Free Methodist Church
Holiness · 1860 · United States; worldwide
Founded by B. T. Roberts and John Wesley Redfield on abolition, free pews, and second-blessing holiness after Roberts's expulsion from the MEC — 'free' for freed slaves, free seats, and freedom in worship.
Free Methodist Church was formed in 1860. Free Methodist Church continues today. Free Methodist Church's institutional line runs back through Methodist Episcopal Church, Methodism, Church of England, Roman Catholicism to the post-apostolic church. No body on this tree is the assembly of Acts 2; where a body claims that, the claim appears in the claimed-lineage layer.
Between the post-apostolic church and Free Methodist Church stand 4 divisions along the institutional line, counting separations and disputed forks, not mergers, renewals or national organizations.
At a glance
- Formed
- In 1860
- Family
- Holiness
- Region
- United States; worldwide
- Key figures
- B. T. Roberts
- Cause tags
- Doctrine, Politics, Governance
What it separated from
- Separated from Methodist Episcopal Church.
On the tree
Solid lines are separations and unions; dashed lines are renewals that began inside a body; dotted gray lines are national organizations of one communion; a diamond marks a fork event where neither side is drawn as the one that left. Every line runs back to the post-apostolic church; no body descends from the assembly of Acts 2.
Sources
Research compiled July 2026. Page data built 2026-10-10.