Gentzel opens sermon series with George Whitefield’s pulpit

First Baptist Church in Kaufman was granted permission to use the pulpit of First Great Awakening pastor George Whitefield.

Brent Gentzel, pastor of First Baptist Kaufman, preached from the hinged, collapsable pulpit Sunday morning to launch the sermon series “Great Begins with Good.”

It was the first time since 1935 anyone has preached from Whitefield’s pulpit.

“I don’t take that lightly. We are not doing this as a gimmick or a spectacle. We are doing it as an act of remembrance, a tangible reminder that the God who moved powerfully in the 1740s is the same God we gather to worship at FBC Kaufman today,” Gentzel said.

“The fire of revival has always started with something small: one faithful preacher, one willing crowd, one moment of surrender. Great really does begin with good, and I believe God is stirring something good right here in Kaufman,” he added.

Hannah Polk, director of the Executive Office for First Baptist Kaufman, said the pulpit is one of the top five artifacts of American Christianity.

The last time the pulpit was loaned out for public use was for a celebration in New York in 1935. The pulpit was later transferred to the Texas Baptist Historical Collection in Dallas.

Since then, it has been on public display only twice: once at the Smithsonian Institution and once at Baylor University for a Great Awakening commemoration.

Whitefield, a young English preacher in the mid-1700s, had a portable oak pulpit built to preach outdoors in fields, city squares, and spaces where crowds would gather.

The first recorded use of this portable pulpit was on April 9, 1742, in Moorfields, England, according to the Library of Congress’ American Tract Society.

It is believed Whitefield preached 2,000 sermons to crowds numbering 20,000 or more people.

Whitefield is considered a key figure in the First Great Awakening, credited for assisting American colonies see themselves as one people.