Methodist Local Preacher - Historical Background

Historical Background

"Local preachers" have been a part of Methodism from its beginnings as a revival movement in eighteenth century England. John Wesley tried to avoid a schism with the Church of England, and encouraged those who attended his revivalist meetings to attend their parish churches but they also attended Methodist preaching services, which were held elsewhere, and met in "classes" (small cell groups). It quickly became necessary to build "preaching houses" where the Methodist meetings could be held. These began to function as alternative churches, often depending on the attitude of the local Anglican clergy.

One such preaching house was The Foundery, which served as Wesley's HQ in London. In about 1740, Wesley was away on business and had left a young man, Thomas Maxfield, in charge of The Foundery. Since no clergymen were available, Maxfield took it upon himself to preach to the congregation. Wesley was annoyed by this and returned to London in order to confront Maxfield. However, his mother, Susanna Wesley, persuaded him to hear Maxfield out, suggesting that he had as much right to preach as Wesley. Wesley was sufficiently impressed by Maxfield's preaching to see it as God's work and let the matter drop, with Maxfield becoming one of Methodism's earliest lay preachers.

Methodism formally broke with the Anglican church as a result of Wesley's 1784 ordination of ministers to serve in the United States following the American War of Independence. Before the schism, Wesley had as accredited preachers only a handful of fellow Anglican priests who shared his view of the need to take the gospel to the people where they were. Because of their small number, these priests were necessarily itinerant, travelling around the country like Wesley himself. Their travelling pattern, like that used until the mid 20th Century by judges, gave rise to the use of the word Circuit to describe a group of churches overseen by a single minister; this word is still in use today.

Because of the limited number of ordained ministers he could call on, Wesley appointed local preachers who were not ordained but whom he examined, and whom he felt he could trust to lead worship and preach: though not to minister sacraments.

As the independent Methodist church developed following the schism and Wesley's death, a pattern was soon established in which ordained ministers, whose number was still limited, were attached for a short period (at first three years, subsequently five, and now more usually seven or more) to a Circuit. The circuit minister had pastoral oversight and administered sacraments, but the majority of services were led, and sermons preached, by Local Preachers (note the capital letters). Local Preachers would regularly spend a whole day with a local church (called a Society), leading one or more services and undertaking pastoral visiting. Many travelled significant distances in the course of a day, often on foot.

In its essentials, this pattern remains to the present day. Although by the end of the nineteenth century most circuits were staffed by several ministers, there were almost always more churches in the circuit than ministers, many of them offering two or three services every Sunday. The need for local preachers has never declined and in many Circuits an active Local Preacher may well be involved in preparing and leading worship on seven or eight occasions in a thirteen-week Quarter.