Methodist and Non-Denominational

[KawaiiMe]

[SIZE="1"]I am a non-denominational Christian.
I regularly attend Calvary Chapel.

Our Church's vision, as our website says, is to
-Reach sinners using the message of God's love.
-Equip believers for Christian ministry using the Bible.
-Preach the Gospel. "go into all the world and preach the Gospel"
(Mark16:15)

My boyfriend is Methodist.
Today I went to his church for the first time.
The service was more traditional and sort of mundane,
But I didn't notice any major differences between the teaching or doctrine.
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[SIZE="4"](please only reply if you have something useful to say)[/SIZE]

[SIZE="1"]Here's my question:

Are there any differences betwen these two denominations that condridict eachother, or are significantly different?[/SIZE]

[Etoh*the*Greato]

Non denoms tend to be so because they don't hold any one specific doctrine. Things can vary from church to church widely. In your paticular case, yeah that is the basic idea of the Methodists but it's also theoretically the general idea of all the denominations.

[EricTheFred]

Although I am a life-long Lutheran, branches of my family are Methodist, and I married one as well, so I have taken a little time to at least be aware of what Methodism is about.

All of the items in your church's mission statement are fully applicable to Methodism. In addition, they have a variety of theological positions that define them, but they are not consistent across all churches calling themselves Methodist. I will stick to the most common version.

The most likely difference with your church (I can't tell, since it isn't given in what you posted) is in Free Will versus Predestination. Methodists traditionally believe in Free will, putting them in line with Catholics, Lutherans and Anglicans. Some non-denominationals side with Presbyterians and some Baptists by believing in Predestination. (Baptists are split on this subject, as best as I can tell.)

In subjects like adult versus child baptism, many non-denominationals follow Baptist beliefs. Methodists practice infant baptism. This difference is actually rooted in a fundamental disagreement in what baptism actually is. To the infant baptism churches, it is an act by God, placing His seal on the human. An understanding by the individual is not required. To the adult baptism churches, it is an act by the individual, accepting the Lord into his/her heart.

Methodists tend to be split on Creationism vs. Divinely-guided Evolution, and on other charged subjects such as Homosexuality. To my knowledge, they don't tend to say 'If you are Christian, you must believe X' on a particular subject. However, I think this varies between different versions of Methodism.

[Jaltus-bot]

I don't know how significant this is to you, but it might be worth a skim.

"Denominations leaning in the Arminian direction include Methodists." Wiki source " Theologically most Methodists are Arminian or sometimes moderately Calvinist, emphasizing that Christ accomplished salvation for every human being, and that humans must exercise an act of the will to be saved (as opposed to the traditional Calvinist doctrine of monergism); and low church in liturgy (although this varies greatly in individual chapels; the Wesleys themselves greatly valued the Anglican liturgy and tradition)." Wiki Source (I've heard before that Methodists are typically Arminian, but didn't have an exact source to site.)

If you looking to Calvary Chapel pastor Chuck Smith, he points out some disagreements with Arminianism, though not as much as with Calvinism. There is an article he wrote. Calvinism, Arminianism, and The Word of God: a Calvary Chapel Perspective