More than a decade after Otterbein's pietist type experience, while he was a pastor in York, Pennsylvania, he attended a barn meeting near Lancaster and heard Martin Boehm preach. Boehm was born in Lancaster County in 1725 and grew up within the twin traditions of successful farming and Mennonite believing. It was the Mennonite custom to select preachers by lot. When the lot fell to Boehm in 1758, he was so appalled by his sense of inadequacy that one day while he was plowing he dropped to his knees and cried out, "Lord, save, I am lost." Immediately the words of Jesus came into his mind, "I am come to seek and save that which is lost." Boehm later said, "In a moment a stream of joy was poured over me." The outcome of this experience, which was comparable to Otterbein's and Wesley's,
was preaching that attracted congregations and led to "Boehm's Revival" among the German-speaking people of Lancaster County. While Boehm was speaking at one of these revival meetings, held in Long's Barn about 1767, Otterbein was present and sensed that in spite of Boehm's being a Mennonite while he was a Reformed pastor, they were brothers in Christ. So at the close of the service they embraced and Otterbein said in German, "We are brothers!"