Bishop David Roller: Not too far away, and not too long ago...

Something that's always bugged me about the FMC is that we don't have a clear origin story. But I didn't used to know what to call it. "Origins story" is the telling of the passion that ignited any movement. But whenever I told the story of how Free Methodists began I saw people's eyes begin to glaze-over rather than blaze-over.

I'd start in on "there were really 4 reasons for the birth of the FMC..." Then I'd talk about freedom of the Spirit, freedom of the slaves, free pews and ..." I can't remember the 4th, it's probably the most important. Probably something about secret societies, which would inevitably segue the conversation into a wholly different vein.

Really, the origin story of the Free Methodist Church is "Not too far away and not too long ago a group of radical Christians chose to whole-heartedly follow Jesus rather than maintain their security in the hypocrisy of the established church. They gave up everything else to keep the integrity and intensity of their desire to please God with their lives. This integrity and intensity fueled the movement and the church flung out missionaries across the U.S. frontier, quickly planting churches as they went. We are the children of fruitful radicals."

Now that's an origin story!