What we believe is summarized in the Apostle’s Creed, in which we state:
United Methodism: Sincerity, Simplicity, Openness, and Practicality
Excerpts from a sermon by Pastor Arthur Holt

Sincerity

Methodism was given birth by John and Charles Wesley, brothers and scholars as well as ministers in 18th Century England. Their desire was to be totally sincere in their Christian faith. It wasn’t enough for them to intend to be Christian; instead, they planned to be Christian. They set a time each day to read the Bible and to pray, to visit the sick and imprisoned. Their Christianity became right Methodical – hence our name… All this was in an attempt to avoid hypocrisy – to be sincerely Christian.

Simplicity

John Wesley worked on arriving at a simple core of necessary beliefs on which most Christians could agree, that which he called “common principles of Christianity.” One of the reasons he wanted to do this was to foster unity among all Christians of all denominations. Wesley said it this way: “I vehemently refuse to be distinguished from others by any but the common principles of Christianity — the plain, old Christianity that I teach, renouncing and detesting all other marks of distinction… But from real Christians, of whatsoever denomination they be, we earnestly desire not to be distinguished at all.”

Openness

From the very beginning of Methodism, we have been different from all of our sister churches in that we are open minded when it comes to attitudes toward other denominations and to education. We do not believe that you must be a United Methodist in order to go to heaven! We affirm the fact that Presbyterians, Baptists, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, Holiness and Pentecostal Churches are all parts of the one Body of Christ, the invisible Church of the redeemed in the world. We recognize the baptism given in another Christian Church to be valid; i.e., we will not re-baptize someone who has already been baptized. And we receive people from other churches into our membership without requiring re-training. We will also receive into membership people of all races, and we ordain men and women as our pastors. In our communities, United Methodists will work with all other denominations in trying to help people. In short, although we have complete confidence in our system of beliefs, we do not assume that we are the only ones who have the truth.

Another aspect of our openness is our willingness to allow disagreements within our churches. That is, we do not insist that we all agree about all things as long as we agree on a few basics. This comes right out of Mr. Wesley’s teaching, for he said, but as to all opinions which do not strike at the root of Christianity, we think and let think.

United Methodism is also open in our attitude toward education. We believe that all truth comes from God – religious truth and scientific truth. We are open to the claims of science and also to new insights from sociology and psychology.

Practicality

Ours is a very practical faith. It is about making life fuller and better for ourselves and others. It is about caring for the needs of all people, whether or not they are my race, nationality, or creed. We believe that faith and good deeds go hand-in-hand, that one is incomplete without the other. As Wesley said, “The world is my parish.”