John Wesley was an 18th-century English cleric, theologian, and evangelist who became a central figure in the Methodist revival within the Church of England. Born in Epworth in 1703, he was educated at Oxford, where he participated in the Holy Club to pursue a devout lifestyle. After an initial ministry in Georgia, he experienced a significant evangelical conversion in 1738. He spent much of his life traveling across Great Britain and Ireland, preaching outdoors and organizing small, disciplined Christian societies that eventually formed the foundation of Methodism.