Editing John Wesley (section)

==Persecutions and lay preaching==
From 1739 onward, Wesley and the Methodists were persecuted by clergy and religious magistrates for various reasons.{{sfn |Tooley |2014}} Though Wesley had been ordained an Anglican priest, many other Methodist leaders had not received [[ordination]]. And for his own part, Wesley flouted many regulations of the Church of England concerning parish boundaries and who had the authority to preach.{{sfn |Lane |2015}} This was seen as a social threat that disregarded institutions. Clergy attacked them in sermons and in print, and at times mobs attacked them. Wesley and his followers continued to work among the neglected and needy. They were denounced as promulgators of strange doctrines, fomenters of religious disturbances; as blind fanatics, leading people astray, claiming miraculous gifts, attacking the clergy of the Church of England, and trying to re-establish [[Catholicism]].{{sfn |Lane |2015}}

Wesley felt that the church failed to call sinners to [[Repentance in Christianity|repentance]], that many of the clergy were corrupt, and that people were perishing in their sins. He believed he was commissioned by God to bring about [[Christian revival|revival]] in the church, and no opposition, persecution, or obstacles could prevail against the divine urgency and authority of this commission. The prejudices of his High-church training, his strict notions of the methods and proprieties of public worship, his views of the [[apostolic succession]] and the prerogatives of the priest, even his most cherished convictions, were not allowed to stand in the way.{{sfn |Bowen |1901}}

Seeing that he and the few clergy cooperating with him could not do the work that needed to be done, Wesley was led, as early as 1739, to approve [[Methodist local preacher|local preachers]]. He evaluated and approved men who were not ordained by the Anglican Church to preach and do pastoral work. This expansion of [[laity|lay]] preachers was one of the keys to the growth of Methodism.{{sfn |Burdon |2005 |p=23}}