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!