The Lumber River Conference of the Holiness Methodist Church is a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

connexion within the

holiness movement The Holiness movement is a Christian movement that emerged chiefly within 19th-century Methodism, and to a lesser extent other traditions such as Quakerism, Anabaptism, and Restorationism. The movement is historically distinguished by its emph ...

. The foundation of the Lumber River Conference of the Holiness Methodist Church is part of the

history of Methodism in the United States The history of Methodism in the United States dates back to the mid-18th century with the ministries of early Methodist preachers such as Laurence Coughlan and Robert Strawbridge. Following the American Revolution most of the Anglican clergy who ...

; Union Methodist Episcopal Chapel was a congregation of the

Methodist Episcopal Church The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...

, being established in 1858 in

Robeson County, North Carolina Robeson County is a county in the southern part of the U.S. state of North Carolina and is its largest county by land area. Its county seat is and largest city is Lumberton. The county was formed in 1787 from part of Bladen County and named in ...

. For some time, it was connected with the

African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church African or Africans may refer to: * Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa: ** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa *** Ethn ...

and then again to the Methodist Episcopal Church. On 26 October 1900 a meeting at Union Methodist Episcopal Chapel, the Lumber River Mission Conference of the Holiness Methodist Church was organized for the purpose of ministering to Native Americans and

African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, though the connexion always had a membership of people from all racial backgrounds. Many people of the

Lumbee The Lumbee are a Native American people primarily centered in Robeson, Hoke, Cumberland and Scotland counties in North Carolina. They also live in surrounding states and Baltimore, Maryland. The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina is a state-recog ...

tribe joined the Holiness Methodist Church. Since its origin, the Lumber River Conference of the Holiness Methodist Church has preserved the distinctives of early Methodism, such as the

class meeting The cell group is a form of church organization that is used in many Christian churches. Cell groups are generally intended to teach the Bible and personalize Christian fellowship. They are always used in cell churches, but also occur in parach ...

. As of 1988, the Lumber River Conference of the Holiness Methodist Church has eight churches and three missions.

References

External links

Lumber River Conference of the Holiness Methodist Church
{{Methodism footer Methodist denominations in North America Holiness denominations Holiness movement History of Methodism in the United States Lumbee Historically African-American Christian denominations Christian organizations established in 1900 1900 establishments in the United States Native American Christianity