The worship services were informal, lively, and not infrequently surprising.
Thomas Rankin reports that at one service "some were deeply cut to the heart under the word so that they roared out from the disquietness of their souls." Methodists ignored the order for Sunday worship sent by Wesley in 1784 and put aside the preaching gown. United Brethren and Evangelicals never used the liturgies of their Reformed and Lutheran ancestors.
Instead, their worship services included the spirited singing of English or German hymns, informal rites of baptism, Bible readings, extemporaneous prayers, simple celebrations of the Lord's supper, sermons that could penetrate a sinner's heaviest armor, and opportunities for persons to wrestle with the angel of God until the blessing of release from sin was granted.