George Whitefield was a minister in the Church of England and one of the leaders of the Methodist movement.

Early life

He was born on December 16, 1714 at the Bell Inn, Gloucester, England, and died in Newburyport, Massachusetts on September 30, 1770. In contemporary accounts, he, not John Wesley, is spoken of as the supreme figure and even as the founder of Methodism. He was famous for his preaching in America which was a significant part of the Great Awakening movement of Christian revivals. He has been called by some historians "the first modern celebrity."

George Whitefield was the son of a widow who kept an inn at Gloucester. He was educated at the Crypt School, Gloucester, and Pembroke College, Oxford, and was a part of the 'Holy Club' at Oxford University with the brothers, John Wesley and Charles Wesley, usually seen as the founders of the Methodist Church. His genuine piety led the Bishop of Gloucester to ordain him before the canonical age.

Travels and evanglism

Whitefield preached his first sermon in the Crypt Church in his home town of Gloucester. In 1738, he went to America, becoming minister of Savannah, Georgia. Returning home in the following year, he resumed his evangelical activities, preaching in the open air

He parted company with Wesley over the doctrine of predestination; Whitefield was a follower of Calvin in this respect. Three churches were established in England in his name: one in Bristol and two others, the "Moorfields Tabernacle" and the "Tottenham Court Road Chapel", in London. Later the society meeting at the second Kingswood School at Kingswood, a town on the eastern edge of Bristol, was also called Whitefield's Tabernacle. Some of his followers joined the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion", spreading a Calvinistic form of Methodism in Wales, and Whitefield became the Countess's chaplain. His legacy is still felt in America, as well. The Old South Presbyterian Church in Newburyport, Massachusetts was built for the evangelist's use, and before dying Whitefield requested to be buried under the pulpit of this church; his tomb remains there to this day. In an age when crossing the Atlantic Ocean was a long and hazardous adventure, he visited America seven times, making 13 trans-Atlantic crossings in total! It is estimated that throughout his life, he preached more than 18,000 formal sermons and if less formal occasions are included, that number might rise to more than 30,000. In addition to his work in America and England, he made 15 journeys to Scotland, (most famously to the "Preaching Braes" of Cambuslang in 1742), 2 to Ireland, and one each to Bermuda, Gibraltar, and The Netherlands.

In 1738 Whitefield preached a series of revivals in Georgia. Here he established the Bethesda Orphanage, which still exists to this day. In Georgia there was originally a prohibition on slavery. However

Like his contemporary and acquaintance, Jonathan Edwards, Whitefield preached with a Calvinist theology. He was known for his powerful voice and his ability to appeal to the emotions of a crowd, and unlike most preachers of his time spoke extemporaneously, rather than reading his sermon from notes. It is difficult to say wherein the effect of his preaching lay; certainly not in his language or logic, for his printed sermons contain nothing remarkable; it must have been by earnestness and charm of voice that he could attract to him the rich as well as the poor.

Revival meetings

He first took to preaching in the open air with remarkable results at Bristol, which at that time was a center of vice in all its worst forms, and he was the first to provide spiritual privileges for the colliers who lived like heathens near that city. 20,000 of these poor workers crowded to hear him, and the white gutters caused by the tears which ran down their black cheeks showed how visibly they were affected, strong men being moved to hysterical convulsions by his wondrous power. John Wesley joining him there was not a little perplexed at these 'bodily symptoms'; he saw them as evident 'signs of grace', notwithstanding that Whitefield considered them to be 'doubtful indications'. Indeed, modern psychologists would call it symptoms of mass hysteria if there were 'persons that screamed out, and put their bodies into violent agitations and distortions' during a sermon. William Hogarth satirized such effects of Methodist preaching in his print, Credulity, Superstition, and Fanaticism (1762).

Whitefield's more democratic speaking style was greatly appealing to the American audience. Benjamin Franklin once attended a revival meeting in Philadelphia and was greatly impressed with his ability to deliver a message to such a large audience. He was also known to be able to use the newspaper media for beneficial publicity. His revolutionary preaching style shaped the way in which sermons were delivered. He was one of the fathers of Evangelicalism. He was certainly the best-known preacher in America in the 18th century, and because he travelled through all of the American colonies, and drew great crowds and media coverage, he was one of the most widely recognized public figures in America before George Washington.

He was sometimes called Doctor Squintum due to his Strabismus.

References

• Stout, Harry S. The Divine Dramatist: George Whitefield and the Rise of Modern Evangelicalism. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1991.
• Arnold A. Dallimore, George Whitefield: The Life and Times of the Great Evangelist of the Eighteenth-Century Revival. The Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh and Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 1970-1980.
• Armstrong, John H. Five Great Evangelists. Christian Focus Publications, Ross-shire, G.B., 1997.