This week in Christian history: Brownsville Revival, John Chrysostom exiled, Jonathan Edwards fired

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, June 16, 2024

Jonathan Edwards dismissed – June 22, 1750

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), notable American preacher of the 'First Great Awakening.' — Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), notable American preacher of the "First Great Awakening." | Public Domain

This week marks the anniversary of when Jonathan Edwards, the famed Puritan preacher who helped spark the First Great Awakening, was fired from his pastoral position at his church in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Edwards took a leadership role at the Northampton church in 1727, co-leading it with his grandfather, prominent Puritan preacher, Solomon Stoddard, who died in 1729.

Despite his influence, Edwards increasingly found himself at odds with prominent families of the congregation and dealing with a divisive debate over how to administer communion.

Eventually, an ecclesiastical council was called up and met from June 19-22, 1750, ultimately deciding that Edwards’ pastorship should be dissolved. He preached a farewell sermon in July.

“I desire your prayers,” Edwards wrote to a friend shortly after his removal from leadership, “that I may take a suitable notice of the frowns of Heaven on me and this people, between whom there once existed so great a union, in bringing to pass such a separation between us; that these troubles may be sanctified to me; that God would overrule the event for his own glory.”