When we look at the evangelical church in the South today, we see a church that has evolved over many years. From its earliest beginning as a denomination under the Church of England and its somewhat conservatist worship services, Southern evangelism emerged from a people seeking a different direction in faith. A direction that would lead to the formation of three new denominations: Presbyterians, Baptists and Methodists.
Evangelicalism was around long before what became known as the Great Revival.
The first evangelical can be found in the bible. In the book of John, chapter
one, verse 19-23, John the Baptist tells the masses that he is the voice of one
crying in the wilderness. He was known as the son of thunder because of his
fiery brand of preaching. John the Baptist's evangelical ministry spread about
the countryside, preparing the way for the coming of Jesus Christ. 1
Moving forward into the early, developing Southern United States, John the
Baptist style of evangelizing would come only after another important movement
that became known as the Great Revival. In 1740, the area which made up the
Southern half of the United States consisted of only five colonies: Maryland,
Virginia, North and South Carolina and Georgia. The established religion then
was the Church of England; however, there were a scattering of other religions
and sects in those areas. The area where these churches were situated was very
large and getting around to the different worship places was made difficult
because of poor transportation. This may or may not have contributed to the lack
of total acceptability of the church by Southerners.
As the article, The Southern Way of Religion, reports even though the Church
of England was the legitimate religion in the land, Southern Anglican gave it a
somewhat lukewarm welcome. The English born and educated ministers could not
fully deliver the Word of God to the Southern faithful and especially to those
southerners living in the far backwoods. 2
John B. Boles, author of this article, writes that the lack of good
communication between ministers and parishioners was due to snobbish attitudes
of ministers toward parishioners. If the feeling of being looked down upon by
your minister wasn't bad enough, common folk could be made to feel even more
unappreciated.
The Southern commoners were less than moved by pompous even stuffy preaching
of English ministers. And commoners were relegated to the back pews while the
first families of the south filled the front seats: the plantation elite. There
was a strong yearning in the commoners' community for a religion with more
emotion than the unmoving read sermons of the English clergyman. This according
to Boles was fertile ground for a religious awakening. This awakening would be
made possible by the introduction of three activist churches into Virginia after
1740. First the Presbyterians, then the Baptists followed by the Methodists.
These "seeds" would one day with proper cultivation generate the new converts
that would lead to the period that would be known as the Great Revival. 3
Boles says that before there can be a widely distributed religious awakening
certain preconditions must be in place: a network of churches and ministers, an
agreement belief system of God working in history, and a belief that there is a
religious crisis of great difficulty. This awakening can only come through
divine intervention. However, it is important that we realize that the three new
denominations Presbyterian, Baptist and Methodist where not Virginia's great
awakening, according to Boles. This was only to lay the foundation for the Great
Revival that would come later.
The foundation of these three new denominations would be the "quickening" in
the belly for the South's first Great Awakening. A "quickening" as described in
the bible is when someone has accepted Christ and the spiritual part of man that
was created before the foundation of the world is quickened when it hear a Word
from God. It is like a kick in the belly of man.
Presbyterians first made their appearance in Virginia late in the 17th
century. The settlers were Scottish-Irish who came from Pennsylvania and
Maryland. They made their journey southward by way of the wide valley that ran
west of the mighty Blue Ridge Mountain. These new settlers put down their roots
away from the more populated older colonies to the east. 4
In the mid-1740s in Hanover County, North of Richmond, Virginia, farmers
started gathering together in homes in search of the religious faith and
fellowship lacking in the Anglican Church. Presbyterians around 1760 saw their
growth levels taper off and gel into what could be considered a regular church
life for followers. The church consisted of ministers and a system of belief
that was the beginning of the Presbyterian "culture in Virginia." 5
Like the Presbyterians, Baptists first arrived in the South sometime in the
1680s. For the next 70 plus years Baptists churches would be created with names
like Particular Baptists, Freewill Baptists, and General Baptists and would
start spreading throughout the colonies. Ironically, the denomination that would
later become today's Southern Baptists convention was ran by two Yankee
ministers from Connecticut. The two ministers, Shubal Stearns and Daniel
Marshall, had been charged by the New England Great Awakening and sent into the
Southern regions as missionary.
The two missionaries along with a few followers made a brief stay in an area
that became West Virginia. From there they started a church in Sandy Creek,
North Carolina, in 1775 just outside the Virginia line. Though staunchly
Calvinistic yet highly evangelical, the two skillfully spread their vision of
the Baptist faith. The Baptists unlike the Presbyterians did not depend on
educated ministers but young men, who were very underpaid, yet men filled with
the Holy Ghost. Boles refer to these ministers as folk ministers, but
nevertheless they were very effective as representatives for their faith. 6
By as early as the 1770s, the Separate Baptists in the Virginia area spread
fast and nearly outnumbered the Anglicans in that region. North Carolina
Baptists were affiliated with the Regulator Movement of then Royal Governor
William Tryon in 1771 and 1772. Governor Tryon attempts to surppress the
Regulators for whatever reason resulted in "Separate Baptist moving into South
Carolina, Georgia, and what would become Kentucky and Tennessee."
The Methodists originated as a movement from within the Church of England. At
its inception, the leaders of the Methodists, Charles and John Wesley had no
intention of starting a new denomination. In 1773, Robert Williams became the
first Methodist missionary to set up in Virginia. Devereux Jarrott, a local
Anglican preacher, who was a rival to the Methodist initially approved of the
Methodists' zeal and even gave aid in the spread of the Methodists by helping to
remove hurdles of local authorities and the Anglican church. 7
Of the other two mentioned denominations, Presbyterians and Baptist, the
Methodist style of services were more spiritually pumped. Methodists also
ushered in the placing and use of itinerant ministers. These itinerants unlike
their Presbyterian brothers were not formally trained and served willingly for
little or no pay. These itinerants were anointed by divine appointment as stated
in the book, Southern Cross: The Beginning of the Bible Belt, by to Christine
Leigh Heyrman. 8
These young men on the evangelical field traveled large circuits covering
many miles. They were willing to preach to the faithful wherever they could find
them and under all type of conditions. In the infancy of the Methodist movement,
there were no church buildings and services would be held in lay member's homes,
barns or as on many occasions, in an open field.
In spite of the powerful toyism of John and Charles Wesley which somewhat
"dampened the sect" after the start of the American Revolution, the Methodist
movement exploded. After the war's end, the movement that had sputtered somewhat
during the war found new life, helped by a core of able ministers such as the
English evangelist, Francis Asbury, known as the Father of American Methodism.
American Methodist clergy in December 1784 convened a conference in Baltimore,
Maryland, and authorized the Methodist Episcopal church, totally free of the
Church of England. 9
The role of women in the early evangelical church has not been without
controversy. From the very start of the evangelical movement until now, the role
of women would be subject of some contention. Questions about the proper place
for women, then and now, remained the issue. Nevertheless, early Baptists and
Methodist churches allowed godly women of all races to display their spiritual
talents by speaking at public gatherings. These religious meetings consisted of
both men and women and were approved by the clergy. By the endorsement of these
gathering, local preachers accepted that the role of women went further than
that of just wife, mother, and sisters of the church. This was a strong contrast
coming from a time when culture dictated that women be strong, but in silence,
especially inside the church. 10
In Southern Cross, a book by Christine Leigh Heyrman, she says that women in
both Baptist and Methodist congregations preached and gave the word of prophecy,
speaking encouragement and hope into the lives of the faithful. One Baptist
minister, John Taylor, gave honor to his slave, a woman name Letty. Letty gave
her own personal testimony of conversion before Taylor's Kentucky church at the
start of the Nineteenth Century. According to Taylor, her testimony "was more
striking to the assembly present than the loudest preaching." Therefore, not
only pious white women but sometime black women as well were afforded the same
opportunity to display their gifts. 11
In Baptist and Methodist services, older white females spoke as well as gave
exhortations at the opening of church services: a duty of the highest
visibility. Notable figures such as Francis Asbury gave high praise to those
women of the early movement who were able to move the faithful with their
powerful worship. Asbury said of a Sister Jones that her praying and speaking
were "sweetly and powerfully felt." 12
A Methodist itinerant, Joseph Travis took special pride in the anointed
praying gift of his mother. An associate of Travis, Kentucky minister Henry
Smith, commented how in the revivals at the start of the century all men and
women of faith were called on to pray. The remarks of Henry Smith when read
today by Christians would probably be reminiscent of the bible scripture: Acts
2:17, "And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour
out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your
young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. 13
The faithful then and now believe that we are living in the last days before
the coming of Jesus Christ. Therefore, it was necessary to use all of God's
gifts (at least God's white gifts, both male and female). There were some in the
early evangelical movement who wanted white women to have a greater role in
public religious meetings. Indeed a few evangelical preachers wished for some
white women the authority to preach the gospel. A ministry decidedly different
from exhortation because of it's detailed teachings from the bible.
The bold call for women preachers was the inspiration of early Methodist
clergy. These clergymen had been moved by the spine tingling sermons of southern
Quaker women and knew the gifts of God have no respect of person, male or
female. 14
At one time the word of God and the saving of souls was the most important
thing in the evangelical church. The gender role of women though an issue was
somewhat put on the back of the stove. But in the early mid-eighteenth century,
things started to change. In order to win new converts, especially male head of
household converts, the gender issue was pushed to the frontline. Now for the
first time, evangelical had to put gender in its proper cultural place. The
opportunities that the evangelical movement afforded women now had to line up
with the patriarchal house. The evangelical head now sought a church family of
traditional order: an order of husband over wife parents over children, and
master over slave. This order is the home as well as the church became very
important in evangelical in face of religious traditions. 15
According to historian Jean Friedman, well into the Nineteenth Century,
evangelicals would continue to put the family in order. During this century, the
Baptist churches allowed women to vote but the number of male members determined
a quorum in attendance. Men were in full charge of church management and
discipline. They also supervised disciplinary actions, which were highly
genderized. For example, men were more than likely to be charged with offenses
than women were but men offensives would be viewed as minor (e.g. drinking,
dancing). Women, though they were charged much less for their offensives were
deemed much more serious (e.g. adultery, fornication, abortion, and so on). 16
Sexual charges brought against women were dropped they showed remorse but
were excluded if they did not. Women could be reinstated to the church only
after punishment. Juster comments that Victorians of that day believed the
crimes of women were to be dealt with in a prompt manner. To them, church
control was imperative especially toward women because of the nature for
disobedience and they had ways that entice their brethren to sin. Because
according to Juster, all women are of the lineage of original wife, Eve. 17
The matter of race as far as African American slaves were concerned followed
in the patriarchal line the same as husband, wives, parents, children, masters
and servants did. Slaves who had their p lace even in the house of God for
according to Heyrman, Southern evangelical after their split from the Church of
England continued segregation by race. At the very beginning of evangelical
churches, African Americans worshippers were relegated to the back of the church
or the upper galleries. In some cases, African Americans made to gather in
sheds, which were adjacent to the main church. It was not unusual for African
American to be excluded from services all together on days when pews were filled
with white worshippers. Black worshippers told they could stand outside and
listen while crouched beneath windows. 18
The years after the revolutionary war saw the rules of racial segregation
become firmly rooted into the evangelical movement. On southern plantations
Baptists and Methodists preachers held separate services for Black and White
worships. After White worshippers held church and prayer services in churches or
a member's home Blacks services would take place in a separate location. African
American services were usually held after sunset and all work war finish. Prayer
services were also held in the parlors of white homes and sometimes Blacks were
allowed to listen in but no closer than the kitchen door. Ministers gathered
African Americans for Sunday school class, meetings, love feasts and communion
but all under the order of that era separate but equal worship. This brand of
separate but equal worship was standard even at outdoor meetings. When there
were more than one minister at racially mixed Southern camp meeting blacks and
whites met in separate group. This deliberate push toward separating the race
was imperative in the effort of securing the patriarchal hierarchy. And
furthermore, separating the races was to further strengthen within the
evangelical movement the efforts not to ban slaveholders from their fellowship.
19
A measure taken to draw new converts into their flocks especially white
males. Segregating worship services disillusioned blacks with white preachers
that caused them to put more confidence in ministers of their race. By the
eighteenth century, Black Americans had started gathering on their own for
prayer, sings, and exhortation. Some blacks from different plantations were even
allowed to start their own churches. These churches fueled by a population of
free urban blacks and slaves from local plantation caused worry among southern
whites. Southern whites and evangelicals were nervous about black churches
inside the slave compounds fearing that such churches would breed not only an
evangelical movement with an existing one but black rebellion as well. 20
Southern evangelicalism was born out of a lack of spiritual fulfillment and
emotionally void sermons of the Church of England. However, it was the birth of
three activist religions, the Presbyterians, Baptists and Methodists that led to
the Great Revivals which produced the seeds that eventually grew into today's
worldwide evangelical movement. Early evangelicalism started with the pure
motive of saving souls, freedom of religious expression, and the spreading of
the message of the coming of Jesus Christ.
Unfortunately, like the reconstruction period after the Civil War,
evangelicalism's explosive beginning was dampened with political compromise and
bowing to the plantation élites. Even today, the bodies of evangelicals are
still dealing with issues of race and gender. Issues that must be rectified for
the end time church.
1.
The Layman's Parallel Bible, (Michigan: The Zondervan Corporation), 2617.
2.
John B. Boles, The Southern Way of Religion", Virginia Quarterly Review, Spring
99, Vol 75 Issue 2, 226.
8.
Christine Leigh Heyrman. Southern Cross: The Beginning of the Bible Belt. (New
York: Alfred A. Knoff). 83-104
9.
Clark, et al., eds. Journal of Asbury, 28 March and 10 November
1786.
13.
The Layman's Parallel Bible, 2686.
14.
Mead, Short Accounts, 16 Newcomer Life and Journal, 46
15.
Mead, Short Accounts, 223.
16.
Jean E. Friedman. The Enclosed Garden: Women and Community in the Evangelical
South. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 1839-1900.
17.
Susan Juster. Disorderly Women: Sexual Politics and Evangelicalism in
Revolutionary New England. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press),
1994.
"Baptists and Methodists emerged in the decades after the
Revolution as the South's strongest evangelical churches in part because both
groups dispensed with a formally educated clergy. They regarded inner claims
of divine appointment as sufficient authorizations, the truth of which would
be tested when young men apprenticed as itinerant preachers."