Methodism's founder, John Wesley, was an Anglican priest whose own religious experiences spurred him to try to reinvigorate the religious lives of people throughout the English-speaking world. Himself the son of an Anglican clergyman, Wesley first attracted attention to his work in the 1730s as a tutor at Oxford University, where he and his brother Charles brought together a group of pious students and instructors. It was during this period that Wesley and his followers acquired the name "Methodists," a derisive reference to the methodical way they went about their religious devotions. It was in these Oxford years that Wesley became associated with George Whitefield, who would later become one of the leading lights of England's Evangelical Revival. In numerous preaching trips to America, Whitefield ... became one of the fathers of America's (first) Great Awakening.