Free Methodist Church | |
---|---|
Classification | Protestant |
Orientation | Holiness |
Polity | Modified episcopacy |
Associations | Global Wesleyan Alliance; Christian Holiness Partnership; Christian Churches Together; Wesleyan Holiness Consortium; World Methodist Council; National Association of Evangelicals |
Region | Worldwide: divided into 13 General Conferences |
Founder | Benjamin Titus Roberts |
Origin | 1860 Pekin, New York |
Separated from | Methodist Episcopal Church |
Separations | 1881 - Vanguard Mission[1] 1882 - Pentecost Bands[1] 1932 - Reformed Free Methodist Church[2] 1955 - United Holiness Church (now the Bible Methodist Connection of Churches)[3] 1963 - Evangelical Wesleyan Church[3] 1973 - Fellowship of Independent Methodist Churches[4] |
Congregations | 856 in the United States (average congregation size: 77) |
Members | 1,200,797 (68,356 in the United States) |
Official website | fmcusa.org |
The Free Methodist Church (FMC) is a Methodist Christian denomination within the holiness movement, based in the United States. It is evangelical in nature and is Wesleyan–Arminian in theology.[5]
The Free Methodist Church has members in over 100 countries, with 62,516 members in the United States and 1,547,820 members worldwide.[6] The Light & Life Magazine is their official publication.[7] The Free Methodist Church World Ministries Center is in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Defections from the Methodist Episcopal Church were many; those from the Free Methodist Church included the Vanguard Mission (1881) and Pentecost Bands (1882).
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