On August 1, 2022, Community United Methodist Church (CUMC) held a church conference to vote on whether to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church (UMC). The vote failed to meet the 2/3 criteria by 7 votes: It was 75 – 45. Since the vote failed, CUMC would stay with the United Methodist denomination.
On August 3 a small group of those who left met and made the decision to offer a worship service at the local senior center. We worshipped together on August 7, 2022, with 64 in attendance. Rev. Evelyn Lewiston (who had been a part of CUMC as a retired pastor), received status as an Elder in the Global Methodist, helped provide worship needs.
We began meeting as a fellowship group which we called Ogden Bible Fellowship. As we moved forward, the temporary leadership of our fellowship assisted the congregation in electing a Church Council.
On October 23, 2022, an all-church meeting was held to vote on two proposals: whether we would join Global Methodist and what name we would use. The vote to join the Global Methodist denomination and to accept the name Grace Global Methodist Church as recommended by the Church Council was unanimous. On January 9, 2023, we officially became incorporated in the State of Iowa as Grace Global MC.
Grace continues to meet at the McGraw Senior Center in Ogden, Iowa, each week. We rent a vacant office building in the same block of the center for Sunday School, meetings, Bible studies, and small groups. We are focused on worshipping God and serving others.
Through mission outreach the church has been able to take part in Operation Christmas Child, provide Christmas gifts for Accura Care Center residents, be a presence at local events (Trunk and Treat and Christmas on Main), provide a Community Christmas dinner, and donate to the local food pantry.
Our story has just begun, and we are excited to look at the future and what God has in store for us.
Global Methodist Church’s Logo
The Global Methodist Church’s logo brings together in its three circles the one God – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – who alone we worship. The circles intersect at the center of the cross of Jesus Christ, the symbol of our deliverance from our slavery to sin and fear of death. The outer circumference of the rings represents the globe. As a whole, the logo communicates God’s sending of the church into the world. The sky blue color reminds us that even though Global Methodists live all around the world, they are all united together in God’s great creation.
Global Methodist Church. (2023) https://globalmethodist.org/about/#about-mission-section