John Wesley

John Wesley (28 June 1703 – 2 March 1791) was an English cleric, theologian, and evangelist who was a principal leader of a revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The societies he founded became the dominant form of the independent Methodist movement that continues to this day.

In 1728 was ordained as an Anglican priest. At Oxford, he led the "Holy Club", a society formed for the purpose of the study and the pursuit of a devout Christian life. After an unsuccessful two-year ministry in Savannah, Georgia, he returned to London and joined a religious society of Moravian Christians.After an evangelical conversion, he left the Moravians and began his own ministry.

A key step in Wesley's ministry was to travel widely and preach outdoors, moving across Great Britain and Ireland. He helped form small Christian groups that developed intensive and personal accountability, discipleship, and religious instruction. He appointed itinerant, unordained evangelists to care for these groups of people, and u nder his direction, Methodists became leaders on many issues of the day, including the abolition of slavery.

Although he was not a systematic theologian, Wesley argued against Calvinism and for the notion of Christian perfection.