3.5 stars

This was a very thorough look at both the life of Groves and the history of the Brethren movement in the UK.

As is typical in a biography like this, there are so many people mentioned that I had a hard time keeping them straight.

The timeline bounced around a lot. About 200 pages in, we witness the death of Groves, and then the author starts in on Groves's various colleagues in greater detail, but backtracks to when Groves was alive. I'm definitely a linear thinker, and would have preferred for the entire book to be chronological. I wish there had been more dates throughout the book, too. It was hard to keep track of the time passing - all of a sudden babies went to being 20-year-olds and the like.

And, because it's exhaustive, it felt too long and dry at times.

But all that makes it sound like I didn't like it, and I actually did. It was very interesting to hear about the man who influenced so many of the missionaries whose stories have influenced me, and to better understand how they were all connected. It was encouraging to know that he didn't consider himself to be successful, and wasn't a "manager" type. I related a lot to his personality and giftings. ( )

I received this recommendation via this list of Top 10 missionary biographies which is definitely worth reading!

https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/10174784-my-top-ten-missionary-biogr...

There is so much to this biography on "The Father of Faith Missions;" Anthony Norris Groves. It is fascinating.... On the front cover is a tree with many well-known names listed among its branches. At the bottom of the trunk sits Groves, directly above him George Muller, Hudson Taylor and George Verwer.....

Groves is credited as one of the founders of the Brethren Movement in England. He suggested that individual believers should be free to meet together in each other's homes for spontaneous worship and study of the Scriptures. The group should also be free to break bread together as commanded by Jesus in the NT. His ideas were seen as radical and he was side-lined by many. But his principles were Biblical;

He urged practical means to fulfill a threefold vision: to meet the needs of the poor, to restore the pattern of New Testament Church life, and to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth. It was in the face of these needs and opportunities that he offered radical solutions: the principles taught by Jesus Himself.

My earnest desire is to re-model the whole plan of missionary operations so as to bring them to the simple standard of God's word

He believed in the principle of "living by faith" in terms of finance and encouraged others to follow his example in selling all he owned to travel to the mission field firstly in Baghdad and later India. He didn't believe in appealing for finance from supporters and suggested instead that missionaries should attempt to become self-supporting as soon as possible. They should live and work among the people they were witnessing to and conform as much as possible to the culture (without breaking Biblical boundaries) this included living as simply as possible to keep the focus on the Gospel and to avoid money/material things becoming the appeal to the "heathen."

Groves found that, possessing little, he had little to worry about, and little to lose. Property, reputation, income, honour: these can be a blessing when we have them, but to lose them may be a greater blessing still. 'What a mercy it is to us,' he remarked, 'to have the world, with its honours, its pleasures and its hopes, crucified with Christ; how it takes away the edge of the Enemy's weapons. When he thinks to make a deadly thrust at us he finds he can only touch that which we have ceased to value, because we have a better inheritance: one incorruptible, undefiled and that fadeth not away.

The first half of the book is dedicated to the life of the man himself; his work in Baghdad and India, the many trials he experienced, the criticism he faced from those opposed to his methods, the illness and death that came to those in his party and eventually to his own family despite their fervent belief that God was protecting them, the plague, famine and flood that hit the city he was living and working in, those that left him due to a divergence of opinion or simply fatigue, his decision to slightly depart from his own principles and the consequence.....

The second half details those that were influenced by Groves either directly or in large part through his tract entitled "Christian devotedness," which seemed to find its way into the most unlikely places and resulted in many being stirred up for Christian service, leaving all to follow Christ. Those he influenced are numerous and may surprise some readers as they are household names. Groves himself remained relatively unknown, probably by preference as he would not have wanted to detract any attention from his Saviour and preferred to do things behind the scenes as it were. The book closes with a list of all of the things he did, presumably to demonstrate that his own view that he had accomplished nothing of significance during his lifetime was entirely false.

Groves seemed to me to be a man sincerely committed to following Jesus whereever that call might take him and whatever might be the cost.

"Adversities and adventures may challenge and change us, but we should never forget that all God's stories have a happy ending. 'How slow we are,' said Groves, 'to learn that all the discipline of life is to prepare us for eternity; that nothing that has not God in it is either worth caring for or desiring."

The book is well researched and written and is extremely readable. It will be of particular interest to those interested in the Brethren movement as there is an appendix with further details.

I will read this again. I highly recommend it to all Christians. There are so many principles and further things to consider that I cannot document them all here. Buy this book!!



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