Our Methodist Denomination
The Los Arcos UM Church is a United Methodist congregation. Many have said that the United Methodist Church is probably the most representative and the most mainstream denomination in all of America. It is a denomination with a current membership of over 11 million people.
The United Methodist Church is a “connectional” church. That means that every local congregation is connected to all of the other United Methodist congregations throughout the world and the principal place where that connection takes place is through an Annual Conference, which is presided over by a bishop. In the Desert Southwest Conference alone, there are approximately 138 different congregations.
Our Desert Southwest Conference is connected to a jurisdictional conference, the Western Jurisdiction, which is made up of all the United Methodist churches in Alaska, California, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, Montana, Hawaii, Guam, and other territory in the Pacific region. And the five jurisdictions of the United Methodist Church (along with others beyond the continental United States) are bound together by a General Conference which meets every four years and which updates The Book of Discipline which defines the polity of United Methodism.
As a connectional church, the majority of the decisions that we make at a congregational level are made entirely by our various commissions, committees and boards. However, being a connectional congregation, we also participate in a wider decisional arena than simply that of our own congregation and its officials.
United Methodism is a remarkable blending of evangelical Christianity and sacramental Christianity. John Wesley, our founder, was a priest in the Anglican Church in England in the 18th century. One of his theological achievements was what he termed as "Christian Perfection," or holiness of heart and life. Wesley believed that in this life, the Christian could come to a state where the love of God, or perfect love, reigned supreme in one's heart. His evangelical theology, especially his understanding of Christian perfection, was firmly grounded in his sacramental theology.
He continually insisted on the general use of the means of grace - prayer, Scripture, meditation and Holy communion, etc.- as the means by which God transformed a believer. He began a renewal movement that quickly moved beyond the Anglican Church and essentially could be described as evangelical.
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