The Free Methodist Church in Canada | Summer 2011 | Volume 8 Issue 3
CONTENT
Reflecting the diversity of ministry expression within the Free Methodist family
FREE METHODISM CELEBRATES 150 YEARS OF MINISTRY | DAN SHEFFIELD
COVER Free Methodism celebrates 150 years of ministry Dan Sheffield PAGE 2 Editor’s Desk What do we do now? Jared Siebert 100 Church Challenge Upcoming Foundational Courses PAGE 3 From the Developing Godly, Competent Leaders for Today and Tomorrow Study Team Kim Henderson PAGES 4-5 Conference Attendees share their experiences That’s my story and I’m sticking to it Ryan Young of New Horizons Reflections on GC Vic Stonehouse of Trulls Road FMC Enjoying ministry moments Jody Pfeifer of Weyburn FMC A very inspiration event Arthur Perry, Retired Minister I came expecting Fred McCracken of Athens FMC
GC Prayer Journal Excerpts PAGE 6-7
FREE METHODIST BEGINNINGS IN CANADA
O
ne hundred and fifty years ago, in 1860, Canada with it vast stretches of unsettled land and small scattered population was not yet a nation. Canadian Methodists were fractured into seven different denominational bodies. A decade later, Canada had become a nation with its own Prime Minister, but the move to unite various Methodist bodies into a respectable, socially acceptable denomination bothered some – among them Robert Loveless, a concerned Canadian Primitive Methodist layman in Toronto.
Let’s get on with it, strip down, start running and never quit eyes fixed on Jesus Bishop Keith Elford PAGE 8-9 General Conference A Snapshot
Passages Online Resources Topics Worth Thinking About We are freaking broke! by Sandy Crozier
MR. AND MRS. ROBERT LOVELESS is a publication of The Free Methodist Church in Canada
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Two years later, when 28-yearold Daniel Marston was also appointed to Canada, “He dropped his head on the seat in front of him and DANIEL MARSTON cried like a child.” Marston said to Sage: “the idea of sending a boy to Canada!” Their work for the next several years involved responding to invitations from Canadian Methodists who were troubled by the drift toward union, toward middleclass propriety, and away from Wesleyan fundamentals. They gathered these disaffected Methodists into new Free Methodist congregations throughout southern Ontario. Not everything went smoothly in those early days. Sage admitted he was “unacquainted with the people and customs of Canada, especially their natural prejudices against the Yankees!” When promoting his revival meetings, Sage billed them as “a chance to see a live Yankee preacher.” Later he reflected: “I could not have done a worse thing.”
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MOSAIC
“Canada.” At the time, Sage felt this appointment would “crush” him.
In 1873, he found a copy of B.T. Robert’s Earnest Christian magazine in a post office, was deeply moved by what he read about the message, passion and vision of Free Methodism, and invited Roberts to come to speak in his church.
Four years after Sage arrived in Canada, B.T. Roberts organized the Canada Annual Conference in Galt, Ontario. Three years later, the work was being led by Rev. Albert Sims the first Canadian superintendent. By 1884, the other Methodist bodies in Canada had formed their final union, leaving Free Methodists as the only nonmainline grouping of Methodists left in the country.
This is where the story of the Free Methodist Church in Canada begins ...
CANADIAN SELFDETERMINATION
Three years later (in 1876), Roberts sent Charles Sage from the North Michigan Annual Conference as a missionary to
The move in 1880 to form a district of the North Michigan conference into a Canadian annual conference was a leap
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forward in developing an indigenous contextualized voice north of the 49th parallel. At the same time, Canadian Free Methodists now had their own voice in the denomination’s legislative body, the General Conference In his State of the Work report in 1880, Charles Sage was passionate about the task still to be done in Canada: “we have no place for lounging, whining preachers… we need men baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire, with the love of souls at heart… who have never learned a retreat and don’t know when they are whipped.” [Sage was obviously speaking of ‘men’ generically, because two years later conference appointments included 10 women on the roll]
SOME EARLY LADY EVANGELISTS TAKEN IN 1891
Fast forward 40 years to Sarnia, Ontario just across the border from Michigan where Canadian leaders came together in an AllCanada Convention in 1920. The Canadian annual conferences spread across the country all related directly north-south to the North American General Conference, with no east-west national dialogue among themselves. From this Sarnia Convention would emerge a new Canadian identity, the development of The Canadian Free Methodist Herald magazine, and work toward founding Canadian pastoral training schools. The establishment of a Canadian Executive Board would coordinate uniquely Canadian objectives and retain financial contributions for Canadian ministry concerns. 150 ANNIVERSARY CONTINUED ON BACK - PAGE 12