The Second Great Awakening and Its Influence on Baptist and Methodist Churches

Introduction

The Second Great Awakening refers to a Protestant religious revival primarily in the US in the early 19^th Century (from around 1795-1835). The period marked remarkable growth notably manifested in the Baptist and Methodist Churches. Data from various sources indicate that Baptists and Methodists initially consisted of a paltry 19.4% of the American Christian population in 1776, but the figure rose to about 54.7% by 1850. Several reasons resulted in the boom of Baptists and Methodists during the Second Great Awakening, including changes in Church structure, the role of women and youth, the emergence of lay preachers, camp meetings, and emotionalism during preaching, doctrinal positions, circuit riders, and prevailing socio-political challenges in the nation.

Reasons for Baptist and Methodist Growth

Doctrinal Positions

One of the doctrinal shifts that appealed to the people during the Second Great Awakening was Calvinism to Arminianism. Hence, preachers focused more on the capacity of sinners to make instant decisions concerning their salvation. Such positions dissipated many theological differences among evangelical Churches, leading to a growth in membership. The people encountered a new, strange message that appealed to their hearts, as preachers emphasized free will concerning personal redemption and migration from the traditional over-reliance on ministers on these matters¹. Previously, the people believed that an individual’s salvation was in the hands of privileged ministers, who often also abused their positions and extorted the people². The new perspective offered relief from such human excesses and placed entire dependence upon the mercies of God and human’s ability to approach God personally. The emergence of unitarianism also caused an increase in membership in denominations like Anabaptists, Methodists, liberal Quakers, and Moravians.

Camp Meetings

Camp meetings were crucial in boosting conversions during the Second Great Awakening. Camp meetings referred to revival gatherings that occurred on different grounds across the nation, where unique evangelical preaching resulted in the widespread popularity of the conferences³. Many people would flock to the camp sessions, and hundreds became converts to the Methodist and Baptist Churches as a result. The camp meetings reminded the people of the essence of the Second Great Awakening, which was a decided shift from official, formal, and outward religion to a more personal, inward, and experiential kind.

Influential preachers traveled from state to state during camp meetings and caused massive revivals and influx into the Churches. The preachers came in with new preaching techniques that were more spontaneous, using emotional entreaties and current world events instead of formal lessons to achieve conversions⁴. Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians accepted the messages preached in the gatherings, and numbers significantly increased. Thus, several baptisms during camp meetings led to the growth of the Churches at the Second Great Awakening.

Apart from attracting new converts, the revival meetings were sessions where backslidden members renewed their faith and resumed service with greater zeal. Even though many of the gatherings occurred in the frontiers and among white people, many areas like the South witnessed black people also holding separate revivals simultaneously as the groups later merged to hold final convocations together. For example, Black Harry Hosier became the first African American Methodist preacher due to the camp meetings where his fabled oratory skills came to view⁵. His efforts, together with those of Richard Allen, an ordained minister, led to the formation of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Hence, the camp meetings also helped breach racial barriers.

Revival and Emotionalism

The Second Great Awakening featured what many enthusiasts termed a ‘revival of true Godliness.’ Many hearts yearned for God, and the awakening came at the opportune time for these desirous souls. The preachers urged the people to reform their ways given the nearness of Christ’s Second Coming. Such powerful appeals touched many and led to numerous baptisms and increasing membership. Moreover, the Second Great Awakening came with a new form of preaching that heavily embraced emotionalism. Even though the Baptists and Methodists later came to loathe the emotional presentations and behaviors, they profoundly attracted converts to the denominations at first⁶. The sermons appealed to the people’s emotions during social, economic, and political difficulties and caused many to join the Churches.

In the late 1700s, few Americans attended Church regularly for various reasons. There were widespread beliefs that God played only a minor role in the people’s daily lives and hardly noticed their struggles. Such was the sentiment of the majority, which led to a decline in Church attendance⁷. However, in the advent of the Second Great Awakening, many became convinced that God showed concern for their daily plights. Even those consumed in the quest to earn a living stopped to listen to preachers that emphasized humanity’s dependence on God, provoking great revivals in the minds of many.

The Youth, Lay Preachers, and Circuit Riders

Hundreds of youth became actively engaged in Church activities during the Second Great Awakening. The young people used their energy and enthusiasm to make gatherings livelier and conduct door-to-door evangelistic campaigns that revived the Churches⁸. Many youths became lay preachers, who worked marvelously for the Churches’ cause. At the time, there was a shift from the traditional over-reliance on theologians taught in seminaries to regular Church members who desired to spread the word locally and abroad. Hence, the acceptance of the lay workers resulted in much growth for the Church during the awakening. Young men and women used their resources to reach the unconverted rather than rely on tithes and salaries from Church structures, and the outcome was positive.

The new style of Christian faith was agreeable to Methodists and Baptists. Preachers and lay workers grew in commitment to the cause and mission. Many gospel workers possessed divine calling, sound conversion, and illustrated skills and gifts that bore much fruit in ministry⁹. At the time, the financial benefits for preachers were little, meaning that the Church could hire more gospel preachers on limited budgets. Thus, the work reached far and wide, and membership grew.

Furthermore, many youths engaged in evangelistic work as circuit riders. The local Baptist preachers and Methodist circuit riders made considerable efforts to increase Church membership¹⁰. The riders frequently moved from city to city and from state to state to share the gospel. Their influence was remarkable in bringing in converts who initially expressed a reluctance to attend revival meetings personally.

Role of Women and Enslaved People (African-Americans)

Most of the converts during the Second Great Awakening were women. The Church offered the women communal identity and a place for peer support. Women formed prayer groups whose influence reached many souls. The female reform societies of the 1830s morphed into female social movements when women increasingly agitated for their rights and place in the patriarchal society¹¹. Ministers attempted to deliver sermons that resonated with the plight of all, including women, increasing Church attendance.

Southern Baptists and Methodists shared their messages with enslaved people and slaveholders alike. The news was that Christ was the answer to the earth’s travails, and many people bought into the teachings during times of socio-political challenges¹². The Second Great Awakening resulted in pioneer African American preachers among the Baptists and Methodists. Many other enslaved people and freemen entered the Churches.

Conclusion

The Second Great Awakening caused a massive influx in Methodist and Baptist members. The prevailing socio-political conditions led many to desire liberation from the daily issues of life. Hence, the youth, women, Church structures, lay preachers, circuit riders, publishing houses, emotionalism, doctrinal positions, and camp meetings were critical in aiding the growth of Baptist and Methodist Churches at the Second Great Awakening.

Bibliography

Cooley, William B. Essay. In The Second Great Awakening: A Study of Institutional and Ideological Causes, 2000.

Davis, Janet M. ’A Righteous Man Regards the Life of His Beast’ : The Roots of the Gospel of Kindness in the Second Great Awakening and Antebellum Reform. New York: Oxford University Press. 2016. Web.

Hankins, Barry. Essay. In Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America. William B. Eerdmans Pub. 2008.

Hankins, Barry. The Second Great Awakening and the Transcendentalists. Greenwood Press, 2004.

Leslie, Joshua. Essay. In The Second Great Awakening, 2002.

McMurry, Douglas. Essay. In The Forgotten Awakening: How the Second Great Awakening Spread West of the Rockies: A Historical Narrative. Deep River Books, 2011.

Smith, John Howard. ‘Lightnings and Thunderings, and Voices’ : The Second Great Awakening. New York: Oxford University Press. 2021. Web.

Footnotes

1. Barry Hankins. In Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America. William B. Eerdmans Pub., 2008, pp. 78-90.
2. Janet Davis. ’A Righteous Man Regards the Life of His Beast’ : The Roots of the Gospel of Kindness in the Second Great Awakening and Antebellum Reform. New York: Oxford University Press. 2016, p. 3.
3. William Cooley. In The Second Great Awakening: A Study of Institutional and Ideological Causes, 2000, pp 45-64.
4. Barry Hankins. In Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America. William B. Eerdmans Pub., 2008, pp. 78-90.
5. Barry Hankins. In Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America. William B. Eerdmans Pub., 2008, pp. 78-90.
6. William Cooley. In The Second Great Awakening: A Study of Institutional and Ideological Causes, 2000, pp 45-64.
7. Joshua Leslie. In The Second Great Awakening, 2002, pp. 101-118.
8. Barry Hankins. In Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America. William B. Eerdmans Pub., 2008, pp. 78-90.
9. William Cooley. In The Second Great Awakening: A Study of Institutional and Ideological Causes, 2000, pp 45-64.
10. Douglas McMurry. In The Forgotten Awakening: How the Second Great Awakening Spread West of the Rockies: A Historical Narrative. Deep River Books, 2011, pp. 72-81.
11. John Howard Smith. ‘Lightnings and Thunderings, and Voices’ : The Second Great Awakening. New York: Oxford University Press. 2021, p. 4.
12. William Cooley. In The Second Great Awakening: A Study of Institutional and Ideological Causes, 2000, pp 45-64.