John Cennick, from CONVERT to Powerful Preacher
[ABOVE: John Cennick, Illustrated History of Methodism. Public domain because of age.]
In Ballymena, Antrim, Ireland, an unusual plaque commemorates an unusual man.
BALLYMENA BOROUGH COUNCIL
JOHN CENNICK
(1718–55)
THE FIRST MORAVIAN EVANGELIST
IN MID-ANTRIM
ARRIVED IN BALLYMENA
ON 9 AUGUST 1746
------
250th ANNIVERSARY
1996
As Ballymena was Cennick’s last major scene of work, we need to color in some background to understand how he came to be there.
Imagine being so afraid of judgment that you scarcely dared lay down at night. That was John Cennick as a teenager. The slightest sound jerked him awake, terrified that judgment day had come. Born in Reading, Berkshire, England, Cennick had a Quaker and Anglican upbringing. Despite his Christian background he had no idea how to find peace with God and lived in dread.
At nine he had heard a dying aunt say the Lord had invited her to drink of the water of life and she would stand before him “as bold as a lion.” How he longed for such confidence. But trying to become righteous in his own strength, he lost ground: gambling, stealing, frittering hours. At seventeen he entered a two-year period of spiritual despair. This was aggravated by his inability to find regular work. He had made the sixty-mile trip to London eight times in search of employment.
What snapped him out of his despondency was the Holy Spirit’s application of Psalm 34 to his heart, especially the words “he who puts his trust in God shall not be desolate.” Who was more desolate than himself? He heard the voice of Jesus say to his heart, “I am your salvation.” Inwardly he danced for joy.
About a year later Cennick met George Whitefield and the Wesley brothers, John and Charles. Cennick became a Methodist. John Wesley recommended him as a teacher. Soon Cennick was preaching in the open air. Rowdies harassed him. At their hands, he endured catcalls, dunking, beatings, and threats of worse. Undeterred he preached for five years in Wiltshire.
But when word leaked back to John Wesley that Cennick had criticized him in a letter to Whitefield, relations between the two became strained. Cennick soon joined the Moravians. Charles Wesley continued to help him with his hymnwriting.
Eventually Cennick went over to Ireland in behalf of the Moravians. He gathered followers in Dublin. The Moravians met in a rented building. Unable to compete with the Moravians, the Methodists outbid them for the hall, effectively breaking the Moravians' ministry because they could not obtain an equivalent meeting place.
About this time, Cennick made his own task harder by offending Irish Catholics. Disgusted with veneration of Mary and prayers to the saints he had preached a vehement sermon against both practices. Because he described Mary as “swaddling” the baby Jesus, Catholics mocked all evangelicals as “swaddlers.” Cennick then faced jeers and opposition wherever he went.
Despite this setback, Cennick planted ten churches and started about 200 Moravian classes (small groups). Ballymena was one of the places to which he took the gospel. As the historical marker says, he arrived there on this day, 9 August 1746. Perhaps his grueling efforts were already taking a toll on his spirit. At any rate, he mentioned to a friend that he anticipated he would not live much longer. On a trip to confer with Moravian leaders in London, he caught a fever. After a few restless and incoherent days he died. He was just 36 and left behind a wife and two children. The Moravian work in Ireland lost steam and was gradually assimilated into other evangelical groups.
First Fruits tells of a Moravian work in the West Indies. Watch at RedeemTV.
