The evangelical revivals were great waves of preaching and conversion in the 1700s and 1800s that shaped many churches.
Pentecostal & evangelical1730sarose within Church of England (Anglican)
The Great Awakening: Jonathan Edwards in Northampton (1734), George Whitefield preaching to tens of thousands in the open air (1739), the Wesleys in England. Not a denomination but a temperament that runs through many of them: conversion, the cross, the Bible, activism. The Second Great Awakening (1790s to 1840s) shaped American Protestantism and produced several of the movements below.
The evangelical revivals were waves of preaching and conversion that ran through the English-speaking churches in the 1700s and 1800s. They did not found a denomination. They left behind a set of convictions and a way of holding them that you can now find inside Anglican, Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, Pentecostal and independent churches alike, which is why this branch of the tree has so many children.
The first wave began in the 1730s on both sides of the Atlantic at once. In the autumn of 1734 Jonathan Edwards, a Congregational minister at Northampton in Massachusetts, preached a series on justification by faith alone, and the response in the town was so far beyond the ordinary that he wrote an account of it that was read across the English-speaking world 7,6. In England and Wales the same thing was happening around the Wesleys, Howell Harris and Daniel Rowland. And then there was George Whitefield, who from 1739 preached in the open air to crowds no building could hold, crossed the Atlantic seven times, and made the revival a single transatlantic event rather than several local ones 8,7.
It divided the churches it touched. Ministers who supported the revival were called New Lights and those who opposed it Old Lights, and the argument was about order: the Old Lights held that itinerant preachers crossing parish lines and the emotion they stirred up were destructive of a settled, educated ministry, while the New Lights answered that their opponents cared more for social standing than for saving souls 7. American Presbyterians split into Old Side and New Side over it. The divisions healed in time, but they set the pattern for an argument that has recurred in every revival since.
A second wave, from the 1790s into the 1840s, remade American Protestantism. Camp meetings drew enormous crowds, most famously at Cane Ridge in Kentucky in 1801 9; Charles Finney taught that a revival could be worked for by the right means rather than only waited on; and out of this soil came the Restoration movement, Adventism, the Holiness movement and much else that has its own page here 6,9. In Britain the same energy went into societies: the Clapham Sect around William Wilberforce campaigned for twenty years and saw the slave trade abolished in 1807 10,6.
Evangelicals belong to many different churches and hold many different things about baptism, bishops and communion. What makes them evangelical is a narrower set of convictions, and the summary almost everyone now uses was written by a historian, David Bebbington, and adopted by evangelical bodies themselves 16.
The National Association of Evangelicals puts his four marks in its own words: conversionism, the belief that lives need to be transformed through a born-again experience and a lifelong following of Jesus; biblicism, a high regard for and obedience to the Bible as the ultimate authority; activism, the expression and demonstration of the gospel in missionary and social reform efforts; and crucicentrism, a stress on the sacrifice of Christ on the cross as making possible the redemption of humanity 2.
The same association, working with LifeWay Research, turned those into four statements a person must strongly agree with to be counted evangelical by belief: that the Bible is the highest authority for what I believe; that it is very important for me personally to encourage non-Christians to trust Jesus Christ as their Savior; that Christ's death on the cross is the only sacrifice that could remove the penalty of my sin; and that only those who trust in Christ alone as Savior receive God's free gift of eternal salvation 2. It also notes something worth keeping in view: many evangelicals rarely use the word of themselves, and the convictions rather than any political or cultural trend are what define them 2.
Worship and practice
There is no evangelical liturgy, because evangelicals worship in whatever church they belong to. What tends to travel with the movement is a shape rather than a text: singing that aims at the heart, a sermon that is the centre of the service and expects a response, extempore prayer, and an invitation at the end.
The revivals also left institutions behind them wherever they went, and those are more distinctive than the services. Societies and voluntary associations for mission, Bible distribution, Sunday schools and social reform; the camp meeting and later the crusade; the small group meeting midweek in a house. Evangelicals cooperate across denominational lines through bodies rather than through hierarchies: the World Evangelical Alliance from 1846, the National Association of Evangelicals from 1942, founded by a thousand leaders as a middle way between the bitterly divided fundamentalist and progressive streams of American Christianity, and the Lausanne Movement from 1974 3,5,4.
Scripture and Bible translations
Evangelicals read the Bible as the final authority and expect ordinary people to read it for themselves, which is why the movement has always poured effort into translation, distribution and Bible study. The revivals happened with the King James Version in hand; congregations now read the New International Version, the English Standard Version, the New Living Translation and the Christian Standard Bible, among others.
The fullest evangelical statement about Scripture is in the Lausanne Covenant of 1974, drawn up at a congress of participants from more than 150 nations with John Stott as its chief architect. It affirms the divine inspiration, truthfulness and authority of both Testaments in their entirety as the only written word of God, without error in all that it affirms, and the only infallible rule of faith and practice, and adds that the Spirit still speaks through it and illumines the minds of God's people in every culture to perceive its truth freshly 4. The verses below are given in the NET Bible.
Available evidence
The NIV has frequently led industry sales rankings, with the NLT, ESV, KJV, CSB and NKJV also prominent. Sales indicate availability and consumer demand, but do not directly measure congregational or pulpit use. Independent churches prescribe no common translation.
These passages illustrate themes discussed in this profile; they are not a survey of members' favorite verses. Each is quoted from the NET Bible and links to its chapter. You can explore the text for study or personal reflection; memorization is optional.
Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the person dedicated to God may be capable and equipped for every good work.
All scripture inspired and useful. Biblicism, in the verse evangelical statements of faith cite before any other.
For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received – that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures,
Of first importance: Christ died for our sins. The cross at the centre, which is what crucicentrism means.
he saved us not by works of righteousness that we have done but on the basis of his mercy, through the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the Holy Spirit,
Not by works of righteousness but by his mercy. Edwards preached justification by faith alone at Northampton in 1734, and the revival followed.
People
Jonathan Edwards1703 to 1758 Congregational minister at Northampton, Massachusetts, whose 1734 sermons on justification by faith alone produced the revival he then described in print for the whole English-speaking world. An influential theologian of early American evangelicalism.11
George Whitefield1714 to 1770 Preached in fields and marketplaces to crowds no church could hold, crossed the Atlantic seven times, and turned scattered local revivals into one transatlantic movement.8
Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon1707 to 1791 Financed and directed the English revival, built chapels, and founded Trevecca College in Wales in 1768 to train ministers. The connexion she founded still carries her name.12
Charles Grandison Finney1792 to 1875 The leading revivalist of the Second Great Awakening, who taught that a revival could be prepared for by the right means, and who took that conviction into abolition and into the presidency of Oberlin College.13
Billy Graham1918 to 2018 Preached in person to more people than anyone in history, and did as much as any single figure to make evangelical a word the wider public recognised.14
John Stott1921 to 2011 An Anglican rector in London and the chief architect of the Lausanne Covenant of 1974, the document that gave the worldwide movement a common statement of what it is.15
Today
Evangelicals are counted rather than enrolled, since there is no body to belong to, so the figures depend on who is counting and how. The World Evangelical Alliance, founded in London in 1846 and now the largest international body of evangelical churches, reports over 424 million affiliated members on the World Christian Database's 2026 estimate 5,17. Surveys that ask about belief instead, using the four NAE and LifeWay statements, produce different numbers again, and the association says plainly that research outcomes vary because the methods of identification do 2.
The movement's centre has moved. Most evangelicals now live in Africa, Latin America and Asia rather than in Europe or North America, and the Lausanne congresses, which have met since 1974 with participants from more than 150 nations, are where that shift shows most clearly 4,18. In the United States the National Association of Evangelicals remains the main institutional home, with member denominations, colleges and agencies, and its relief arm World Relief began with the refugee crisis of the Second World War 1,3.
Words to know
justification
How a person is made right with God. Luther's teaching that this happens by faith alone, as a gift, was the heart of the Reformation.
creed
A short statement of belief said together in worship. The Nicene Creed is shared by nearly every Christian tradition.
confession
In the Reformation churches, a written statement of what a church believes, such as the Augsburg Confession. In Catholic and Orthodox use, also the sacrament of telling one's sins to a priest.
canon
The list of books a community counts as Scripture. Jewish, Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox canons overlap almost entirely and differ at the edges.
congregational government
Church government in which the members of each local congregation decide their own affairs, including choosing their own minister, with no bishop or presbytery above them. Congregations may join associations for fellowship and shared work, but those bodies advise rather than rule.
sacrament
A sacred act Christians believe carries God's grace, such as baptism and communion. Traditions count and understand them differently.
camp meeting
An outdoor gathering, usually lasting several days, where people camp on the ground and attend preaching and prayer several times a day. Camp meetings shaped American revivalism from about 1800, and the Holiness movement organised its own from 1867.
schism
A formal parting between churches. The Great Schism of 1054 divided Catholic West from Orthodox East.
Questions people ask
Is evangelical a denomination?
No. It is a set of convictions held inside many denominations, and a person can be an evangelical Anglican, an evangelical Baptist, an evangelical Presbyterian or a member of an independent church. The National Association of Evangelicals describes its own community as bringing together Reformed, Holiness, Anabaptist, Pentecostal, Charismatic and other traditions 2.
What are the four marks of an evangelical?
Conversionism, biblicism, activism and crucicentrism. The historian David Bebbington identified them, and evangelical bodies adopted the summary: lives transformed through a born-again experience, a high regard for the Bible as ultimate authority, the gospel expressed in mission and social reform, and the cross of Christ at the centre 2.
What is the difference between evangelical and fundamentalist?
They overlap in doctrine and differ in posture. The National Association of Evangelicals was founded in 1942 by about a thousand leaders precisely as a middle way between what it called the bitterly divided fundamentalist and progressive streams of American Christianity, seeking a movement that held its convictions while cooperating widely and engaging the wider culture 3. Fundamentalism generally kept a stricter separation.
Does evangelical mean the same thing everywhere?
No, and the word travels badly. In Germany and much of continental Europe evangelisch simply means Protestant, especially Lutheran. In Latin America evangélico covers Protestants generally. In the United States the word has picked up political associations that many evangelicals elsewhere do not share, and the NAE notes that its own convictions rather than political, social or cultural trends are what define the term 2.
What is the Lausanne Covenant?
A statement drawn up at the International Congress on World Evangelization at Lausanne in 1974, with participants from more than 150 nations and John Stott as its chief architect. It affirms the authority of Scripture, the uniqueness of Christ, the church's duty in evangelism and in social responsibility together, and it is widely treated as the nearest thing the worldwide movement has to a common charter 4.
Sources
Numbered references link the account above to its sources. These include the tradition's own documents and outside reference works. The review status below distinguishes source checking from completed member and scholarly review.
BibleVerse. “Evangelical revivals: where they came from, what they hold, and the Bible they read.” bibleverse.site, version 2026-09-09, https://bibleverse.site/denominations/evangelical/
Awaiting review by a member of the tradition. First published 2026-09-07; last changed 2026-09-09. Years before the common era are written BC, and later years plainly, as the site's Christian pages do.
Found something wrong? Send it through the contact page. A correction checked against two sources is made within a week and logged in this page's change history.
One sentence to Nicodemus at night, which three centuries of preachers have treated as the whole business, and the reason there is such a thing as an evangelical.
