By the end of these roughly 600 pages, Whitefield is only 26 years old. If anyone wrote a biography of my first 26 years, it would be brief and filled with victories more inflated than actual. By contrast, Whitefield’s is the sort of life which Paul was talking about when he urged Timothy, “Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.”
This book is infectious with the proper excitement of ministry. It is not about what George Whitefield could make happen. It is about only what God could make happen. This first volume focuses on the revivals inside and outside the church of England in Great Britain as well as the American colonies. While reading, I found myself recognizing anew that there is no reason such revival could not occur today. So many churches are in the deep sleep Whitefield wrote about when he said, “I love those that thunder out the Word. The Christian world is in a deep sleep! Nothing but a loud voice can awaken them out of it.”
Whitefield’s piety was one of the chief reasons he thundered out the word. His practices while in “the holy club” at Oxford were remarkable. His continued dependance upon God for power was appropriate and used by God to bear much fruit. Whitefield’s life demonstrated John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches; if you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.”
This book will properly light a fire under the feet of any attentive Christian reader. Whitefield’s innovation, alongside a few others, in the practice of field preaching shows his proper eagerness to preach as a means of grace to sinners like himself. What is attractive about his field preaching is that it was an act of exposure to the world. He was literally meeting people where they were at rather than simply wishing they might come to the church in which he was preaching the gospel. It seems to me that this exposure in some form will always be part of revival.
I read this book while the United Methodist Church was debating the merits of homosexuality as a normative Christian lifestyle. I don’t know the specifics of UMC doctrine - where it follows the Wesleys or Whitefield - but it was fascinating to read about the roots of these congregations in light of the now current debates. To show my ignorance, I had no idea that there was a Calvinist strand of Methodism until reading about Martyn Lloyd Jones.
This book was a helpful bit of church history in that it displayed the recurrent contrast between evangelicalism at its best (the necessity of the new birth) and formalism. So many of the churches of Whitefield’s day had become filled with the formalism some call traditionalism - the dead faith of the living. The opposition of these churches to Whitefield’s insistence on the new birth in line with John 3 shows that the ministries of these churches no longer necessitated the Holy Spirit. That is a word for our day whatever your church’s worship style might be. Formalism is not about generational preferences in worship. It is about the absence of regeneration.
I found myself reflecting on my own friendships while reading this book. While the impending split between Whitefield and the Wesley brothers looms large, this book clearly shows the impact of friends in the ministry. These friends wanted to do something for Christ’s kingdom when they were young and they died still wanting to do something for his glory. That is enviable.
Before reading this book, I knew little about Whitefield (whom I have called ‘Gorgeous George Whitefield’ to my wife because it sounds like the name of a flashy boxer. She has endured this patiently and hopefully will do so as I begin volume 2). If you are a Christian, and especially, if you are a preacher, I hope you find this book exhilarating and encouraging in your labors. I also hope it encourages you and I to be as faithful in our doctrine and as innovative in our practice as Whitefield.