Anyone familiar with Shubael Stearns style of preaching?

Artfuldodger

Senior Member
He sent men out to Appalachia but his bother in law Daniel Marshall started a lot of Baptist Churches in Georgia.
Back to Stearns,
Shubael Stearns, had a heavy dependence on singsong chant interspersed with elongated shouts and wails, appearing so similar to that of modern “Lining Out” traditions or "Presenting the line” as it is also known. Before Churches had songbooks, there was 'Lined-Out' Gospel.
Lining out, also called hymn lining, is a form of a cappella hymn-singing or hymnody in which a leader, often called the clerk or precentor, gives each line of a hymn tune as it is to be sung, usually in a chanted form giving or suggesting the tune. It can be considered a form of call and response.
 

Artfuldodger

Senior Member
Shubal Stearns musical “barking” preaching is still popular, and the association of churches that he established gave birth to many of the disparate denominations prospering in the region today.
Stearns’s mesmerizing stare and loud, “holy whine” preaching (a nasal tone with a sing-song style, most likely mimicking Whitefield’s homiletics) attracted many curious visitors who later converted.
Shubal Stearns' style of preaching and emphasis on internal conversion were highly important to the “new lights” religion. He became the model for many other preachers who sought to copy his example, down to the least gesture or inflection of voice. His Hymn-lining, also called lining-out or presenting a line in sermons was very popular during this era.
 

Artfuldodger

Senior Member
I'm reading that he patterned his style after George Whitefield. Whitefield memorized his sermons. He used drama and emotions. He varied the timbre of his voice. The effect was electric, the crowd responded with outpourings of emotions.
I wonder if that style was more in line with Holiness Church type preachers.
 
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