Author Archives: World Methodist Evangelism

The Methodist Church of Southern Africa

Denomination

The Methodist Church of Southern Africa

In 1816, a missionary's refusal to stop preaching grew into a church that shaped Nelson Mandela's education and is now led, back to back, by two women bishops. That stubborn act of obedience became the seed of what's now one of the largest Christian movements on the African continent.
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Here’s a fact that might surprise you: one of the most famous students in South African history did his schooling at a Methodist high school.

Nelson Mandela completed his education at Healdtown, a training institution founded by the Methodist Church of Southern Africa in the 1850s, up in the Eastern Cape. Before he was anything else, he was a Methodist school kid.

That’s the kind of influence this church has had for two centuries.

It started with a man who wouldn’t wait for permission. In 1816, a missionary named Rev. Barnabas Shaw arrived at the Cape hoping to preach. The Governor said no. He preached anyway.

He eventually left Cape Town and settled with a group of Namaqua people at Lily Fountain, hundreds of kilometers north, and that stubborn act of obedience became the seed of what’s now one of the largest Christian movements on the African continent.

Six missionary districts became an affiliated conference in 1883 and in 1927, that conference became fully independent. Today, the Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA) is organized into 15 districts spanning six countries: South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, and Eswatini.

By most independent counts, the MCSA has around 2.6 million members meeting in approximately 5,000 congregations – which makes it the largest mainline Protestant denomination in South Africa.

The MCSA’s last two Presiding Bishops have both been women. Rev. Purity Malinga became the first woman to hold the role in 2019 and the 100th person to occupy what MCSA calls “Wesley’s Chair.” In 2023, she handed that chair to Rev. Pumla Nzimande, the 101st Presiding Bishop, who leads the connexion today.

The MCSA has been walking through what it calls a Pilgrimage of Renewal, a season of visiting former leaders across the connexion, listening, and re-grounding itself for the future. They have a long history of proclaiming the gospel, developing leaders, serving communities, caring for people experiencing poverty and homelessness, ministering in prisons, responding to HIV/AIDS, and working for justice and transformation. Their ministry today focus on local youth movements to community feeding schemes and peace-building initiatives.

World Methodist Evangelism has a long history of partnership with the Methodist Church of Southern Africa. For many years, Bishop Hamilton Mvumelwamo “Mvume” Dandala was our Regional Secretary for Africa South.

Bishop Dandala was a significant voice during the fight against apartheid in South Africa. As a young pastor he was imprisoned by the government for his leadership in that struggle.

Bishop Dandala went on to be the Presiding Bishop of the MCSA, President of the South Africa Council of Churches and the head of the All Africa Council of Churches.

Under the current leadership of WME Area Ambassador, Rev. Ralph Afghan, WME has continued to collaborate with the MCSA, most recently when they hosted our Metanoia Global gathering for young adults in Cape Town in 2024.

A Prayer for the Methodist Church of Southern Africa

Heavenly Father, we lift up the Methodist Church of Southern Africa. Today, we pray for fresh oil and renewed strength for every congregation. Grant their leaders wisdom as they address economic hardship, youth unemployment, and social restoration in their communities. Bless their pilgrimage of renewal as many voices learn to speak and listen together. Ignite an overwhelming wave of evangelism and disciple-making across every circuit. May their churches remain sanctuaries of grace, healing, and supernatural transformation. Use them to draw countless souls to the light of Christ and raise up the next Barnabas Shaws, the next Nelson Mandelas, the next generation shaped in Methodist classrooms and pews. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas

Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas Logo
Denomination

Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas

What started with one Antiguan man's encounter with John Wesley's writing grew into a Methodist movement spanning the Caribbean and the Americas. Today, the MCCA brings together diverse languages, cultures, and communities around a shared commitment to loving, serving, and transforming through Christ.
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The Caribbean is known around the world for its beauty. But long before many of its islands became destinations for travelers, something else was taking root there: a movement of people determined to share the good news of Jesus Christ. And remarkably, part of that story began with a pamphlet.

In the late 1750s, an Antiguan lawyer named Nathaniel Gilbert read An Earnest Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion, written by John Wesley. The words changed him. Gilbert eventually traveled to England to meet Wesley. He brought three enslaved members of his household along for the journey: Mary, Sophia, and Bessie. While in London, Gilbert wandered into a meeting where John Wesley was preaching and he was undone. So were the three people traveling with him. Wesley recorded in his journal that November that he’d baptized two of the women, writing that one was “deeply convinced of sin” and the other was “rejoicing in God her Saviour.”

Gilbert embraced the Methodist faith, and returned home with a new conviction to share it with others. Preaching from the back steps of his own house to the enslaved men and women who worked his land, he made Antigua the first place outside Great Britain to hear the Methodist message at all.

What began as one person’s encounter with the message of grace grew. Gilbert built a community of more than 200 believers before he died. When Gilbert passed away, others carried the work forward. Mary, Sophia, and Bessie didn’t let the fire go out. They ran a school, raised funds, cleared land and hauled the materials that became the first Methodist chapel in St. John’s, Antigua. Three enslaved women, with no title and no authority the world of 1760 would have recognized, kept a movement alive.

That movement is still alive today. It’s called the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas (MCCA).

Through preaching, prayer, class meetings, lay leadership, mission, and extraordinary perseverance, Methodism spread across the Caribbean and the Americas. The MCCA became an autonomous Methodist body in 1967 and now connects Methodists across eight districts: Belize/Honduras, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, the Leeward Islands, Panama/Costa Rica, South Caribbean, and the Bahamas/Turks and Caicos region. Its ministry stretches across a remarkable diversity of cultures, languages, communities (and more than a dozen different currencies!). Officially, the connection counts 62K+ members and 600+ congregations and their motto, drawn from 2 Corinthians 5:14, says: “The Love of Christ Constrains Us.” 

World Methodist Evangelism continues to have a strong relationship with the MCCA. Rev. Dr. George Mulrain from Jamaica served for many years as our Regional Secretary and currently Bishop Everald Galbraith, also of Jamaica, serves as the WME Ambassador for the Caribbean. In 2016, WME was honored to provide evangelism training for the MCCA in Kingston, Jamaica. We’re grateful that other Wesleyan Methodists in the Caribbean, along with the Salvation Army, were able to join us as well.

A Prayer for the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas

Lord Jesus, we thank you for the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas and for the generations of witnesses who have carried the gospel across islands, nations, languages, and cultures. Thank you for every pastor, lay leader, missionary, and member who continues to serve you. Give them wisdom, courage, humility, and a deep dependence on the Holy Spirit. Bless the churches and communities represented across this Connexion. Bring hope where there is hardship, healing where there is brokenness, peace where there is conflict, and provision where there is need. Renew the church’s passion for evangelism and discipleship. And raise up a new generation of Marys, Sophias, and Bessies. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Wesleyan Methodist Church of Aotearoa and New Zealand

Wesleyan Methodist Church of Aotearoa and New Zealand Logo
Denomination

Wesleyan Methodist Church of Aotearoa and New Zealand

Established in 2000 to re-anchor local ministry in historic evangelical Wesleyan roots, the WMCANZ has quickly become one of the country's dynamic church planting movements. This diverse denomination focuses heavily on multiplication, next-generation leadership development, and practical community outreach.
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In the late 1990s, a group of believers in New Zealand, led by Rev. Dr. Richard Waugh, felt a profound call to return to the core of Wesleyan heritage: unapologetic evangelism, disciple-making, active church planting, and the pursuit of holy living.

So, in 2000, they stepped out in faith to form the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Aotearoa New Zealand (WMCANZ). Starting fresh is never easy. But over the last two decades, God has done something truly beautiful across the North and South Islands. What began as a bold step of obedience has grown into a movement of approximately 30 congregations (with a few more in the works) across the country. The World Methodist Council’s most recently published statistical information lists 794 members and a wider Methodist community connected to the church of 1,872 people.

And while those numbers may seem small compared with some denominations around the world, numbers don’t tell the whole story.

The WMCANZ isn’t focused on building massive institutional monuments. They are focused on people. From dynamic church plants in growing suburbs like Millwater to creative community gatherings in Auckland, they are raising up local leaders, multiplying disciples, and embedding themselves into the fabric of daily life.

They are honoring the indigenous bi-cultural heritage of Aotearoa while creating space for a rich tapestry of Pacific Island, Asian, and Kiwi worshippers. They describe themselves as a multi-ethnic church family, celebrating the many cultures and languages God has brought together. That diversity isn’t incidental. The church believes that multicultural New Zealand will most effectively be reached through multicultural mission. What a picture of the Kingdom!

Their vision says it plainly: “Transformed People, Churches, and Communities Overflowing with the Grace and Holiness of Jesus Christ.” Everything they do gets filtered through three verbs: REACH people with Christ. GROW disciples in Christ. SERVE communities through Christ.

Rev. Dr. Richard Waugh served as the South Pacific Regional Secretary for World Methodist Evangelism for many years (2014–2022). Today, Rev. Atu Lagi is the our Regional Secretary for the South Pacific region. Rev. Atunaisa Drokanawai Lagi is also a member of the WMCANZ and serves as the Assistant National Superintendent for the denomination.

A Prayer for the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Aotearoa New Zealand

Gracious God, we thank you for the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Aotearoa-New Zealand and for the faithfulness of the women and men who have served and built this movement over the past 25 years. Thank you for bringing together people from many cultures, languages, and backgrounds into one church family. May their diversity continue to reflect the beauty of your Kingdom and become a powerful witness. We pray for their leadership team, pastors, lay leaders, and every congregation. Give them wisdom, courage, humility, and a renewed passion for Jesus. Strengthen their work of making disciples, developing leaders, planting churches, and reaching new generations. May their churches overflow with the grace and holiness of Jesus Christ and bring transformation to the communities they serve. Raise up new leaders, open doors for mission, and draw people who do not yet know you into life-changing encounters with Christ. May this movement continue to grow, not for its own sake, but so that more people may know the transforming love of Jesus. Amen.

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African Methodist Episcopal Church Image

African Methodist Episcopal Church

African Methodist Episcopal Church Image
Denomination

African Methodist Episcopal Church

Born out of a bold stand against racial discrimination in 1816 Philadelphia, the AME Church was the first fully independent Black denomination in American history. To this day, it continues to model an inseparable blend of personal holiness and social justice.
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Picture this.

Philadelphia, 1787. A Black man and former slave who later became a Methodist preacher named Richard Allen is kneeling in prayer at St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church. In the middle of that prayer, a trustee taps him on the shoulder and tells him he’s in the wrong pew. He needs to move to the segregated gallery. Now. Before he even finishes praying.

When he refused to interrupt his prayer, he was physically pulled off his knees. Allen got up. And he never sat down in that pew again. What could have been the end of a painful story became the beginning of the Free African Society, a mutual-aid organization that cared for the physical and spiritual needs of Philadelphia’s Black community.

A few decades later, in 1816, Allen brought together several independent Black Methodist congregations to form what became the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), the first fully independent Black denomination in American history.

Today, the AME Church has more than 2.7 million members and roughly 7,130 congregations across the United States, Canada, the UK, the Caribbean, and Africa, spanning 20 episcopal districts, 13 in the United States and 7 across the African continent. It’s one of the founding member churches of the World Methodist Council, and it’s never let go of the mission Allen started with: preaching the gospel and ministering to the social, spiritual, and physical development of all people.

We’re praying for the AME Church this week. Not just because they have a rich history (though they do). Not just because of the size of their reach (though that’s remarkable too). But because their story is a reminder that even in the midst of injustice, God can use people who are willing and surrendered to His purpose.

World Methodist Evangelism has a longstanding relationship with the African Methodist Episcopal Church. We are grateful for Bishop Erica D. Crawford – Presiding Prelate of the Eighth Episcopal District of the AME Church – who serves on the WME Board of Directors; for Rev. Dr. Marcellus Norris – Executive Director of the Department of Church Growth and Development of the AME Church – who is part of our FLAME community, and has taught with our team in the United States and Cuba; and for Rev. Dr. Bianca Canley-Mays – Director of Communications for the Office of the Treasurer of the AME Church – who we are privileged to have as part of our team as well.

A Prayer for the AME Church

Lord, we thank You for the African Methodist Episcopal Church, for Richard Allen’s courage, and for every leader since who has carried that same conviction forward. Revive Your Church, Lord. Renew its leaders, strengthen its congregations, and draw every generation closer to Jesus. Give bishops, pastors, missionaries, and lay leaders wisdom and courage as they serve. We pray for their congregations, that they would continue to be places of refuge, dignity, and gospel truth. And that this denomination keep doing what it was born to do: proclaim that You are, as their own motto says, “our Father, our Redeemer, and that all people are family.” In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Methodist Church Nigeria

Scenic view of a mountain village with lush greenery and rocky peaks.
Denomination

Methodist Church Nigeria

The Methodist movement was first encountered by African slaves in the United Kingdom. When slavery was abolished and believers returned to Nigeria, they requested the help of missionaries. In response to this call, Rev. Freeman championed the first Christian mission in Nigeria. Since 1842, MCN has spent nearly two centuries planting churches, building hospitals, and standing in the gap for the most vulnerable.
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In 1842, a man named Thomas Birch Freeman, the son of an African father and a British mother, landed on the coastal shores of Badagry, Nigeria.

He wasn’t alone. A community of freed former slaves known as the Saro had already returned home to West Africa, carrying a burning faith they refused to leave behind in captivity. They had been gathering under an Agia tree, desperately praying for someone to come help them shepherd the movement.

When Freeman arrived and preached that first official service, he didn’t just launch a mission, he stepped into a harvest that had been watered by tears and silent prayers for years.

Fast forward to today.

That humble gathering under a tree has grown into the Methodist Church Nigeria (MCN), a denomination with approximately 2 million members worshipping in around 2,000 congregations across the country, a family of faith so large it can be hard to picture.

They have spent nearly two centuries planting churches, building hospitals, and standing in the gap for the most vulnerable – leprosy centers, care for people with mental illness, homes for children orphaned by HIV/AIDS. This is a church that has always shown up where the need is rawest.

Nigeria is a nation full of extraordinary opportunity. It’s also a place where many Christians face significant challenges. Economic uncertainty, political instability, and violence have tested churches for years. Yet the Methodist Church Nigeria continues to preach Christ, disciple believers, invest in schools and healthcare, and serve communities with remarkable perseverance.

Every Sunday, millions of Nigerian Methodists gather to worship. They sing. They pray. They open Scripture. They baptize new believers. They care for widows, children, and neighbors. They continue the work of evangelism because they believe the hope of Christ is still the hope the world needs.

That same mission connects all of us.

Whether you’re worshipping in Lagos, London, Lima, or Louisville, we’re part of one Methodist family, united by the same gospel and called to make disciples of Jesus Christ.

World Methodist Evangelism has a long and productive relationship with the Methodist Church Nigeria. Archbishop Sunday Onuoha serves on the WME Board of Directors as well as a WME Area Ambassador. The MCN has hosted numerous evangelism seminars over the years as well as meetings of our Africa Area Ambassadors.

Let’s stand alongside our sisters and brothers in Nigeria, this family needs our prayers. Not the polite kind. The real kind. For safety from kidnapping and violence, for economic relief, for the courage MCN’s leaders keep choosing to show even when the headlines are grim. Would you pray with us?

A Prayer for the Methodist Church Nigeria

Lord, we lift up our brothers and sisters in the Methodist Church Nigeria. We ask for your protection over pastors, bishops, and congregations who face the threat of violence simply for gathering in your name. Comfort those weighed down by economic hardship, and provide for their daily needs. Give MCN’s leaders wisdom, endurance, and boldness as they shepherd nearly two million believers. Strengthen the hospitals, schools, and centers MCN has built for the vulnerable, and let them keep being places of healing. And where fear tries to take root, plant your peace instead. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Exterior view of a Methodist church with a steeple and brick walls.

Free Methodist Church

Free Methodist Church

Exterior view of a Methodist church with a steeple and brick walls.

In 1860, a pastor named B. T. Roberts in upstate New York got kicked out of his church.

His crime? He kept insisting that the poor shouldn’t have to pay for a pew. That women should be allowed to preach. That slavery had no place in the church. And that the Holy Spirit should be what moves in a worship service.

So Roberts and a small group of Methodists who’d been pushed to the margins did something bold. They started their own church. They called it the Free Methodist Church – free from pew rents, free from human bondage, and free to worship without constraint.

That was 166 years ago. Today, that same conviction is still spreading, and in places far beyond where it started.

Across the world, the Free Methodist Church now encompasses over 1.5 million members worshipping in more than 10,000 congregations across 60+ countries. What started as a modest group in North America is now an exploding global movement. In fact, for every four Free Methodists in the United States, there are 96 in the rest of the world!

From child-care ministries in the developing world to a “Set Free” movement fighting human trafficking one neighborhood at a time, the Free Methodist family continues to demonstrate that true Wesleyan holiness moves outward in tangible love.

We are grateful for the close relationship World Methodist Evangelism has with the Free Methodist Church, specially for our very own Director of Ministries, Luiz Cardoso, who is a church planter with the Free Methodist Church in the UK; and our board member Rev. Dr. Jim Ellison, who is a Free Methodist Church pastor in Georgia (United States).

A Prayer for the Free Methodist Church

Lord, we thank You for the Free Methodist Church, for a movement born out of conviction that every person deserves a seat, a voice, and a place in Your church. We pray for every bishop, pastor, missionary, and local leader stewarding this global family. Multiply their reach. Grant them deep wisdom, spiritual resilience, and fresh vision as they proclaim the Good News. Protect their unity across languages and continents. Fill their pulpits and their pews with the same Spirit-fueled courage that started this whole movement in 1860. Where they plant, let it grow. Where they serve the poor and the trafficked and the forgotten, let them see Your Kingdom come. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Historic church building used for World Methodist evangelism activities.

Church of the Nazarene

Church of the Nazarene

Historic church building used for World Methodist evangelism activities.

If you look back at the early 1900s, the world was shifting fast. Industrialization was booming, cities were exploding, and unfortunately, a lot of established churches were moving away from the margins and toward the mainstream elite. But a small, passionate group of leaders looked at the landscape and asked a dangerous question: What if we built a movement explicitly dedicated to the people society overlooks?

They chose a name that raised eyebrows. They called themselves the Church of the Nazarene. Why? Because in the first century, “Nazarene” was basically an insult. It meant you were from the wrong side of the tracks. It was a nod to Nathanael’s famous skeptical question in John 1:46: “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Their answer was a resounding yes. They wanted a church that mirrored Jesus: holy, radical, deeply invested in the poor, and completely dependent on the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. 

What started as a scattering of small, regional holiness groups fusing together in 1908 has exploded into something truly historic. Today, the Church of the Nazarene has grown into one of the largest bodies in the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition, with approximately 2,764,205 members, worshipping across 29,424 local congregations worldwide.

Across Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Europe, North America, and beyond, Nazarene churches continue planting congregations, discipling new believers, investing in children and youth, responding to disasters, educating future leaders, and proclaiming the hope of Christ in communities that desperately need good news. Their 2025 annual report also celebrated a record number of conversions for the second year in a row, a beautiful reminder that God is still drawing people to Himself around the world.

As Methodists and Wesleyans, we share more than history. We share a passion for scriptural holiness, evangelism, discipleship, and God’s mission to the world. Let’s intentionally lift up our Nazarene brothers and sisters in prayer.

A Prayer for the Church of the Nazarene

Lord God, we thank You for the Church of the Nazarene. We ask for Your continued outpouring of grace on their local churches. We pray for the hundreds of thousands who came to know Christ this past year that their new faith would take deep root. Protect their pastors, empower their lay leaders, and fuel their global evangelism efforts. Continue to raise up laborers for the harvest in Africa, Asia-Pacific, and every place where this family is growing, and where they face persecution or economic hardship, provide supernatural breakthrough. May every church become a beacon of hope, every believer a faithful witness, and every community they serve experience Your transforming grace. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Traditional Korean pavilion with city skyline and autumn trees in Seoul.

The Korean Methodist Church

The Korean Methodist Church

Traditional Korean pavilion with city skyline and autumn trees in Seoul.

It was Easter Sunday, 1885.

Two young missionaries, Henry Appenzeller and Horace Underwood, stepped off a boat onto the shores of Korea. At the time, it was a country largely closed off to the Western world, often called the “Hermit Kingdom.”

They had no grand strategic plan and no idea what was ahead. They just had a deep, burning passion to share the hope of Jesus Christ.

When Appenzeller stepped onto the soil, he prayed a simple prayer: “May the people who sit in darkness see a great light, and may they find the liberty of God’s children.”

What followed wasn’t easy. The church endured Japanese occupation, when pastors were imprisoned for resisting forced Shinto shrine worship, and some died in prison or from the effects of torture. Then came the Korean War, when church leaders were kidnapped or executed and church buildings were destroyed.

Today, the Korean Methodist Church (KMC) is one of the largest Methodist bodies in the world, with approximately 1.5 million members worshiping across more than 6,000 congregations. Early morning prayer gatherings became a hallmark of Korean Christianity. Churches planted schools, hospitals, and ministries of mercy. What started as a handful of missionaries is now one of the world’s greatest missionary-sending forces.

The gospel didn’t simply arrive in Korea. It took root. It multiplied. And then it was carried to the nations.

Like many churches around the world, the KMC also faces significant challenges. Declining birth rates, rapid secularization, generational shifts, and growing cultural pressures are changing the landscape of ministry. Yet the church is focusing on “simple church” structures, building deep care communities, and leveraging new technologies to reach the marginalized while continuing to proclaim Christ.

A Prayer for the Korean Methodist Church

Lord, we thank You for the faithful witness of the Korean Methodist Church and for generations of believers who have shared the good news of Jesus with courage and perseverance. We ask for Your continued protection and provision over their pastors, congregations, and leadership. Renew their passion for evangelism. Encourage young leaders to answer Your call. Use their story to remind us that You are always at work, even (especially!) when the outcome isn’t clear yet. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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The Methodist Church in Ireland

The Methodist Church in Ireland

When John Wesley first sailed to Ireland in 1747, he found 280 Methodists already gathered in Dublin! The movement had begun before he ever stepped onto Irish soil.

That Methodist society was formed by ordinary lay people who simply would not keep quiet about Jesus. And they didn’t stay put. They emigrated, and they carried their faith with them. They helped plant Methodism in America and founded it in Newfoundland. The movement that started as a handful of believers on one island helped seed a global family that now spans the world.

The Methodist Church in Ireland represents a tight-knit community of approximately 55,000 people, across roughly 200 congregations. They operate across two completely distinct political jurisdictions: Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. In a land historically marked by deep social, political, and religious divisions, this single “Connexion” of churches has quietly chosen to stand together as one unified body.

Like many churches across Europe, Irish Methodists face the challenge of sharing the gospel in an increasingly secular culture. Yet they continue to invest in discipleship, evangelism, church life, and community engagement.

They are leaning heavily into what they call “Living Wholeheartedly” by revitalizing small group fellowships, engaging youth in God’s mission, and offering a distinctively Wesleyan voice of grace in a polarized world.

Its five city missions in Dublin, Belfast, Derry, and Newtownabbey have quietly cared for the elderly, the homeless, and the vulnerable for generations. And in recent years its congregations have grown, in part, by welcoming newcomers from around the world. Recent years have brought significant numbers of refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants to Ireland, creating new opportunities for ministry and new expressions of Methodist community.

Small island. Long reach. That’s what we’re praying for.

A Prayer For The Methodist Church in Ireland

Father, we thank You for the Methodist Church in Ireland. For nearly three centuries of faithful witness on one small island, and for the long reach of that witness across the world. Grant fresh vision and courage for every minister, lay leader, and congregation across Ireland. As they minister across complex political borders and navigate changing cultural tides, anchor them deeply in Your love. Multiply the impact of their “societies” and small groups. May they experience a renewed outpouring of Your Holy Spirit that fuels creative evangelism, robust youth ministries, and healing in every community they touch. Keep them fiercely unified, wholeheartedly devoted to Jesus, and boldly expectant of the ways You want to transform Ireland through their witness. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Aerial view of a flooded neighborhood with houses and trees, representing community outreach and res.

Eglise Protestante Methodiste du Benin

Eglise Protestante Methodiste du Benin

Aerial view of a flooded neighborhood with houses and trees, representing community outreach and res.

Back in 1843, a man named Thomas Birch Freeman stepped onto the coast of what is now Benin and began to preach. Freeman, who was the son of a freed slave, became one of the most influential British Methodist missionaries in West Africa.

Freeman sailed into a region deeply scarred by the slave trade, carrying nothing but a radical conviction that the Gospel sets people free. That is where the Eglise Protestante Methodiste du Benin (EPMB) begins.

Today, that same movement spans across 15 regional synods, stretching all the way from the southern Atlantic coastline to the northern Niger border. What started with one man now encompasses roughly 90,000 members worshipping across 420 congregations.

They run hospital and prison chaplaincies. They serve refugees. They invest in agricultural development. Through their Union of Methodist Women, they provide education and practical skills training for girls and women in rural communities. They have also played a significant role in HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention efforts across the country.

One of the church’s greatest contributions reaches beyond its own borders.

Through the Protestant University of West Africa (UPAO) in Porto-Novo, EPMB helps train pastors and Christian leaders from across Francophone West Africa, including Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, Cameroon, Senegal, and Gabon. Their investment in theological education is helping shape the future of the church throughout the region.

Like many churches around the world, EPMB has faced challenges. For roughly twenty years, this church was divided. A long internal crisis split the Methodist family in Benin in two. Two decades of separation. Two decades of brothers and sisters in Christ standing apart.

And then in 2017, they came back together. At an extraordinary synod in Cotonou, the church reunited. They elected new leadership. They worshipped together again. And they did it in front of government ministers, judges, and Methodist leaders from across West Africa who came to witness what reconciliation looks like.

WME is grateful for the opportunity to provide training for the Protestant Methodist Church in Porto-Novo, Benin in January, 2025. We are also thankful for the emerging young leaders from Benin who joined us for Metanoia Global in 2024.

A Prayer for the Protestant Methodist Church in Benin

Father, we thank You for Your church in Benin. We thank You for Thomas Birch Freeman, who carried freedom to a new shore, and for the generations of believers who have carried it since. Strengthen every pastor, lay leader, and evangelist. Bless their ministries in churches, schools, hospitals, prisons, and communities. Protect their congregations. May the light of Christ shine brightly through EPMB, and may many come to know the love and saving grace of Jesus through their witness. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

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