Who We Are:

RockSpring church is affiliated with the Global Methodist Church (GMC) and is an English-Speaking congregation of the Dallas Central Methodist Church. Methodism began as a reform movement within the Church of England during the 18th CE. It found its first expression as an independent ecclesiastical body with the establishment of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America in 1784. The new denomination quickly grew in the young nation under the leadership of Bishop Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke, as well as through the indefatigable labors of a core of 2,500 lay preachers known as circuit riders, each of whom were committed to the vision of spreading scriptural holiness across the land. Despite the harsh living conditions of itinerant ministry, which resulted in an average life expectancy of only 33 years, those “riders of the Spirit” faithfully carried the message of Methodism to the growing frontier and beyond. 

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Others who shared the same Wesleyan ethos, such as Jacob Albright, Martin Boehm, and Philip Otterbein who worked among German-speaking Americans, and Richard Allen within the African American community, also contributed to the rapid spread of Methodism. As a result, by the middle of the 19th CE, one third of all Americans who belonged to any church were Methodists. Conflicts over slavery, the role of bishops and church government, as well as the developing holiness movement, however, led to numerous splits in Methodism in the decades that followed, until three of the larger groups reunited once more to form the Methodist Church in 1939. Almost three decades later, a further merger of that body with those who had come from the German-speaking side of the Wesleyan family, the Evangelical United Brethren, created The United Methodist Church (UMC) in 1968. For all the optimism that marked that reunion, however, from the very beginning there was also imbedded within the new denomination the idea of a theological latitude or pluralism aimed at creating a “big tent” for varying philosophical ideas and practical expressions of the faith. Unfortunately, however, as the practicalities of church life unfolded after the merger, what was intended to be a strength also revealed an inherent weakness. Without theologically clear directives in place, opinions and practices varied dramatically, both between individuals and between segments within the broader church, making genuine unity difficult. 

 

In addition to differing theological ideas and views of biblical interpretation, questions regarding abortion, human sexuality, euthanasia, war, and other social issues became points of contention at numerous General Conferences, leading to efforts on the part of numerous groups to reform and revive Methodism from within. Due in no small part of the witness of the African portion of the church, United Methodism stayed closer to the historic evangelical understandings of the Christian faith than any other mainstream denominations did. Still with each successive General Conference it became more and more of a struggle to maintain a common witness to the faith. 

 

A Special session of the General Conference in 2019, meant to resolve the conflict once and for all, reaffirmed the existing traditional standards of the church regarding human sexuality. That assembly also established a process for congregations who could not agree with traditional standards to disaffiliate from the denomination. However, significant portions of the United Methodist Church elected to disregard the church’s official traditional stance for the sake of conscience. 

 

In an attempt to sort it all out, an impromptu group of 16 individuals, including bishops, traditionalist, and progressives, led by a well-respected outside mediator, produced a “Protocol for Reconciliation and Grace Through Separation” in January 2020. It received surprisingly strong support from all quarters of the denomination across both geographical and theological lines. The Protocol would have provided for an organized, amicable separation of the United Methodist Church, with those maintaining of the traditional perspective allowed to leave the church with their property and assets. 

 

The Protocol stood an impressive chance of passing at the 2020 General Conference. Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2020 General Conference was cancelled. Conservatives continue to wait, but when the bishops and the General Commission on General Conference cancelled it again in 2021 and in 2022, a point of no return was finally reached for many. Some of the Protocol participants who favored changing the church’s traditional stance moved away from their initial pledged support, and the lines of disagreement began to harden once more.

 

The Wesleyan Covenant Association, led by Keith Boyette, had been working since 2016 to develop a new expression of Methodism more closely akin to our original understandings in case separation became necessary. Following consultations with leading pastors and lay leaders, the association made the decision not to wait any longer and became the midwife of sorts for that expression, officially launching The Global Methodist Church on May 1, 2022, as a new and independent Wesleyan denomination.  

 

Our Heritage of Faith:

As a Wesleyan expression of Christianity, the Global Methodist Church professes the Christian faith, established on the confession of Jesus as messiah, the Son of God, and resurrected Lord of heaven and earth. This confession, expressed by Simon Peter in Matthew 16:16-19 and Acts 2:32, is foundational. It declares Jesus is the unique incarnate Word of God, and He lives today, calling all to receive Him as savior, and as the one to whom all authority has been given. 

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This faith has been tested and proved since its proclamation by Mary Magdalene, the first witness to the resurrection. It was defended by the women and men of the early church, many of whom gave their lives as testimony. Their labor, enabled and inspired by the Holy Spirit, resulted in the canon of scripture as the sufficient rule both for faith and practice (the Greek word kanon means rule). It formulated creeds such as the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed and the Chalcedonian definition as accurate expressions of this faith.

 

In the sixteenth century, the Protestant reformers preserved this testimony, asserting the primacy of Scripture, the necessity of grace and faith, and the priesthood of all believers. Their doctrinal summations, the Augsburg Confession, the Schleitheim Confession, the Anglican Articles of Religion, and the Heidelberg Catechism, bore witness to this faith.

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In the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, Pietists in all traditions sought to emphasize the experiential nature of this faith, as direct encounter with the risen Lord. They worked to develop the fruit of this faith, by the power of the Holy Spirit, in individual and communal life. These pietistic movements influenced many in the reformation traditions, including two Anglican brothers, John and Charles Wesley.

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Through the organization and published works by these brothers, a distinctly Methodist articulation of Christian faith and life, of “practical divinity,” emerged. Methodism placed particular emphasis on the universal work of grace, the new birth, and the fullness of salvation, entire sanctification or perfection. Methodists created structures and communities alongside the established church to facilitate the mission “to reform the nation, especially the church, and spread scriptural holiness over the land.” 

 

As Methodists moved to America, they brought this expression of faith with them. Although Methodism in England remained loyal to the established church until after John Wesley’s death, the American revolution dictated the formation of a new church, independent of the Church of England. Accordingly, in 1784, while gathered in Baltimore for the “Christmas Conference,” the Methodist Episcopal Church was formally constituted. 

 

This new church adopted John Wesley’s revision of the Anglican Articles of Religion, the Methodist General Rules, a liturgy, and ordained the first Methodist clergy. Two other sources of authority were identified: the four volumes that included fifty-three of Wesley’s sermons and his Explanatory Notes on the New Testament. When a constitution was adopted in 1808, the Restrictive Rules protected the Articles and General Rules from revocation or change.

 

Other Methodist expressions of “primitive Christianity” and “the scripture way of salvation” emerged. German-speaking Americans from pietistic Reformed, Anabaptist, and Lutheran traditions, created organizations with doctrine and discipline nearly identical to the English-speaking Methodist Episcopal Church. The work of Phillip William Otterbein, Martin Boehm, and Jacob Albright established the United Brethren in Christ and the Evangelical Association. A number of African American Methodists, including Richard Allen, Jarena Lee, and James Varick, helped establish the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Zion to address racial discrimination and the injustices of slavery, while preserving doctrine and discipline. 

 

Through separations and mergers, Methodist Christians have preserved testimony to the risen and reigning Christ by holding themselves accountable to standards of doctrine and discipline. Beginning with early Methodist work in the Caribbean, this Wesleyan understanding of doctrine has now spread across the globe, flourishing with the unique contributions of many cultures. When The United Methodist Church was formed in 1968, with the merger of The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren, both the Methodist Articles of Religion and the Evangelical United Brethren Confession of Faith were accepted as doctrinal standards and deemed “congruent” articulations of this faith. For fifty years, the growing voices of Methodists in Africa, the Philippines, and Europe have joined in the engagement to maintain our doctrinal heritage, promoting fidelity to the doctrinal principles that launched our movement. The Global Methodist Church preserves this heritage. 

 

What We Believe:
Article I – God: We believe in the one true, holy and living God, Eternal Spirit, who is Creator, Sovereign and Preserver of all things visible and invisible. He is infinite in power, wisdom, justice, goodness and love, and rules with gracious regard for the well-being and salvation of men, to the glory of his name. We believe the one God reveals himself as the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, distinct but inseparable, eternally one in essence and power. 

 

Article II - Jesus Christ: We believe in Jesus Christ, truly God and truly man, in whom the divine and human natures are perfectly and inseparably united. He is the eternal Word made flesh, the only begotten Son of the Father, born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. As ministering Servant he lived, suffered and died on the cross. He was buried, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven to be with the Father, from whence he shall return. He is eternal Savior and Mediator, who intercedes for us, and by him all men will be judged. 

 

Article III - The Holy Spirit: We believe in the Holy Spirit who proceeds from and is one in being with the Father and the Son. He convinces the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. He leads men through faithful response to the gospel into the fellowship of the Church. He comforts, sustains and empowers the faithful and guides them into all truth. 

 

Article IV - The Holy Bible: We believe the Holy Bible, Old and New Testaments, reveals the Word of God so far as it is necessary for our salvation. It is to be received through the Holy Spirit as the true rule and guide for faith and practice. Whatever is not revealed in or established by the Holy Scriptures is not to be made an article of faith nor is it to be taught as essential to salvation. 

 

Article V - The Church: We believe the Christian Church is the community of all true believers under the Lordship of Christ. We believe it is one, holy, apostolic and catholic. It is the redemptive fellowship in which the Word of God is preached by men divinely called, and the sacraments are duly administered according to Christ's own appointment. Under the discipline of the Holy Spirit the Church exists for the maintenance of worship, the edification of believers and the redemption of the world. 

 

Article VI - The Sacraments: We believe the Sacraments, ordained by Christ, are symbols and pledges of the Christian's profession and of God's love toward us. They are means of grace by which God works invisibly in us, quickening, strengthening and confirming our faith in him. Two Sacraments are ordained by Christ our Lord, namely Baptism and the Lord's Supper. We believe Baptism signifies entrance into the household of faith, and is a symbol of repentance and inner cleansing from sin, a representation of the new birth in Christ Jesus and a mark of Christian discipleship. We believe children are under the atonement of Christ and as heirs of the Kingdom of God are acceptable subjects for Christian Baptism. Children of believing parents through Baptism become the special responsibility of the Church. They should be nurtured and led to personal acceptance of Christ, and by profession of faith confirm their Baptism. We believe the Lord's Supper is a representation of our redemption, a memorial of the sufferings and death of Christ, and a token of love and union which Christians have with Christ and with one another. Those who rightly, worthily and in faith eat the broken bread and drink the blessed cup partake of the body and blood of Christ in a spiritual manner until he comes. 

 

Article VII - Sin and Free Will: We believe man is fallen from righteousness and, apart from the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, is destitute of holiness and inclined to evil. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. In his own strength, without divine grace, man cannot do good works pleasing and acceptable to God. We believe, however, man influenced and empowered by the Holy Spirit is responsible in freedom to exercise his will for good. 

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Article VIII - Reconciliation Through Christ: We believe God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. The offering Christ freely made on the cross is the perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, redeeming man from all sin, so that no other satisfaction is required. 

 

Article IX - Justification and Regeneration: We believe we are never accounted righteous before God through our works or merit, but that penitent sinners are justified or accounted righteous before God only by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.  We believe regeneration is the renewal of man in righteousness through Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, whereby we are made partakers of the divine nature and experience newness of life. By this new birth the believer becomes reconciled to God and is enabled to serve him with the will and the affections. We believe, although we have experienced regeneration, it is possible to depart from grace and fall into sin; and we may even then, by the grace of God, be renewed in righteousness. 

 

Article X - Good Works: We believe good works are the necessary fruits of faith and follow regeneration but they do not have the virtue to remove our sins or to avert divine judgment. We believe good works, pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, spring from a true and living faith, for through and by them faith is made evident. 

 

Article XI - Sanctification and Christian Perfection: We believe sanctification is the work of God's grace through the Word and the Spirit, by which those who have been born again are cleansed from sin in their thoughts, words and acts, and are enabled to live in accordance with God's will, and to strive for holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Entire sanctification is a state of perfect love, righteousness and true holiness which every regenerate believer may obtain by being delivered from the power of sin, by loving God with all the heart, soul, mind and strength, and by loving one's neighbor as one's self. Through faith in Jesus Christ this gracious gift may be received in this life both gradually and instantaneously, and should be sought earnestly by every child of God. We believe this experience does not deliver us from the infirmities, ignorance, and mistakes common to man, nor from the possibilities of further sin. The Christian must continue on guard against spiritual pride and seek to gain victory over every temptation to sin. He must respond wholly to the will of God so that sin will lose its power over him; and the world, the flesh, and the devil are put under his feet. Thus he rules over these enemies with watchfulness through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

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Article XII - The Judgment and the Future State: We believe all men stand under the righteous judgment of Jesus Christ, both now and in the last day. We believe in the resurrection of the dead; the righteous to life eternal and the wicked to endless condemnation. 

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(Above information is from the Book of Doctrine and Discipline of the Global Methodist Church, 2024).

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