"We've never done it that way before!"

It was on this date in 1739 that Methodist pioneer George Whitfield (1714 – 1770) preached in the open air for the first time.  After he graduated from Oxford University (where he had met and ministered with John and Charles Wesley), the Church of England did not immediately assign him to a pulpit.  So, he worked as an itinerant evangelist.  When meeting-houses were not available he decided to preach in the open air. 

Whitfield was enthusiastic and theatrical.  He had a loud, booming voice and was soon drawing extraordinary crowds of people who did not or could not attend worship in Church of England buildings.

He invited John Wesley to accompany him to a preaching event in April of that year.  Whitfield (also sometimes spelled Whitefield) wanted to return to America and continue his former evangelistic work there.  So, he desired Wesley to assume his mantle in Britain.  Wesley attended, but did not join in the leadership of, a meeting on April 1.  He saw the extraordinary response to Whitfield’s preaching, and could not deny that souls were being saved.  He wrote:

I could scarce reconcile myself at first to this strange way of preaching in the fields, of which he (Whitefield) set me an example on Sunday; having been all my life - till very lately - so tenacious of every point relating to decency and order, that I should have thought the saving of souls almost a sin, if it had not been done in a church.       –"The Journal of John Wesley,” April 1, 1739

He later recorded a fuller account of his initial experience with what he called “Field Preaching:” insisting that he only turned to the fields when the doors of the churches were closed. 

        There was no scheme at all previously formed, ... nor 

        had I any other end in view than this-to save as many 

        souls as I could. 

        –"A Farther Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion” (1745).

Whitfield’s bold activity was as responsible for the First Great Awakening in America as any other single cause (outside, of course, to the powerful movement of The Holy Spirit). “Open Air Preaching” also determined the direction of the Methodist movement for the next generation.  Field Preachers would preach to miners and other laborers on-site before they started their work day.  It was from these working-class roots that Methodism received its first energy toward popular acceptance.  Soon, every Methodist preacher and evangelist was, at least part of the time, addressing crowds out-of-doors.  Brush arbors and tents followed.  But it was a long time before dedicated Methodist “preaching houses” became part of the fledgling church’s landscape.