John Wesley is regarded as the founder of Methodism. John Wesley was born in Epworth, Lincolnshire, England in 1703. This is a small town in the east central part of England about 150 miles north of London. His father was a priest in the Church of England. John was the fourteenth of at least fifteen children. His mother was a strict disciplinarian and did not believe in sparing the rod. When John was seven years old, the Rectory burned and John was trapped inside. Neighbors, one standing on the shoulders of the other, rescued John from the fire. This was one of the moving experiences in John Wesley's life. At the time, his mother told him that he had been spared for a purpose, to serve God, and he later agreed.
John Wesley attended Charterhouse School in 1714, went to Christ Church College, Oxford, in 1720, and was elected a fellow at Lincoln Oxford. John graduated from Oxford as did his brothers Charles and Samuel. Charles was also instrumental in the early thinking of the Methodist Church and Samuel preached the prescribed theology of the Anglican Church.
From 1727 to 1729, John Wesley was curate, or assistant, to his father at Wroote, Lincolnshire, England. He returned to Oxford from this position to continue his religious studies. At this time, he assumed leadership of a group known as the Holy Club, composed of students who met for Bible study and prayer. This group had been started by John's younger brother Charles. Members of the Holy Club tried to improve their faith through studying the scriptures and evaluating the holiness of each member's life. John advised his friends to be methodical in their efforts to live a better Christian life. This led to them being called "Methodists" by other students at Oxford. Members of the club went to prisons to try to help the prisoners and they tried to minister to the poor of England. What is now the state of Georgia in the United States was a penal colony of England when John and his brother Charles went there as missionaries. It was a stormy voyage over, and John Wesley was impressed by the calm faith of some fellow passengers who were Moravians from Austria. They spent about two years in Georgia and returned to England. On Wednesday, May 24, 1738, John Wesley attended a meeting of the Moravians in London and felt his heart "strangely warmed". After this meeting, he began preaching with new faith. The Church of England did not appreciate his new-found enthusiasm, so he joined with evangelist George Whitefield and started holding open air meetings. Wesley traveled about 5,000 miles a year and preached about 15 sermons a week. The city of Bristol, near the west coast of England, was the center of his work. He preached to miners, laborers, and the poor of England. John Wesley organized his followers into groups and church societies. He appointed lay leaders and finally ordained or commissioned preachers. Charles Wesley authored about 4,500 hymns. John and Charles Wesley never left the Church of England. They continued to hope that the Church of England would recognize the work they were doing and better serve the poor and outcasts of England. Charles Wesley died in 1788 and John in 1791, both still in the Church of England, although not necessarily in good standing.
In 1791, followers of the Wesleys in England split from the Church of England and formed the Wesleyan Methodist Church. By this time the Methodist Church in the United States had been functioning for some time. In about 1760 two Irish immigrants who were followers of the Wesleys came to the United States. Robert Strawbridge settled in Maryland and Philip Embury in New York. In 1766 Captain Thomas Webb, a soldier and lay preacher, began organizing Methodist societies in New Jersey and Philadelphia. Wesley heard of the activities of these men and sent four preachers to the United States to try to help them in their religious endeavors.
One of these was Francis Asbury, who became the foremost leader of the movement in the United States. During the American Revolution, Wesley remained loyal to England but Asbury was loyal to the revolutionaries.
After the revolution, Wesley sent Thomas Coke, an Anglican clergyman, as superintendent of the United States Methodist Church. The Methodist Church in the United States was formally organized at the Christmas Conference, convened in Baltimore, Maryland on December 24, 1784. The Methodist Episcopal Church was organized with Asbury and Coke as joint superintendents. Both soon became known as "Bishops". In 1792 a general conference was formed to be the law-making body for the church. By 1796 the country was divided into separate conferences and the church continued to grow.
Methodism spread to Texas with settlement of the Europeans from the eastern part of the country. Methodist circuit riders served the settlers as they migrated into the state. The Methodist Church was one of the first to serve residents of Corpus Christi.
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