DALLAS (BP) – The newly launched Global Methodist Church (GM Church) has selected GuideStone Financial Resources to provide its employee retirement and health programs. The Global Methodist Church is a new denomination composed primarily of former United Methodist Church congregations desiring to establish a more biblically conservative Methodist network.

GM Church leadership reached out to GuideStone about the possibility of serving the new network of churches.

“We are thankful that the GM Church leaders have chosen GuideStone to serve their churches and church staff,” GuideStone President Hance Dilbeck said. “We are working diligently across the enterprise to ensure a seamless experience for the Global Methodist Church; there will be no impact on the service level we provide to our established members and ministry partners.”

Chief Operating Officer Chu Soh indicated serving the GM Church provides additional opportunities to execute GuideStone’s Reach strategy to strengthen the SBC core GuideStone serves.

“The opportunity to serve Global Methodists came our way and excited us, providing the chance to serve like-minded Christians standing on biblical fidelity and allowing us to continue to achieve our vision that every servant of Christ finishes well,” Soh said.

Southern Baptist messengers in 2004 expanded GuideStone’s ministry assignment to include evangelical churches and ministry organizations outside the Southern Baptist family. Dozens of independent churches, parachurch ministries and several denominations are served through retirement, investment or insurance plans. GuideStone serves churches and ministries that share historic biblical convictions regarding Scripture, Christology, Gospel proclamation and marriage.

“This is good news for our Southern Baptist family as it helps to provide additional economies of scale as we seek to cost-effectively serve pastors, churches and other Southern Baptist and evangelical churches and ministries,” Dilbeck said. “We are thankful for the opportunity to serve these like-minded ministries, thus enabling us to better serve our Southern Baptist core.”

One of the four historic boards of the Southern Baptist Convention, GuideStone serves well over 255,000 members and has more than $20 billion in assets under management.

(EDITOR’S NOTE – Roy Hayhurst is director of denominational and public relations services for GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention.)