Putting the “free” in Free Methodists.
Benjamin Titus Roberts, known to most as BT, founded the Free Methodist Church in 1860. Throughout history, the church has had a lot of power. Breaking away from the current mainstream church to start a new movement would have been considered radical and crazy. In BT Robert’s case, taking the risk of living out his convictions changed the course of the Church. However, before deciding to simply start a new church, BT tried to create change within the Methodist Episcopal Church. He wanted slave owners removed from membership and the opportunity for multi-ethnic groups to worship together.
Slavery was a lucrative business. Whether or not people agreed with Roberts' humanitarian efforts, the lure of wealth outweighed theological convictions. Roberts was eventually removed from membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1860. Soon after, he met with several other like-minded pastors and a couple hundred laypeople in a field under an apple tree in Perkins, New York. This group of leaders created the Free Methodist movement. Roberts was not only a founder of the Free Methodist Church, but also an advocate for the abolition of slavery, equity for women in ministry, and farmers' rights. BT Roberts believed that the focus of the church should be neither God's sanctifying grace nor social justice alone, but that both should be living and loving like Jesus. There are many reasons why the early movement chose the name Free to place before Methodist, but the five main reasons, which were active then and are fully accepted now, are equality of all races, equality of lay people with clergy, equality of women with men, equality of poor with rich, and vibrant experiential worship. This is the foundation of the Free Methodist Church.
HISTORY OF EMMANUEL FREE METHODIST CHURCH OF NATIONAL CITY, CA Emmanuel Free Methodist Church of National City was born in 1960.