someone ordained Chuck Smith....who was it?
I assume he goes back through a line of ordained ones.
One of my problems with the Mormon church is that Joseph Smith pulled his ordination out of a hat.
There is no church that isn’t connected to another...a plant, a sent “ordained” person, something that connects to the historic lineage.
Smith graduated from LIFE Bible College and was ordained as a pastor for the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. In the late '50s Smith was the campaign manager and worship director for healing evangelist Paul Cain. After being a pastor for a different denomination, he left his denomination to pastor a non-denominational church plant in Corona, California and eventually moved to a church called Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California in December 1965. It was the only church on Church Street in Costa Mesa. The church had been planted by Pastor Floyd Nelson as a ministry to shut-in's begun with a small group of people in a mobile home park populated mainly by senior citizens in 1962.[citation needed] From there they moved to a Girl Scout building and eventually to Church Street which is where the church was meeting when Chuck Smith was hired as the "pulpit pastor."
Aren't you already "ordained" as a Methodist minister? Do you not have other "ordained" members of your church who would be willing to "plant" a new church as a breakaway from your current "denomination" into a "non-denominational" church.
X, you aren't starting a new religion. You can carry the Methodist Ordination and the Methodist book of Discipline into your church. You are not breaking away from the Methodist religion. You are simply separating yourself from the current apostates. Wesley broke away from the Anglican church. He certainly didn't start a "cult", but the UMC is quickly becoming one.
If you think you need the presence of an ordained Bishop to continue the book of discipline, is there not a Bishop in your area who is as fed up with the UMC as you?
BTW I suspect that Calvary Chapel would recognize your ordination. If there is not a Calvary Chapel in your area, I'm sure they would not mind planting one as long as you are willing to abide by their doctrinal rules. At any rate the fact is that you are an ordained minister and as such you have as much authority to preach the gospel as anyone else.
You are not starting a new religion. You are simply preserving the old one. Just grab your bible, your book of common prayer and your book of discipline and open the doors to a new church. It would still be Methodist, just not tied to the current apostate branch.
Is there another branch of Methodism that is not circling the drain? Would they be willing to recognize your congregation?