Hempton explores the rise of Methodism from its unpromising origins as a religious society within the Church of England in the 1730s to a major international religious movement by the 1880s.

The story of Methodism is much richer and more expansive than John Wesley's sermons and Charles Wesley's hymns. In this book, Methodist theologian Jeffrey W. Barbeau provides a brief and helpful introduction to the history of Methodism—from the time of the Wesleys, through developments in North America, to its diverse and global communion today—as well as its primary beliefs and practices.

A weekly 'class meeting' among Methodists in early 19th-century New York formed the basis for growth and unity in the small Christian sect. Author Rev. Dr. Philip F. Hardt describes these meetings as a means to close personal relationships among class members. They also provided a place in which lay leadership could emerge and monitor behavior among members. Hardt connects the decline in Methodist membership over the years with the dissolution of the weekly meeting. This book advocates a return to the meetings as a means to increase church membership. It is Rev. Hardt's belief that a weekly meeting can revitalize the church's efforts to initiate people into the faith and assimilate them into the body of Christ.

Contents: Meet John Wesley; A Tale of Two Villages; A Nursery Epic; Student and Missionary; A Prayer Meeting and What Came of It; The Very Soul That Over England Flamed; How They Sang a New Day into Britain; Men of Mighty Stature; Methodism Crosses the Atlantic; The Birth of a Church; The Afterglow; The End of the Long Trail; Methodism in the New Republic; Methodism's Man on Horseback; Camp-Meeting Days; The Winning of the West; The Missionary Spirit; Methodist Breaks and Fractures; Southern Methodism; Through the Civil War and Beyond; A Spiritual Forty-Niner; The Tale of the Years in Many Lands; Forming a World Parish; High Hours in a Church's History; The Battlefields of Reform; The Unification of American Methodism; and Methodism Since World War I.

In "Thoughts Upon Methodism," John Wesley shared his hopes and fears for the future of his religious movement. The article contains this well-known passage: "I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid, lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case, unless they hold fast both the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out." The Form and Power of Religion unpacks this statement by explaining what Wesley meant by the form and power of religion, identifying what Methodist Doctrine, Spirit, and Discipline were according to Wesley, and discussing how these aspects of Methodism worked together to maintain the vitality of the Revival. The book concludes with an evaluation of Wesley's theory of Methodist Vitality, and discusses its viability as a basis for contemporary Church Vitality programs.