After struggling through Greek in the first half of the year, on a friend’s wise advice I made the switch to doing a history subject for the latter half of the year.

Good decision. A lot easier to study for and, for me personally, feels a lot more relevant to God’s future plans for me.

When you’re not planning on becoming a New Testament scholar, you have to consider whether studying more Greek is the best use of your time.

Not that I’d consider myself a knowledgeable historian either, but I’m enjoying digging a bit deeper into stories from the past that I may have heard of by name, but about which I know little detail.

One name that is known rather well from the past is that of George Whitefield.

Whitefield has usually been presented to me in a very positive light as one who preached in open fields to the masses. It was interesting to have a different picture of Whitefield explored in class: a perspective that threw a fair bit of shade on him.

Sure, he was innovative. Sure, he thought of ways to use the new media of the time – the printing press – to market the gospel in ways that others hadn’t. And he was itinerant beyond belief. Huge numbers of people heard him preach and even more read his magazines. To say that he was well-known was an understatement.

Yet when you start to scratch a little at the surface and peel back some layers, Whitefield does start to lose a fair bit of the glow. He most certainly had his critics.

In his preaching to the masses, he never seems to have done any follow up. He just blew in and blew out as the crowds massed to hear him. There are no numbers on Whitefield’s converts because no lists were made of those needing to be followed up, in the way that someone like Billy Graham ensured took place.

Were people listening to Whitefield to hear about Jesus or just to see the famous man, Whitefield?

Then there were those who said he was really just making a profit out of it all. He was very open to operating interdenominationally, but was that just to widen the tent to gain more? There were those who said as much.

As well as the stardom, Whitefield’s greatest piece of shade lies in his support of slavery.

Whitefield died before the abolitionists gained the notoriety that they did and under God made great changes to this horrific trade. However, they were around and active in Whitefield’s day. His messages of equality in Christ never seemed to line up with his ideas on slavery, and his owning a slave on his plantation.

Whitefield should have known better.

So what do we do? Cancel Whitefield and ‘disqualify him from the ministry’ in our minds? Maybe.

We had this discussion in class and when looking into the past without all the details, these things are not so easy to decide. Sometimes things are black and white, and other times not so much.

However, whatever we do with Whitefield, the challenge from the past remains today. What are our aims in ministry? Who are we promoting – ourselves or Jesus? And what in our culture are we aligning with that does not align with the word of God, when understood correctly?

I think I’d have to study Greek for a few more years to be able to have such helpful thoughts about application to my life. I’m glad I made the switch to history.

Yours making a good decision,

Alison