Welcome back to another episode of five minutes in church history on this episode we are on

location in colonial Williamsburg and I'm here with a good friend of ours been on many times

Dr. Steve Lawson.

Stephen is great to be with you.

I can't believe where we are right now.

We are in a great, we find each other in great spots,

don't we?

That's right.

So something happened here on December 16, 1739.

What happened here?

Well, the Grand Evangelist himself,

the Grand itinerate, George Whitfield,

came to Bruton Parish Church and preached a powerful evangelistic message right here.

What's the significance of 1739 in the life of George Whitfield?

Well, it begins his first American tour. It will take him through all of 1740 and he will leave in January of 1741.

And he was a sensation I think in his journal he mentions that people travel on horseback 14 miles.

Yeah just to hear this one message.

Just to hear this sermon.

Yeah and I know they traveled even further in other places.

In fact when Whitfield would come to preach, most cities would just shut down.

They would cancel judicial hearings, shops would close, farmers would come out of the field,

they would all come flocking to hear Whitfield preach.

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