George Jeffreys

George Jeffreys was born on February 28, 1889, in Maesteg, Wales, in a mining family. His father was a coal miner, and the home was a Christian one. He was brought up in the chapel and was influenced by the great Welsh revival, which came when he was a boy of fifteen. He felt the touch of the Spirit in those years, though he did not fully give his life to Christ at that time. In 1910, he went through a conversion and was drawn into the Pentecostal movement. He began to study at a Pentecostal missionary training school in Preston, England, under the care of Thomas Hackett.

He was a young man of strong convictions and had a deep gift for preaching. He began to hold meetings in the villages and small towns of Wales. In 1915 he was invited by a Pentecostal group in Monaghan, Ireland, to hold a series of meetings. The result was astonishing. Many were converted and healed, and a revival began that spread through the north of Ireland. He formed a group of believers who called themselves the Elim Evangelistic Band, and he became its leader. The name Elim came from the oasis in the book of Exodus where the Israelites found water and palm trees.

The movement grew quickly. In 1920 he and his brother Stephen began campaigns in England, in towns and cities such as Hull, Leeds, Birmingham and London. They hired large halls, advertised widely and preached to crowds of thousands. The meetings were marked by divine healing, and many people reported to be healed. He used a form of preaching that was plain and clear, with a strong appeal to the unconverted. He drew people from all walks of life, and he saw many converted. By the mid-1920s, he was one of the best known evangelists in Britain.

In 1926 he formed the Elim Foursquare Gospel Alliance, an organization that brought together the churches that had grown out of the campaigns. It later became the Elim Pentecostal Church. The movement spread across the British Isles and into other lands, and it became one of the major Pentecostal denominations in Britain. The name reflected the foursquare gospel of Jesus as Savior, Healer, Baptizer and Coming King. He also began a Bible college and other institutions. He also was among the first to use the radio in Britain.

As the movement grew, tensions arose. Jeffreys came to hold views on church government that were out of step with the leaders of Elim. He believed that local churches should be free of the control of a central body, and that the property of each church should belong to the congregation. In 1939 he resigned from the Elim leadership and formed a new body, called the Bible-Pattern Church Fellowship. He also developed views on the return of the Jewish people to Israel and on the doctrine of British Israelism, which he came to hold in a form that was controversial. His later years were marked by disputes, and many who had admired him felt sad.

He was a man of great gifts and also of strong will. He did not suffer opposition well. He was criticized for the way that he handled the leadership and for his refusal to compromise. He admitted his stubbornness in later life. He also dealt with ill health and with the disappointment of seeing his work divided.

He died on January 26, 1962, in Cheshire, England, at the age of seventy-two. His life shows the power of a revival preacher whom God used to bring tens of thousands to Christ, and it reminds us that gifts do not guarantee that a man will keep his balance.