About Methodism

Our Beliefs
The Methodist Church is really a web of local churches all working toward the same goal: to make disciples of Jesus Christ. In different places, the church will respond to that mission in very different ways … but the goal is always the same: to make disciples of Jesus Christ.

Our inspiration to make disciples comes from John Wesley – the father of our particular brand of faith. Wesley was a preacher and Oxford don in the eighteenth century, a man who took his faith and his own call to make disciples very seriously. Over the course of a lifetime, Wesley developed an approach to understanding God that seemed to resonate with common folks. It was an approach rooted in grace.

Each phase of God’s grace – prevenient grace, justifying grace, sanctifying grace and perfecting grace, as Wesley called them – meets us at the point of our deepest need. Before we know Christ, when our deepest need is to recognize his presence in our lives, he comes to us in the form of prevenient grace – those remarkable moments in life when God intervenes even before we know he is there.

Once we recognize him, he presents a gift to us – justifying grace. That is the moment when God makes us aware not only of our own weakness but of his provision. He invites us to become part of him, to be under his care, to follow him. When we acknowledge God’s presence and accept his gift, we are justified.

While justifying grace may only last a moment (the time it takes for a child of God to say “yes”), sanctifying grace may last the rest of our lives. It is that work of God that draws us ever closer to him and causes us to be more like Christ. This time includes an unfolding clarity about our own call in life and a greater joy in using our gifts for the glory of God. Wesley often said that “there is no such thing as personal holiness without social holiness, or social holiness without personal holiness.” The challenge of sanctification is learning to hold these two parts of the Christian life in balance – holding our love for God and our love for others together so that both are reflected in our living.

Wesley believed the logical end of sanctifying grace is perfection … not perfection in the sense that we never make another mistake, but perfection in the sense that every thought, every action, every intent is undertaken for the glory of God. Wesley called it “being made perfect in love in this life.”

The Methodist Church is dedicated to walking with individuals as they make this journey through the grace of God – through salvation to healing and finally to sanctification.

What do Methodists believe about Baptism?
Methodists hold that baptism is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. It is God’s work in our lives. Methodists believe that a person is baptized into the body of Christ. It is not only an individual act but also a community act. Methodists practice infant baptism as well as adult baptism.

If you have been baptized as either an infant or an adult in any protestant or Catholic denomination, your baptism is accepted in the Methodist church.

What do Methodists believe about Communion?
The Lord’s Table is open to all who have repented of their sins and acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. While we do not serve communion weekly, we consider it a sacred privilege to partake in this symbol of the faith. We believe the Holy Spirit has anointed this act of worship to be a sign of God’s grace and a spiritual blessing. We welcome children to the Lord’s table, believing as Jesus did that theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

We state our beliefs weekly during worship by saying The Apostle’s Creed:
I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried; the third day He rose from the dead; He ascended into Heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic* church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.