I was asked yesterday at the town hall meeting how many Global Methodist Churches there are; the truth is that we don’t know.  God knows, but no one in the GMC likely knows a count for the present moment.  That sounds strange or like an administrative failure, but it's not; it’s a movement of the Holy Spirit.  The denomination is growing exponentially. 

The Global Methodist Church is a little over two years old and mainly comprised of former United Methodists, but not entirely. Applications for individual churches continue to come into Provisional Annual Conferences across the USA, and whole Annual Conferences are joining or forming across the rest of the world. This will continue for four to five years, and then we pray that the growth continues.

While we anticipate the day when we can quantify the number of GMC churches, we also recognize that this will mark a bittersweet milestone. Our hope is to continue planting churches globally, including in the US, for centuries to come or until the return of Christ.  As I mentioned yesterday, we are called to be a movement that spreads and grows, transcending physical boundaries and perpetually expanding. 

There is a tale about when America’s frontier was being explored by Daniel Boone.  Boone says every time I travel through new territory and walk into a new clearing, I wonder at the pristine beauty around me, and as I look around, I inevitably see a Methodist Circuit Rider building an arbor for a church service.   Oh, for the zeal and dedication of those in the early days of Methodism.   

As we witness the renewed Movement of Methodism in the Global Methodist Church, I pray you share in the excitement and hope for Christ Church's future.  We are called to be a part of this movement and to invite people into this new thing that the Holy Spirit is doing among us.


***Here is an update that I saw just after I finished the article above: Please note that it is accurate for July 1st, 2024. I believe that it will be outdated by the end of the week, and I pray that I am right…

Launched on May 1, 2022, the GM Church now has 4,501 local churches in Africa, Europe, the Philippines, and the U.S.