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Methodism in Newton began officially October 4, 1831, after this church was incorporated, but Methodism in Newton is much older than that, and in Sussex County is older still.
What early itinerant preachers crossed the county in the eighteen years after 1776, when Embury and Strawbridge preached the first Methodist sermons in America? We do not know. But on August 24, 1784, Francis Asbury (not yet a bishop; indeed, there was no official Methodist Church in the US for another four months) preached at the court-house, and in 1786 Ezekiel Cooper was listing preaching points in Vernon and Wantage townships, at Papakating and "Sussex Court-House," and at Jonathan Hunt’s in Byram. From this date on, visitations by Asbury and others were frequent, with the original Frankford Plains meeting house becoming perhaps the first Methodist Church building in the county. The date is in doubt, but there is record of a class in Vernon Township in 1791.
Where the preachers stopped, classes often formed under local leaders. They met regularly – after all, they were "Methodists" - usually at the leader’s home for prayer, Scripture, testimony, mutual support. Soon the conference assigned preachers to Sussex County who traveled a circuit, coming to each class or preaching point about every two weeks, usually on a week night. From these classes came churches.
Newton’s Methodist Church was formed from the combining of two of those classes. The first had been at Gilbert Ingersoll’s on the Swartswood Road, but moved to the courthouse in 1817. The second was at James Iliff’s in Andover Township, with Mr. Iliff as leader.
So rapid was the growth of Methodism during the 1820’s that the preachers were visiting only at six-week intervals instead of two. So, in 1831 the two local classes petitioned the Philadelphia Conference for a new circuit, to be centered here.
Newton Methodists wanted a church.