The Evangelical Wesleyan Church, formerly known as the Evangelical Wesleyan Church of North America, is a Methodist denomination in the conservative holiness movement.
The formation of the Evangelical Wesleyan Church is a part of the history of Methodism in the United States; its creation was the result of a schism with the Free Methodist Church in 1963. In 1969, it merged with the Midwest Holiness Association, which had also left the Free Methodist Church.
A License to Preach in Methodist churches is the official authorization of a person to preach the Gospel and to do other tasks of ministry so authorized (for ordained ministers, this includes administering the sacraments). Such a license is usually issued by a District Superintendent or Bishop and was required to be reaffirmed at regular intervals (usually annually).
In the United Methodist Church today this practice is continued in the issuing of a Local Pastor's License, authorizing a person to preach, administer the Sacraments, and do other tasks of ministry in the local church to which such person is appointed. In the Evangelical Wesleyan Church, the District Conference has the authority to dispense a license to preach.
An elder, in many Methodist churches, is an ordained minister that has the responsibilities to preach and teach, preside at the celebration of the sacraments, administer the church through pastoral guidance, and lead the congregations under their care in service ministry to the world.
The office of elder, then, is what most people tend to think of as the pastoral, priestly, clergy office within the church. In some of the denominations within Methodism that use the title, ordination to this office is open to both men and women, including the Global Methodist Church, United Methodist Church, Free Methodist Church, Bible Methodist Connection of Churches, and Evangelical Methodist Church. In other denominations such as the Primitive Methodist Church, Evangelical Methodist Church of America, Fundamental Methodist Conference, Evangelical Wesleyan Church, and Southern Methodist Church, only men are ordained as elders.
The following is a list of the conferences in many Methodist Churches, such as The United Methodist Church and Evangelical Wesleyan Church.