Our Core Beliefs

Set Free

God loves us so much that He sent Jesus to set us free from sin, shame and fear. Jesus makes a way for us to experience healing and live a life full of power and purpose. The good news is that this freedom is available to everyone who chooses to repent and make Jesus their King. In this we are Wesleyan-Arminian in theology.

Living Free

Having been set free by Jesus He promises to give the Holy Spirit to guide us and empower us to go on living free. God’s grace enables us to “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles” (Hebrews 12:1) that we may live in His freedom. In this we are Holy Spirit led.

Bringing Freedom

This freedom that we have in Jesus is so amazing that we do not want to keep it to ourselves. Just as Jesus stepped down from heaven to bring us freedom, we believe that He calls us to be His hands, feet and voice in this hurting world to bring the good news to as many people as possible. In this we are missional in word and deed.

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Our Core Beliefs

Our core beliefs and practices date back to the New Testament church.

We want to teach what the apostles taught, to live as passionately as they lived in their generation and to serve the great mission of the Kingdom of God.

Jesus is the Centre

At the heart of our faith is the person of Jesus Christ. We worship Jesus as our Lord and Saviour and, above all else, we are a people who are devoted to him. Our beliefs, our practices, our decisions and our lives are centred around Jesus Christ.

The Bible is our Authority

We believe the Bible is God’s inspired Word. The Bible directs what we believe and the way we live. In common with John Wesley we acknowledge that several elements help us to understand revealed truth – such as reason, tradition and experience – but standing at the head of the line is the Bible. If the Bible and the church seem to be in disagreement, the Bible takes precedence. If the Bible and human reason appear to be in conflict the weight falls on the side of the Bible. We believe the Bible has primary authority.

The Gospel is our Hope

We believe that the good news of Jesus is for all people and the way we express this reflects a Wesleyan perspective:

• All need to be saved (Romans 3:23) - All people are corrupted. Our very nature from birth is selfish and inclined to sin.
• All can be saved (1 Timothy 2:3-6) - God is reaching out to all people with His grace in order to enable us to answer His call and  turn to Christ for forgiveness. This is called prevenient grace. All those who respond to God’s grace are able to find forgiveness in Christ because Christ offered once and for all the one perfect sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. We see every person as someone with the potential to become a devoted follower of Jesus. We believe the atonement Jesus Christ made on the cross is sufficient for the needs of all sinners of the world and is potentially effective in the lives of all, but will only be effective for those who repent and believe. As Bishop Donald N. Bastian noted, during the days of John Wesley this conviction meant that, 'the gospel of Christ was offered to the poor, the downcast, the spiritually disenfranchised. It was preached with great optimism and expectancy. None was excluded from the scope of its appeal. Hope was generated in the hearts of the hopeless. Methodists’ meetings became places of gladness and rejoicing.'
• All can know they are saved (Romans 8:15-16)- Followers of Jesus are able to have an assurance of salvation as they exercise God-given faith and experience the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. The Holy Spirit witnesses to their spirit that God has become their Father and they are his children.
• All can be saved from both the guilt and the power of sin (Galatians 5:16-25)- Jesus laid down his life to redeem our sinful nature, purify us and make us a people who belong to him, eager to do what is good. The Bible teaches that God’s divine power has given us everything we need to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives. Through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit we can live free from guilt and experience victory over known and habitual sin.

The Holy Spirit is our Helper

The Holy Spirit lives within us, leading us, guiding us and transforming us step by step to become more like Jesus. He works in us to shape our character and help us to live holy lives in accordance with God’s revealed will for human flourishing. When we are filled with the Spirit we are empowered to serve in the church as well as in the community. We believe the gifts of the Spirit are available today to bring God’s goodness to others and are to be exercised with the love and compassion of Christ.

Making Disciples is our Mission

Jesus commissioned His disciples to 'Go and make disciples of all nations.' (Matt 28:19) Everything that we do, from the appointing of pastors to organisational structures and methods, serves this purpose. Our desire is to equip followers of Jesus to help others know and follow Him. We long to see disciples who make disciples who make disciples resulting in the multiplication of healthy Biblical communities. We believe God has given the Free Methodist Church in the UK and Ireland a clear vision to this end, to expand to ‘100 churches and more by 2034'.

Freedom is our Heart

We read in John 8:36 that 'If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.' Paul writes elsewhere that, 'It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery' (Galatians 5:1). Freedom is our heart because we believe that Jesus came so that people can be set free and that He then empowers and commissions us to go on living free and bringing freedom to others.

Not one of us walks through this broken world untouched by its consequences. From our own wrong decisions, to attitudes that trap our minds, to the way we’ve been treated by other people, we are all affected.

Some religious groups think that by living life around a group of rules we can rise above this, but we believe that there is no way we can find freedom through our own efforts. Instead, the only way that we can find freedom is in surrendering to God. God loves us so much that he gave his one and only Son to set us free from sin, shame and fear and experience his healing power. The good news is that this salvation is not dependent on who we are, what we have done or where we come from. Freedom comes through Jesus and is available to everyone who chooses to repent and make Jesus their King.

Having been set free by Jesus he promises to give his Holy Spirit to guide us and empower us to go on living free. We believe that the Word of God and the Spirit of God have the power to transform our minds and change the trajectory of our lives.

As we live life submitted to Jesus as our King, we are given access to his insight, his power and His purposes for our lives. His grace enables us to 'throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles' (Hebrews 12:1) that we may live in his freedom today.  The freedom we have in Jesus is so amazing that we do not want to keep it to ourselves. Just as Jesus stepped down from heaven to bring us freedom, we endeavour to go beyond our place of comfort and bring this Good News to as many people as possible through both our words and actions.

We believe that we are called to be Jesus’ hands, feet and voice in this hurting world. This is expressed through a passion for planting and resourcing churches as we believe the local church is best placed to work for social justice, engage in transforming mission and share the good news of Jesus.

Rev Allan Ellershaw, former Free Methodist Superintendent & National Leader UK, described our denomination like this: 

'The Free Methodist Church is a body of dedicated Christians committed to the will of God as revealed in the Bible, Wesleyan in doctrine and practice, who consider themselves to be members of the body of Christ in this world… They view local churches as mission outposts. Pastors are appointed not just to local congregations and buildings, but to the evangelisation of whole communities, towns or cities. They believe the destitute and disenfranchised of the world deserve particular care and any individual can become a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ. The Free Methodist Church recognises no geographic, social, racial or cultural limitations on Christ’s command to preach the gospel of redemption and to share his message of wholeness. They are called to introduce all people to Jesus Christ.'

This text is taken from the Free Methodist Church UK and Ireland Handbook (pp. 3-7), which can be downloaded here.