“At the end of 1751, Charles and John Wesley agreed to ‘lay aside’ [dismiss] nine preachers. They also agreed to allow for local preachers who exhibited the ‘grace and gifts.’ However, these local preachers were advised not to “desist from their trade.”
    “Local Preacher” was a new concept. It involved a preacher authorized to preach at Methodist gatherings but who did not travel from post to post. They preached in the region where they lived and continued to practice their full-time trade.
    Charles continued to be dissatisfied with John’s “overly-tolerant” handling of the lay preachers. He insisted that both John and he himself be involved in receiving “travelling preachers.” Charles insisted that both his and John’s signatures should be on a note approving any local preacher. If they disagreed, another experienced preacher, Vincent Perronet, would be the arbitrator.
On another occasion, two other preachers were expelled because of the influence of Charles Wesley. Charles is probably referring to John when he said he made a “preacher of a tailor; I, with God's help, shall make him a tailor again.” Another local preacher Charles bragged to have “set up in business again as a barber.”
The tensions between Charles and John, which had flared up over John’s proposed marriage to Grace Murray, were still evident as they exercised leadership of the Methodists.
    John also began to tighten up on the content of his lay preachers’ sermons. More than half of the persons dismissed from preaching were guilty of preaching too much forgiveness and too little law. This kind of preaching was called “gospel preaching.” Wesley said it spread “a perverse antinomianism that sapped their preaching of all sound doctrine and spiritual nourishment.”
The Scripture way, the Methodist way, the true way was the preaching of both the law and the gospel, Wesley insisted. Preaching for conviction of sin precedes the preaching of God’s grace and forgiveness.