George Jeffreys: The Boy Who Overcame a Speech Impediment to Become a Prominent British Pentecostal Evangelist

This Week in AG History —October 30, 1920

By Glenn W. Gohr
Originally published on AG News, 01 November 2018

George Jeffreys (1889-1962) was possibly the most gifted preacher that the British Pentecostal Movement ever produced. He had a bold resonant voice and a magnetic personality. He had a solid background in the Bible and loved to share the gospel message. But this was not always the case.

George was the son of a miner, Thomas Jeffreys, of Nantyffylon, Maesteg, Wales. His family belonged to the Welsh Independent (Congregational) church. In his youth, George suffered from a speech impediment and showed the beginnings of facial paralysis. His life was about to change. Together with his older brother, Stephen, George was converted in the revival at Shiloh Independent Chapel in Nantyfyllon, Wales on Nov. 20, 1904, under the evangelistic ministry of Glassnant Jones. This was during the Welsh Revival.

When the Pentecostal movement was introduced to Wales early in 1908, George and Stephen were both opposed to the new revival. But after Stephen’s son, Edward, was baptized in the Spirit, the two Jeffreys brothers sought this experience for themselves. In 1911 George was baptized in the Spirit and received healing of his speech.

George was mentored by Cecil Polhill, who helped him to receive specialized Bible training under Thomas Myerscough at the Pentecostal Missionary Union Bible School at Preston, England, and then he went into evangelistic work. He held crusades in Northern Ireland during World War I and started the Elim Evangelistic Band, which later became the Elim Foursquare Gospel Alliance in Great Britain.

George and Stephen began traveling together and were known as the Jeffreys Brothers. Soon they gained the reputation of being England’s greatest evangelists since Wesley and Whitefield. From the 1920s to the 1940s, the Jeffreys Brothers conducted revival meetings throughout England and Europe, with thousands converted and others receiving healing.

As one of England’s premier evangelists, George Jeffreys’ views on revival are worth reading. The Oct. 30, 1920, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel published a message titled, “How to Get a Revival.” Using the story of King Ahaz and his son, King Hezekiah, as background, Jeffreys described a spiritual revival in Israel. He outlined these points when seeking for revival: 1) recognize the need of a revival, 2) pray and ask God for revival, 3) turn from sin and pray for forgiveness, and 4) let Christ be exalted.

According to Jeffreys, repentance and turning from sin are key factors of revival. Jeffreys referred to the Welsh Revival of 1904-1905: He said that when the “mighty power of God began to sweep through the church” that all sin had to leave, for “God cannot live where sin is.”

How long should revival last? Jeffreys responded to this question: “Thank God, a revival started in my heart 30 years ago, and it has never stopped; it will never end.” He continued by saying, “As long as Jesus is kept in the front, and made the center of fellowship and blessing and unity, the revival will never end.”

Jeffreys also pointed out that the revival under King Hezekiah included a missionary spirit as letters were written to neighboring parts of Israel for people to repent and return to the ways of God. Jeffreys closed his address with this statement: “If you want a revival ask God to give you a vision of this old world, with its sin like a troubled sea …” Then after seeing the lost around us, he said we need to pray and ask God for revival, and then confess Jesus as Lord. These simple acts of faith can lay the foundation for revival in our personal lives, in the church, and in our communities.

Read George Jeffreys’ address, “How to Get a Revival,” on pages 6-8 of the Oct. 30, 1920, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “Back to Pentecost”

• “Politics from the Pentecostal Perspective,” by Stanley H. Frodsham

• “Greatest Missionary Opportunity in All North Africa”

And many more!

Click here to read this issue now.

Pentecostal Evangel archived editions courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.

Do you have Pentecostal historical materials that should be preserved? Please consider depositing these materials at the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (FPHC). The FPHC, located in the Assemblies of God national offices, is the largest Pentecostal archive in the world. We would like to preserve and make your treasures accessible to those who write the history books.

Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center
1445 North Boonville Avenue
Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA
Phone: 417.862.1447 ext. 4400
Toll Free: 877.840.5200
Email: archives@ag.org
Website: http://www.iFPHC.org

Stephen Jeffreys: A Welsh Evangelist Brings Revival to Springfield, Missouri

This Week in AG History — August 25, 1928

By Ruthie Edgerly Oberg
Originally published on PE-News, 25 August 2016

Stephen Jeffreys (1876-1943) was considered by many to be the greatest British evangelist since John Wesley and George Whitefield. He was affiliated with the Assemblies of God in Great Britain, but his ministry extended across the world. Jeffreys came to the headquarters city of the American Assemblies of God — Springfield, Missouri — for a 22-day revival in July of 1928. His message was plain and simple: “It is one thing to be religious. It is another thing to know the Lord Jesus.”

Before his conversion, Jeffreys was a coal miner in Maesteg, Wales. His interest in religion was limited to playing the flute in the church band. When the Welsh Revival broke out under the preaching of Evan Roberts in 1904, hundreds of coal miners experienced life-changing salvation. The pubs were deserted as men went straight from the mines to the chapels. After seeing the change in his coworkers’ lives, Jeffreys felt convicted for his own sinfulness. After a week of heavy conviction, he responded to the call of God and was gloriously converted on Nov. 17, 1904. In 1907, he received his own personal Pentecost and baptism in the Holy Spirit. This experience gave Jeffreys power to be a witness for his Savior.

In the divinely -charged atmosphere of revival, Jeffreys and his little brother, George, started to preach. They began sharing the message of Christ on the streets and their gifts soon led to invitations to fill the pulpits of many churches in Wales and England. Like the Wesley brothers of 150 years before, they also began to fill the greatest halls in Britain.

Jeffreys expected his converts to become new creatures in Christ. Many of his hearers, although already church members, became convicted of sin and experienced conversion. Hearkening back to his career in the coal mines, he would teach the people to sing “Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning.” This song could be heard late into the night as people were encouraged to live a life of total consecration to Christ. The response was so great that Jeffreys experienced opposition from both priest and pub owner alike, as he converted the religious and the irreligious to his brand of Pentecostal Christianity.

On a preaching tour in the United States in 1928, Jeffreys was invited to hold meetings at Gospel Tabernacle, a large auditorium used by Christians of various denominational backgrounds and located at the corner of Boonville and Lynn Street, in Springfield, Missouri. Reports of healings and conversions were soon reported by the Springfield Leader (now the Springfield News-Leader) as crowds thronged to hear the fiery preacher with the Welsh brogue. Crowds were estimated at three thousand in the daily meetings with seekers lining up as early as 5 a.m. for the 3 p.m. service.

The Aug. 25, 1928, edition of the Pentecostal Evangel reported that the messages were often addressed to “religious sinners” — church members who had not been born again. One woman who testified of salvation had been an active church member for fifty years before knowing the power of relationship with Christ. Jeffreys encouraged the converts to find a church where the Pentecostal message was preached, exhorting them, “I don’t believe in putting live chickens under a dead hen.”

A few weeks after the revival, the Pentecostal Evangel noted, “the membership is agreed that great and lasting benefit has been realized by the City of Springfield.”

After leaving Springfield, Jeffreys traveled to Los Angeles where the crowds grew to seven thousand in attendance. After a preaching tour of New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Sweden, and Norway, Jeffreys returned home to Wales where his health suddenly began to fail. By the mid-1930s, arthritis had crippled his abilities to travel. He died on Nov. 17, 1943, the 39th anniversary of his conversion, only a few days after preaching his last sermon in Llanelly, Wales, on the theme of “the glory of God.”

Read a report of “Revival at Springfield, Mo.” on page 13 of the Aug. 25, 1928, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “The Land of the Bible in the Last Days,” by the Evangel editorial staff

• “How to Obtain the Gifts,” by Donald Gee of Melbourne, Australia

• “Fearing or Trusting,” by William Luff

And many more!

Click here to read this issue now.

Pentecostal Evangel archived editions courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.

Do you have Pentecostal historical materials that should be preserved? Please consider depositing these materials at the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (FPHC). The FPHC, located in the Assemblies of God national offices, is the largest Pentecostal archive in the world. We would like to preserve and make your treasures accessible to those who write the history books.

Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center
1445 North Boonville Avenue
Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA
Phone: 417.862.1447 ext. 4400
Toll Free: 877.840.5200
Email: archives@ag.org
Website: www.iFPHC.org