ABSTRACT
All five branches of Methodism entered the new century, there was no sign of the remarkable movements which would soon produce tens of thousands of new Christians in south-west China and the Ivory Coast. They would take Methodism by surprise; no carefully laid plan evoked them. The most ambitious plans for the future were related to bricks and mortar: better school and hospital premises and church buildings not just adequate in size but sturdy in structure and worthy of the Lord they honoured. These plans were implemented and interrupted, in the context of world wars, decolonization, the accelerating pace of travel and telecommunications, the reunion of divided Methodism, wider schemes of church union which included striking successes and dismal failures and constant theological debate between progressive/liberal and conservative/fundamentalist Christians.
