Our Connections

We are affiliated with the Free Methodist Churches of North America. (visit their website)

The Free Methodist Church is an evangelical Christian denomination, which has its origins in the Methodist movement as started by John Wesley.  It has nearly 732,000 members worldwide in 82 nations. Light & Life magazine is the official publication. The Free Methodist Church World Ministries Center is in Indianapolis, Indiana.  Free Methodist churches have a wide variety of expressions and styles of churches, but each one believes in the Bible as God’s holy word, Jesus as the only means of salvation, and the Holy Spirit as the one who gives personal guidance and power for living a life that pleases God.

History

The Free Methodist Church was organized at Pekin, New York, in 1860. The founders had been members of the Methodist Episcopal Church but were excluded from its membership for too earnestly advocating the doctrines and usages of historic Methodism. Under the leadership of Rev. Benjamin Titus (B. T.) Roberts, a graduate of Wesleyan University and an able and eloquent preacher, the movement spread rapidly. Societies were organized, churches built and the work established.

At the 1910 session of the Genesee Conference of the Methodist Church at Rochester, New York, a full acknowledgment was made of the wrong done to Roberts fifty years before, and the credentials unjustly taken from him were restored in a public meeting to his son, Rev. Benson Roberts.

Before the founding of the church, Roberts began publication of a monthly journal, The Earnest Christian. In 1868, The Free Methodist (now Light and Life) was begun. A publishing house was established in 1886 to produce books, periodicals and Sunday school curriculum and literature.

Why “Free” Methodist?

The name “Methodist” was retained for the newly organized church because the founders felt that their misfortunes (expulsion from the Methodist Episcopal Church) had come to them because of their adherence to doctrines and standards of Methodism. The word “Free” was suggested and adopted because the new church was to be an anti-slavery church (slavery was an issue in those days), because pews in the churches were to be free to all rather than sold or rented (as was common), and because the new church hoped for the freedom of the Holy Spirit in the services rather than a stifling formality.

For a great snapshot overview of who we are, check out our blog article,“What is the Free Methodist Church?“