United Methodist Church

The Methodist Church began in 1729, at the University of Oxford in England. A group of students met to study Christian religious subjects. They followed a very methodical manner to celebrate their faith, and critics referred to them as Methodists as a result. One of the members of this group of students was John Wesley. Most people credit Wesley with founding the Methodist faith. Wesley believed that by living in a Christian manner and truly believing in God, a person would gain salvation. Upon Wesley's death in 1791, the Methodist faith divided into a number of denominations, with each one believing in its own slightly different version of Wesley's message. The two main denominations were the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Protestants.

The Methodist Church arrived in British North America before the American Revolution. Methodist missionary Francis Asbury receives the most credit for spreading the Methodist message to North America. The Methodists actively sought new converts and sent missionaries from town to town to give sermons to anyone who would listen. Methodism advanced westward almost as quickly as the people who settled the land and was one of the earliest Christian faiths to arrive in Ohio. Its relatively democratic message -- that all people could obtain salvation