John Wesley never left the Church of England. He started the Methodist movement within that church out of a belief that the Church was not reaching the working class and that true Christianity required a heartfelt faith, not just adherence to creeds and rituals.
John Wesley was an Anglican priest to the day he died. He departed from Anglican Church policy (and British law at the time) by preaching to the working classes in locations other than church buildings, including out of doors. However, he never intended to start a separate church - that was something that his followers did after he died, partly because the Anglican Church became unpopular in the United States after the Revolution.
John Wesley started Methodism because the Anglican church kicked him out. He wanted to make the Word accessible to all people, but some of his methods were not approved by the Anglican church. He also believed that the church should support the poor more strongly than the Anglican church did.
Another Answer:
John Wesley did not mean to start something called "Methodism". He helped his younger brother Charles start a "holy club" at Oxford University. The members would study together, read The Bible, and do good works especially with people who were poor and imprisoned. They were seen as over-the-top religious by their fellow students and got several derogatory nicknames. One of those nicknames was "Methodists" because of their methodical way of being religious. That name stuck and came to be accepted as the movement grew.
After a major failure at being a missionary in the colony of Georgia (before it was a state), Wesley went back to England and had a "heart-warming" experience and a new sense of assurance of God's grace in his life.
John Wesley remained an Anglican priest his whole life, but was often forbidden from speaking in Anglican Churches. So he preached wherever people would come to hear him, usually public squares in towns. This type of preaching was becoming very popular at the time.
What set John Wesley apart from the other traveling preachers was his ability to organize people. Many of the people who came to hear him speak would be converted to a deeper faith and wanted to take steps to grow in their faith. Wesley organized them into societies (large groups, based on city), classes (12 people each, based on location of members), and bands (6 people each, based on an even deeper desire to grow in faith). He also trained many other preachers, both clergy and lay, who did the same thing. These preachers and various size spiritual formation groups made up the early Methodist movement, and grew very rapidly as people found deeper spirituality than they were getting in the Anglican church of the time. People were encouraged to continue attending Anglican services for communion, however.
The first Methodist churches didn't come about until Francis Asbury preached in the newly independent United States and started them there. The British Methodist Church only formed after Wesley had died.
So John Wesley started the movement called Methodism because there was a need for a deeper expression of the Christian faith in England at the time, and because he was able to organize people into a system that worked.
Another View:
I would challenge the premise that John Wesley founded Methodism.
He indeed, founded "Wesleyan" Methodism. Dallimore's excellent biography of George Whitefield gives credible evidence that the Methodist movement had its initial thrust through Whitefield (also a member of the " Holy Club ") -- while John Wesley was still laboring in America -- and before he was actually saved by the grace of God through the ministry of the Moravian, Peter Boehler.
Methodism cannot be regarded as being solely Wesleyan (Arminian) in doctrine; for the Calvinistic Methodists probably had equal followers, notably in the Bristol area and throughout southern Wales.
John Wesley saw many forms of corruption within the Anglican church. Some of these include nepotism, corruption, and other problems that he considered sins.
John Wesley was an Anglican priest who, with his brother Charles, stated Methodism as a movement within the Anglican church, out of their beliefs that the church was not reaching the working class and that true Christianity requires a change of heart, not just adherence to a set of creeds and rituals.
The leadership of the Anglican church sometimes disapproved of Wesley's preaching outdoors and in other places that were not church buildings (this was illegal under British law at the time).
Wesley John's birth name is John Wesley Pantejo Managbanag.
John Wesley did not translate the Bible.
John Wesley Lord died in 1989.
John Wesley
John Wesley was the Anglican priest assigned to Savannah, GA. He returned to England after one year.
John Wesley was an Anglican priest who was assigned to Savannah, GA and stayed there about a year. To my knowledge, Georgia was the only state Wesley ever saw.
John Wesley was an Anglican priest who, with his brother Charles, stated Methodism as a movement within the Anglican church, out of their beliefs that the church was not reaching the working class and that true Christianity requires a change of heart, not just adherence to a set of creeds and rituals.
John Wesley was an Anglican priest to the day he died. He never intended to start a separate church. He and his brother Charles started the Methodist movement within the Anglican church out of their belief that:true Christianity required a change of heart, not merely the observance of ritual; andthe church was not reaching the working classes.
The leadership of the Anglican church sometimes disapproved of Wesley's preaching outdoors and in other places that were not church buildings (this was illegal under British law at the time).
Methodism was started in the 18th Century as a movement within the Anglican church, by John and Charles Wesley, who were students at the time.
The Methodist movement was established as a result of the revival movement of Anglican minister John Wesley. Wesley and his associates argued that the Anglican and Catholic churches were too focused on form and function; rather than emphasizing the gospel message of individual salvation and personal accountability. Originally it was merely a movement within the Anglican church, but became a separate denomination after the Anglican church tried to suppress the movement.
England. (NOTE: there was an inappropriate answer posted by some @$$&*^()
The Methodist movement within the Anglican church was started by John and Charles Wesley while they were students.
Followers of Methodism are called Methodists. The original beginning of Methodism was the evangelical movement developed under Anglican reverend John Wesley (1703-1791). The denomination was split off from the Anglican Church in 1795.
John Wesley was an Anglican cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, with founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching.In contrast to the advent of Calvinism (which later led to the forming of the Calvinistic Methodists), Wesley embraced Arminianism. Methodism in both forms was a highly successful evangelical movement in the United Kingdom, which encouraged people to experience Christ personally.Read more: Who_was_John_Wesley