Methodist Preachers

No. But I'm not surprised. Methodists are having a clergy shortage. Baptist preachers are a dime a dozen in some areas. However, the trend of pastor shortages is beginning to hit Baptist life also, as research is pointing out.

 

Is the Methodist church in the USA evangelical? Just curious.....In Canada, the former Methodist is now the United Church of Canada and liberal to the core,,,even beyond liberal if that is possible.

We are seeing a shortage here in some churches. Some preachers are staying longer in the same church.....the manline...Anglican, Presbyterian, United and Roman Catholic are very hard pressed and closing churches.

Cheers,

Jim

 

The pastor there was a lesbian who had a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon in the pulpit instead of a water glass. That gives a little picture of the extremity of liberalism in the UM . . and this was in 72]

I thought it was Gene Scott till I saw the Lesbian part.

 

Some of the country United Methodist Churches in East Tennessee Hills are as conservitive as they come. My wife grew up in one.

 

Out of curiosity, what are the horrible results you are seeing?

 

Just sung in a Methodist Church Saturday nIght. I picked up their bulletin and here is what they believe.
1. Bible to be divinely inspired
2. all people have sinned and need forgiveness
3.Jesus Christ was virgin-born, sinless, died on the cross for our sins, was raised from the dead on the 3rd day and is coming again
4. Salvation is a free gift of God that is secured by Christ alone and received by our faith in him
5. There are two ordinances of the Church- Baptism and the Lord's Supper

That is printed on the bulletin of a United Methodist Church...

 

I've only been to two Methodist churches in my area, and in both cases, I found them to be neither liberal nor unscriptural. Quite the opposite. Their beliefs were quite conservative.

 

I am familiar with only two Methodist churches:
one here, which I was invited to visit and did. I
thought I had walked into an old-line Pentecostal
church, minus the rambunctiousness. The
women all had long hair, pulled back in buns,
they all wore dresses with long skirts and
sleeves, and they had on "sensible shoes." The
men wore suits with white shirts and only a few
had on ties.

I don't remember much about the service,
because this was enough to digest. 8o)

The second Methodist church is one in Mississippi
which is fairly conservative but not to the point of
the one mentioned above.

 

Most "christian" churches believe this. That's why we are lumped together. I think the key ingredient missing is the word " repent "

 

When you live and minister in a rural area, you get to know many people very well. The Methodist Churches are liberal here. I mean they are very un-Baptistic- works for salvation, loss of salvation, women pastors, sprinkling for baptism. What they type in their Bulletins and Newsletters needs to be researched, for differing definitions of religious terms are often used.

We are a long way from exchanging pulpits!

At least that's they way it is here is the delta of Arkansas.

rufus

 

Just wanted to know, what is so wrong with separting yourself from the world? I don't have myself all tied up in knot, just wondering why seeing people make a physical stand for Jesus in the way they dress would bother a baptist???????
DD

 

Just wanted to know, what is so wrong with separting yourself from the world? I don't have myself all tied up in knot, just wondering why seeing people make a physical stand for Jesus in the way they dress would bother a baptist???????
DD </font>[/QUOTE]Dinky --

You are very defensive of such people, apparently,
so you do not recognize that I was merely stating
what I saw and my shock at seeing it in a
Methodist church.

Regardless, since you brought it up, I will answer.
I came from a church where some of the women
religiously wore only skirts and had their long
hair up in buns; no makeup, no jewelry, etc. But
we young women in that church saw the
hypocrisy and refused to follow in their footsteps,
as they opening squinted their eyes at us, openly
criticized new converts for not seeing things as
they did, and openly ran people away from the
Lord in order to preserve "the standard."

Haughtily, they would say when another left
because of their attitudes, "Oh, well! They must
not have been one of us, or they would still be
here." Mention was made of the "wolves" in the
congregation being gone and the expectation of
revival in their absense.

And when people did leave, they would avoid
them on the street. No one called. "Friendships"
that were supposedly solid suddenly dissolved.

My daughter is presently going through some
hurt and anger over this very situation, having
more recently left than I, because a family
member (my daughter-in-law's brother) is
getting married soon, and they neglected to
include her in the shower's invitation list, As Well
As The Mother and Sisters Of The Groom!

One can wear their sleeves covering their hands if
the wish, wear skirts covering their toes, wear their
hair in little buns all they want, and it will get them
No Points with our God, especially if their Hearts
are Evil, Critical, and Selfish.

NO WHERE in the Bible does it say that women
must wear skirts; that is a very modern idea never
imagined by biblical writers. No Where does the
Bible say not to wear jewelry; rather, the wearing
of jewelry is praised, if anything. No Where does
it tell women to wear their hair in buns, men to wear
suiits and ties (or not wear ties). This is all extra-
biblical stuff and makes No Points with our God.

But the Bible has plenty to say about loving
people and about kindness, messages often
missed by people who are so hung up on man-
made rules as the above group and other groups
I have been around who are the same.

It just so happens that there were several people
in the Methodist group who were the same -- a
fact I had not intended to mention before. I had my
very own uninvited encounters wih them.

I have also learned that people who fall back on
extra-biblica rules often have more than the above
evils to hide. We have seen evils up close.

[ February 22, 2003, 10:48 AM: Message edited by: Abiyah ]

 

The Church in the town where I grew up was very much like the Baptist Church. (Texas) It seemed that they were perhaps more formal in their services than we were.

One of my friends who was a Baptist married a Methodist and joined the Methodist Church. He felt that there was not much difference in the beliefs.

I know that they have changed over the years as other churches have. Maybe they have changed alot since the ones I have attended sound nothing like the ones described here.

 

I heard of a Baptist chuch close to my area where some new members had left the Methodist church to go to this Baptist church but this was only one case.

 

It would be rare for a real Baptist to make that switch. You have to swallow a lot of doctrine changes. I once ran into an Independent Fundamental Methodist group, but even with them you had the infant baptist and Arminianism. The only way I could even consider pastoring an UMC church would be if I had a head injury and lost my memory or became totally apostate. The differences are massive in doctrine and morality. Sounds like they are hirelings to me and not true undershepherds id they went over to the UMC. Any thoughts of changing the UMC on their part is insanity. I knew a woman UMC preacher that could not get a church because she was outspoken on homosexuality. How can a real Baptist go over to an out fit that condones that?

You can become a Catholic priest as well if you promise to stay celibate after your spouse dies. If that is such a "biblical" doctrine for their preists how can they compromise it?