Membership of the Methodist Church is held in a particular local church, or in a local ecumenical partnership. For people who wish to become members of the church there is a period of training and, once the local church council is satisfied with the person's sincere acceptance of the basis of membership of the Methodist Church, a service of confirmation and reception into membership is held; if they have not previously been baptised, the service will include baptism. (Each member of a local church receives a , issued annually; in early Methodism, tickets were issued by Wesley every three months as evidence of a member's good standing.) , church members are dispersed over 4,512 local churches—unevenly distributed over a small number of large churches and a large number of small churches.