The denomination says it has added roughly 2,550 churches since 2024 while expanding international leadership and renewing its commitment to discipleship.
The Global Methodist Church concluded its 2026 General Conference in Johannesburg with a report of significant growth: 7,250 congregations now identify with the denomination worldwide, up from about 4,700 at the time of its 2024 gathering.
The church also reported an increase from 36 annual conferences to 55, with six more emerging conferences taking shape. Conferences outside the United States have more than doubled, underscoring the increasingly international character of a denomination that formally launched in 2022.
A global gathering with consequential decisions
Delegates met in South Africa from August 30 through September 5, considered 451 petitions and elected eight full-time bishops. The conference also approved a covenant relationship with the Korean Methodist Church and included ministry and outreach in Johannesburg and Soweto.
The Global Methodist Church emerged from a period of division in the United Methodist Church over theology, governance and biblical teaching, including disputes involving marriage and ordination. Much of the GMC’s numerical expansion reflects established congregations choosing a new denominational home, so the figures should not be treated as 2,550 newly planted churches or 2,550 communities newly reached with the Gospel.
Even with that qualification, building an international connection of more than 7,000 congregations in four years is a notable institutional development. It requires pastoral training, accountable leadership, shared doctrine, missions partnerships and structures capable of serving churches across very different cultural settings.
Why This Matters
Denominational realignment can sound remote from everyday Christian life, but its consequences reach local congregations. Decisions about doctrine, clergy standards, property, missions funding and leadership affect what is preached, how pastors are formed and whether churches cooperate across borders.
The Johannesburg conference also gives Methodists an opportunity to look beyond the conflict that shaped the denomination’s birth. THRIVE!’s feature on John and Charles Wesley’s enduring influence recalls a movement historically marked not only by organization, but by evangelism, holiness, hymnody and care for neighbors.
THRIVE! Perspective
Church growth is worth celebrating when it means more people hearing the Gospel, believers being discipled and congregations serving their communities. But a larger directory is not the same thing as spiritual fruit. Jesus commissioned His followers to make disciples, baptize them and teach them to obey all He commanded (Matthew 28:18–20).
Acts 2:42 offers another measure: believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayer. Those commitments matter more than institutional momentum by itself.
The Global Methodist Church now faces the constructive work that follows separation. Can its leaders preserve biblical conviction without being defined mainly by past controversy? Can rapidly growing structures remain accountable? Can churches in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas operate as genuine partners rather than treating one region as the center and others as the margin?
The best evidence of success will not be a denominational press release. It will be faithful preaching, holy lives, healthy pastors, transparent governance, new disciples and local churches carrying the Gospel into their own communities.
What to Watch
Future reporting should follow the denomination’s new episcopal structure, its international partnerships, clergy formation and the proportion of growth that comes from church planting and conversion rather than transfers. THRIVE! will also watch how the GMC addresses accountability while expanding quickly.
