Posted on 10/13/2025 9:30:37 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
A denomination founded as a theologically conservative alternative to the United Methodist Church has grown to include 6,000 member congregations worldwide.
The Global Methodist Church, which was launched on May 1, 2022, announced on its Facebook page last Friday that it had reached the 6,000-member church milestone.
“That's 6,000 pulpits preaching the Gospel,” stated the GMC. “6,000 altars where hearts are renewed. … 6,000 congregations worshiping in a variety of nations and languages.”
“Join us in praying for the movement as we continue to welcome existing churches and plant new ones to spread the love of Christ to our communities and beyond.”
The formation of the GMC came in response to the decades-long divisive debate over whether the UMC should amend its Book of Discipline to allow the blessing of same-sex marriages and the ordination of those in same-sex sexual relationships.
Although efforts to amend the Book of Discipline at General Conference always failed, many theological liberals within the UMC refused to follow or enforce the polarizing rules.
In January 2020, a group of 16 UMC leaders from diverse theological backgrounds announced a proposed separation protocol that would provide a pathway for churches that wanted to disaffiliate from the Mainline denomination over theological differences.
The protocol would also set aside funds to create a theologically conservative denomination for those congregations that were interested in launching such a church body.
While the protocol was scheduled to be considered at the 2020 UMC General Conference, the gathering was postponed multiple times due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns.
In March 2022, GMC organizers announced that they were launching their denomination that May, having decided to no longer wait for the postponed General Conference to approve the protocol.
Over the next couple of years, thousands of congregations would disaffiliate from the UMC over the ongoing debate about LGBT issues, with most of them voting to join the GMC.
By January of last year, GMC Transitional Connectional Officer Keith Boyette told The Christian Post that his denomination had more than 4,200-member congregations.
“The current member congregations are predominantly former UMC congregations, but we do have member congregations that have come from other denominations, or who were previously nondenominational or independent, or new church plants that have already been recognized as member congregations,” he explained at the time.
Months later, at last year’s UMC General Conference, delegates would finally vote overwhelmingly to amend the Book of Discipline to remove the rules, though the changes still allowed for regional bodies and local congregations to continue enforcing them.
Bookmark
How many does the UMC now have?
Nice, BUT...
There is a huge difference between “conservative” and [doctrinally] orthodox.
There are a couple Global Methodist congregations near where my wife and I are living. They're on our "church shopping" list.
The United Methodist Church is awash in virtue signaling, rainbow flags, and ministers straight out of central casting for the WOKE crowd.
I’m surprised that the United Methodists have enough adherents to justify their current existence.
All of our local UMC’s that left went independent because Global was disinterested in small circuit churches.
A large number of former UMC churches also left the heretical denomination and reformed as independent churches. I know of several.
One is ours in San Antonio. We voted by 85% to disaffiliate from the UMC. We will likely enter into a period of discernment over whether to join the GMC or some other affiliation of congregations. We’re a congregation of 6200 conservative and nonpolitical - a number of our “progressive” members have stayed, or returned after leaving.
We started attending a Free Methodist church after our daughter started singing with the worship team. Having grown up in the Baptist and Evangelical Free world we were skeptical. But we we pleasantly surprised to find that this local church has zero wokeness. It is a fundamental Bible teaching, Jesus’ blood preaching community outreach congregation. Praise God!
We were members of two different UMC Churches. One disaffiliated and joined the Global Methodists. The other has a more complicated story.
Our female pastor promised there would be a discussion in the congregation before a vote. Some unfamiliar faces were present the day of the vote. I overheard one husband telling his wife they were there to vote against “troublemakers.” A vote was called for, without discussion. Basically, the pastor cheated and the congregation remained affiliated.
I have to credit two women who had a lot of gumption. They pushed for a new church. It’s now over a year old and doing well. It remains unaffiliated.
I think the two stories differ because one pastor is young and had no conflict of interest. The other pastor is older and is bidding her time for retirement. I think the UMC holds all retirement funds.
The Free Methodist Church is very solid!
It is a sister church of the Wesleyan Church, Church of God-Anderson, and the Church of the Nazarene. Beware of most of the denominational universities of those listed. They lean progressive.
In addition to these, a lot of former UMC congregations have gone independent.
That’s right.
That’s right.
And it’s easy to see why.
Exactly.
Its a good number so far, but 6,000 is only 20% of the 30,000 remaining UMC churches. Hopefully more will separate and join the Conservative Global Methodist Church.
Revelation 18:4
And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.
I grew up United Methodist and swore to never darken their doors again in the 1990’s. They were already that bad then. God, only knows what they are up to now.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.