Samuel Wesley (1662-1735) married Susanna Annesley.  Samuel's father John was a preacher known for his nonconformist views. 
     Samuel was ordained a deacon in 1688 and received his first parish in 1691.  About five years later, the family moved to Epworth.   On the 17th of June 1703, Samuel and Susanna's eleventh child was born at the Epworth parsonage.  Note: due to an 11-day calendar adjustment, the equivalent date on today's calendar is June 28.
     John was their fourth son.  They would have nineteenth children in all, though many died in infancy.  Samuel baptized the weakly infant a few hours after his birth.  His name, John Benjamin, came from two earlier children that had died.  His younger brother Charles (1707-1788) would later become one of the world's most prolific hymn writers.

    John followed his father's footsteps into ministry in the Church of England.  His father was the minister at St. Andrew's in Epworth [modern-day map]. 
     After graduation from Christ Church College, Oxford,  he was ordained a deacon on September 19, 1725.  The following year he was elected a Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford.  Hee was ordained a priest in the Church of England on September 22, 1728.   John, brother Charles, and others met together to pray, mediatate, and do good work; their strict ways caused them to take on names such as the Holy Club, Bible Moths, and Methodists. 
     The newly formed colony of Georgia (1733) in America was looking for religious leadership, and John and Charles were sent.  His trip to America is notable due to the influence of Moravian Germans on the ship.  Though the ship hit rough seas that greatly frightened Wesley, the Moravians were calm and peaceful throughout.  That inner peace would be something Wesley would seek and find upon his return to England.

     Wesley didn't intend to create a new denomination.  His view was similar to Christ's own.  Just as Christ came to correct the problems with the Jewish religion, Wesley aimed at correcting the deficiencies in the Church of England.  In each case, the existing religion resisted changes and a new movement began. 
     In 1725, he recognized that you cannot be half a Christian, and he pledged his whole-hearted service to the ministry.  While he served in word and deed, he didn't really serve with his heart until his experience at Aldersgate Street [modern day map] on May 24, 1738.  The following year, he joined George Whitefield in Bristol and began open-air preaching.  His listeners were divided into societies, and those societies into smaller classes.  His followers held their first Conference in 1744.

     Methodism in America started under lay leadership.  People like Philip Embury (NY), Thomas Webb (PA), Robert Strawbridge (MA), and Deveraux Jarrat (VA) began preaching Wesley's message in the 1760s.  Wesley sent his first preachers to America in 1769.  When the Revolutionary War broke out, all but Francis Asbury returned to England.  The work of Asbury and lay persons tripled the Methodist membership (to 15,000) by the end of the war.
     After the Revolution, the American Methodists formed their own body at the Christmas Conference of 1784.  Sixty of the 81 lay preachers formed the Methodist Episcopal Church and adopted Wesley's Sunday Service and Articles of Religion. 
    Francis Asbury was ordained the first bishop at that conference, and was assisted in leadership by Thomas Coke.  An itinerant system of circuit riders sent Methodist preachers to every nook and cranny of America. 

     - We can receive personal salvation through Christ.
     - We are justified by faith, not by good works.
     - Our faith should be reflected by our social concern to help the poor, the sick, the uneducated, and those not cared for by society.
     - We have free will to respond to God's gift of grace.
     - The Bible is key to guiding our Christian life.

     Some of the features of Wesley's system included: preaching outside of the church, a circuit system of preachers, and lay involvement in leadership.  The basic organization unit was the society, which was divided into smaller bands and classes for discussion and support.

     There are dozens of denominations today that trace their roots back to Wesley's work.  Millions of people around the world belong to these denominations.  The largest in the United States is The United Methodist Church ... consisting of over 8 million members and over 35,000 churches. 
   Along with the work done by clergy and laity in these churches, there are hundreds of other organizations ... schools, hospitals, mission agencies, etc. ... that provide physical and spiritual help to the world around us.