This week in Christian history: John Wesley preaches first open air sermon, early church schism ends

John Wesley preaches his first open air sermon – April 2, 1739

This week marks the anniversary of when John Wesley, the Anglican clergyman who founded the Methodist movement, preached the first of numerous open air sermons.

Late in March, Wesley went to Bristol at the behest of famed 18th century evangelist George Whitefield, who had been preaching at the city for weeks by that point.

Although initially hesitant to preach outdoors, Wesley recounted that he “submitted to be more vile and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of salvation, speaking from a little eminence in a ground adjoining to the city, to about three thousand people.”

“The following month he began building the first Methodist chapel — The New Room — in the Horsefair, Bristol; and soon converted the Foundry in London’s Moorfields to a headquarters and chapel,” explained Information Britain.

“… for Wesley his way was more often itinerant, with 250,000 miles of travel and some 40,000 sermons in his long life, the majority outside Church of England buildings though he never alienated himself from that organization.”