Our Mission

At First Methodist Church Bay City, Texas, our mission is to partner with God in transforming people from unbelievers to fully devoted disciples of Jesus to the glory of God through outreach, connecting, forming, and sending people to love and serve others as Jesus loves us.

Our Vision

As a part of the Global Methodist Church, our vision is to join God in a journey of bringing new life, reconciliation, and the presence of Christ to all people, and to helping each person reflect the character of Christ.

Through our ministries, we desire to share the whole counsel of God with all peoples and to advance the presence and fulfillment of the Kingdom of God in every part of the world and at all levels of societies and cultures. The Global Methodist Church is committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the inspiration and authority of the Scriptures, and the work of the Holy Spirit in conveying God’s truth and grace to all people.

We are a global church that recognizes and deploys the gifts and contributions of each part of the church, working as partners in the gospel with equal voice and leadership. Our witness to the world is marked by mutual love, concern, sharing, and a focus on those who are most vulnerable. We watch over one another in love and bear witness to the transforming power of the Good News as we humbly, but boldly, strive to serve others as ambassadors of Christ!

Our Wesleyan Heritage & Book of Discipline

Since its inception, God’s Spirit has enlivened the Methodist movement. In the 1720s John and Charles Wesley and friends at Oxford University met together to deepen their Christian faith through daily, practical spiritual disciplines. Derided by others as a “new sect of Methodists” for their “methodical” ways of practicing the faith and holding one another accountable to it, the small group embraced the insult and persevered in their fellowship. And so they and the millions who followed after them have ever since been known as “the people called Methodists.”

Click here to view the GMC's Transitional Book of Doctrines and Discipline

Sacraments

The Methodist Church recognizes two sacraments in which Christ himself participated: baptism and the Lord's Supper.

Baptism

Baptism marks the beginning of our lifelong journey as disciples of Jesus Christ.

Through baptism, we are joined with the Triune God, the whole of Christ’s church, and our local congregation.

The water and the work of the Holy Spirit in baptism convey God’s saving grace, the forgiveness of our sins, and new life in Jesus Christ.

Persons of any age may be baptized—infants, children, youth, and adults.

Methodists baptize in a variety of ways—immersion, pouring, or sprinkling.

A person receives the sacrament of baptism only once in his or her life.

The Lord's Supper (also called Holy Communion, Eucharist)

The Lord’s Supper is another name for the Eucharist, the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving the church offers to God for all God has done, is doing, and will do to save us and renew all things in Christ.

Through offering ourselves in praise and thanksgiving, and through receiving the bread and cup—which the Spirit makes for us the body and blood of Christ—celebrating the Lord’s Supper together nourishes and sustains us in our journey as disciples of Jesus Christ.

As we pray together and receive the body and blood of Christ together, we are united with Christ, with one another, and in ministry to all the world.

All who love Christ, earnestly repent of their sin and seek to live in peace with one another are invited to join us in offering our prayer of thanksgiving and receive the body and blood of Christ—regardless of age or church membership.

Congregations serve the elements of the Lord’s Supper several ways, but always include both bread and cup.

The Lord's Supper is to be celebrated and received regularly—John Wesley said, “as often as [one] can.”

For more information about the Global Methodist Church, please visit globalmethodist.org