2023 Evangel Gathering - Friendship and Flourishing for Missions

46 • 2023 E vangel G athering • S acred R oots T hriving in M inistry : F riendship and F lourishing for M issions

c. Examples from “A Letter to God’s Friends and Fellow Warriors on Why We Read Spiritual Classics Together.” This letter is the introduction to the SRSC series and is found in the back of every SRSC.

1) Charles Harrison Mason (d. 1961)

2) Phoebe Palmer 17

2. Rebecca Proton and Moravian Movement

a. The example of Rebecca Proton 18

b. The Moravian Missionaries explained, “We abundantly share with them [unreached people groups] the printed booklets which they read among themselves and send from one place to the other.” 19

3. John Wesley and the Wesleyans 20

a. John Wesley printed a collection of fifty spiritual classics which he called the “Christian Library.” 21

1) “We must give special importance to supplying the poor with shorter, cheaper and simpler books than those that have existed up to now.” John Wesley 22

17 Phoebe Palmer may be the most important female church leader in Protestantism. See discussion of her theology and ministry in Anizor, Price, and Voss, Evangelical Theology. 18 Jon F. Sensbach, Rebecca’s Revival: Creating Black Christianity in the Atlantic World (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006); See discussion of Protton’s influence in Anizor, Price, and Voss, Evangelical Theology . 19 Klaus Bockmuehl, Books: Gods Tools in the History of Salvation (Vancouver, BC: Regent College, 1986), 17. 20 For more on John Wesley’s use of spiritual classics see the plenary video from the 2021 Evangel/Sacred Roots conference: Kwesi Kamau, “The Cost of Apprenticeship: Historical Foundations for the Pursuit of Wise Spiritual Mentors: The Example of John Wesley” (Wichita, KS: TUMI Press, 2021), https://vimeo.com/556345841. 21 Demarest, Satisfy Your Soul, 259. 22 Bockmuehl, Books , 13.