Free Methodist Church
Church in Minago, BurundiWikipedia
11
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7
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5
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Search complete. 11 mentions across 7 episodes found for "Free Methodist Church".
Sep 20, 2026
Clare PembertonHOST
My name is Clare Pemberton.
Clare PembertonHOST
I am a pastor in the Free Methodist Church here in the UK.
Clare PembertonHOST
And this podcast is all about helping our church members here in the Northwest of England grow deeper in their faith and understanding of God, his church and his word.
Clare PembertonHOST
But if you've stumbled across us by accident or you've sought us out because you're looking for answers to questions, you are so very welcome.
Clare PembertonHOST
And I pray that you find this useful.
Clare PembertonHOST
In our first episode, last time, we looked at the history of the Free Methodist Church and how on earth we got from the early Church of Acts to Free Methodism today.
Clare PembertonHOST
This time, we are looking at Wesleyan Arminian theology, what it is, why does the Free Methodist movement cling to it, And is it something dry and dusty and dead? Or can it actually be helpful to you in your everyday life? I'm going to start this episode by borrowing words from the wonderful Marcy Potts, who taught me all about the Wesleyan way when I was training for ordination many years ago.
Clare PembertonHOST
I think she first heard these words the first time she sat down to learn in her own Wesleyan theology class.
Clare PembertonHOST
My name is Claire Pemberton.
Clare PembertonHOST
I am a pastor in the Free Methodist Church over here in the UK, and this podcast is all about helping our church members here in the northwest of England grow deeper in their faith and understanding of God and His church and His word.
Clare PembertonHOST
But if you're here by accident, a huge warm welcome.
Clare PembertonHOST
We hope that you find this useful.
Clare PembertonHOST
In some areas we may even disagree sharply but we are all united in bringing the gospel to our local community.
Clare PembertonHOST
did we say at the start about that cycle of being drawn back to grace and holiness here we are again in 1860 benjamin titus roberts bt roberts helped found the free methodist church in the us the new movement sought to recover wesley's vision of holy living freedom in the spirit compassion for the poor opposition to slavery and injustice and faithfulness to scripture and the word free expressed several convictions they wanted freedom for the spirit to lead worship freedom for the poor to fully participate in church life, freedom from injustice and oppression, and freedom to pursue holiness.
Clare PembertonHOST
All right, but how did free Methodism end up in the UK? Well, about 100 years after that, in 1970, A small group of Methodist ministers in North Lancashire felt that mainstream Methodism was moving away from the authority of scripture.
Clare PembertonHOST
So they sought out a conversation with the bishops of the Free Methodist Church in the US and formally affiliated with the movement.
Clare PembertonHOST
The names of those ministers from the UK were Barry, Ron and Frank.
Clare PembertonHOST
Ron and Frank have passed away now, but Reverend Barry Walton prayed over our last annual conference for the Free Methodist Church in the UK.
Clare PembertonHOST
and god has done amazing things through free methodism in the uk over the course of his lifetime 56 years later we have around 50 churches and a whole host of chaplains who minister in prisons and hospitals and retirement homes from cornwall to scotland from northern ireland everywhere in between and we continue to pursue this story of renewal we want to proclaim christ to cultivate holy communities and to bring freedom to a broken world.
Clare PembertonHOST
And we have our own FM podcast too, if you're interested, that's called Holy Free.
Howard A. SnyderGUEST
Yes.
Howard A. SnyderGUEST
My life has been primarily in the Free Methodist Church.
Howard A. SnyderGUEST
My parents were missionaries.
Howard A. SnyderGUEST
in the Dominican Republic and I was born there.
Jeremy HowardHOST
That's also where you can put Church of the Nazarene.
Jeremy HowardHOST
That's where you can put Free Methodists.
Jeremy HowardHOST
It's a smaller group, definitely east of the Mississippi, a lot in the south.
Jeremy HowardHOST
You'll find more Free Methodists.
Jeremy HowardHOST
But they're going to be more conservative in those ways.
Jeremy HowardHOST
So they still have some significant error.
Steve GreggHOST
Now, as far as their services, if you go on a Sunday morning, a Calvary chapel will seem very much like most any modern evangelical church.
Steve GreggHOST
You probably won't find much different than going to the average Baptist church or maybe, you know, whatever, Christian Mission Alliance Church or Evangelical Free Church or you know, maybe Free Methodist Church or something like that, you're going to find Calvary chapels are very, or shall we say, they're nondescript in the way they run their Sunday services.
Steve GreggHOST
Now, in the Revival, Calvary Chapel didn't only have their Sunday services, they had every night of the week Bible studies.
Steve GreggHOST
And most Calvary chapels will have midweek Bible studies at least once a week.
James MaxwellGUEST
We'll talk about some wrong perceptions of sanctification at the very end, but I'd like to say here that one time a young couple started coming to the church I was pastoring, and I was kind of surprised.
James MaxwellGUEST
And I'll mention the denomination because this girl's father was the chairman of the board at the Free Methodist Church in town.
James MaxwellGUEST
Now, free Methodists, we're going to talk about this later, believe in entire sanctification in this life, that we can come to the state of sinless perfection in this life.
James MaxwellGUEST
And she had thought, if anybody has attained unto sinless perfection, it would be my dad.
15 MINS LATER
James MaxwellGUEST
And this would be Nazarenes, Free Methodists, Church of God, Anderson, Indiana, And those denominations teach that you can reach entire sanctification now.
James MaxwellGUEST
You know what happens in a case like that is people start redefining sin.
James MaxwellGUEST
I used to have a Bible study when we lived in Michigan that was out in a community by a lake and we had packed this house out, and one of the people who came was the adult Sunday school teacher at the local Free Methodist Church.
James MaxwellGUEST
And one time he asked me, we were talking about growth and grace, and he said, can you define sin for me? And I said, sin is anything contrary to the word of God or the nature of God.