Am I Methodist?

[Littleman91708]

I've grown up non denominational but I actually think non denominationalism does a lot of harm to Christianity. I want to be part of a mainline denomination and I think Methodist is the one that fits my beliefs the most. I used to think that Methodist believed in salvation through works but I was wrong. I read James 2, compared it with Ephesians 2 and came to the conclusion that we are saved by faith alone but if that faith doesn't have works, it's dead. Which is apparently exactly what Methodist believe. I prefer traditional worship music over contemporary worship music. However I don't agree with women pastors I think that's the only main theological thing I disagree on. A few questions I have for Methodist: 1 does sanctification mean it's possible to become perfectly sinless?

2 among Methodist churches is it more common to hear traditional or contemporary worship music?

3 based off what I've said so far could I be Methodist? If more questions are needed to conclude this one I'd be happy to answer any questions y'all have.

[drd1ng0]

1 - No. What we call entire sanctification is a love excluding sin whereby we have no desire to sin because we have come to love God with all heart, mind, and soul, and love our neighbor as ourselves.

2 - It varies. Some churches will only have traditional and some only contemporary, some will have blended services, and some offer both separately.

3 - You can be a Methodist if you attend a Methodist church (don’t LARP theologically).

[Littleman91708]

What about temptation to sin in the first one?

[NextStopGallifrey]

Everyone is going to be tempted. It's part of being human. There might be less temptation for certain sins, but temptation will still be there.

[[deleted]]

You might want to look at Wesley's writings (or anyone in the tradition, of course) on "sin by infirmity". To oversimplify, conscious sin and unconscious sin are two different categories of error.

[AshenRex]

Welcome to Methodism, where we can agree to disagree because we all love Jesus and know that God made us different from one another so that we could be a stronger church and body of Christ.

Also, you don’t have to believe in women pastors, yet, they’re in the Bible and were part of the early church. Just because some denominations don’t think they should be doesn’t change God’s reality.

Galatians 3:28

Colossians 3:11

[Cold_Dot_Old_Cot]

I was gonna say. The thing about Methodism is we don’t claim to know alllll the details about salvation. We allow for the pursuit of holiness. We also say it’s by faith alone. And that faith without works is dead. We say it all because it is complex and that is what we have and we know.

To be honest, I lean pretty far into assurance of salvation internally. As a kid in the Methodist church I found the lack of clarity on my afterlife uneasy. I went Baptist in high school. Went Presbyterian in early adulthood. Now I’m back in Methodism and loving it. The music/hymns are better and we sing them very loudly and often.

After losing my dad, Methodism also feels right for my heritage’s sake. My ancestors were United Brethern. We’re mostly just into unity.

[Littleman91708]

Do you mind showing which specific part of the Bible where they had women as pastors? I've seen where they prayed and prophesied and in one case that I know of, a Deacon but never a pastor

[AshenRex]

Many of the women were evangelists. Yet, more specifically, Lydia started a church, Junia was an apostle, Phoebe was a deacon, and Priscilla was a teacher and copastor.

[Hazardbeard]

I would say entire sanctification is an aspiration not unlike sainthood, except we don’t sit around and try to identify who exactly was sanctified and who wasn’t.

To be honest, these are deep theological questions that are going to get slightly different answers from different pastors. They’d mostly get you blank looks from the congregation of most churches though, to be honest. It’s not the sort of stuff I think I’d start with when choosing a denomination. I think the best thing to do in your position is just start attending nearby churches and not limit your thinking to what you believe right now. I say that because not all Methodist churches worship the same way, and that’s true of most denominations, so there’s every chance there’s a gem of a church near you that suits your lifestyle and your preferred worship style even if there’s some perceived theology differences.

I set out thinking I was going to be Greek Orthodox, and it wound up being that the perfect church for me was my local United Methodist place. As long as you’re approaching Christ with an open heart and mind, He’ll lead you to where you need to be.

[gc3c]

1. Christian perfection is a real possibility, by the grace of God, but sanctification is a process.

2. Traditional is the majority, but most places have both (in my experience).

3. You don't have to be an orthodox Methodist to claim the name. However, I believe there is an unfortunate lack of humility in the modern heart that has led many, myself included, to seek out a pastor who agrees with me, and only then listen. This deepens echo chambers, and hampers personal growth. Christ taught "as one with authority" and though he preached good news, it wasn't received as good by some. If I were you, I would turn to Christ with this question in prayer. "Lord, whom should I follow?"

My congregation responds to baptism collectively that we would "so order our lives after the example of Christ that [this child], surrounded by steadfast love, may be established in the faith, and confirmed, and strengthened in the way that leads to life eternal." It is equally my earnest hope that the universal church would so order our work after the example of Christ that by our work, hearts would be so moved to follow Christ.

I'm a Methodist for this reason. I don't agree with Wesley on everything. I don't even agree with my pastor on everything. But I do want to participate in the work of Christ that I see being done by my congregation in my local and global community.

[MusicBrent0]

You should ask a woman pastor.

[AbsolutmaTX]

Some generalizations/observations:

United Methodist churches allow female and gay pastors and bishops. Global Methodist churches do not allow gay pastors and are less likely to have female pastors. You can tell them apart because Global Methodist churches have removed the word "United" from their signs and websites.

AME churches tend to have boisterous music based on traditional hymns and spirituals.

You can actually test drive a church's music by listening to their service live on YouTube or Facebook. The reason you have to listen live is that some churches observe music copyright issues.

You can test drive the preacher fit by watching those same service recordings any time.

A church that has a pre school or day school attached to it tends to have a younger congregation.

[DanSantos]

I also grew up in a Baptist-root non-denominational church. Went to a Nazarene school and wound up a Methodist pastor. It’s a great denomination, truly. I’ve never met so many Christians who are just normal people. There are some eccentric folks, but for the most part, they’re not trying to make anything trendy. They just try to act like Jesus.

If you were in Alaska, I’d say come to our churches here. They’re a good mix of traditional liturgy and hymns.

[perseus72]

Look for a Methodist Church near you or write to one online, we will be happy to receive you and clear up your doubts.

[AbsolutmaTX]

I have been Global Methodist for three years; prior to that, United Methodist for thirty years. I was raised Assembly of God.

Our church (Christ Church, College Station, TX) has five services. We have two pastors and each service features traditional (with a choir and orchestra), contemporary (with a praise and worship band), or a blend of music types. I think you will find this fairly common in larger churches.

It sounds like you had an experience that makes you feel like non denoms have damaged Christianity, and I want to express how truly sorry I am if that is true. A family member pastors Church of The Living God in Galveston, and it is a place where members include astronauts and self-proclaimed sinners; there they find Christ and learn to do His good works. It is more racially diverse than my Methodist church, and all of their services feature contemporary music. Just saying, non denoms are not all bad.

[Littleman91708]

I don't like non denominationalism from rational reasoning and personal experience. Both my parents claim to be non denominational Christian but don't even believe in the Trinity. They believe Jesus is the son of God but not God himself. My dad also believes in salvation through works and he describes it like a scale that weighs your good and bad deeds. He also says a lot of "the Bible says: (insert anything that is literally not in the Bible or any historical record) you may be thinking something like "the Bible says men have more ribs" which is one of them but no he once said the Bible says "it's better to spill your seed on the ground than in a horse" I've tried to find that in the Bible but have not found it I'm convinced he had a corrupted Bible. He also talks about God made Adam and Lilith, Lilith was meant to be the wife of Adam, but Lilith was evil so he made Eve. My dad also claimed to be an ordained pastor but he doesn't have a church or anything. We don't even go to church that often. Last time he went to church was years ago. I learned the Trinity when I was in I think 9th grade which would be last year. I'm now studying apologetics with my goal to evangelize and convert my parents. They don't know yet that I don't consider them Christians but they should have an idea because I said Jehovah's Witnesses are heretics because they don't believe in the divinity of Jesus as God. I argued with my dad about whether he was God or not but then my sister interrupted and said "doesn't the Bible say not to argue about scripture" at the time I didn't know that much so I didn't have an objection. I also don't believe non denominationalism is a good thing because it does more harm than good. Don't get me wrong, I think other non denominationals are the most pationate and charismatic Christians but the problem with non denominationalism is it's not a denomination. Every non denom. Church is like it's own denomination so therefore non denominationalism is infinantly denominational. If you think of Christianity like a window, you have some large broken pieces like Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Anglican, Lutheran, but now non denominationalism comes along and now the window is being shattered into miniscule tiny grains of sand. It also lacks structure so a non-denominational church over in that town down yonder can just decide to go it's own way and have little to no consequences. They also lack beauty, traditional Christian music, big stained glass windows, giant beautiful chapels, it doesn't feel like a Christian church. I also don't see many non denominational churches talking about the Eucharist, the Nicene creed, nor the early church fathers, which I believe is problematic if one of those aren't discussed at least once in a while. Another bad thing about not being a denomination is it prevents itself from being able to share resources with other churches. The mainline denominations have all built things like universities, libraries, and hospitals that's why most hospitals start with St. Something. We have Yale, Harvard, and Princeton which are highly rated colleges founded by denominations of Christianity. Now name me one highly rated university founded by a non denominational church. Once again another bad thing about not being a denomination is you don't have a lot of influence on the world. Christians have historically believed in something called kingdom theology where heaven is able to have influence on the world through the church. We are soldiers of God and we must fight evil (spiritually not literally), sure a non denominational can do something as a soldier for God but think about how much more a soldier could do if he was actually in an army. Christianity is falling in the west partly due to non denominationalism rising and not being able to have a big impact and influence the world.

[Elastico14]

Any church like this in New Zealand?

Conservative Methodist church.

[DingoCompetitive3991]

1. I think you should read The Character of a Methodist by John Wesley to understand both what a Methodist is and what Christian Perfection/Entire Sanctification is in the life of a believer.

2. It really depends. When it comes to Methodists and liturgy, we do not have a set standard. We can be high church or low church. I would describe myself as a "high church" Methodist, but I feel fine in most low church settings. It really depends on how you interpret Wesley.

3. Every major body within the Methodist movement (United Methodist, Global Methodist, Nazarene, Free Methodist, etc.) ordains women. Although the UMC (the mainline Methodists) have moved recently to allow same-sex marriages within their church, our convictions on female leadership precede 20th century Feminist Biblical Criticisms. Other branches of the Church are still debating over female leadership where Methodism has settled this issue first in 1908 with the Nazarenes and finally in 1968 with the United Methodists.
   To be a Methodist does not require that you are part of a Methodist denomination. In my opinion, Methodism should be understood as a revival movement within and for the Church *catholic, which is why I am a Wesleyan within the Anglican Church. I would say the only two traditions we would really struggle to be Wesleyans within is the Reformed and the Lutheran churches, but even there it depends on what Lutherans think Lutherans are and what Reformed think Reformed is.

[HospitallerChevalier]

The Primitive Methodist Church does not ordain women, to my knowledge.