Michigan Compiled Laws, Chapter 458. Ecclesiastical Corporations § 458.64

Sec. 4. Said articles of association shall be filed with the corporation and securities bureau of the department of commerce. When said articles of association shall have been filed, the said persons so signing said articles of association, and their associates and fellow members of said church, and all who may thereafter become members of said church, according to the rules, usages, and discipline of the Methodist Protestant church, shall thereby become and thenceforth be a body politic, or corporation, by the name expressed in the said articles of association, with all the powers, rights, and privileges appertaining to religious corporations by the laws of this state.