroads and no restaurants. Only five or six members of parliament even went to church. Infant mortality was...

The United Methodist Church's Council of Bishops is meeting this week and again in April to consider proposals from the special commission on denominational controversies about homosexuality. That commission meets one more time in March to finalize its ideas for consideration by a specially scheduled General Conference in 2019.Meanwhile, new membership statistics show USA United Methodism slumping below seven million members for the first time in 100 years, while globally the church is at a record 12.5 million members, thanks to church growth in Africa. The emerging new majority in Africa has prevented United Methodism, uniquely among historically liberal Mainline Protestant denominations,...

Tucked away in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, somewhere along the winding roads that hug Great Lakes shores, is an idyllic town named Bay View. For more than a century, generations of “Bay Viewers” have congregated here to share in summer activities. What started out as a modest camping ground for Methodist families 140 years ago has quietly developed into a stunning vacation spot for people who can afford the upkeep of a second home. Streets named Moss, Fern and Maple are dotted with impeccably maintained century-old gingerbread cottages. Over the horizon, residents can watch lifelong friends sail their boats across the...

The United Methodist Church is growing globally while declining in the United States, passing the 12.5 million-member mark, according to recently released statistics. Drawing from annual conference journals sent to the UMC General Council on Finance and Administration mostly from 2016, the UMC saw its numbers grow compared to five years earlier. The statistics were used to determine the number of delegates each annual conference will send to the 2020 UMC General Conference. Delegates for the denomination's 2020 legislative gathering will represent a diverse national background, according to the United Methodist News Service. "The 2020 General Conference in Minneapolis will...

Pope Francis praises John Wesley for leading people to ‘knowledge of Jesus Christ’ by Staff Reporter posted Thursday, 19 Oct 2017 Pope Francis blesses a picture on a mobile phone (Getty Images) He was celebrating 50 years of dialogue with the World Methodist CouncilMethodism founder John Wesley brought many people to Christ through prayer and Bible reading, Pope Francis has said.Speaking with leaders of the World Methodist Council, Pope Francis praised 50 years of dialogue between the Catholic and Methodist churches, Vatican Radio reports.“We are no longer strangers,” he said, but rather, through our shared Baptism, “members of the household...

“Pray for Orlando" we read on Facebook and Twitter. Prayer is vitally important, but is there more we can do? As United Methodist Christians, we mourn with the victims and families of those wounded and killed in the shootings on June 12, 2016 in Orlando, Florida. We may even pray and wonder if anything could have been done to avert this heinous act. But should we do more? Is there anything that can be done to keep something similar from happening in the future? While we may not agree on a solution, many of us agree there is a problem....

Many skeptics assert that Paul of Tarsus (the apostle Paul) hijacked the early Christian religion, changing the theology from what Jesus originally taught. Usually offered as proof for this claim are the doctrines found in Paul's great theological work, his letter to the Romans. Without a doubt, the book of Romans contains the most complete exposition of orthodox Christian doctrines. Are these doctrines contrary to what Jesus taught? Do they conflict with the teachings of the Old Testament from which they were purportedly derived? If Paul really "invented" Christianity, then one would expect that his teachings would be different from...

There are many on the “religious left” who have decided that religion is nice, God is good, but culture is more important. Therefore, they have decided to take the pieces they like best of the Bible—good, loving God who forgives all weakness—and mix them with the lies of the culture—abortion should be a woman’s choice because it’s not a life until, well, they don’t know until when, but not until they say so at least. One of the threads in this religious left movement is the United Methodist Church who actually has written into its Social Principles in the Book...

If you were a Christian minister who was given the opportunity to write an op-ed piece for the Washington Post, what subject would you choose? War and peace? The decline in faith among America’s young people? The increasingly empty pews in mainstream Protestant churches? The ethical decline in society? Or any of myriad other morally and religiously troubling issues? Well, not if you were a Methodist minister named James P. Marsh Jr. For this man of the cloth, the issue troubling him so much that he had to write about in the Washington Post was . . . people standing...

Special to The Washington Post I am a Methodist minister and a Washington Nationals fan. I was there on Opening Day in 2005 at old RFK Stadium in Washington, and I try my best to plan my summer around Nats home games. I have only one issue with the ballpark experience, and it’s not with the beer prices. It’s with “God Bless America.” In his May 15 column, Washington Post writer John Kelly described the odd feeling of not knowing whether to stand during the singing of this song in the middle of the seventh inning. Like Kelly, I don’t...

Actual title edited for space issues: United Methodist Seminary Ponders Removing Cross from Chapel To make the space more appropriate for Jain, Buddhist, and Islamic religious services After recently facing some financial challenges, the seminary decided to more or less literally sell itself for $50 million to a large donor who helped transform it from a Christian seminary into Claremont Lincoln University, devoted to jointly training Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and Jain clergy. In celebrating the move, Claremont President Jerry Campbell bizarrely declared that Christians who seek to obey Christ’s command to evangelize non-Christians have “an incorrect perception of what...

AMPA, FLORIDA, May 7, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Members of the nation’s largest mainline Protestant church voted to maintain the doctrine that homosexual actions were “incompatible with Christian teaching” on Thursday. The United Methodist Church voted down two proposals to water down its stance on homosexuality on Thursday. One proposal called homosexuals “people of sacred worth” and acknowledged differing viewpoints on the issue, while another said humans did not know enough about human sexuality to prefer one lifestyle over another.

The Methodist Church's rise and recent decline is perhaps the most statistically striking story in American religious history. At the time of the American Revolution, the denomination was tiny. English Methodist founder John Wesley was hostile toward American independence, which badly hampered the church's growth in America. After the Revolution, the American church began to operate independently from English Methodists. The legendary Methodist "circuit riders" began reaching the American backcountry, riding on horseback to reach every nook and cranny of the Appalachian frontier and Mississippi River Valley. In 1770, there were about 20 Methodist churches in America. By 1860 that...

When it comes to the holy trinity of art, architecture, and religion, few buildings are more significant than the 1898 Methodist Church in Norwalk, Connecticut. Anchoring a main street, the Romanesque-style church features a stained-glass rose window designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany himself. The founders of American Methodism preached there. Given its prominence and pedigree, should the church's governing body be allowed to sell the building for development, as it is currently trying to do? The U.S. Constitution, according to many observers, says yes, but historic preservationists beg to differ. Who decides? In cities nationwide, churches are struggling to maintain...

Hundreds of United Methodist clergy are expressing deep concerns over a pledge made by a large group of fellow ministers to marry same-sex couples. They argue that if the pledge is carried through, the future of the denomination is in jeopardy. "We do not know how many, if any, marriages or 'holy unions' of same-sex couples will be performed by UM clergy in the near future," reads a letter, currently signed by more than 400 pastors, to the Council of Bishops. "But we do know the destructive effects that will result in our local churches and throughout the denomination if...

The Rev. Amy DeLong, a Methodist pastor from Osceola, Wisconsin, decided to come clean. She brought to the attention of her local bishop that she had officiated over the same-sex union of a lesbian couple... She also told the bishop that she might as well be prosecuted for something else: she is in a lesbian partnership. And so, last week, DeLong, 44, faced a jury of church elders in Kaukauna, Wisconsin. At issue was whether she violated the Book of Discipline, which guides the church's teachings, by blessing the same sex union and for being a "self avowed, practicing...

The cardinal doctrines of the everlasting gospel which Arminians wrest to their own destruction are: (i) THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD IN HIS GRACE; Cautions Against a Wrong Use of the Doctrine of Election (ii) TOTAL DEPRAVITY; (iii) EFFECTUAL CALLING; Saving Faith Man's Inability and Responsibility (iv) THE ATONEMENT; The Universal Call of the Gospel and a Definite Atonement The Sinner's Warrant to Believe in Christ (v) THE PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS. The Need for an Uncompromising and Vigilant Witness Against Arminianism Arminianism was the false gospel of John Wesley and his followers in the eighteenth century, and of D. L....

The following commentary is by Riley B. Case, associate executive director of the Confessing Movement Within the United Methodist Church.Dr. Riley B. Case Dr. Case served many years as a pastor and district superintendent in the UMC’s North Indiana Conference (now the Indiana Conference). He has been a delegate to five UM General Conferences. (Links below have been added by MethodistThinker.com.) — Ed.– I was speaking with a fellow pastor several years ago and inquired whether he and his church might be interested in Good News magazine. He replied “no” because people in his congregation were upset enough with...

A United Methodist congregation should conduct same-sex marriages despite the possibility of negative consequences, according to Bishop Gene Robinson of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire. "I'm here to tell you that when you speak about God's limitless, boundless and unimaginable love, you will get into trouble: I promise you, I know this," Robinson said to the congregation. Robinson both gave a sermon at the invitation of Foundry's Senior Pastor, Dean Snyder, as well as answered questions from church members during an informal session following the Sunday morning worship services. Robinson's sermon was part of a month-long "outstanding preacher" series...

The president of a United Methodist-affiliated seminary says Christians who feel the need to evangelize people of other faiths have “an incorrect perception of what it means to follow Jesus.” The comment from Jerry D. Campbell, president of California’s Claremont School of Theology, was published July 2 by the United Methodist Reporter. “The correct perception [of following Jesus] is much more on [the] side of learning to express love for God and love for your neighbor as yourself,” he told the newspaper. Dr. Campbell’s remarks were reported in an article about Claremont’s plan to become an “interreligious institution” that offers...