Welcome back to another episode of Five Minutes in Church History.

On this episode, we are looking at the development of Methodism, especially in Great

Britain, but also in the colonial period of the United States and in the early Republic.

Methodism began at Oxford University. There as students were George Whitfield, the brothers,

Charles Wesley and John Wesley, and they were joined by some of their classmates, and they formed

the Holiness Club.

This club focused on prayer, on Bible study, on visiting the sick and visiting prisoners,

and also holding each other to high moral standards.

It's interesting to note that at this time, Charles Wesley and John Wesley

were not converted. They were likely, as it were, trying to white knuckle themselves into

heaven, and eventually they'd realize that's not how you get there. But this is the beginnings

of Methodism. The word even appears here because they were following a strict method for their lives.

And so it was a bit of a derogatory term aimed at them, Methodism.

Well, the next phase in its development there in Great Britain came in the 1740s.

This is the time of the Great Awakening, a transatlantic event.

In Great Britain, it happened something like this.

George Whitfield was preaching this sermon.

Charles Wesley also preached a sermon by the same title, The Almost Christian.

And they would go into Anglican churches and they would say, do you know who the

almost Christian is? Well, it's you, because you are in church, but you're not converted. And so that

didn't go well with ministers of these congregations. And so Whitfield and the Wesley brothers

found themselves uninvited from pulpits, and they simply turned to the open fields and began field preaching.

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