The Methodist Church got it start in England in the early 1700s by John Wesley, his brother Charles and George Whitefield who were known as the founders of the Methodist movement. This movement came out of the Church of England.
It began when some students including John Wesley, Charles Wesley and George Whitefield, met at Oxford University in England. As this movement grew the Church of England often excluded known Methodists, Their thinking it would lead to the movement to become entirely separate from it.
George Whitfield (1714 to 1770) for his part in this Methodist movement taught and preached around the country side of England. His powers of oratory and charisma has in some realms held that “Methodism” is assumed to be Wesleyan Methodism. But he never got away from the Church of England.
John and his brother Charles moved to the United States early on and were involved in the Anglican church. Lacking leadership in the Anglican church and the church refusing to ordain people to help him, he took the step of ordaining some ministers on his own authority.
Seeking out on his own his determination and participation evolved into the creation of the Methodist church and the first one was organized in Baltimore on December 24, 1784. Methodism began more like a movement within other Christian churches than a movement to establish an independent denomination.
Feelings with Methodists is their church is a combination of the influence of John Wesley, the Protestant Reformation, with New Testament Christianity combined. Even though his participation in the Methodism movement which began more like a movement within other Christian churches John Wesley had made it known “I live and die a member of the Church of England”.
John Wesleys understanding of the New Testament “by rule and method brought about the name of the Methodist church, as he interpreted what the New Testament taught by his own reasoning. Methodism had become visible on the American scene to the point it separated completely from the Church of England By the close of the American Revolution, shortly there after the Constitution was signed and the United States came into existence.
Following the American Revolution Wesley realized the need to start a American church community. This endeavor brought about the Methodist Episcopal Church in America. It happened at a Christmas Conference, in Baltimore in December 1784.
Decided in the conference was a form of government by elders, deacons, superintendents, later followed by bishops. A book of rules called, The Book of Discipline, which regulated the life of the church and its members. The first two superintendents were, Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury.
Methodism entered a rapid expansion in this period after the Christmas Conference. As on this site, the other six unscriptural church articles under that category with the same name they developed and progressed, split into similar churches with slightly different beliefs.