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.

Last year, at MCN’s 63rd Synod in Ibadan, the Prelate of the Methodist Church Nigeria stood up in front of his people and didn’t sugarcoat anything, he said: “Kidnappers continue to target defenseless citizens and even churches. At this point, Nigeria urgently needs God’s intervention.”

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.

This week, 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Let me ask you something.

What would it take to stop your congregation from meeting?

A fuel shortage? A power grid collapse? A government that has spent decades teaching children that God does not exist?

For the Iglesia Metodista en Cuba none of that has been enough.

Right now, Cuba is in the middle of a serious humanitarian crisis. Fuel blockades and an ageing electrical grid have left millions of people without reliable power. Food and medicine are scarce.

And the Methodist Church is still growing.

The story of the Methodist Church in Cuba is one of resilience, faith, and evangelistic passion. It begins in 1883, when Cuban Methodist pastors living in Florida were sent back to the island to begin sharing the gospel. The Spanish-American War interrupted that work. In 1898, American missionaries arrived to take up the mission again, and a new phase of Cuban Methodism began.

Following the 1959 Cuban Revolution, the Iglesia Metodista en Cuba was hit by a devastating wave of suppression. American missionaries were expelled, and an astonishing 95% of the island’s ordained Methodist clergy fled to safety. The few believers left behind were restricted to existing buildings, and any young person openly identifying as a Christian faced immediate discrimination, including bans from universities.

By all human standards, the church should have died right there. But it didn’t.

The church became autonomous in 1968 and has remained self-supporting for decades. It is now present in all the provinces of the country. According to the World Council of Churches, the denomination currently has approximately 10,000 registered members across 320 congregations — with an additional 30,000 people reportedly attending worship services who are not yet on membership rolls. That last number tells you everything: people are walking through the doors faster than the paperwork can catch up.

One of the most remarkable aspects of the Cuban Methodist movement is its emphasis on multiplying disciples through local congregations and house churches. The church trains lay leaders to evangelize and establish cell groups. When a cell group grows to more than 20 people, it is converted into a mission and the lay leader becomes a missionary. Once a mission reaches the required number of baptized members, a house is converted into a church. That is how a new church is born.

World Methodist Evangelism has a long history of collaboration with the Methodist Church in Cuba, beginning with the WME Summit of the Americas held in Havana in 2004 and continuing to our current partnership. WME has provided training for the Church on many occasions, and we are blessed to annually take our FLAME Fellows cohorts there to experience the dynamic power of the Holy Spirit that is evident in the Methodist Church in Cuba.

As I think about our Cuban brothers and sisters, I’m reminded of something easy to forget: the church doesn’t thrive because circumstances are ideal. The church thrives when God’s people remain faithful.

A Prayer for the Methodist Church in Cuba

Gracious God, we come before you on behalf of our brothers and sisters in the Iglesia Metodista en Cuba. You know every darkened home. You know every empty shelf and every family that goes to bed hungry. You know the weight these faithful people carry and you have not left them alone. We thank you that your church in Cuba refuses to be silent. That cell groups become missions, and missions become churches, and churches become beacons of hope in communities that have been told you do not exist. Prove yourself real to the people of Cuba. Let them encounter you through the love of your people. Strengthen every pastor, missionary, and lay leader serving in this moment. Give them courage that does not depend on circumstances. Give them provision they cannot explain. Give them joy that the world cannot take away. And remind us, the worldwide Wesleyan Methodist family, that when one part of the body suffers, we all suffer with it. May our prayers this week be more than words. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

It started with 17 churches.

In May 2022, a small group of congregations formally launched a new denomination. They called it the Global Methodist Church.

Seventeen congregations. A new name. A deep conviction that Wesleyan Christianity needed a fresh expression rooted in doctrinal integrity of the historic Christian faith and the authority of Scripture.

Four years later, according to the denomination’s official reports, the GMC now includes more than 7,000 congregations and over 4,500 pastors spread across 48 Annual Conferences located in the United States, Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

The GMC’s vision is clear: to make disciples of Jesus Christ and spread scriptural holiness across the globe — worshiping passionately, loving extravagantly, and witnessing boldly.

Here’s the beautiful thing about the worldwide Wesleyan Methodist family: even when traditions, structures, and stories differ, we are still connected by a shared desire to share the good news of Jesus Christ with people all around the world.

This is undeniably a community of people who love Jesus, take Wesleyan doctrine seriously, and are growing at a remarkable pace across the globe.

A Prayer for the Global Methodist Church

Gracious God, we lift up the Global Methodist Church to You. We thank You for those who gather each week to worship passionately, love extravagantly, and witness boldly. Give wisdom, humility, and discernment to their pastors and leaders as they guide this expanding church. Bless the Annual Conferences across Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and beyond. May the gospel take deep root in every community they serve. Where there is pain from the separations that gave rise to this denomination, bring Your healing. And as this young church continues to take shape, may it be defined not by what it left, but by what it is becoming: a community of grace, holiness, and transforming love. Unite the entire Wesleyan Methodist family, and may all our efforts serve only Your glory. Amen.

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.

If you’ve ever wondered what it looks like for the Wesleyan movement to shape an entire nation, look no further than Ghana.

This week in our Prayer & Fasting journey, we are lifting up The Methodist Church Ghana, one of the largest and most influential Methodist bodies in the world.

On January 1, 1835, a young British missionary named Joseph Dunwell stepped off a boat and onto the shores of Cape Coast in what was then called the Gold Coast.

He had been sent by the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society — a young man with a big gospel and a hard assignment. Within six months, he was dead from malaria. But before he died, something remarkable happened. Within three months of his arrival, a small community of 50 believers had already formed.

That’s the Methodist Church Ghana. Born in sacrifice. Built on grace.

The pioneer who followed, Thomas Birch Freeman, arrived in 1838 and became the great father of Methodism in West Africa — carrying the gospel from the coast all the way to the Ashanti Empire, into Nigeria, and across the wider region. In the first eight years of the church’s life, 11 out of 21 missionaries died. They kept coming.

Today, The Methodist Church Ghana includes approximately 800,000 members across more than 3,000 congregations. That’s over 874,326 members across 20 dioceses, 337 circuits, and 4,934 societies — with 1,058 active pastors, 11,861 local preachers, and 34,403 lay leaders serving the church at every level.

But what’s remarkable is not simply its size.

It’s the church’s presence.

In Ghana, Methodist churches are woven into the fabric of daily life. You see it in schools educating future leaders. You see it in hospitals and clinics serving vulnerable communities. You see it in vibrant worship gatherings filled with prayer, music, testimony, and deep spiritual expectancy.

The church that started with 50 believers now runs hospitals, clinics, universities, and some of the finest secondary schools in West Africa. Wesley College — a Methodist institution — has more than 80 years of history as the foremost teacher training college in Ghana. In April 2023, the church commissioned its fifth hospital — a 50-bed facility in the Central Region — expanding healthcare access to rural communities.

The Methodist Church Ghana often speaks about being a church that exists for both “spiritual renewal and social transformation.” That balance feels deeply Wesleyan. Faith is never just private. Grace always moves outward.

The church is also investing heavily in the next generation — training pastors, equipping lay leaders, planting churches, and calling young people into Spirit-filled leadership. They have set its sights on reaching 1.4 million members by 2028 — targeting an annual growth rate of 7% — through focused evangelism, discipleship, and a “One Church, One Circuit” church planting strategy.

And perhaps one of the most encouraging realities is this: while many parts of the global church are navigating decline, the church in Ghana continues to grow with confidence and joy.

Their witness reminds us that the Methodist movement is alive and flourishing around the world.

A Prayer for the Methodist Church Ghana

Gracious God, we give You thanks for 190 years of Your faithfulness in Ghana. We remember the missionaries who gave their lives so that others might hear the gospel — and we honor the indigenous Ghanaians who received that word, ran with it, and made it their own. Strengthen pastors, bishops, teachers, evangelists, and lay leaders. Pour out Your Spirit on their congregations. Raise up young leaders with deep faith and bold vision. Let the hospitals and schools be instruments of Your grace, bringing healing and dignity to the vulnerable. As the church pursues 1.4 million members by 2028, may every new congregation be a community of transformed lives and kingdom witness. Unite us as one global Wesleyan family, rooted in the same grace that landed on the shores of Cape Coast in 1835. Amen.