HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

A Methodist local preacher, also known as a licensed preacher, is a layperson who has been accredited by the
Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related Christian denomination, denominations of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John W ...
Church to lead worship and preach on a frequent basis. With separation from the
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...
by the end of the 18th century, a clear distinction was recognised between itinerant preachers (later, ministers) and the local preachers who assisted them. Local preachers have played an important role in Methodism since the earliest days of the movement, and have also been important in English social history. These preachers continue to serve an indispensable role in the
Methodist Church of Great Britain The Methodist Church of Great Britain is a Protestant Christian denomination in Britain, and the mother church to Methodists worldwide. It participates in the World Methodist Council, and the World Council of Churches among other ecumenical ass ...
, in which the majority of
church service A church service (or a service of worship) is a formalized period of Christian communal worship, often held in a church building. It often but not exclusively occurs on Sunday, or Saturday in the case of those churches practicing seventh-day S ...
s are led by laypeople. In certain Methodist connexions, a person becomes a local preacher after obtaining a license to preach. In many parts of Methodism, such as the Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection, there are thus two different tiers of ministers—licensed preachers and ordained elders.


Historical background

Local preachers have been a characteristic of Methodism from its beginnings as a revival movement in 18th-century England. John Wesley tried to avoid a schism with the
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...
, and encouraged those who attended his
revival meeting A revival meeting is a series of Christian religious services held to inspire active members of a church body to gain new converts and to call sinners to repent. Nineteenth-century Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon said, "Many blessings may come ...
s 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 Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the t ...
. One such preaching house was The Foundery, which served as Wesley's base 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
minister Minister may refer to: * Minister (Christianity), a Christian cleric ** Minister (Catholic Church) * Minister (government), a member of government who heads a ministry (government department) ** Minister without portfolio, a member of government w ...
s to serve in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
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 Circuit may refer to: Science and technology Electrical engineering * Electrical circuit, a complete electrical network with a closed-loop giving a return path for current ** Analog circuit, uses continuous signal levels ** Balanced circu ...
'' 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 laypersons. 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 has remained in British Methodism to the present day. Although by the end of the 19th 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.


Women as local preachers

Methodism has always acknowledged and valued the ministry of women, a Wesleyan influence going back to Susanna Wesley herself. In early British Methodism, a number of women served as local preachers (the heroine of
George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...
's '' Adam Bede'' is represented as one). Methodism itself was subject to schism giving rise, in England, to several Methodist connexions including the
Primitive Methodists The Primitive Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination with the holiness movement. It began in England in the early 19th century, with the influence of American evangelist Lorenzo Dow (1777–1834). In the United States, the Primiti ...
and the Bible Christians as well as the majority Wesleyan Methodist Church. The separated denominations went much further than the Wesleyans in making use of women as local preachers and as ordained ministers. In Wesleyan Methodism from 1803, women were restricted to addressing women-only meetings. This restriction meant that women preachers in Wesleyan Methodism found it increasingly difficult to exercise their ministry and even though in 1804 the Wesleyan Conference was very short of male preachers, it would not sanction the use of women. Some women, such as Sarah Mallett, however, ignored this ban. From 1910 the blanket ban was repealed, and from 1918 on, Wesleyan Methodism recruited and deployed women local preachers on exactly the same basis as men. When Methodist Union in England took place in 1932, the ordination of women in the separated denominations ceased until 1971, but the equal status of women as local preachers continued.


Importance of local preachers in English social history

Local preachers have always been required to undergo some form of training and examination – the examination being concerned with their doctrinal orthodoxy as well as with their knowledge of Scripture, and the history and doctrines of the church. Because Methodism had great strength among the lower middle classes and skilled working classes in 19th-century England, training as a local preacher was one of the ways in which intelligent people who had little chance of formal schooling acquired education and an ability at public speaking. Although the church as an institution was by no means politically radical, many of its members were, and the discipline and eloquence of Methodist local preachers found a ready use in the developing labour movement of the later 19th century. Many of the founders of the trade union movement in Britain were local preachers, including George Loveless, the leader of the
Tolpuddle Martyrs The Tolpuddle Martyrs were six agricultural labourers from the village of Tolpuddle in Dorset, England, who, in 1834, were convicted of swearing a secret oath as members of the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers. They were arrested ...
. Local preachers continue to be found in the ranks of the Labour movement: prominent recent examples include George Thomas, Speaker of the House of Commons from 1976 to 1983, Len Murray, General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress from 1973 to 1984, David Hallam Member of the European Parliament 1994 to 1999 and, early in his career,
David Blunkett David Blunkett, Baron Blunkett, (born 6 June 1947) is a British Labour Party politician who has been a Member of the House of Lords since 2015, and previously served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough ...
, former Home Secretary.


Discipline, training and accreditation of local preachers today

Local preachers, together with their colleagues in the ordained ministry (
presbyter Presbyter () is an honorific title for Christian clergy. The word derives from the Greek ''presbyteros,'' which means elder or senior, although many in the Christian antiquity would understand ''presbyteros'' to refer to the bishop functioning a ...
s and
deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Chur ...
s), are members of the Local Preachers' Meeting of the circuit in which their membership is held.The Constitutional Practice and Discipline of the Methodist Church
Volume 2, Section 56. London: Methodist Publishing, 2020. Accessed on 29 April 2021.
The Preachers' Meeting used to meet quarterly, though in many circuits it is now less often. The Meeting is the body which is responsible for the training and development of local preachers, for their pastoral care in this specific role and also for the discipline (should that be necessary) of its own members. It functions also as a study and fellowship group, and as a focus for continuing development of fully accredited local preachers. The standing of a local preacher, however, is national not local and, for example, is not affected by removal to another church or circuit – though it is always up to the superintendent minister whether any preacher is given any appointments. Currently, the training for local preachers in Britain consists of a course supported by local tutors, with examination on its content by continuous assessment rather than
unseen examination In the UK, an unseen examination is an essay test in school or college, where the student does not know what questions are going to be asked. The student is required to answer questions based upon what they have learned over the course of their ...
. The course (''Worship: Leading and Preaching'') is organised on a connexional (national) basis, but all other aspects of the training and examination of preachers are dealt with at the local (circuit) level. Those offering themselves for training first ask for a '' note to preach'' from the superintendent minister of their circuit which is given at his or her sole discretion and reported to the Preachers' Meeting. The new preacher is then listed as ''On note'', begins a course of study and practical training (which takes between two and five years to complete), and begins to accompany an accredited preacher and share in the leadership of worship. After some months, provided favourable reports are received at the Circuit Preachers' Meeting, they then progress to being ''On Trial''. Local Preachers On Trial still work at first with an experienced preacher, but in due course they progress to leading worship on their own. The Preachers' Meeting continues to appoint preachers and other local officers to audit their services, make reports and offer guidance. The Meeting carries out an oral doctrinal examination at the beginning of training, at intermediate points, and before the final acceptance of the candidate as an accredited preacher. The candidate must also give an account of their ''Call to Preach'', and are expected to have knowledge of some of the most important of the '' Sermons of the Rev. John Wesley''. Final admission as a Local Preacher is referred to as being ''fully accredited'' or ''received onto full plan'', the ''Circuit Plan'' being the schedule of preaching appointments for the circuit. The decision is formally ratified by the Circuit Meeting before it is put into effect. A Service of Recognition is held, often within the context of a principal act of worship. All candidates for ordination as a presbyter in the Methodist Church in Great Britain (as well as the Methodist Church in Ireland) are required to be admitted as local preachers before they can be accepted as candidates or begin their training.


Local preachers and the liturgy

Compared to lay people in some other denominations, Methodist local preachers are accorded significant authority over the progress of a service, for which they are seen as having overall responsibility, rather than just delivering the sermon. A local preacher may, at his or her discretion, do a number of different things: *create the order of service; *omit or include any part of the order of service; *determine which Bible readings are to be included, which may – but need not – be selected from those defined in the
lectionary A lectionary ( la, lectionarium) is a book or listing that contains a collection of scripture readings appointed for Christian or Judaic worship on a given day or occasion. There are sub-types such as a "gospel lectionary" or evangeliary, and an ...
; *involve other people in the preparation and leading of the worship Increasingly, in British Methodism, local preachers accept guidance from the churches to which they go, for example in regular or seasonal local elements of liturgy, or in using those nominated in a rota of readers or prayer leaders. A relatively recent development is the appointment of Worship Leaders who are members of the local church and authorised to share in the leading of worship there. All preachers and worship leaders are offered additional resources for shaping worship and preaching by their own charity, the Leaders of Worship and Preachers' Trust (LWPT) which publishes a quarterly journal (''Ichthus'') and has its own website.


Local preachers worldwide

The institution of local preachers spread from the original Wesleyan Methodist church to the other Methodist denominations that developed in Britain; and from Britain to Methodist churches in other countries, particularly those that were founded or supported by the UK Methodist church, such as the churches in
India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...
, Australia,
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...
, the Caribbean, Fiji, and many countries in
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
. The title of "local preacher" was used historically in several Methodist denominations in North America, and local preachers there had the right to marry and bury people (though not to administer Communion) as well as to lead worship. But the role has more or less vanished from America to-day. Although the modern US
United Methodist Church The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelica ...
recognises an order of " lay speakers",''
The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church The ''Book of Discipline'' constitutes the law and doctrine of the United Methodist Church. It follows similar works for its predecessor denominations. It was originally published in 1784, in the Methodist Episcopal Church The Methodist Epis ...
, 2004'' (and all editions), Nashville: The United Methodist Publishing House, 2004.
they do not have the authority or the responsibility for leading worship in the same way as a local preacher in Britain. Within the last decade, the United Methodist Church began an order called "local pastors," who are appointed by a bishop to serve in one local charge.


Lay preaching in other denominations

Although Methodism has probably organised the institution of local preaching more thoroughly than any other denomination,
lay preacher Lay preacher is a preacher or a religious proclaimer who is not a formally ordained cleric and who does not hold a formal university degree in theology. Lay preaching varies in importance between religions and their sects. Although lay preachers ...
s are used by many other churches. The other Nonconformist churches in Britain have long had similar arrangements, and the
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...
now makes considerable use of "
lay reader In Anglicanism, a licensed lay minister (LLM) or lay reader (in some jurisdictions simply reader) is a person authorised by a bishop to lead certain services of worship (or parts of the service), to preach and to carry out pastoral and teaching ...
s". However Anglican lay readers, and indeed the lay preachers of other denominations, have never quite enjoyed the status within their own churches, or the recognition beyond them, that are associated with the Methodist local preacher.


References


Further reading

* * {{cite book , last1=Milburn , first1=Geoffrey E. , last2=Batty , first2=Margaret , title=Workaday Preachers: Story of Methodist Local Preachers , date=1995 , publisher=Methodist Publishing House , location=Peterborough , isbn=978-1858520582


External links


Local preachers
– Methodist.org.uk Methodism in the United Kingdom Preachers Preachers