Influence of the Wesleys and Whitfield on Church life in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

 

The influence of the John and Charles Wesley and George Whitfield on Church life in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries:

A Review of “Reviving the Heart” -Richard Turnbull (Lion Hudson, publisher, 2012)


Initial chapters focus on the early lives of John Wesley and George Whitfield. John was born in Epworth Rectory in 1703. His parents Samuel and Susannah Wesley were high church members of the established church. A fire destroyed their home and the rescue of the family was regarded as an act of divine providence.. John went to Charterhouse then to Christ Church Oxford in 1720. He struggled with inner conflict about his faith and became part of a group known as the “ Holy Club” in Oxford. George Whitfield grew up by contrast in a pub and due to the breakdown of his mother and step father’s marriage lack of money meant that initially he was unable to go to Oxford, so he began work in the pub. Eventually he went to Oxford as a servitor (caring for three or four other students) and became part of the Holy Club. John Wesley was ordained and went to Georgia, returned and was converted to follow Christ truly. Whitfield remained in England (in Gloucester) and had his own struggle leading to the conversion that became characteristic of the Revival.


Both John Wesley and George Whitfield travelled to North America. John was influenced by the Moravians and many of their approaches to church order became integrated into subsequent developments of the Methodist movement. A key difference was over the matter of “stillness”: whether after conversion to following Christ a person did not need to perform any works of grace or seek to convert others. John argued that this was necessary and demanded by the scriptures leading him to part company with the Moravians.


Further differences arose between John Wesley and George Whitfield over the matter of predestination. A far more practical difficulty for these ministers and many more converts who followed them was the correctness of holding large meetings (often in the open air) with the purpose of drawing people from the dwellings nearby to come to hear the Gospel preached. For such gatherings and the people who attended them would come from many different Anglican parishes and the place where the meeting would take place would itself be part of an Anglican parish. This immediately set up conflict with the local parish priests and for those of the Revivalists who were ordained a conflict of how they fulfilled their ordination vows to care for and evangelise those who lived within their parish boundaries.


The mainstream churches still face this dilemma, do we welcome those from evangelistic organisations elsewhere to come to our parishes to preach to our flocks or are we more circumspect about the “one hit wonder” seeking day to day conversion and spiritual growth?



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