This Week in Texas Methodist History August 15

Free Methodist Church Retains Ban on Instrumental Music, August 1935

 

 

The Free Methodist Church was organized in Pekin, New York, in 1860.  The denomination was staunchly abolitionist and also apposed pew rents which were common in MEC churches of the era.   The organizers of the denomination were also against formalism in worship, which  had become a problem in some MEC churches.  Like many religious reformers, the organizers wished to return to a time when expressions of the Holy Spirit were central to the worship experience than liturgical formality.

 

In the latter years of the 119^th century the Free Methodist Church became one of the most important expressions of the Holiness Movement that fostered the growth of Pentecostal denominations which continue to this day. 

 

One of the evangelistic techniques of several of the Pentecostal groups was unavailable to the Free Methodists.  That was sidewalk musicians because Free Methodism did not allow instrumental music. 

 

Free Methodism had a hard time in Texas because of its anti-slavery origins, but eventually Bishop B. T. Roberts organized the Texas Louisiana Conference at a campground near Corsicana in July 1881.  The first appointments were to Ennis, Corsicana, Waxahachie, Milford, Waco, Salado, Belton, Christmas Creek, Longview, Fort Worth, and Terrell.  There were also three appointments in Louisiana. 

 

The next generation saw enough growth to allow Louisiana to be severed from the conference and new churches established in settlements attractive to immigrants from the northern states.  By the World War I era there were Free Methodist churches in the new cities stretching west from Fort Worth along the rail lines, in East Texas sawmill towns, and on the coastal plains.  A Free Methodist seminary was created at Campbell.    By 1914 Milford, Waco, Salado, Belton, Christmas Creek, Longview, Fort Worth, and Terrell.  There were also three appointments in Louisiana. 

 

The next generation saw enough growth to allow Louisiana to be severed from the conference and new churches established in settlements attractive to immigrants from the northern states.  By the World War I era there were Free Methodist churches in the new cities stretching west from Fort Worth along the rail lines, in East Texas sawmill towns, and on the coastal plains.  A Free Methodist seminary was created at Campbell.    By 1915 there was enough growth to split the conference into eastern and western branches. 

 

The ban against instrument music hurt evangelistic efforts and an attempt was made to remove that clause from the Discipline.  A referendum was held at  the General Conference of 1935.   The vote was 43 to 112 and the prohibition against instrumental music continued for another two decades.