This past Sunday during our question and answer period, I received the text “What is the Free Methodist Church on Poyntz and [what is the] difference to the United Methodist Church?” I said that I didn’t know exactly and I would follow up. Here’s what I found. From the Free Methodist Church Website:
“The Free Methodist Church was birthed in 1860 when Benjamin Titus Roberts, a pastor in the Methodist Episcopal Church [a predecessor to the United Methodist Church], could no longer serve in harmony with their practices. B.T. Roberts observed that no church could support slaveholding, rent seats in the church, withhold women from full service in the church, and quench the movement of the Holy Spirit in public worship. Therefore he promoted freedom for all people from slavery, free seats in every house of worship, freedom for women to serve in all roles in the church including pastoral ministry, and freedom for the Holy Spirit to move in public worship.” [1]
That account aligns well with the account found in The United Methodist Book of Discipline:
“A Methodist preacher, Benjamin Titus Roberts, had formed the Free Methodist Church in 1860 to oppose worldliness, especially the grand middle class churches in cities financed by renting pews.” [2]
As I’m sure you know, The United Methodist Church has come around to seeing the above issues from the Free Methodist perspective. Moreover, my sense is that while the “Free Methodist Church” was more progressive at it’s founding, the United Methodist Church would be considered more progressive now. But a lot probably depends on which congregation you’re talking about and which member you’re talking to.
[1] “History of the Free Methodist Church,” Free Methodist Church USA, February 16, 2024, https://fmcusa.org/history.
[2] The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church 2016 (Nashville, Tennessee: United Methodist Pub House, 2016), 55.