About as mainstream and Main Street as a denomination can be in the United States today, the Methodist church, in its early days in England, was considered extreme and its leaders radical.

The first Methodists, led by John Wesley, George Whitefield and others, started out merely to reform the Church of England, but wound up riding the wave of a movement. It began with a group of students at Oxford between 1729 and 1735 and slowly spread outward.

From A Brief history of the Methodist Denomination, by Mary Fairchild:

“The beginning of Methodism as a popular movement began in 1738, when both of the Wesley brothers, influenced by contact with the Moravians, undertook evangelistic preaching with an emphasis on conversion and holiness. Though both Wesley brothers were ordained ministers of the Church of England, they were barred from speaking in most of its pulpits because of their evangelistic methods. They preached in homes, farm houses, barns, open fields, and wherever they found an audience.

“Wesley did not set out to create a new church, but instead began several small faith-restoration groups within the Anglican church called the “United Societies.” Soon however, Methodism spread and eventually became its own separate religion when the first conference was held in 1744.

“George Whitefield (1714-1770) was a minister in the Church of England and also one of the leaders of the Methodist movement. Some believe that he more than John Wesley is the founder of Methodism. He is famous for his part in the Great Awakening movement in America. As a follower of John Calvin, Whitefield parted ways with Wesley over the doctrine of predestination.”

Methodism (so called because of their advocacy of “rule” and “method” in their teachings) was characterized one thing, and that was its inclusiveness. In particular, Whitefield traveled across the English countryside preaching in open-air venues, to anyone who would listen. A forerunner of 20th century spellbinders, his style was like Billy Sunday.

Whitefield later came to America to ignite the Great Awakening with his robust oratory.

As for core doctrine, however, there was no appreciable difference between Methodists and the older church from which they sprung. Methodists believed in the trinity, the virgin birth, the resurrection, and the necessity for grace from God to achieve salvation (as opposed to good works).

The three precepts of Methodism developed by Wesley could hardly have been argued with by any Christian:

1. Shun evil and avoid partaking in wicked deeds at all costs, 2. Perform kind acts as much as possible, and 3. Abide by the edicts of God the Almighty Father.

Whitefield finally convinced Wesley that it was not disrespecting God to preach outside of a church. In time, however, Wesley would follow the path of Arminianism, while Whitefield gravitated toward Calvinism.

Both of those paths were frowned upon by the staid Church of England, which regarded Methodists as fanatics.

Finding a ready reception along the early frontier, soon after Methodism began to bubble in England, itinerant preachers came to America. Because Methodism was preacher-oriented, the best and most dynamic of those tended to accumulate their own followings.

Because Methodism was preacher-oriented, the best and most dynamic of those tended to accumulate their own followings. Consequently, Methodism began to splinter, both in England and in the colonies.

The Second Great Awakening in America took place from 1817 to 1843, rekindling zeal for Methodism and other Protestant denominations. Coinciding with that, though, was a debate inside the Methodist church about slavery, which John Wesley had adamantly opposed. Eventually, slaveholders were ejected from membership.

In a Covenant service to begin the New Year, Methodists usually reaffirm their covenant with God. John Singleton wrote in The Roots of Methodism:

“On many occasions, Wesley urged that an opportunity be provided for Methodists to make, or renew, their “covenant” with God. His first formal covenant service was held in 1755 at the French Church (borrowed for the occasion to accommodate large numbers), situated in the Spitalfields area of east London.”

This is what Wesley wrote in his journal about the event:

“I mentioned to the congregation another means of increasing serious religion which had been frequently practiced by our forefathers, namely, the joining in a covenant to serve God with all our heart and with all our soul. I explained this for several mornings, and on Friday, many of us kept a fast to the Lord, beseeching him to give us wisdom and strength, to make a promise unto the Lord our God and keep it.

“On Monday…I explained once more the nature of such an engagement and the manner of doing it acceptably to God.

“At six in the evening we met for that purpose. After I had recited the tenor of the covenant proposed, all those who desired to give testimony of their entrance into this covenant stood up, to the number of about 1,800 persons. Such a night I scarce ever saw before. Surely the fruit of it shall remain forever.”

The building in which the historic covenant service took place still stands in Spitalfields.

The United Methodist Church, founded in 1968, is the primary Methodist representative in the United States. Other groups that trace their origins back to John Welsey include the Free Methodist Church, the Wesleyan Church and the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church.

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Part of the Christian Methodist denomination, the AME Church has a concise history. Looking for religious freedom and freedom of discrimination by Philadelphia’s St. George’s MEC, African-American roots dominated the creation of AME. The original church was established by Absalom Jones, Richard Allen and others in 1787, the AME began as the FAS (Free African Society).

For the first time in western history, sociological differences rather than theological differences allowed the AME to gain it’s distinction. The AME was also the first African American denomination that was incorporated and organized in the US. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church was an abolitionist rather than from dissent as it may seem.

Prior to the civil war, the church expanded throughout the midwest and northeast. Also during this time of slavery, the church expanded into Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, and South Carolina. It wasn’t until the 1850’s that the AME expanded it’s ministry to the west coast, planting churches in California cities such as San Francisco, Stockton and Sacramento.

According to the AME Web site:

The most significant era of denominational development occurred during the Civil War and Reconstruction. Oftentimes, with the permission of Union army officials AME clergy moved into the states of the collapsing Confederacy to pull newly freed slaves into their denomination. “I Seek My Brethren,” the title of an often repeated sermon that Theophilus G. Steward preached in South Carolina, became a clarion call to evangelize fellow blacks in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Texas, and many other parts of the south. Hence, in 1880 AME membership reached 400,000 because of its rapid spread below the Mason-Dixon line . When Bishop Henry M. Turner pushed African Methodism across the Atlantic into Liberia and Sierra Leone in 1891 and into South Africa in 1896, the AME now laid claim to adherents on two continents.

The roots of AME is methodist and can be described in the Apostle’s Creed / 25 articles of religion and the bylaws of the AME church. The AME stresses that people of any ethnic background or nationality will be included in their church. Dispite the name of the church, “does not mean that the church was founded in Africa, or that it was for persons of African descent only.”

The churches within AME are not autonomous, as each one belongs to a larger connection that includes a general conference, a council of bishops, a board of incorporators, a general board and a judicial council. The bishops are the chief officers, and they are elected for life by a majority vote of the General Conference, which meets every four years. Bishops are, however, bound by church law to retire following a 75th birthday. This is an episcopal form of church government, hence the inclusion in the AME name.

The motto of the church is “A source of Unity” and it’s history is unique in itself.

According to the official website of the AME, in 1856, Bishop Daniel A. Payne proposed to the general conference that the seal of the episcopal church should include a denominational creedal statement: “God Our Father, Christ Our Redeemer, Man Our Brother”. Until 1908, this was the official declaration of A.M.E. faith identity. Then pentecostalism gained momentum in 1906 in Los Angeles’ Azusa Street Mission, previously, the first church site of the A.M.E. Church, they were convinced to change the motto. At the general conference meeting in Norfolk, Virginia, 1908 the motto was officially changed to “God Our Father, Christ Our Redeemer, the Holy Ghost Our Comforter, Man Our Brother”.

“God Our Father, Christ Our Redeemer, the Holy Spirit Our Comforter, Humankind Our Family” is the current motto that was changed in 2008 by the general conference after years of using the first and original motto that they re-adopted in 1916.

The AME is involved in church missions and has been a forerunner of education in the African-American community through colleges and theological seminaries.

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