To understand the history of the United Methodist Church, you must first understand the numerous merges that took place. The United Methodist Church’s history is one of unity. It was created when the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church merged on April 23, 1968. Each of these parent churches was the result of additional unions of other churches. The Evangelical United Brethren Church came out of the joining of Evangelical Church and the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. This merge took place in 1946. Methodism, however, was a merger of three separate churches. The three churches were the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist Protestant Church, and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. These churches merged together in 1939.

Now that you understand the history of the unions, you must now know the founders. Philip Otterbein, a member of the German Reformed Church, along with Martin Boehm, a Mennonite Bishop, started The Church of the United Brethren in Christ in 1800. Jacob Albright founded the Evangelical Church in 1807. His followers named the church the Evangelical Association in 1816, and finally the Evangelical Church in 1922. John Wesley and George Whitefield started Methodism. These were the founders of the churches that led to the United Methodist Church.

Now we must look at the reasons why the other churches were founded. Wesley’s followers did not have the leadership that he thought they needed during the Revolutionary War. The Anglican Church would not even ordain people to help Wesley, so he took it upon himself to ordain some ministers. This was an unusual step that led to the creation of the Methodist Church. This also led to the creation of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

The Methodist Episcopal Church, South broke off from the Methodist Episcopal Church and became a separate denomination in 1844. This was because of the slavery issue that was going on during the mid-nineteenth century. It all started when the bishop Rev. James Osgood Andrew from Oxford, Georgia bought a slave, but he would not sell her because he was afraid that she would end up in an abusive place. The 1840 General Conference did take his slave ownership into consideration, and they let him remain bishop. Four years later, he married a woman who owned a slave that was inherited from her mother. After that, he had a total of two slaves. If James did not sell his slaves, then he could not be the bishop any more. The argument that was divided the country was also splitting the church.

The Methodist Protestant Church was officially formed in 1828. Its formation started when a Methodist Episcopal Church minister William M. Stillwell organized a group of believers who were worried about the increasing power of the bishops and the lack of lay people in the church. A layman by the name of William S. Stockton from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania became the leader of the movement. In 1821, he started to publish the Wesleyan Repository; a periodical supporting what he called "the mutual rights of ministry an laity." The Methodist Protestant Church had many of the same beliefs as the Methodist Episcopal Church; however, the main difference was that the Methodist Protestant Church did not use bishops to assign pastors to their appointments. Instead, they assigned pastors to appointments by a president of the conference. The conference would then affirm the appointment.

Although the Church of the United Brethren of Christ was organized in 1800, it goes back to 1767. That year, the Great Awakening took place. When Martin Boehm shared his story about becoming a Christian, Philip William Otterbein got up and said to him, "we are brethren." Their followers formed an unofficial movement for many years. As it spread, it included German-speaking churches in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, and Maryland. Thirteen ministers attended the first conference in Frederick, Maryland. There, they chose the name The United Brethren in Christ.

The Evangelical Association was what the church was originally called. It was later known as the Evangelical Association. It was also known as the Albright Brethren. It was founded in 1800 by Jacob Albright. He was influenced by John Wesley and the Methodist Movement that was taking place at the time. The church took on the name The Evangelic Association in 1816. In 1891, some members of the church left to form The United Evangelical Church. Thirty-one years after that, the two churches reunited and called themselves The Evangelical Church. Some congregations chose not to reunite. These churches were called the Evangelical Congregational Church.

Because of the five churches that it is made up of, the United Methodist Church has a unique history. Even though the United Methodist Church is only about forty years old, its history continues on to the Revolutionary War. It has a collection of beliefs, ideas, and organization that have accumulated from the five churches. When you consider the fact that the United Methodist Church is five churches, you can believe that it is the largest church in the world.