The Free Methodist Church (FMC) is a Methodist Christian denomination within the holiness movement, based in the United States. It is evangelical in nature and is Wesleyan–Arminian in theology.
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christian tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother Charles Wesley were also significant early leaders in the movement. They were named Methodists for "the methodical way in which they carried out their Christian faith". Methodism originated as a revival movement within Anglicanism with roots in the Church of England in the 18th century and became a separate denomination after Wesley's death. The movement spread throughout the British Empire, the United States and beyond because of vigorous missionary work, and today has about 80 million adherents worldwide.
The Church of the Nazarene is a Christian denomination that emerged in North America from the 19th-century Wesleyan-Holiness movement within Methodism. It is headquartered in Lenexa, Kansas. With its members commonly referred to as Nazarenes, it is the largest denomination in the world aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement and is a member of the World Methodist Council.
The Holiness movement is a Christian movement that emerged chiefly within 19th-century Methodism, and to a lesser extent influenced other traditions such as Quakerism, Anabaptism, and Restorationism. Churches aligned with the holiness movement teach that the life of a born again Christian should be free of sin. The movement is historically distinguished by its emphasis on the doctrine of a second work of grace, which is called entire sanctification or Christian perfection. The word Holiness refers specifically to this belief in entire sanctification as an instantaneous, definite second work of grace, in which original sin is cleansed, the heart is made perfect in love, and the believer is empowered to serve God. For the Holiness movement, "the term 'perfection' signifies completeness of Christian character; its freedom from all sin, and possession of all the graces of the Spirit, complete in kind." A number of Christian denominations, parachurch organizations, and movements emphasize those Holiness beliefs as central doctrine.
Asbury University is a private Christian university in Wilmore, Kentucky. Although it is a non-denominational school, the college is aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement and is a member of the Wesleyan Holiness Connection. The school offers 50-plus majors across 17 departments. In the fall of 2016, Asbury University had a total enrollment of 1,854: 1,640 traditional undergraduate students and 214 graduate students. The campus of Asbury Theological Seminary, which became a separate institution in 1922, is located across the street from Asbury University.
Within many denominations of Christianity, Christian perfection is the theological concept of the process or the event of achieving spiritual maturity or perfection. The ultimate goal of this process is union with God characterized by pure love of God and other people as well as personal holiness or sanctification. Other terms used for this or similar concepts include entire sanctification, holiness, perfect love, the baptism with the Holy Spirit, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, baptism by fire, the second blessing, and the second work of grace.
Jabez Bunting was an English Wesleyan Methodist leader and the most prominent Methodist after John Wesley's death in 1791.
Wesley College was a theological college in the Henbury area of Bristol, England, between 1946 and 2012. As the successor to an institution established in London in 1834, it was the oldest provider of theological education for the Methodist Church of Great Britain. The college was the core institution of the South West Regional Training Network of the Methodist Church, where its partners were the South West Ministerial Training Course in Exeter and the Southern Theological Education and Training Scheme in Salisbury. It was also involved with ecumenical education.
Ernest Gordon Rupp was a Methodist preacher, historian and Luther scholar.
The United Theological College located in Aberystwyth, in the county of Ceredigion in mid Wales, is a Grade II listed building which was the ministerial training college of the Presbyterian Church of Wales from 1906 to 2003 and an associate college of the University of Wales.
Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan–Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charles Wesley. More broadly it refers to the theological system inferred from the various sermons, theological treatises, letters, journals, diaries, hymns, and other spiritual writings of the Wesleys and their contemporary coadjutors such as John William Fletcher, Methodism's systematic theologian.
The Pentecostal Collegiate Institute was a short-lived co-educational collegiate institute operated initially by the Association of Pentecostal Churches of America at Saratoga Springs, New York from September 1900 to May 1902, and from then by Lyman C. Pettit until its closure in February 1903. It is considered an antecedent institution of the Pentecostal Collegiate Institute and also Eastern Nazarene College.
E Bolaji Idowu (1913–1995) was the third native-born leader of the Methodist Church Nigeria, serving from 1972 to 1984. He is also well known for his ethnographic and theological studies of the Yoruba people.
David Adam Wilkinson, FRAS is a British Methodist minister, theologian, astrophysicist and academic. He was the Principal of St John's College, Durham (2006-2023), and is a professor in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University. He remains at St John's College, having been appointed, in September 2023, Director of Equipping Christian Leadership in an Age of Science (ECLAS), an international project based at St John’s College. He is the author of several books on the relationship between science and religion, and a regular contributor to Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4. He has a PhD in astrophysics and is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Robert Newton Flew (1886–1962) was an English Methodist minister and theologian, and an advocate of ecumenism among the Christian churches.
The Bible Methodist Connection of Churches is a Methodist denomination within the conservative holiness movement. The connection is divided into four regional conferences: the Southern Conference, led by Rev. John Parker; the Southwest Conference, led by Rev. G. Clair Sams; the Heartland Conference, led by Rev. Chris Cravens; and the Great Lakes Conference, led by Rev. David Ward.
The Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies (IOCS) is a theological college in Cambridge, England. It works in collaboration with the University of Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin University and awards its degree programs through these universities. IOCS is the only Christian Orthodox institute for higher education in the UK and the only academic institution teaching the Orthodox faith in English anywhere in western Europe. Along with other theological colleges in Cambridge, it is a member of the Cambridge Theological Federation. The institute adopts a holistic approach to learning that integrates academic study with a liturgical life.
Jane Leach is a British Methodist minister and academic, who specialises in pastoral theology. Since September 2011, she has served as Principal of Wesley House, a Methodist theological college in Cambridge. She was also President of the Cambridge Theological Federation from 2015 to 2016.
Calvin T. Samuel is a Barbados-born Methodist minister and theologian, working mostly in the UK. He has served as Director of the Wesley Study Centre at Durham University and Principal of the London School of Theology.
Gordon Stevens Wakefield was a Methodist minister, academic and author.
Bibliographical details are taken from the records of the British Library.
