<P> The French Methodist movement was founded in the 1820s by Charles Cook in the village of Congénies in Languedoc near Nîmes and Montpellier . The most important chapel of department was built in 1869, where there had been a Quaker community since the 18th century . Sixteen Methodist congregations voted to join the Reformed Church of France in 1938 . In the 1980s, missionary work of a Methodist church in Agen led to new initiatives in Fleurance and Mont de Marsan . </P> <P> Methodism exists today in France under various names . The best - known is the Union of Evangelical Methodist Churches (French: l'Union de l'Eglise Evangélique Méthodiste) or UEEM . It is an autonomous regional conference of the United Methodist Church and is the fruit of a fusion in 2005 between the "Methodist Church of France" and the "Union of Methodist Churches". As of 2014, the UEEM has around 1,200 members and 30 ministers . </P> <P> The Protestant - Methodist Church (German: Evangelisch - methodistische Kirche) is the name of the United Methodist Church in Germany and Austria . The German church had about 52,031 members in 2015 . Members are organised into three conferences: north, east and south . Methodism is most prevalent in southern Saxony and around Stuttgart . </P> <P> British Methodist missionaries introduced Methodism to Germany in 1830, initially in the region of Württemberg . In 1859, the first Methodist minister arrived in Württemberg . Methodism was also spread in Germany through the missionary work of the American Methodist Episcopal Church, which began in 1849 in Bremen, soon spreading to Saxony . Early opposition towards Methodism was partly rooted in theological differences--northern and eastern regions of Germany were predominantly Lutheran and Reformed, and Methodists were dismissed as fanatics . Methodism was also hindered by its unfamiliar church structure (Connectionalism or Konnexionalismus), which was more centralised than the hierarchical polity in the Lutheran and Reformed churches . After World War I, the 1919 Weimar Constitution allowed Methodists to worship freely and many new chapels were established . In 1936, German Methodists elected their first bishop . </P>

What does it mean to be a methodist