Great Christian leaders such as John and Charles Wesley, and Jonathan Edwards, are universally associated with the mighty 18th-century revivals in Britain and America. Yet George Whitefield, who led the way into the fields and commons to become the chief instrument of those revivals, is still relatively unknown to many Christians.
In 1739 at the age of 24, George Whitefield took the momentous decision to carry the Gospel to the people who were not found in the churches of the day. He went out into the open air to preach to the miners of Kingswood, and subsequently to tens of thousands of people in vast open-air meetings in London and Bristol. From this beginning he embarked on a course of open-air preaching that spread to every corner of Britain, and became the instrument of grace to a countless host of people. He introduced the Wesleys and others to open-air ministry, and Britain became overwhelmed by an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in revival power. Having ignited the torch of revival in Great Britain, Whitefield travelled to America where his ministry met with the same extraordinary blessing of God, revival spreading through the Colonies in what came to be known as the Great Awakening.
In 1739 at the age of 24, George Whitefield took the momentous decision to carry the Gospel to the people who were not found in the churches of the day. He went out into the open air to preach to the miners of Kingswood, and subsequently to tens of thousands of people in vast open-air meetings in London and Bristol. From this beginning he embarked on a course of open-air preaching that spread to every corner of Britain, and became the instrument of grace to a countless host of people. He introduced the Wesleys and others to open-air ministry, and Britain became overwhelmed by an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in revival power. Having ignited the torch of revival in Great Britain, Whitefield travelled to America where his ministry met with the same extraordinary blessing of God, revival spreading through the Colonies in what came to be known as the Great Awakening.