In the 27th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, we find Paul and his shipmates within a great storm. They had been battling this storm for about two weeks, and they heard from God through Paul that the ship would be lost, but their lives were to be spared. Then Acts 27:29 tells us that they dropped four anchors from the stern of the boat to hold it together and prayed for day to come.

When our church first separated from our denomination, I will admit that we did not want to immediately align with any denomination. After months of struggling to separate, we wanted to take our time to be sure that we made the correct decision. We wanted to be sure we knew where God was calling us. God had been with us through every step, and it’s only by His grace that we were able to separate from our denomination in order to stay on the path that had defined our church since it was started in 1946. So, we were reluctant to give up our newly acquired independence quickly.

But realities of church life faced us. There were needs in our congregation. Our leaders needed guidance and our church needed structure. We looked at several denominations and compared them against being independent. We were beginning something new, like nothing our congregation had faced, and we wanted to do our best for our church. As a congregation, we chose to join with the Global Methodist Church, and we based our decisions on several definite points, our four anchors we felt we needed to keep us intact.

Our strongest anchor was our core belief that the “The Bible is the inerrant word of God.” In Part One of the Transitional Book of Doctrines and Discipline of the Global Methodist Church, it is stated very plainly that we believe the Bible is the Word of God. John tells us that in the beginning was the Word and that the Word was God. This simple yet powerful statement is the main reason Aldersgate decided to join the GMC. For many years our church was blessed with wonderful pastors who believed these words. For many years we took for granted that we would always have the guidance from men and women who believed that the words of the Scriptures were God-given and true. As we learned, this was no longer a guarantee in some denominations. In our church, we would still be taught that what the Bible says is true and though we might not always like what we hear or understand what we read, we would know that what we would hear is God speaking to us as we strive to be more like Jesus.

Our second anchor was the need for a pastor who would share this core belief with us. During our transition, we found ourselves in a position to begin to look for a new pastor. The difficulties of searching became apparent. We had been blessed with interim pastors who served us well and who told us that they would help us until we found our permanent pastor. But we needed the stability of a pastor who was ours. A pastor who would learn to know and love our congregation, and one who we would come to know and love.

The GMC would help us find potential pastors. I would have to say that this was probably our main reason for immediately joining the GMC. They were especially helpful as we had never hired a pastor and really had no idea how to begin the process. More importantly though, we would have much input on who would become our pastor. We would actually interview and decide whether or not to ask a pastor to join with us and lead us. In addition, the pastor we chose would be able to stay as long as our congregation and the pastor desired. After losing pastors in the past because their “term” ran out, we were very excited about this concept.

Another anchor was determining how our church would function on a daily basis. We had leaders and committees from our previous denomination, but now we were able to be structured as we determined. In the beginning we tended to fall back on things that were familiar. But we saw that with the GMC, we could use what we liked from our previous denomination and personalize it for our congregation. We would have freedom to restructure as best suited our church and community. We would have more to say about what missions to support, have less reporting, and more time to do what we felt was the most important - worshiping and serving God in our church and in our community.

Our fourth anchor was that we would remain true to our mission at our church, for our service and gifts to be “for the Glory of God and the good of our city”. We wanted to remain true to our Wesleyan roots, and we saw that they were so prominently included in the Transitional Doctrines and Discipline of the GMC. Now our decision was less difficult. Because we believe in the Creeds and in Wesley’s understanding of God’s grace, we began to feel that we had found a home with the GMC. Our decision was made.

As we go through life’s storms, either individually or as a congregation, we hold fast to our anchors. Our thanks and praise go to God who brought us this far, along with countless individuals and groups who helped us along our way. May God bless you all.