Here
Am I, Send Me! A short history of the people called
United Methodist from its very beginnings in England, United
Methodism has captured the commitment of people who have been drawn
to the call of God on their lives.
~ By Rev. Al Horton
Across the years, “Here am I,
send me!” has become a refrain of United Methodists and their
predecessors. In 1729, brothers John and Charles Wesley organized
what detractors called the “Holy Club” at Oxford University and were
ridiculed as “Methodists” by the way they studiously followed the
Scriptures in their habits and discipline. It was their way of being
faithful to the God who called them.
Later, as priests in the Church
of England, they became restless with a church that seemed
indifferent to the needs of the poor. In an effort to reform the
church, they began societies that held members accountable to a life
of “holiness” and service. They visited prisons, preached in
coalfields, and established health care facilities and a factory for
the poor.
In 1736, they even came to the
American colonies as missionaries, although by most accounts they
left in disillusionment. Following almost simultaneous life-changing
religious experiences in May of 1738, the two brothers, John the
organizer and Charles the writer of hymns, set their world on fire
with a spiritual revival that swept across Europe and transformed
even the budding colonies across the Atlantic. In America, Methodism
grew with the nation, primarily as a lay movement, led by Robert
Strawbridge, an immigrant farmer who organized societies in 1760
Maryland and Virginia; Philip Embury and Barbara Heck, who worked in
New York; and Captain Thomas Webb, who labored in Philadelphia in
1767.
As the decade drew to a close,
John Wesley, the aging father of the movement, sent lay preachers
Richard Boardman and Joseph Pilmore to America; and later, Richard
Wright and Francis Asbury to help. “Spread scriptural holiness
throughout the land,” he charged his young circuit riders. In 1773,
the first conference of Methodist preachers was held in
Philadelphia. Ordinations launch church The American Revolution
caused Wesley to recognize the need for greater autonomy in American
Methodism. Ordained clergy were also in short supply, so he took the
bold step of ordaining three lay preachers, Richard Whatcoat, Thomas
Vasey, and Thomas Coke, and sent them to the former British
colonies. His actions effectively set in motion the beginning of an
independent church.
During the historic Christmas
Conference of December 24, 1784, held at Lovely Lane Chapel in
Baltimore, Francis Asbury was ordained by Coke and consecrated the
first bishop of the brand new Methodist Episcopal Church in America.
The next year, the church published its first Discipline, calling
for the church’s first quadrennial General Conference, held in 1792.
A constitution and publishing house followed in short order, and the
new denomination was quickly on its way spreading “scriptural
holiness throughout the land” with itinerating preachers, camp
meetings, and revivals. Asbury, the “prophet of the long road,”
traveled more than 275,000 miles on foot and by horseback during his
45 years of ministry. When he began his work there was only one
Methodist for every 2,050 Americans; when he died in 1816 there was
one for every 39.
The persistent presence of
Methodist circuit riders became so legendary that a common response
to stormy weather was, “There’s nothing out today but crows and
Methodist preachers.” One of the men who laid hands on Asbury during
his ordination was a German Reformed pastor named Philip William
Otterbein. His work in Pennsylvania crossed paths with that of a
German-speaking Mennonite named Martin Boehm. At their first meeting
during a “great meeting” revival in Maryland, Otterbein greeted his
new friend with, “Wir sind brüder” (“We are brothers”). The words
carried across the years and were reflected in the name of the
denomination they would found in 1800, the United Brethren in Christ
Evangelicals unite.
Three years later, followers of
an American-born Revolutionary soldier and Lutheran farmer named
Jacob Albright gathered to name him the leader of the church that
would eventually be called the Evangelical Association. Methodism
spread across the frontier as the United Brethren and Evangelicals
increased in numbers as well. In the early years of the 19th century
the Sunday school movement flourished, too, becoming a major entry
point for members into the new denominations.
But the early years were not
without their problems. Richard Allen, an emancipated slave and
Methodist preacher, left the denomination because of mistreatment
and began the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1816. For
similar reasons the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Zion Church
was founded in 1821. Nine years later the Methodist Protestant
Church broke away over issues of lay representation and election of
presiding elders (district superintendents). In 1844, the issue of
slavery finally tore the Methodist Episcopal (M.E.) Church in half,
creating a separate Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The African
American membership of this southern church declined during and
after the Civil War, so in 1870 the M.E. Church, South, voted to
transfer its black members to a new denomination called the Colored
Methodist Episcopal Church (later named Christian Methodist
Episcopal Church).
United Methodism is born. It
would be 69 years before the Methodist Protestant, M.E., and M.E.,
South, churches would reunite to form the Methodist Church in 1939.
The reunion set the stage for the 1946 uniting of the United
Brethren and Evangelical Association to create the Evangelical
United Brethren Church, which in turn joined with the Methodist
Church in 1968 to form what we now know as the United Methodist
Church. In spite of all its struggles to find peace within itself,
the United Methodist Church and its antecedent bodies have been in
the forefront of positive social change over the course of more than
200 years.
Methodists helped to establish
the World Council of Churches, the YMCA, Goodwill Industries, and
the Salvation Army. The World’s Woman’s Christian Temperance Union
that worked to abolish child labor and promote women’s suffrage was
started by a Methodist. Northwestern, Auburn, Vanderbilt, and the
University of California; Duke, American, and Southern Methodist
Universities; all were founded by Methodists. Rabbi Marc H.
Tanenbaum, former director of international relations for the
American Jewish Committee, said, “Everywhere I go in Africa, there
are Methodist missionaries at work where they have been for more
than 100 years, making peace, giving hope and dignity, building
community. I see the same thing in South America and Asia. You
people are the peacemakers of the world.” Ultimately, as one of
United Methodism’s newest TV commercials states, “More important
than who goes to our church is where our church goes.” From
saddlebags to cyberspace, the people called United Methodist are on
the move to “spread scriptural holiness throughout the land.”
Want to know more?
•
Visit the official United Methodist Web site at
www.umc.org.
•
Call InfoServ, the denominational toll-free hotline with answers to
most questions related to the church, 1-800-251-8140 or e-mail
infoserve@umcom.umc.org.
•
Contact Cokesbury Bookstore where you can find copies of the United
Methodist Discipline, hymnal, worship book, and Book of
Resolutions, among thousands of other resources for assisting
you in your walk of faith. 1-877-260-0572
•
Subscribe to Christian Social Action, the magazine of United
Methodism’s General Board of Church and Society.
1-800-967-0880
•
Contact the Virginia Conference Media Center for videos like “Our
United Methodist Heritage” and “We’ve Got Principles” about our
denomination’s Social Principles. Media Center hours are 8:30
am-3 pm, M-F.
1-800-768-6040
