Anthony Norris Groves

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Anthony Norris Groves (1795-1853)

The first brethren missionary
Father of faith missions

[edit] Early Life

Married

Dentist

He gave up his practice in Exeter to become a missionary with the Church Missionary Society. During his training at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1826, he started to feel the Holy Sprit stiring his heart about not needing an education to preach the gospel to the lost, and the non-biblical practice of ordination. In later 1827 he withdrew from the college and said:

"This, I doubt not, is the mind of God concerning us, that we should come together in all simplicity as disciples, not waiting on any pulpit or minister, but trusting that the Lord would edify us together, by ministering as he pleased and saw good from the midst of ourselves."A. N. Groves [1]

[edit] Ministry

Anthony Norris Groves and his first wife went to be missionaries in Bagdad (then in the Ottoman Empire but now the capital of Iraq) and depended on the Lord to meet their daily needs.

[edit] Writings

Groves wrote a small booklet titled Christian devotedness which dramatically impacted George Mueller. Mueller married Groves sister and this booklet was the foundation for Mueller's orphanage work.

[edit] Ending Years

Is it not a sweet fruit of unconditional salvation that it has taught the soul to esteem God's will concerning all things to be right? Imperfect obedience to the divine will can only be, I conceive, the fruit of imperfect love. (Memoir of A. N. Groves, 189,234).[2]

[edit] Biographies

NEW - The Life and Times of Anthony Norris Groves, Father of Faith Missions. Robert Bernard Dann. pp. 606. Authentic Books / Paternoster 2004. ISBN 1-884543-90-1

Anthony Norris Groves, Saint and Pioneer. G. H. Lang pp. 440. Thynne & Co.: London, 1939.

Memoir of the late Anthony Norris Groves, reprint (2002) edited by Sentinel Kulp, ISBN 0965651940.
The addenda includes the text of Groves' notable pamphlet on Christian Devotedness.