Church, thank you for your faithfulness through this season of transition. Thank you for being loyal and committed to God and His Church and standing firm on His truth. I am proud of you and honored to be walking this journey with you.
I truly believe God is working on something great! After seeing what God has done in a short time through the Global Methodist Church (GMC), I know He is up to something big! And praise the Lord, He has allowed us to be a part of it.
Many of our sisters and brothers who stand firm on the truth as well have not been able to leave the UMC due to different factors. Please keep in mind the struggles they are facing and lift them up in prayer often. The battle may be long for them, and there are more uncertainties for many of them now than even six months ago. Knowing who our God is, and what He has already done, we can encourage them and be certain that God will not forsake them.
I am grateful for the dedicated and committed Christ followers who have been diligently and prayerfully working to organize and lead the Global Methodist Church. It is a once in a life time opportunity and honor to be working with a few of them on the Transitional Conference Advisory Team (TCAT). However, the greatest blessing is being able to see in a deeper fashion what God is doing. And it is amazing! The work of the TCAT will be for several months yet. The goal is to have the Northeast Conference up and working in about 6-8 months. The hope is then to have the first Northeast Region Provisional Conference in the spring. At that time, delegates for the first GMC General Conference will be selected. We are well on the way for all of this to fall into place, thanks to God.
At the current time, we have 110 churches in the Northeast Region, 80 of which are completely through the process. This number changes almost weekly. There are now 3,100 congregations and 3,400 clergy aligned with the GMC with more added weekly to those numbers as well.
In every state of our country, there are Global Methodist Churches. In Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, the Philippines, Spain, Bulgaria, Slovakia, and Africa, there are Global Methodist Churches. More than 100 new Global Methodist Churches are being planted around the world. Most are entirely new churches while a few have occurred as the result of local churches not reaching the required vote to disaffiliate. New churches have been planted in the Middle East, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Canada, the Philippines and throughout the United States. The Holy Spirit has already affected every part of this globe.
Biblically sound seminaries, such as Asbury Theological Seminary, are partnering with the Global Methodist Church to teach and prepare pastors for the ministry. The GMC’s commitment to enhanced biblical teaching and preaching has resulted in the release of the Catechism to understand, recall, profess, and enjoy the church’s essential teachings. A print out of the Catechism is available in the church hallway or at globalmethodist.org.
God so deserves our praise and thanksgiving for what He has done throughout our personal experience as a local church, and for what He has already done in a very short time in the Global Methodist Church. But truly, we have not seen anything yet. This is only the being of what God desires to do in and through us. This Holy Spirit driven movement allows us to join in the original mission of John Wesley which is to spread spiritual holiness across the land. And what an honor that is to be a part of it.
The mission of the Global Methodist Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ who worship passionately, love extravagantly, and witness boldly. May we all be ready and willing to follow God’s leading in doing so.