George Whitefield was born in Gloucester, England, the youngest of seven children. While he was in grammar school, he worked in his parents' inn and tavern. But many noticed his remarkable speaking ability. In fact, his early goal was to become an actor.
Whitefield attended Pembroke College, Oxford, where he met the Wesley brothers and became a member of the Holy Club. In the spring of 1735, during a severe illness, he was converted to Jesus Christ.
When he finished his education, the Anglican Church ordained him, and he began preaching in several London churches. His sermons were filled with conviction and power, but many contented Londoners complained.
The Wesleys, who had gone to Georgia, encouraged Whitefield to travel to the colony also. He agreed and preached there from May through September 1738.
Upon his return to England, Whitefield began his open-air preaching near Bristol. He was the first modern evangelist to preach to large crowds outdoors. He preached an average of 20 sermons a week and made 14 preaching trips to the American colonies.
Whitefield's trips to the American colonies from 1738 to 1770 were the thread that tied the First Great Awakening together. His ministry was interdenominational, and he preached to thousands in virtually every colony. Whitefield even made friends with Benjamin Franklin, who was greatly impressed with his speaking ability and estimated that the preacher could make his voice heard by 30,000 people! Franklin built an auditorium for Whitefield to preach in at Philadelphia, which later became the foundation of the University of Pennsylvania.
On his seventh evangelistic tour (1769-1770), Whitefield became ill. Pneumonia developed, and on September 30, 177,0 he died in Newburyport, Massachusetts, where he was buried.
Whitefield and his friend John Wesley had disagreed on several key points. Whitefield was a strong Calvinist, convinced of God's election of those He saves. Wesley objected, holding that human free will, not God's choice, leads to salvation. The dispute produced a break in their friendship in 1741. But they healed their split and agreed to disagree. In fact, during a memorial service in England after Whitefield's death, Wesley praised him as a great man of God.
How does one explain the success of Whitefield? God used him to reach people with the simply story of the Gospel. His messages were not overly theological. Rather, they focused on the human heart and stirred people to an honest response that often involved their emotions. Whitefield always concentrated on human sin and God's solution in Jesus Christ.
