The year 2008 marks the centennial of the official launch of men’s ministry in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

However, there were Methodist men’s organizations in the denomination prior to the 1908 General Conference that officially created the Methodist Brotherhood.

In the late 19th century there were groups of men organized under various names including: the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, the Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip, the Brotherhood of Saint Paul, and the Mizpah Brotherhood (named for an ancient Israel town four miles northwest of Jerusalem; the word means “an emotional bond between people who are separated”). The Mizpah Brotherhood was later changed to the Wesley Brotherhood.

The Brotherhood of Saint Paul and the Wesley Brotherhood were the largest Methodist groups.

In 1907, the Brotherhood of Saint Paul held its national assembly in Columbus, Ohio. During sessions at the Broad Street Church, the men agreed that their movement would be stronger if all men’s ministry were organized under a single banner. They invited the Wesley Brotherhood to appoint an equal number of delegates to attend a meeting to discuss consolidation.

Representatives of the two organizations met March, 1908, in Buffalo, N.Y. By the end of the meeting, delegates had formed the Methodist Brotherhood, an organization designed to include men’s ministry groups in some 1,500 churches across the denomination. Harvey Dingley, a layman from Syracuse, N.Y., and former president of the Brotherhood of Saint Paul, was elected president of the new organization.

Later in 1908, the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church officially authorized the newly formed Methodist Brotherhood. Delegates to the Baltimore assembly adopted a constitution that allowed any men’s organization under any name to affiliate with the Wesley Brotherhood.

Fayette Thompson was named general secretary of the organization; he served in that post until 1912 when he was succeeded by William Bovard in 1912.

The 1908 Constitution declared the aim of the Methodist Brotherhood is to

• effect the mutual improvement of its members by religious, social, literary, and physical culture;
• promote the spirit and practice of Christian brotherhood;
• increase fraternal interest among men;
• develop activities that lead to social, civic and industrial betterment, and
• build up the church by leading men into its communion and fellowship.

The Constitution created nine positions: a president, five vice-presidents, a recording secretary, a general secretary and a treasurer.

Work of the brotherhood was assigned to four committees:

 1. Committee on Religious Work, Bible and Mission Study

• Increase church attendance.
• Recruit and train Sunday school teachers.
• Conduct devotional meetings.
• Cooperate in revival efforts.
• Urge men to join YMCA Bible classes.

 2. Committee on Social Service and Civic Righteousness

• Eliminate child-labor, tuberculosis, unsanitary housing, and unsafe schools.
• Put church plant to use everyday in the week.
• Oppose “vicious” laws and favor moral reforms.
• Agitate for a better town without saloons, gambling dens, or Sunday desecration;
• Seek better schools, cleaner streets, public playgrounds, and hospitals.

 3. Committee on Fellowship

• Visit men and boys to make them feel at home in your church.
• Invite men to Brotherhood meetings and introduce newcomers.
• Help men find lodgings, work and friends.
• Provide entertainment for chapter meetings.
• Provide refreshments.

 4. Committee on Membership

• Operate follow-up system for members.
• Assume custody of badges, regalia, rituals, song books and other chapter possessions.
• Care for chapter meeting room.
• Get subscribers for , a monthly publication.
• Discover and report cases of sickness and misfortune.

In 1906, bishops of the United Brethren Church appointed a committee to consider the formation of a men’s organization for the denomination. After several attempts, a proposal was taken to the 1909 General Conference. That assembly created the Otterbein Brotherhood, named in honor of the Philip Otterbein, founder of the denomination. The Rev. Warren Bunger was elected director of the new organization.

The conference created the Brotherhood to “challenge every man to appreciate what is his responsibility as a Christian, and then quicken him to fulfill that obligation.”

Responsibilities assigned to the Otterbein Brotherhood:

• Explain and advertise the brotherhood, its purposes and methods, and endeavor to interest men who heretofore have found little to attract or occupy them in the church.
• Organize a band or orchestra.
• Cooperate with fraternal orders in relief work.
• Keep close to men who are trying to break with bad habits.
• Help men find lodging, friends, work, and better positions.
• Make the church a place where members may find help and friends in time of sickness or distress.
• Give temporary relief and counsel to the poor and distressed.
• Give special attention to strangers in the community.
• Provide entertaining programs such as a “mock trial,” symposium and ladies’ night.
• Host an annual banquet.
• Help pay the way for men to attend conventions and conferences.
• Be friends and comrades of the minister.
• Repair and improve the church building.
• Win men to church membership.
• Organize Bible classes and provide training for teachers.
• Visit prisons, hospitals and almshouses.

The Albright Brotherhood of the Evangelical Church was organized in 1931. The organization was named for Jacob Albright, founder of the denomination.

“The organization of the Brotherhood was accompanied by no fanfare and blare of trumpets,” writes Edwin Frye, editor of the . “While the laymen of our Milwaukee General Conference met separately for the purpose of organization and launching of the movement to gather the men of the church into a men’s organization, the announcement of it never got to the General Conference at all.”

Frye says the failure of General Conference to act on the organization was simply an oversight, but the group moved forward without any general church endorsement.

While noting that a General Conference endorsement would have given an additional impetus to the brotherhood, Frye wrote, “. . . this modesty which characterized it in the beginning, and has in reality distinguished it all the way through, has been an element of strength. The Brotherhood has not had to react against the backwash of over promotion.”

The information on this page is based upon articles in the November 22, 1928 issue of , , by Frederick DeLand Leete (Jennings and Graham, 1912), The 1908 of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the August 19, 1939 issue of . Source material and editorial counsel was provided by Kevin Newburg.