Iglesia Metodista de Mexico

In the spring of 1873, two bishops from rival American churches crossed the Rio Grande within weeks of each other — heading to the same country, with the same gospel, and the same dream.

One was Bishop Gilbert Haven of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The other was Bishop John Christian Keener of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. They’d been on opposite sides of the American Civil War. Their denominations had split over slavery. And yet here they both were — planting Methodist churches on the same streets of Mexico City, sometimes nearly side by side.

The Iglesia Metodista de México traces its roots to that moment in 1873 — making it the first evangelical denomination to bring the gospel to Mexico. One of the first church buildings acquired was a former hospital chapel — the Capilla del Hospital de San Andrés — purchased by Bishop Keener on February 26, 1873. The first worship service was held on March 30, 1873, on the eve of Holy Week.

That’s a detail worth sitting with: the first Methodist service in Mexico, held in a hospital. A church born at the intersection of healing and proclamation.

For decades, the two American Methodist streams ran parallel — planting churches, opening schools, training pastors. In 1885, both streams organized their first Annual Conferences in Mexico City. By 1925, the two bishops began drafting a unification plan, and on July 8, 1930, the Iglesia Metodista de México was born as a fully autonomous, united church.

A Mexican church. Led by Mexicans. Rooted in Wesleyan grace.

Today, the Iglesia Metodista de México has approximately 50,000 members and 400 congregations spread across six episcopal areas covering 28 of Mexico’s 30 states.

And the reach of this church goes far beyond Sunday morning.

The church operates a university, two theological seminaries, 150 centers of theological extension education, 12 schools from kindergarten through high school, four social centers, two hospitals, two orphanages, two homes for the elderly, and two clinics. That’s not a denomination coasting on history. That’s a church deeply embedded in the daily life of its nation.

World Methodist Evangelism was honored to partner with the Methodist Church of Mexico in providing evangelism training in Tijuana in 2017.

At 150 years of presence in Mexico, the church declares it has extended to practically the entire country with more than 500 congregations. The mission statement from their national office says it plainly: they exist “to extend the Kingdom of God, to strengthen and promote the integral Christian life of the members of the Church.”

Integral. Whole. Every part of a person. Every part of society.

That’s Wesleyan theology in action — and it looks remarkable in Mexico.

A Prayer for the Methodist Church of Mexico

Lord of the nations, we give You thanks for the Iglesia Metodista de México — for the two bishops who crossed the Rio Grande with the same gospel, and for 150 years of faithful witness that followed. We pray for every congregation spread across this beautiful nation. Strengthen the pastors and lay leaders who serve week after week in communities both urban and rural. Bless the seminaries and the 150 theological extension centers as they form the next generation of Mexican Methodist leaders. May the hospitals, schools, orphanages, and social centers be living parables of Your Kingdom — places where people encounter not just services, but the love of Jesus Christ. And may our whole global Wesleyan family be strengthened by the example of our brothers and sisters in Mexico — who took a divided inheritance and built something unified, rooted, and flourishing. Amen.