Kenansville United Methodist Church-North Carolina - Methodist Churches on Waymarking.com

In 1735, the Wesley brothers went to the US to preach the gospel to the American Indians in Georgia. Within two years the "Holy Club" had disbanded. Wesley returned to England and met with a core group of preachers whom he held in high regard. He wrote that "they appeared to be of one heart, as well as of one judgment, resolved to be Bible-Christians at all events; and, wherever they were, to preach with all their might plain, old, Bible Christianity." These ministers continued their affiliation with the Church of England. Meantime, they began to be convinced of biblical truths that were not then popular among Anglicans. Some of their convictions became that "by grace we are saved through faith", and that justification by faith was the doctrine of the Church as well as of the Bible. They preached these conclusions, and salvation by faith became their standing topic. It implied to them three things which they saw as foundational to Christian faith:

That people are all, by nature, "dead in sin," and, consequently, "children of wrath."
That they are "justified by faith alone."
That faith produces inward and outward holiness: And these points they insisted on day and night.
In a short time, they became popular preachers with large congregations. The former name was then revived and all these gentlemen, along with their followers, became known as Methodists.[12]

The first official organization in the United States occurred in Baltimore, Maryland in 1784 with the formation of the Methodist Episcopal Church at the Christmas Conference, with Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke as the leaders.[13][14]

Though John Wesley originally wanted the Methodists to stay within the Church of England, the American Revolution decisively separated the Methodists in the American colonies from the life and sacraments of its English counterpart. In 1784, after unsuccessful attempts to have the Church of England send a bishop to start a new church in the colonies, Wesley decisively set aside fellow priest Thomas Coke as superintendent (bishop) to organize a separate Methodist Church. Together with Coke, Wesley sent a revision of the Anglican Prayerbook, and the Articles of Religion, which were received by the Baltimore Christmas Conference of 1784, officially establishing the new church.

The Lovely Lane Methodist Church is considered the Mother Church of American Methodism.[15] It grew rapidly in the young country as it employed circuit riders, many of whom were laymen, to travel the mostly rural nation by horseback to preach the Gospel and to establish churches until there was scarcely any village in the United States without a Methodist presence. The Methodist Episcopal Church rapidly became the largest Protestant denomination in the country, with 4000 circuit riders by 1844.

In the more than 220 years since 1784, Methodism in the United States, like many other Protestant denominations, has seen a number of divisions and mergers. In 1830, the Methodist Protestant Church split from the Methodist Episcopal Church over the issue of laity having a voice and vote in the administration of the church, insisting that clergy should not be the only ones to have any determination in how the church was to be operated. In 1844, the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church split into two conferences because of tensions over slavery and the power of bishops in the denomination.

The two General Conferences, Methodist Episcopal Church (or northern section) and Methodist Episcopal Church, South remained separate until the 1939 merger of these two denominations plus a third, the Methodist Protestant Church, the resulting church being known as The Methodist Church. This uniting conference took place at First Methodist Church of Marion, Indiana. The church building is currently the home of First United Methodist Church of Marion, Indiana.

On April 23, 1968, The United Methodist Church was created when The Evangelical United Brethren Church (represented by Bishop Reuben H. Mueller) and The Methodist Church (represented by Bishop Lloyd Christ Wicke) joined hands at the constituting General Conference in Dallas, Texas. With the words,

"Lord of the Church, we are united in Thee, in Thy Church and now in The United Methodist Church,"

the new denomination was given birth by the two churches that had distinguished histories and influential ministries in various parts of the world.

Combining the personal holiness emphasis of the evangelical influence in the church with the outreach emphasis from the social gospel proponents has created a combination of practices within The United Methodist Church.

Active church?: Yes Year Built: 1850 Service times: Not for sure Website: Not listed

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