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“On April 23, 1968, The United Methodist Church was created when Bishop Reuben H. Mueller, representing The Evangelical United Brethren Church, and Bishop Lloyd C. Wicke of The Methodist Church joined hands at the constituting General Conference in Dallas, Texas. ... org) The unification of these two churches, both rich in tradition, marked the beginning of the church that I would grow up with through my childhood and adolescence. That same year, the General Board of Global Ministry, the central authority in United Methodist Mission was created as well. (Brief Timeline) However, to understand the church, what it is built upon, and its missionary efforts we must go back much further to May 24, 1738 when John Wesley, founder of Methodism, experienced a spiritual rebirth in a little meeting on Aldersgate Street, London. ... (Barclay1, 17) This marked the beginning of a missionary tradition that would within 200 years become an enormously large and widespread global endeavor.
The three most important figures in the Methodist missionary tradition are John Wesley, Francis Asbury, and Thomas Coke. Each of these notable figures had a very different idea for how the Methodist Church should approach missions. ... He did not mean that we should travel the ends of the world to preach, even though he was a missionary for the Church of England in the Georgia circuit in 1735. ... He explained in his only missionary sermon “The General Spread of the Gospel” that “any major foreign missionary enterprise would weaken the renewal already underway in Britain”. ... (Bucke, 62) He was selected Superintendent of the Methodist Episcopal Church along with Thomas Coke on December 24, 1784 at Lovely Lane Chapel in Baltimore. (Barclay1, 97)
Thomas Coke was by far the most missionary-minded of the three men. At twenty-nine years of age after leaving his Anglican church, he asked Wesley what he should do. ... Misunderstanding this statement as so many have, Coke dedicated his life to missionary endeavors. He was the primary influence of the founding of both the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society in England and the Methodist Missionary Society in the United States. ... The Great Awakening in Virginia led by Devereux Jarratt, Thomas Rankin, and George Shadford, showed that without British administration Methodism could grow in America when in two years the number of Methodist Christians in that state went from 955 to 4,379. ... Understanding that Methodism in America could not operate under the Church of England, Wesley accepted the inevitable break after the Revolutionary War and his role became that of an advisor instead of a leader. ... With this encouragement and approval from Wesley, the American Methodists became the first church group in the United States to form an independent national organization with the founding of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1784. (Barclay1, 99)
Part of the doctrinal heritage of the United Methodist Church states that “we insist that personal salvation always involves Christian mission and service to the world. ... org) We can see this attitude throughout our missionary history in the Methodist Episcopal Church. ... ” (Bucke, 64)
The missionary effort in America was well underway even before the Methodists came to the colonies. ... Asbury as well as others considered their work in America missionary work until the founding of the church. ... Barclay even claims that after the church was organized, “The missionary zeal of the Methodist Episcopal Church was the main reason for its phenomenal growth”. ... The early extension of their missionary effort was for the evangelization of Africans in the West Indies and slaves, pressing calls from the Western forests, Upper and Lower Canada, Mormons in Utah, and among Indians. ... (Barclay1, 269-271)
After the founding of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1819, led by Nathan Bangs, many more missionary activities were commenced.
Approximate Word count = 3105
Approximate Pages = 12.4
(250 words per page double spaced)
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