Methodist Protestant Church

Methodist denomination in the U.S.

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Methodist Protestant Church

Classification| Methodism
Orientation| Holiness movement
Theology| Wesleyan
Associations| American Council of Christian Churches, International Council of Christian Churches
Founder| John Wesley
Origin| 1828
Separated from| Methodist Episcopal Church (1828)
Congregations| 42
Official website| themethodistprotestantchurch.org

The Methodist Protestant Church (MPC) is a Methodist denomination of Christianity that is based in the United States. It was formed in 1828 by former members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, being Wesleyan in doctrine and worship, but adopting congregational governance.

A majority of the Methodist Protestants merged with the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1939, and for that reason, the historic Methodist Protestant Church is regarded as one of the predecessors of the present-day United Methodist Church.[1][page needed] The Mississippi MPC delegation to the 1939 Uniting Conference withdrew from the proceedings, due to worries about developing liberal elements within the UMC; most of the congregations in the Mississippi conference reorganized and continued as the Methodist Protestant Church in name, doctrine and practice.[2]

In 2024, the MPC headquarters are in Mississippi.[3]

As of 2008, the MPC consists of 42 churches in the United States, located in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Oklahoma and a mission conference in the country of Belize.

## History

[edit]

Part of a series on

Methodism

John Wesley

Background

* History (in the United States)

* Anglicanism
* Arminianism
* First Great Awakening
* Moravianism
* Nonconformism
* Pietism
* Wesleyan theology

Doctrine

|  Doctrinal standards

* Bible
* Old Testament
* New Testament
* Creeds
* Nicene Creed
* Apostles' Creed
* Articles of Religion
* Sermons on Several Occasions
* Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament

Distinctive beliefs and practices

* Assurance of faith
* Conditional preservation
of the saints
* Priesthood of all believers
* Sainthood
* Four sources of theological authority
* Covenant theology
* Substitutionary atonement
* Imparted righteousness
* Moral law
* New birth
* Free will
* Outward holiness
* Prevenient grace
* Real presence
* Sanctification (growth in grace)
* Sunday Sabbatarianism
* Christian perfection
* Second work of grace
* Baptism with the Holy Spirit
* Views on sin
* Works of piety
* Works of mercy

Worship

* The Sunday Service of the Methodists
* Covenant Renewal Service
* Revival service
* Altar call
* Mourner's bench
* Camp meeting
* Tabernacle
* Tent revival
* Brush arbor revival
* Lovefeast
* Singings
* Watchnight service

People

*     * John Wesley
* Charles Wesley

* Richard Allen
* Francis Asbury
* Thomas Coke
* John William Fletcher
* Orange Scott
* William Williams Pantycelyn
* Benjamin Titus Roberts
* Walter Ashbel Sellew
* Howell Harris
* Albert Outler
* James Varick
* Countess of Huntingdon
* Phoebe Palmer
* George Whitefield

* Bishops
* Theologians

* Groups
* Churches

* Methodist Church of Great Britain
* Free Methodist Church
* United Methodist Church
* World Methodist Council
* Global Methodist Church
* Other Methodist denominations

Organization

* Connexionalism
* General Conference
* Methodist Circuit
* Pastoral charge
* Class meeting
* Penitent band

Related groups

* Holiness movement
* Conservative holiness movement
* Holiness Pentecostalism
* Evangelicalism

Other relevant topics

* Saints in Methodism
* Methodist views on alcohol
* Methodist local preacher
* Itinerant preacher
* Circuit rider
* Steward
* Homosexuality and Methodism
* Ordination of women in Methodism
* Bishops in Methodism

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Christianity portal

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### A Methodist reform movement begins

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The particular issue which would eventually give rise to the organization of the Methodist Protestant Church was one of Church governance rather than doctrine. Dissatisfaction among some Methodists with regard to the increasingly exclusive power of the clergy, particularly bishops, and the exclusion of laymen from the councils of the Church, including the Annual (regional) and General (national) Conferences.

### Establishment

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In response to actual and threatened expulsions, a convention was held in Baltimore, November 12, 1828, an initial organization was formed with the provisional name of "The Associated Methodist Churches," temporary Articles of Association adopted, and its first General Conference scheduled for 1830. The intervening time was used to form local churches and organized into annual (regional) conferences. Fourteen Annual Conferences were represented by one hundred and fourteen delegates at the first General Conference, called to order on November 2, 1830. The delegates adopted the permanent name "Methodist Protestant Church" to denote its connection to the reform movement, adopted a Constitution and Discipline reflecting the representative form the reformers had sought within the Methodist Episcopal Church. Unlike the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist Protestant Church rejected the use of bishops. In the MEC, the bishops had the power to appoint pastors to local churches. The Methodist Protestant Church appointed pastors by a president of the conference. The conference then affirmed the appointment.[4]

### Reunification and organized dissent

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After the formation of the Methodist Protestant Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church had become further fractured by the corresponding division of the nation during the American Civil War. At the conclusion of that military conflict, the corresponding division between Northern and Southern Methodist Episcopal Churches remained. While discussion toward reunification went forward slowly, many of the democratic reforms of church governance were adopted which had led to a separate Methodist Protestant Church. Consequently, the reunification process was broadened to include all three major "streams" of American Methodism, and resulted in a Uniting Convention being convened in 1939 with representatives of the General and Annual Conferences of the three separate bodies as delegates.

Some of the original differences between Methodist Protestant Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church remained unresolved. Additionally, many Methodist Protestants objected to liberalization on the part of the Methodist Episcopal Church with respect to the inspiration and authority of the Scriptures, the deity of Christ and Wesley's teachings on the work of the Holy Spirit. This opinion was the minority view in most Methodist Protestant Annual Conferences, the Mississippi Conference being the sole exception. The Uniting Convention proceeded to effect the merger, which formed The Methodist Church, which in 1968 merged with the Evangelical United Brethren to form the United Methodist Church. Those who objected to the merger continued as the Methodist Protestant Church.

## Notable people

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* Daniel Bagley (1818-1905), preacher, educational booster, industrialist
* Ancel Henry Bassett (1809–1886), minister, author, editor, historian
* John Calvin Broomfield (1872–1950), pastor and bishop
* Aubrey Franklin Hess (1874–1935), theologian and educator
* Hubert D. Humphreys (1923–2009)) engaged in research on the history of the Methodist Protestant Church
* Eugenia St. John Mann (1847-1932), ordained minister in the Kansas Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church; first woman in the U.S. to sit as a delegate in the General Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church
* Mary A. Miller (1837 – 1925), editor and publisher of Methodist Protestant Church missionary periodicals
* James O'Kelly (1735-1826), clergyman
* Thomas H. Stockton (1808–1868), Chaplain of the United States House of Representatives
* Lula Wardlow (1876–1970), businesswoman, minister, first woman ever elected mayor of a Louisiana community

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Melton 2018.
2. ^ "About Us". MPC official website. Retrieved 2024-06-06.
3. ^ "MPC". MPC official website. Retrieved 2024-06-06.
4. ^ Airhart, Phyllis D. (December 1997). "Wesley and the People Called Methodists. By Richard P. Heitzenrater. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1995. xii + 338 pp. $19.95". Church History. 66 (4): 840–842\. doi:10.2307/3169257. ISSN 0009-6407. JSTOR 3169257. S2CID 162363477.

### Works cited

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* Melton, J. Gordon (7 December 2018). Religious Bodies in the U.S.: A Dictionary. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-52353-4.

### General references

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* "A Concise History of the Methodist Protestant Church" by Ancel H. Bassett, published by Wm. McCracken, Jr., Pittsburgh, 1887.
* Lewis, T. H. (1964). "Historical Sketch of the Origin of the Methodist Protestant Church". Constitution and Discipline of the Methodist Protestant Church. General Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church. Retrieved 2006-11-22.

## External links

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* Denominational website
* Journal of the Quadrennial Session of the General Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church
* Journal of the Annual Session of the North Carolina Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church
* Minutes of the Session of the Michigan Annual Conference, Methodist Protestant Church
* Divinity Archive, History of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Protestant Church by Mrs E. C. Chandler (1920) (online copy)

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Methodist Episcopal Church

History|

* Anglican Church (in North America)
* Methodism
* History of Methodism in the United States
* First Great Awakening
* Articles of Religion
* Circuit rider
* Lovely Lane Methodist Church
* Barratt's Chapel
* Christmas Conference
* Thomas Coke
* Francis Asbury
* Second Great Awakening
* Connexionalism
* Methodist Church (USA)
* United Methodist Church
* Mainline Protestant

Derivatives|

* Evangelical Association (1800)
* African Methodist Episcopal Church (1816)
* African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (1821)
* Methodist Episcopal Church of Canada (1828)
* Methodist Protestant Church (1828)
* Christian Union (1864)
* Church of God (Holiness) (1883)
* Christ's Sanctified Holy Church (1892)
* Church of the Nazarene (1895)
* Pilgrim Holiness Church (1897)
* Pentecostal Holiness Church of North Carolina (1897)
* Lumber River Conference of the Holiness Methodist Church (1900)
* Kentucky Mountain Holiness Association (1925)

| Republican Methodist Church
(1792)|

* Christian Connection (1810)
* Congregational Christian Churches (1931)
* Conservative Congregational Christian Conference (1948)
* National Association of Congregational Christian Churches (1955)
* United Church of Christ (1957)

|

Wesleyan Methodist Church
(1841)|

* Church of Daniel's Band (1893)
* Fire-Baptized Holiness Church (1896)
* Missionary Methodist Church (1913)
* Bible Methodist Connection of Churches (1967)
* Bible Methodist Connection of Tennessee (1968)
* Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection (1968)

Methodist Episcopal Church, South
(1844)|

* Congregational Methodist Church (1852)
* Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (1870)
* New Congregational Methodist Church (1881)
* People's Methodist Church (1938)
* Southern Methodist Church (1940)

Free Methodist Church
(1860)|

* Reformed Free Methodist Church (1932)
* United Holiness Church (1955)
* Evangelical Wesleyan Church (1963)

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