Foundations of Methodism

(1703-1784)

1703 - John Wesley born

1729 - John and Charles Wesley attended Oxford and created the Holy Club

1735 - John Wesley served as missionary in the Georgia colony in America

1738 - At a small religious meeting in Aldersgate Street John Wesley felt his "heart strangely warmed." He wrote, "I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death."

1740- - The first Methodist Society formed

1766 - The first American Methodist congregation, the forerunner of the John Street Church, organized in New York

1769 - The first preachers sent by John Wesley to take charge in America

1772 - Rev. Joseph Pilmoor, one of Wesley's missionaries, preached in the courthouse at Lancaster

1782 - Lancaster Circuit was organized for Preacher (Circuit) Riders.

1784 - Sixty American Methodist preachers, including Thomas Coke, Francis Asbury, Phillip William Otterbein , and Thomas Coke, met at the "Christmas Conference" at Lovely Lane Chapel in Baltimore, Maryland, to form and organize a new American denomination, the Methodist Episcopal Church. John Wesley’s Articles of Religion and Sunday Service were adopted. Allegiance to the U.S. government was vowed. Coke and Asbury were elected superintendents (bishops).