USH - Charles Finney - Church

Charles Finney was born in Litchfield County, Connecticut on August 27, 1792 and died on August 16, 1875 at the age of 42. The youngest of seven children, his parents were farmers. Although Finney himself never attended college, his stature (he was 6’3” tall), leadership abilities, and his piercing eyes helped him to gain a status in his community. He studied law from 1818 to 1821, until he had a “sudden conversion experience” in Adams, New York at the age of 29.

After this experience, he began to preach, becoming a licensed minister in the Presbyterian Church. His logical and clear presentation of the Gospel message reached thousands of people, promising renewing power and the love of Jesus. Although historians are not sure, some estimate that his preaching may have supposedly led to the conversion of over 500,000 people.

Finney was both renowned and criticized for his unique techniques and innovations in preaching and conducting religious meetings. For example, he allowed women to pray in public, something that was almost unheard of at that time. He also was known for the development of the “anxious bench,” a place for people who were not Christians, but were considering converting to Christianity, could come to receive prayer. His preaching was intended to evoke a highly emotional response in those to whom he was preaching.

Not only was Finney a highly successful Christian evangelist, he was also involved with abolitionist movement, frequently denouncing slavery from his pulpit. In fact, beginning in the 1830s, he would deny communion in his churches to any slaveholders, clearly demonstrating his loathing of the practice of slavery.

During this time, the United States was undergoing massive social change, being a new nation still attempting to discover it’s identity. Finney managed to be the “most successful religious revivalist during this period, and in this particular area.” Although other Christian revival groups were successful at this time (for example, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and Seventh-day Adventists), they became closed and exclusivist, while Finney was “widely admired and influential amongst more mainstream Christians.”

He was thus a major leader of the Second Great Awakening in the United States, a great religious revival consisting of renewed personal salvation experienced in revival meetings.