As we continue to look at the
history of evangelism in the United States we see a new pattern developing as
it didn't take long for the Great Awakening to move beyond the walls
of the church. Englishman George Whitefield (1715-1770) made several
trips to America, preaching to crowds far too large to fit in any church
building. Whitfield who often preached on a daily basis to thousands
at a time saw many converts.
A friend and contemporary
of Whitfield was Presbyterian minister Gilbert Tennent (1703-1764) whose father
is known for his “log college” seminary training. Gilbert and his brothers John
and William Jr. were passionate evangelists. Gilbert, who gained recognition
as a traveling evangelist in the northeast, followed Whitfield’s ministry in
Boston and traveled from church to church preaching several times a day in
Boston and the surrounding communities.
Like Whitfield, Gilbert was
a passionate preacher who was once described as
“Frequently both
terrifying and searching” as in Edwardian fashion “exhibited the dreadful
holiness, justice, law, threatening, truth, power, [and] majesty of God; and
His anger with rebellious, impenitent, unbelieving and Christless sinners; the
awful danger they were every moment in of being struck down to hell, and being
damned forever; with the amazing miseries of that place of torment . . . It was
not merely, nor so much, his laying open the terrors of the law and wrath of
God, or damnation in hell; as the laying open their many vain and secret shifts
and refuges, counterfeit resemblances of grace, delusive and damming hopes,
their utter impotence, and impending danger of destruction; whereby they found
all their hopes and refuges of lies to fail them and themselves exposed to
eternal ruin, unable to help themselves, and in a lost condition. This
searching preaching was both suitable and principle means of conviction” [1].
The work of these itinerate
evangelists was not without controversy as their zealous and creative methods
caused a schism in the Presbyterian church commonly referred to as the “Old
Side-New Side Controversy.” The primary concern of those in
the Old Side was the new evangelistic methods being widely used. As a
means to curb men like Gilbert Tennent, presbyteries placed restrictions on
them by requiring approval prior to preaching outside of a church. In
addition, educational requirements for all men seeking ordination were
implemented. The New Side, who often embraced these new methods, accused the
Old Side of having no passion for the lost; some accused those on the Old Side
of not being unconverted! Though only lasting sixteen years, the schism played
into much larger changes that would be coming to America.
Though the old school-new
school controversy was quieted, the problem did not go away and continued to
grow. Magnetic and gifted populist preachers “associated virtue with
ordinary people and exalted the vernacular in word, print, and song” [2].
The result was a collision of the canon of American religious history – deeply
rooted in respectable intellectualism and cohesive institutions – with a
populist religious chaotic situation led by men and women from the uneducated
lower class. Hatch adds: At the same time, British clergy were
confounded by their own gentility in trying to influence working-class, America
exalted religious leaders short on social graces, family connections, and
literary education. The religious activists pitched their messages to the
unschooled and unsophisticated. Their movements offered the humble a
marvelous sense of individual potential and collective aspiration (1989:5).
Men like Francis Asbury,
were part of this new movement and saw it as his obligation to condescend to
people of low estate, while Peter Cartwright recast the gospel in familiar
idiom. Most notably, they welcomed the commoner into their ministry,
“creating a cadre of preachers who felt and articulated the interests of the
ordinary people” (1989:8). These Methodist preacher/evangelists
traveled the country speaking at camp meetings primarily held in a central
rural setting where people traveled too and set up camp. These camp
meetings were new brands of revival marked by emotional excitement and bizarre
manifestations such as shouting, barking, dancing, fainting and the jerks; all
considered to be signs of the Holy Spirit’s work.
To be continued . . .
[1]
W.L. Muncey Jr.
1945 A History of Evangelism in the United States.
Kansas City, Kansas: Central Seminary Press. (p.33)
[2] Hatch,
Nation O.
1989 The Democratization of American Christianity. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. (p.5).
