Methodism's founders set foot in Georgia before they organized it anywhere in America: John and Charles Wesley lived and worked here from 1736 to 1738 — Georgia is the only state where Methodism's founders did. But institutional Methodism came later, carried first by lay people who migrated into middle Georgia and then by the first appointed preachers, Thomas Humphries and John Major, in 1786. Bishop Francis Asbury convened the first conference of Methodist preachers in Georgia on April 9, 1788, in the Goosepond community of what is now Oglethorpe County — six full members and four on trial.
Georgia remained part of the South Carolina Conference until it was made a separate conference in 1830, then spanning the whole state and part of Florida. After the Methodist Episcopal Church split North and South in 1844, Georgia belonged to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South — and in 1866, following the Civil War, that Georgia Conference was divided into two: North Georgia and South Georgia.
The branches reunited in 1939, when the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and the Methodist Protestant Church formed The Methodist Church — though Black congregations were segregated into the Central Jurisdiction until the African-American Georgia Conference merged into North Georgia in 1971. The 1968 union with the Evangelical United Brethren Church created The United Methodist Church.
Today Bishop Robin Dease presides over the Georgia Area, leading both North and South Georgia as the One Georgia Area — two conferences now prayerfully discerning a unification of their own, the Georgia Unification Plan before this very session. The 2026 gathering, June 18–20 in Athens, is the 160th session of the North Georgia Conference.
— Adapted from "A Look Back at The United Methodist Church in Georgia," georgiaumc.org (historical statement by Rev. Herchel H. Sheets, 2003); current-session details from the 2026 NGC Session Handbook.