Congregational Methodist Church

The Congregational Methodist Church is a Methodist denomination located primarily in the southern United States and northeastern Mexico. It is aligned with the Holiness movement and adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology. As of 1995, the denomination reported 14,738 members in 187 churches.

Background

The Congregational Methodist Church was founded in Georgia in 1852 when several churches split from the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, out of a desire to blend Methodist doctrine with congregational polity.

The Congregational Methodist Church is Wesleyan-Arminian in doctrine, congregational in its system of worship, republican or representative in its system of government, connexional in nature, missionary in outlook, evangelistic in endeavor, and cooperative in spirit. Each local church calls its pastor, owns its property, and sets its budget.

Its congregations are located in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi. Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico, plus the Mexican states of Coahuila and Tamaulipas and the Canadian province of Québec. It also has missionaries in the United States, Mexico, Belize, Haiti, Bolivia and Japan.

In 1944, the Congregational Methodist Church, then headquartered in Dallas, Texas, established The Dallas Bible School, an institution of higher education. The school was moved to Tehuacana, Texas, for several years, and was renamed Westminster College and Bible Institute. The school was permanently relocated to Florence, Mississippi in 1972, and was renamed Wesley College, a name that more reflected its Wesleyan-Arminian tradition. Wesley College was closed in July 2010.

The church's Denominational Headquarters is located in Florence, Mississippi, serving churches and programs of the denomination.

References

External links

• Congregational Methodist Church
• "Congregational Methodist Church, The" . New International Encyclopedia. 1905.

1. Congregational polity
2. First Congregational Methodist Church
3. Southern Congregational Methodist Church
4. List of Methodist denominations
5. Age of accountability
6. Methodist Episcopal Church, South
7. Global Methodist Church
8. Ecclesiastical polity
9. Congregational Christian Churches
10. List of the oldest churches in the United States
11. Salvation of infants
12. Methodism
13. United and uniting churches
14. History of Methodism in the United States
15. List of Christian denominations
16. Methodist Church (USA)
17. Southern Methodist Church
18. Eucharistic theology
19. Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist
20. Primitive Methodist Church