The history of Methodism in the United States dates back to the mid-18th century with the ministries of early Methodist preachers such as Laurence Coughlan and Robert Strawbridge. Following the American Revolution most of the Anglican clergy who had been in America came back to England. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, sent Thomas Coke to America where he and Francis Asbury founded the Methodist Episcopal Church, which was to later establish itself as the largest denomination in America during the 19th century.
Methodism thrived in America thanks to the First and Second Great Awakenings beginning in the 1700s. Various African-American denominations were formed during this period, including the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
In the early 20th century, many of the splintered Methodist groups joined to form the Methodist Church (USA). Another merger in 1968 resulted in the formation of the United Methodist Church from the Evangelical United Brethren (EUB) and the Methodist Church.
Other smaller Methodist denominations in the United States, including those that separated from the Methodist Episcopal Church or the descendant denominations themselves, exist, such as the Free Methodist Church, Global Methodist Church, Evangelical Methodist Church, Congregational Methodist Church, Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection and Bible Methodist Connection of Churches, among others.
Origins in America Further information: Methodism § Origins In 1735, the Wesley brothers, John and Charles, went to the Georgia Colony to minister to the colonialists and teach the Gospel to European settlers and Native American tribes. They sailed from England aboard the Simmonds, departing on October 14. During the voyage, the ship encountered a violent storm that spread fear amongst many passengers. However, a group of Christians from the Moravian Church remained surprisingly calm. Wesley was impressed by their unwavering faith, leading him to question the depth of his own spiritual assurance. His original purpose for the mission was to minister to the Native American people. However, during his time in Georgia, his understanding of salvation was primarily works-oriented, emphasizing moral conduct over faith. This period reflects his early theological stance, which would later evolve significantly after his return to England. Charles Wesley, accompanying his brother, became the Secretary for Indian Affairs.
John Wesley returned to England and met with the Moravian Church, a group of clergymen he respected. He said, "they appeared to be of one heart, as well as of one judgment, resolved to be Bible-Christians at all events; and, wherever they were, to preach with all their might plain, old, Bible Christianity." The Wesley ministers retained their membership in the Church of England. Though not always emphasized or appreciated in the Anglican churches of their day, their teaching emphasized salvation by God's grace, apprehended through faith in Christ. Three teachings they saw as the foundation of Christian faith were:
People are all, by nature, "dead in sin," and, consequently, "children of wrath." They are "justified by faith alone." Faith produces inward and outward holiness.
Very quickly, these clergymen became popular, attracting large congregations. The nickname students had used against the Wesley's was revived; they and their followers became known as Methodists.
Early missionaries to America In 1766, Reverend Laurence Coughlan arrived in Newfoundland and opened a school at Black Head in Conception Bay. Around the same time, two Methodist lay preachers emigrated to America and formed societies. Philip Embury, prompted by fellow Irish Methodist Barbara Heck , began preaching in New York. Soon, Captain Webb, a British Army officer, assisted him in forming a congregation that would become the first Methodist society in New York.
The oldest Methodist church in America is John Street Methodist Church in New York City, founded on October 12, 1766.
In 1770, two authorized Methodist preachers, Richard Boardman and Joseph Pilmoor, arrived from the British Connexion. They were immediately preceded by the unauthorized Robert Williams who quietly set about supporting himself by publishing American editions of Wesley's hymnbooks without obtaining permission to do so. These men were soon followed by others, including Francis Asbury, who reorganized the mid-Atlantic work in accordance with the Wesleyan model. Internal conflict characterized this period. Missionaries displaced most of the local preachers and irritated many of the leading lay members. During the American Revolution, "the mid-Atlantic work" (as Wesley called it) diminished, and, by 1778, the work was reduced to one circuit. Asbury refused to leave. He remained in Delaware during this period.
Concurrently, Robert Strawbridge began a Methodist work in Maryland. They did not work together and did not know of each other's existence. Strawbridge ordained himself and organized a circuit. He trained many very influential assistants who became some of the first leaders of American Methodism. His work grew rapidly both in numbers and in geographical spread. The British missionaries discovered Strawbridge's work and annexed it into the American connection. However, the native preachers continued to work side by side with the missionaries, and they continued to recruit and dispatch more native preachers. Southern Methodism was not dependent on missionaries in the same way as mid-Atlantic Methodism.
Up until this time, with the exception of Strawbridge, none of the missionaries or American preachers was ordained. Consequently, the Methodist people received the sacraments at the hands of ministers from established Anglican churches. Most of the Anglican priests were Loyalists who fled to England, New York or Canada during the war. In the absence of Anglican ordination, a group of native preachers ordained themselves. This caused a split between the Asbury faction and the southern preachers. Asbury mediated the crisis by convincing the southern preachers to wait for Wesley's response to the sacramental crisis. That response came in 1784.
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, came to believe that the New Testament evidence did not leave the power of ordination to the priesthood in the hands of bishops but that other priests could do ordination. In 1784, he ordained preachers for Scotland and England and America, with power to administer the sacraments (this was a major reason for Methodism's final split from the Church of England). At that time, Wesley sent the Rev. Dr. Thomas Coke to America to form an independent American Methodist church. The native circuit riders met in late December. Coke had orders to ordain Asbury as a joint superintendent of the new church. However, Asbury turned to the assembled conference and said he would not accept it unless the preachers voted him into that office. This was done, and from that moment forward, the general superintendents received their authority from the conference. Later, Coke convinced the general conference that he and Asbury were bishops and added the title to the discipline. It caused a great deal of controversy. Wesley did not approve of 'bishops' who had not been ordained by bishops. The first annual conference of the newly organized Methodist Episcopal Church was held at Green Hill House near Louisburg, Franklin County, North Carolina, April 19, 1785. Four annual conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church were held at the house of Green Hill and Hill was their host.John Baxton Flowers, III; Catherine W. Cockshutt (April 1975). "Green Hill House" (PDF). National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved 2014-11-01.
The first American Methodist bishops were Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury, whose boyhood home, Bishop Asbury Cottage, in West Bromwich, England, is now a museum. Upon the formation of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America at the Baltimore Christmas Conference in 1784, Coke (already ordained in the Church of England) ordained Asbury a deacon, elder, and bishop each on three successive days. This conference marked a significant step toward Methodism's independence from the Church of England and helped standardize its organizational structure within the United States. Circuit riders, many of whom were laymen, traveled by horseback to preach the gospel and establish churches. These itinerant preachers were central to the rapid expansion of Methodism, ensuring that nearly every rural crossroads and frontier settlement in the United States had a Methodist presence. One of the most famous circuit riders was Robert Strawbridge who lived in the vicinity of Carroll County, Maryland soon after arriving in the Colonies around 1760.Frederick E. Maser, Robert Strawbridge: First American Methodist Circuit Rider (Rutland, Vt.: Academy Books, 1983), 11–2 Strawbridge's independent ordination and training of assistants contributed significantly to the spread of Methodism in the mid-Atlantic region and influenced the structure of circuits used by the later Methodist Episcopal Church
By the 1792 general conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the controversy relating to episcopal power boiled over. Ultimately, the delegates sided with Bishop Asbury. However, the Republican Methodists split off from the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) in 1792. Also, William Hammet (a missionary ordained by Wesley who traveled to America from Antigua with Bishop Coke), led a successful revolt against the MEC in 1791. He opposed Bishop Asbury and the episcopacy. He formed his people into the American Primitive Methodist Church (not directly connected with the British Primitive Methodist Church). Both American churches operated in the Southeast and presaged the episcopal debates of later reformers. Regardless, Asbury remained the leading bishop of early American Methodism and did not share his "appointing" authority until Bishop McKendree was elected in 1808. Coke had problems with the American preachers. His authoritarian style alienated many. Soon, he became a missionary bishop of sorts and never had much influence in America.
First and Second Awakenings
The First Great Awakening was a religious movement among colonials in the 1730s and 1740s. The English Calvinist Methodist preacher George Whitefield played a major role, traveling up and down the colonies and preaching in a dramatic and emotional style, accepting everyone as his audience. His itinerant preaching and theatrical delivery attracted large crowds and sparked widespread religious fervor.
The new style of sermons and the way people practiced their faith breathed new life into religion in America. People became passionately and emotionally involved in their religion, rather than passively listening to intellectual discourse in a detached manner. People began to study the Bible at home, which effectively decentralized the means of informing the public on religious matters and was akin to the individualistic trends present in Europe during the Protestant Reformation.
The revival's emphasis on personal experience and lay involvement strongly shaped John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. Wesley's spiritual awakening in 1738 during a Moravian meeting on Aldersgate Street inspired his theology of personal salvation and sanctification, which became foundational for Methodism. Many of the practices the First Great Awakening brought were later institutionalized by Methodists in America.