The United Methodist Church

The United Methodist Church is a world wide church dedicated to making disciples for Jesus Christ by proclaiming the good news of God’s grace. Methodism holds, with other Christian communities, belief in the triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We believe that God has spoken His Word in the Bible. We trust that Scripture holds authority, so we understand that God has been an active participant in creation and the drama of humanity throughout history. Most of all, we are interested in bringing people into contact with the grace of God given in and through Jesus Christ. We believe that humans are made right before God through faith in Jesus — His life, death and resurrection.

We hold two sacraments in United Methodism, Baptism and Communion (or the Lord’s Supper or Eucharist). We hold these two in high esteem because Christ ordained them. We understand them to be a means of grace and God’s love to us. They are outward visible signs of an inward spiritual grace.

The United Methodist Church is like many Protestant denominations that trace their roots back to the Reformation traditions that arose out of Roman Catholicism. One of those traditions was the Anglican Church. John Wesley, Methodism’s founding father, was an Anglican priest. Wesley led a lay movement in the 1730’s in England within the Anglican Church. The members of this movement were given the name “Methodist” because of their methodical practices in prayer, Bible study, fasting, giving, and meeting together. Later, the movement would become a denomination unto itself.

Today, the United Methodist Church is committed to spreading the good news of God’s grace in Jesus Christ to people of all ages, races, and nations. We believe that, in Jesus, God has given the church the task of saving persons, healing relationships, transforming social structures, and spreading scriptural holiness, thereby changing the world.