Talk:Free Methodist Church

Page revision

I'm planning on a major revision to this page, with much more detail. Alangdon86 06:11, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Conflicting statement

The following statement from this entry conflicts with details in the entry for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South:

"They also opposed slavery and supported freedom for all slaves in the United States, while many Methodists in the South at that time did not actively oppose slavery."

According to the entry for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South the southern conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church seceded to defend slavery and form the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in 1844. The Methodist Episcopal Church continued to oppose the institution of slavery. Why then would slavery be a cause for the Free Methodists to secede from the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1860?

I believe that the Free Methodist Church organizers were also concerned with pew rent and some theological issues that the MEC was not concerned with. I think that the FMC wanted a more aggressive anti-slavery policy than the MEC did. KitHutch 03:13, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:FMClogo.jpg

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References and external links

This article needs more real references, not just my footnoting, and more external links to thing like the fmc website. Please contribute whenever possible. Aepoutre 00:15, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Article needs revision

This article needs major revisions. The sections need to be reorganized something along the lines of the following, with all information being its relevant section:

1) Introduction

2) History

3) Beliefs

4) Practices

5) Organization

Over the next few days I will attempt to do this. The work maybe slow, however. I would appreciate if my work to better the article is not reverted like before, but the discussed on this talk page. Thank you. Ltwin (talk) 17:32, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

Ok, I've added "Practices" and "Organization" sections from material already found in the article. I have no idea what to do with the material found in the "Practices" section, but I will at least attempt to clean it up a bit. I've also added a "Recent history" subsection. Ltwin (talk) 17:46, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

What I think we still need is major additions to the Introduction, as Wikipedia says the Intro should be a summary of the entire article. We need a Beliefs section, but I need more theological information than is currently in the article. I'm not satisfied with the Practices section and this information may need to be changed around again or completely deleted. Ltwin (talk) 18:06, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

Article revisions

I have deleted the controversy section. These statements are not needed to learn about the Free Methodist Church. Please do not re-submit them. Thank you. (Fmcomm (talk) 19:47, 28 April 2009 (UTC))

I don't know if this was directed at me or not, if not please ignore this comment. I did not add any of the information in the "Controversy" section. On the contrary, if you look here, I removed this section long before you did. Obviously, someone reverted my edits. Ltwin (talk) 21:46, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

Introduction Section

I plan to provide an updated Introduction section in the coming weeks. (Fmcomm (talk) 19:47, 28 April 2009 (UTC))

Beliefs Section

I plan to provide an updated Beliefs section in the coming weeks. (Fmcomm (talk) 19:47, 28 April 2009 (UTC))

Updated Publications Section

The Publications section has been updated. (Fmcomm (talk) 19:47, 28 April 2009 (UTC))

Distinctive Principles

This section seems pov, sounding promotional like one got it from a Free Methodist brochure. It needs a good copy-edit. Ltwin (talk) 21:28, 4 May 2009 (UTC)

Introduction

I do not think this passage should be the opening paragraph:"The Free Methodist Church is a fellowship of Christians in earnest to get to heaven and committed to working in the world for the salvation of all people. The church believes the conditions of salvation are the same now as they were in the days of the apostles."

It is unencyclopedic sounding and promotional. The second sentence is abrupt and awkward. Please tell me what you think. Ltwin (talk) 21:43, 4 May 2009 (UTC)

Mission Statement

Is an entire section on the FM church's mission statement necessary? Can't this be included as part of another section? Ltwin (talk) 20:49, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

Founding

Do we have a source that verifies the founding as in Pekin, New York? There's an historical marker in Albion (village), New York in front of the Free Methodist church there that says: "The first Free Methodist church in the denomination. Rev. Loren Stiles founded the congregation in 1859. Norman Revival in style it was dedicated May 18, 1860." (You can see a photo of it about 3/5 of the way down this page.) 1859 is before the 1860 date listed in the article as the founding in Pekin. Powers ^T 20:20, 10 October 2009 (UTC)

After reading an excerpt from Populist Saints on Amazon, I think I've cleared up this confusion. The Albion congregation broke away from the larger Methodist Episcopal church in 1859 -- as did a number of other congregations around the country in that and preceding years. Thus they count 1859 as their founding date. The denomination of Free Methodists as separate from the parent denomination -- that is, the unification of these breakaway congregations -- didn't form until a conference in Pekin in 1860. Powers ^T 20:47, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

Beliefs Revision

This is desperately needed. the Beliefs section was written by someone obviously within the Free Methodist church, and clearly violates Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.185.97.11 (talk) 07:48, 31 October 2009 (UTC)

Historic Methodism

"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."

1. Citation needed. 2. The tone sounds biased. I sincerely doubt that the MEC would cite their reason for excluding FMC as "too ernestly advocating... historic Methodism"

"Pfft, those Free Methodist folks are just TOO METHODIST for us. Excommunicate them all! Bwahahahahaha!" 97.81.112.37 (talk) 18:28, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

The problem is not the claim, but the wording. BT Roberts et al did in fact follow more conservative teachings that Wesley taught, including opposing slavery and rented pews. The problem is that "historic methodism" is too broad, as to the current audience, 1860 is historic. Perhaps "conservative" or "Wesleyan" Methodism are more appropriate. *NOTE* I am not an author, nor have I edited anything in this article so far, just commenting for the sake of clarity. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Srvfan84 (talk • contribs) 04:46, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

I agree with the first part of the above comment (Srvfan84, 12 April 2011). At least part of the issue was a disagreement about what the Wesleys had taught about holiness, and this article shouldn't be judging who was right (if either). I'll have a go at correcting this, at least giving others something new to shoot down.

Davecat4 (talk) 00:29, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

Outside the USA

There are Free Methodist churches outside the USA, for example here in the UK. Are there others? Should we have a mention of this? (I agree that the major church with this name is American.) Dbfirs 20:48, 30 May 2017 (UTC)

You could always start a new article, like this one - Free Methodist Church in Malaysia - Bob K | Talk 10:51, 31 May 2017 (UTC)

It would only be a stub for the UK (perhaps we could add a paragraph to another article). Should this article be renamed Free Methodist Church in America for clarity, or should we just have links to other Free Methodist Church articles such as Free Methodist Church in Canada? Dbfirs 17:19, 31 May 2017 (UTC)

It seems that all the others are part of the same organisation, so this article is OK as it stands. I'll add the Malaysia link. Would anyone like to write any others? Dbfirs 20:03, 3 June 2017 (UTC)

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Reformed Free Methodists

I was wondering about the Reformed Free Methodist Church. This page notes its split with the Free Methodist Church in 1932. The page on the RFMC states that the RFMC no longer exists. What happened to it? Did it reunite with the FMC at some point? GnatFriend (talk) 23:47, 30 March 2021 (UTC)