The Wesleyan movement centers around the Scriptural truth concerning the doctrine and experience of holiness.  A revival of Scriptural truths concerning Scriptural holiness took place under the leadership of John Wesley in the eighteenth century and continues in various ways until the present.

Nutured in a devout home, John Wesley committed himself to a search after God from earliest childhood.  While at Oxford, together with his brother Charles and a few other serious-minded collegians, John Wesley methodically pursued holiness through systematic Bible study, prayer, good works, intensive examination, and reproof.  The group earned the nicknames of "Holy Club" and of "Methodists," but Wesley did not earn the assurance of salvation.  Having graduated from Oxford, and having been ordained as a clergyman in the state church, he intensified his search for peace through legalism and self-discipline.  The turning point came at a prayer meeting in Aldersgate Street, London, May 24, 1738, when he perceived the way of faith and found his heart "strangely warmed" in the new birth.  As he went on to the experience of entire sanctification (an experience of sold-out love for God and rejection of willful sin), he shared his testimony and teaching with others, and a spiritual awakening spread across the British Isles and to America.

It was not Wesley's purpose to found a church, but the awakening brought about the spontaneous origin of "societies" which grew into the Methodist movement.  The movement spread to America by the emigration of Mehodists, who, beginning in 1766, began to organize the Methodist "classes" and "societies" in the colonies.  In December 1784, the Methodist Episcopal Church was organized at the Christmas Conference in Baltimore, Maryland.  The new church experienced a miraculous growth, especially on the frontier, and quickly became one of the major religious forces in the new nation.

Beginning in 1841, there began a series of withdrawals of churches and ministers from the Methodist Episcopal Church over the issue of slavery; some ministers and members of the M.E.C. were involved in slaveholding.  John Wesley and early Methodist leaders in America had been uncompromising in their denunciation of human slavery.  The earliest extensive withdrawal was in Michigan, and led on May 13, 1841, to the formation of the annual conference using the name, "The Wesleyan Methodist Church."

The organzing convention for the Wesleyan Methodist Connection of America was held at Utica, New York, May 31 to June 8, 1843.  The new organization was a "Connection" of local churches organized in annual conferences.  It avoided the episcopacy, and provided for equal ministerial and lay representation in all of its governing bodies.  Moral and social reform were strongly emphasized, with slaveholding and all involvements with intoxicating liquors being prohibited.

Other highlights in the history of the Wesleyan Church:

The first national camp meeting, which developed into the National Holiness Association, was held in 1867.

The revival of holiness which swept the Wesleyan Methodist Connection introduced a new emphasis on evangelism.  The need for organized efforts of church extension led to the gradual development of a more formal organization as a church rather than a connection.  In 1891, the name changed to the Wesleyan Methodist Connection (or Church) of America.  In 1947, the name was changed to The Wesleyan Methodist Church of America.  The Wesleyan Methodist Church became international.

The Pilgrim Holiness Church came into being (with beginnings in 1897 in Cincinnati, Ohio) as a result of the revival of Scriptural holiness that swept across the various denominations in America in the last half of the nineteenth century, the same awakening that had rechanneled the energies of the Wesleyan Methodist Connection.

On June 26, 1968, The Pilgrim Holiness Church and The Wesleyan Methodist Church of America were united to form The Wesleyan Church.

The Wesleyan Church has grown out of a revival movement which has historically given itself to one mission--the spreading of Scriptural holiness throughout every land.  The message which ignited the Wesleyan revival was the announcement that God through Christ can forgive men and women of their sins, transform them, free them from inbred sin, enable them to live a holy life, and bear witness to their hearts that they are indeed children of God.  The Wesleyan Church believes that to spread Scriptural holiness throughout every land involves joining the entire church of Christ in a full-orbed mission to the world.

(This brief history of the Wesleyan Church has been adapted from the historical section of The Discipline of the Wesleyan Church p.1-10)