Mission with Prophetic Power: The Journal of John Woolman (SRSC 12)

Introduction

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Woolman, offered pastoral care beyond their local gatherings. Ministers would share a “concern” to visit another region with their local meeting, who would then issue a certificate so that the congregation receiving a minister’s visit would know this person was approved by his or her local meeting. They would then travel—often with a companion minister—to visit the sick, conduct funerals and weddings, and share decisions from the larger Society. The bulk of John Woolman’s Journal is a recording of his encounters in meetings and visits, with his own private reflections on various topics along the way. Woolman’s Prophetic Lifestyle and Spirituality John Woolman lived something of a bivocational, missionary life. He was married with one daughter and maintained a secular occupation from which he received his income. Yet some of his time, about a month each year, he would travel and visit meetings and individuals. He also wrote essays which were published and distributed among Friends and others: two essays on “Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes,” “A Plea for the Poor,” 7 “Considerations on Pure Wisdom,” “Considerations on Trade,” “A First Book for Children,” “Considerations on the True Harmony of Mankind,” and others. Woolman’s devotional life, his business life, and his ministry among Friends and others were integrated. This is why I think he is such a helpful model of mission with prophetic power. He spent extended periods of time 7 This essay, also known as “A Word of Remembrance and Caution to the Rich,” is available in Andrew T. Draper, ed., Christian Mission and Poverty: Wisdom from 2,000 Years of Church Leaders , Sacred Roots Spiritual Classics 4 (Wichita, KS: TUMI Press, 2021), 146–67.