In "Taking Heaven by Storm; Methodism and the Rise of Popular Christianity in America," author John Wigger (1998) aims to highlight the “dynamics of early Methodist growth in America” (p. vii). He is interested in pointing out the factors that lead to the movement’s rapid growth by gleaning from the writings of mostly itinerant preachers. As he looks at the movement he highlights that there are certain structural, relational and countercultural factors that attributed to its expansion. In the paper one discusses these three main factors and how they develop the author’s thesis while summarizing and critiquing the sub-arguments as one speaks on each factor. Overall, one finds the discussion on Methodism and its history in America to be effective not only because there is much to learn about this history but also because this book begins a quest to learn or uncover more on this movement. The first stream, structural describes the way in which the Methodist movement managed themselves differently in comparison to the other denominations like the Congregationalists and Presbyterians. As they embraced “individual initiative, self-governmentandgeographic mobility” (Wigger, 1998, p. 12) they broadened the structural framework to include many individuals. Itinerant preachers were effective because in their absence settled class leaders kept track of the happenings and individuals and constantly communicated with the itinerants. From the itinerant journals Wigger (1998) was able to identify record keeping, on the go training of other itinerants, financial reports or bookkeeping as well as how discipline was administered for various cases. One must state at this point, that while the overall structure of the book is effective in building the chronological progression of Methodism up until the 1820s and that one is able to ascertain the main factors from reading the entire book, the overall structure overlaps in many areas. The three main factors are not built one