John Wilbur Chapman

John Wilbur Chapman or J. Wilbur Chapman (born June 17, 1859 in Richmond , Indiana , † December 25, 1918 in New York City ) was an American Presbyterian pastor, author, church leader and evangelist who worked with the gospel singer Charles McCallon Alexander traveled as a revival preacher in the United States, Asia and Europe.

Life

Chapman was the second youngest of nine children of Alexander H. (1826-1878) and Lorinda Chapman († 1872). He attended a Quaker school in West Florence and the Methodist Sunday school . Then came Richmond High School. At the age of 17 he became a Christian and joined the Richmond Presbyterian Church. From 1876 he attended Lake Forest College , the former Oberlin College , and received there his Bachelor of Arts and his Masters at Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati , Ohio . During that time, April 13, 1881, he was ordained pastor at Probate Court , Butler County , Ohio. He was awarded a doctorate in theology from the College of Wooster and the University of Heidelberg .

Chapman entered the pastoral ministry of the Presbyterian Church in College Corner , Ohio and Freedom , Indiana, in 1882 . From 1883 to 1885 he was pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church in Schuylerville and from 1885 to 1890 in Albany , both cities in New York State . From 1890 to 1892 and 1896 to 1899 he served as pastor of the Bethany Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia and from 1899 to 1902 at the 4th Presbyterian Church in New York City. In 1900 he traveled with his family by ship via Gibraltar to Egypt and the Holy Land and back via Europe, which he also reported on.

In 1893, Chapman began preaching with Chicago's noted evangelist Dwight Lyman Moody and also led his own evangelistic events. He was a major influence on the ministry of evangelist Billy Sunday . In 1895 he was appointed Corresponding Secretary of the Evangelization Committee of the Presbyterian General Assembly, overseeing the activities of the 51 evangelists serving in 470 cities. In 1904 he himself began major evangelistic campaigns in Pittsburgh and Syracuse to set a good example for other evangelists. Starting in 1905, John H. Converse , a wealthy Presbyterian philanthropist and entrepreneur, sponsored Chapman's full-time evangelistic ministry. With the well-known gospel singer Charles McCallon Alexander, he founded the Chapman-Alexander Simultaneous Campaign . The first joint campaign took place from March 12 to April 19, 1908 in different parts of Philadelphia. A similar campaign followed in Boston less than a year later .

Chapman-Alexander's first worldwide campaign by ship left Vancouver , British Columbia on March 26, 1909, and did not return until November 26, 1909. The trip led first to Honolulu in Hawaii and the Fiji Islands, then to Melbourne , Sydney , Ipswich , Brisbane , Adelaide , Ballarat , Bendigo and Townsville in Australia. The onward journey took place via Papua New Guinea , Mindanao , Manila , Hong Kong and Kowloon , Canton , Shanghai , Hankow , Beijing and Tientsin in China ; Seoul in Korea and Kobe , Kyoto , Tokyo and Yokohama in Japan . After the many events, the return trip and Christmas 1909 served him as relaxation.

Further campaigns followed in America and in English-speaking Europe. Chapman also served as the director of the Winona Lake Bible Conference in Indiana and attended the Summer Bible Conference in Montreat , North Carolina . The Stony Brook Assembly conferences on Long Island , founded in 1909, were the most popular due to its proximity to New York City. The Stony Brook School at Chapman Parkway 1 was not established until after his death in 1922.

Chapman and Alexander performed their last tour from January 6 to February 13, 1918, and Chapman gave his last sermon at the First Presbyterian Church of Jamaica, New York. In May 1918, Chapman was elected head of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. He was only able to carry out this demanding task for a few months since he died on Christmas Day 1918 after a brief illness.

Private

In 1882 Chapman married Irene E. Steddon. In 1886 she gave birth to a daughter, Bertha Irene Chapman; but shortly afterwards his wife died. He married Agnes Pruyn Strain on November 4, 1888. They had four children: Robert, John Wilbur Jr., Alexander Hamilton, and Agnes Pruyn. His second wife died on June 25, 1907. Chapman married Mabel Cornelia Moulton on August 30, 1910 as the third woman.

Fonts

Ivory Palaces of the King , 1893
Received Ye the Holy Ghost (Power) , 1894
And Peter , 1895
The Lost Crown , 1899
The Secret of a Happy Day , 1899
Kadesh-Barnea (or) The Power of a Surrendered Life , 1899
Spiritual Life of the Sunday School , 1899
Present Day Parables , 1900
Revivals and Missions , 1900
From Life to Life , 1900
The Life and Work of DL Moody , 1900
Present Day Evangelism , 1903
Fishing for Men , 1904
Samuel Hopkins Hadley of Water Street , 1906
Another Mile , 1908
The Problem of Work , 1911
Chapman's Pocket Sermons , 1911
Revival Sermons , 1911
The Personal Touch , 1912
When Home Is Heaven , 1917
The Minister's Handicap , 1918
Day After Day , 1919
Evangelistic Sermons , 1922

Hymnography

One day, Jesus!
What A Friend for Sinners (Our Great Savior)
Tis Jesus

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Ford C. Ottman: J. Wilbur Chapman - A Biography , Doubleday & Page, New York 1920 (detailed biography in English)

personal data
SURNAME	Chapman, John Wilbur
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Chapman, Wilbur (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American Presbyterian pastor, author, church leader, and evangelist
DATE OF BIRTH	June 17, 1859
PLACE OF BIRTH	Richmond , Indiana
DATE OF DEATH	December 25, 1918
Place of death	New York City

[1] Ford C. Ottman: J. Wilbur Chapman - A Biography , Doubleday & Page, New York 1920 (detailed biography in English)