Liberty First UMC...
The United Methodist Church is a global denomination. We believe with opens hearts and opens minds. We seek to be be active in the world by active engagement in the world.
A United Methodist is someone who joins in that mission by putting faith and love into action. We believe that God loves all people, and that we share in expressing that love. So we as United Methodist tradition emphasizes God's grace and in serving others. We believe that Jesus Christ is the fullest expression of God's love--showing us the fullness of God's care through Jesus' teachings, death and resurrection.
John Wesley started the Methodist movement in 18th century England. His teachings on practical divinity (living out our faith) and appeals to reason and experience form important aspects of United Methodist practice today.
We invite you to join us as we develop our own discipleship walk together.
The United Methodist Church shares a great deal with other Christian denominations. We believe God's grace is open to all, and therefore practice "open Communion"--meaning that anyone may participate in receiving Communion. We believe salvation is an open gift from God, accepted by individuals according to their own free will. The United Methodist denomination is a "big tent" theologically, providing space for theological discourse and, at times, disagreement.
Like many other Christian groups, we affirm the beliefs expressed in the Apostles Creed. These include:
The belief in one God, who is the Creator and sustainer of the universe.
The belief in the Trinity, that there is one God in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is fully human and fully divine.
Though The United Methodist Church was officially created in 1968, its history dates back to 1730 when John and Charles Wesley, two students at Oxford University in England, gathered a small group of students who sought to spread the Methodist movement.
At about the same time, people like Philip William Otterbein, a German-American clergyman, and Martin Boehm, a Mennonite preacher, were leading similar movements in America that helped people grow their faith through the United Brethren in Christ Church.
Across the decades, both movements spread and grew, often merging to form new denominations. In 1968, both strands of Christianity came together to form The United Methodist Church.
Taking an active stance in society is nothing new for followers of John Wesley. He set the example for us to combine personal and social piety. Ever since predecessor churches to United Methodism flourished in the United States, we have been known as a denomination involved with people's lives, with political and social struggles, having local to international mission implications. Such involvement is an expression of the personal change we experience in our baptism and conversion.
The United Methodist Church believes God's love for the world is an active and engaged love, a love seeking justice and liberty. We cannot just be observers. So we care enough about people's lives to risk interpreting God's love, to take a stand, to call each of us into a response, no matter how controversial or complex. The church helps us think and act out of a faith perspective.
Methodism began because of John Wesley, his brother Charles, and others’ desire to grow as disciples of Jesus Christ. Together they pursued “holiness of heart and life,” which Wesley described as “universal love filling the heart, and governing the life” (Advice to a People Called Methodist). The dual emphasis on both what we believe and how we live, is essential to United Methodism today.
Scripture teaches that we are incapable of achieving holiness under our own power. Instead, we receive it as a gift because of God’s great love for each and every one of us. Christians use the word grace to describe the gift of God doing for us what we cannot do on our own.
Wesley taught that God's grace is with each of us throughout our lives. By grace God prepares us, justifies us, and then continues grow us as followers of Jesus Christ.
Wesley taught that God loves everyone, and invites all of us to be in right relationship with him. Because we are unable to do this on our own, God prepares our hearts and minds to accept Jesus’s invitation to follow him before we are even aware of it. As we read in the Bible, “But God shows his love for us, because while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8)
By God’s grace, we recognize our brokenness, long for something more, and learn from Christians who show us God’s love by word and example. Wesley called this prevenient grace, which simply means the grace that “comes before” we know or love God.
The Bible teaches, “You are saved by God’s grace because of your faith” (Ephesians 2:8) This means salvation is not something we deserve or earn, but something that God has done for us through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
When we recognize our sinfulness (which Wesley taught happens by God’s “convicting grace”) and repent, we receive God’s forgiveness and are called to live a new life of following Jesus by loving God and our neighbors. We receive this gift out of what Wesley called God’s justifying grace, because we are “made right” with God. Our relationship is restored.
The moment of justification is the beginning of a wonderful journey with Jesus toward holiness of heart and life. As we participate in God’s work in the world through acts of piety like worship and prayer and acts of mercy like serving others and working for justice for our neighbors, we make ourselves available to God who forms us into the likeness of Jesus.
Wesley sometimes said that God “perfects” us by his grace, but he never intended that to mean we would never make a mistake. Instead, Wesley taught that by God’s grace we would stop sinning intentionally when made perfect in both our love of God and neighbor. We do not wish to harm either of those relationships.
This process, which we might call spiritual growth today, is not something we do. Instead, it is God who lovingly works in us and for us. Wesley called this sanctifying grace—the grace by which God makes us holy in heart and life.
The United Methodist Church does not have a central headquarters or a single executive leader. Duties are divided among bodies that include the General Conference, the Council of Bishops and the Judicial Council.
These entities are required by our Constitution to be part of our structure. Each plays a significant role in the life of the church.