Background of the Wesleyan Church
The Wesleyan Church was founded in 1968 when the Wesleyan Methodist Church and the Pilgrim Holiness Church merged. The new denomination was shaped by the Wesleyan Methodists’ appreciation for structure combining with the Pilgrims’ entrepreneurial spirit.
Our earliest beginnings, however, were in 1843 when our leaders organized to address social issues through The Wesleyan Methodist Connection of America. Those issues included slavery, women’s rights and child labor atrocities. We were one of the first denominations in America to ordain women and were at the forefront of giving laity significant roles in church leadership.
John Wesley, a Church of England priest, was the inspiration and founder of the Methodist movement. Our name “Wesleyan” honors him. Wesley was an outstanding Oxford scholar, yet regarded himself as “a man of one book,” the Bible. It was while studying the Bible that Wesley received assurance of his salvation through faith. It was the Bible that motivated his vision for offering Christ to the common people of England and which eventually led to the nation’s greatest spiritual revival.
Biblical truth inspired Wesley to develop a school for orphans, job programs and medical assistance for the poor, efforts to reform inhumane prisons and arguments for the abolition of slavery. Confidence in the Bible as “the only and sufficient rule for Christian faith and practice” (to use Wesley’s own words) remains a hallmark of The Wesleyan Church today.
History Of Brookview Church
Brookview Church was planted in the Irondale, Al area in the 1980s and is where our journey continues today. From the beginning, Brookview Church has focused on building relationships through worship services, outreach events, discipleship classes (small groups), and showing the love of Jesus to our community.
Today, many people attend Brookview and we look forward to new growth in the future. We invite you to see for yourself how exciting church can be when the focus is on seeking God.
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Romans 12:1-2
