Anthony Norris Groves
Encyclopedia
Anthony Norris Groves has been described as the "father of faith missions". He launched the first Protestant mission to Arabic-speaking Muslims, and settled in Baghdad, now the capital of Iraq, and later in southern India. His ideas influenced a circle of friends who became leaders in the Plymouth Brethren
. Among these were J. N. Darby, J. V. Parnell, (Lord Congleton)
, and George Müller
, who had married Groves' sister Mary.
The significance of Groves lies in his desire to simplify the task of churches and missions by returning to the methods of Christ and his apostles described in the New Testament. As a missionary, his goal was to help indigenous converts form their own churches without dependence on foreign training, authorisation or finance. His ideas eventually found wide acceptance in evangelical circles.
Groves was born in Newton Valence
, Hampshire
, England. Having trained as a dentist
in London, he set up practice in Plymouth
, at the age of 19. Two years later he married his cousin Mary Bethia Thompson, and moved to Exeter.
, with a view to ordination in the Church of England and appointment with the Church Missionary Society. His study of the New Testament led him to believe that the practices of the early church should be considered a model for every age and culture, and this caused him to consider withdrawing from Trinity College, from the CMS, and from the Anglican communion on his wife's advice. However, he had already laid the money aside and considered that he would be thought fickle if he suddenly abandoned his application. The morning before he was due to depart for Dublin, however, he was awoken by a noise and, on investigating, found that a burglary had taken place. Two packets of money were in his drawers - one containing £40 for the Irish trip and the other containing £16 for taxes: only the packet containing £40 was taken. Groves took this as a sign from God that he was not to go to Dublin and thereafter he gave up the idea.
He met with other Christian believers in private houses for study of the apostles' doctrine, and for fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer, as was the custom of the early church (Acts 2:42), without requiring the presence of any ordained minister. It was here that he met J. N. Darby
and others who were later to become prominent leaders in the Plymouth Brethren
movement. He became increasingly concerned with the drift of the Plymouth Brethren towards sectarianism under the leadership of Darby and aligned himself with George Müller
when the brethren split in 1848 to form the Open Brethren
and Exclusive Brethren
.
, together with their two young sons, Henry and Frank, and accompanied by several Christian friends, one of whom was John Kitto
. A second party set out to join them the following year, including Francis William Newman
and John Vesey Parnell. In March 1831 Baghdad entered upon a year of intense misery, with civil war, plague, floods and famine, in which Groves suffered the death of his wife and a recently born baby daughter.
opened the way for unrestricted Christian missionary work in India. On invitation from Colonel Arthur Cotton, in 1833, Groves visited widely among missionaries in India, and found open doors for the gospel in many parts of the country. In 1834 he accompanied the Scottish missionary educator Alexander Duff from Calcutta to Scotland, nursing him slowly back to health. Duff probably owed his life to Groves's attentions, as indeed did Arthur Cotton on an earlier occasion.
During his time in Britain, Groves married for a second time. His wife was Harriet Baynes. The wedding took place on 25 April 1835 at St Mary's Church, Great Malvern. She accompanied Groves when he returned to India in 1836. Groves was accompanied by John Kitto, Edward Cronin and John V Parnel (2nd Baron Congleton). Rejoined by his sons and others from Baghdad
, he established a missionary team in Madras supported largely through his dentistry, and later a farm and mission settlement in Chittoor
. He recruited a number of missionaries to assist existing efforts in several parts of India, and to pioneer new ventures, notably in the Godavari
Delta and Tamilnadu.
Groves advocated the adoption of the New Testament as a manual of missionary methods. As a primitivist among missiologists
, he pre-dated the more celebrated Roland Allen
by eighty years. One of Groves's Indian disciples was John Arulappan who adopted his principles. As a full-time evangelist, Arulappan lived "by faith" and stimulated the creation of a network of indigenous Indian fellowships. Groves's ideas were later taken up in India by descendants of Arulappan associated with Bakht Singh
, and, in a Chinese context, by Watchman Nee
.
Groves continued preaching and teaching in India until ill health forced him back to England in 1852. His niece, Lydia Müller, wrote at the time 'Leaning his head on his hand, he sweetly fell asleep in Jesus, at twelve on Friday, May 20, 1853' in the home of his sister's husband George Müller
. He is buried in Arnos Vale Cemetery
in Bristol. He considered his life a failure, and did not live long enough to see the worldwide impact of his ideas and example on a new generation of "faith missions" springing from the 1859-60 Revivals.
, expounding Jesus' teaching concerning stewardship of material possessions. He exhorted all Christians to live economically, trusting God to supply their needs, and devoting their income to the cause of the Gospel. This booklet had a major impact upon George Müller
, and through him on James Hudson Taylor (who soon after conversion attended the Kennington meeting where Edward Cronin
was local) and many other significant Christian leaders.
Groves' early journals Journal of a Residence in Baghdad were edited by A.J. Scott and published by J.Nisbet, London in 1831 & 1832. After his death, his memoirs were published in 1856 by his widow Harriet Groves, under the title Memoir of the late A.N. Groves, containing Extracts from his Letters and Journals.
for historians of the Plymouth Brethren.
task through his journeys to Mesopotamia and India which he undertook without the backing of the State or Church. Instead, he put into practice the Biblical principle of trusting God alone to supply his needs.
Plymouth Brethren
The Plymouth Brethren is a conservative, Evangelical Christian movement, whose history can be traced to Dublin, Ireland, in the late 1820s. Although the group is notable for not taking any official "church name" to itself, and not having an official clergy or liturgy, the title "The Brethren," is...
. Among these were J. N. Darby, J. V. Parnell, (Lord Congleton)
John Parnell, 2nd Baron Congleton
John Vesey Parnell, 2nd Baron Congleton was the son of Sir Henry Brooke Parnell, 1st Baron Congleton and Lady Caroline Elizabeth Dawson-Damer .-Life:...
, and George Müller
George Müller
George Müller , a Christian evangelist and Director of the Ashley Down orphanage in Bristol, England, cared for 10,024 orphans in his life...
, who had married Groves' sister Mary.
The significance of Groves lies in his desire to simplify the task of churches and missions by returning to the methods of Christ and his apostles described in the New Testament. As a missionary, his goal was to help indigenous converts form their own churches without dependence on foreign training, authorisation or finance. His ideas eventually found wide acceptance in evangelical circles.
Biography
His Life At Early Age:Groves was born in Newton Valence
Newton Valence
Newton Valence is a village and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is 4.4 miles south of Alton, just off the A32 road....
, Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
, England. Having trained as a dentist
Dentist
A dentist, also known as a 'dental surgeon', is a doctor that specializes in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases and conditions of the oral cavity. The dentist's supporting team aides in providing oral health services...
in London, he set up practice in Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
, at the age of 19. Two years later he married his cousin Mary Bethia Thompson, and moved to Exeter.
Call to missionary work
In 1826, while continuing his dentistry in Exeter, he enrolled as an external student of theology at Trinity College, DublinTrinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
, with a view to ordination in the Church of England and appointment with the Church Missionary Society. His study of the New Testament led him to believe that the practices of the early church should be considered a model for every age and culture, and this caused him to consider withdrawing from Trinity College, from the CMS, and from the Anglican communion on his wife's advice. However, he had already laid the money aside and considered that he would be thought fickle if he suddenly abandoned his application. The morning before he was due to depart for Dublin, however, he was awoken by a noise and, on investigating, found that a burglary had taken place. Two packets of money were in his drawers - one containing £40 for the Irish trip and the other containing £16 for taxes: only the packet containing £40 was taken. Groves took this as a sign from God that he was not to go to Dublin and thereafter he gave up the idea.
He met with other Christian believers in private houses for study of the apostles' doctrine, and for fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer, as was the custom of the early church (Acts 2:42), without requiring the presence of any ordained minister. It was here that he met J. N. Darby
John Nelson Darby
John Nelson Darby was an Anglo-Irish evangelist, and an influential figure among the original Plymouth Brethren. He is considered to be the father of modern Dispensationalism. He produced a translation of the Bible based on the Hebrew and Greek texts called The Holy Scriptures: A New Translation...
and others who were later to become prominent leaders in the Plymouth Brethren
Plymouth Brethren
The Plymouth Brethren is a conservative, Evangelical Christian movement, whose history can be traced to Dublin, Ireland, in the late 1820s. Although the group is notable for not taking any official "church name" to itself, and not having an official clergy or liturgy, the title "The Brethren," is...
movement. He became increasingly concerned with the drift of the Plymouth Brethren towards sectarianism under the leadership of Darby and aligned himself with George Müller
George Müller
George Müller , a Christian evangelist and Director of the Ashley Down orphanage in Bristol, England, cared for 10,024 orphans in his life...
when the brethren split in 1848 to form the Open Brethren
Open Brethren
The Open Brethren, sometimes called Christian Brethren or "Plymouth Brethren", are a group of Protestant Evangelical Christian churches that arose in the late 1820s as part of the Assembly Movement...
and Exclusive Brethren
Exclusive Brethren
The Exclusive Brethren are a subset of the Christian evangelical movement generally described as the Plymouth Brethren. They are distinguished from the Open Brethren from whom they separated in 1848....
.
Missionary to Baghdad
In 1829 Groves and his wife Mary set out for BaghdadBaghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
, together with their two young sons, Henry and Frank, and accompanied by several Christian friends, one of whom was John Kitto
John Kitto
John Kitto was an English biblical scholar of Cornish descent.-Biography:Born in Plymouth, John Kitto was a sickly child, son of a Cornish stonemason. The drunkenness of his father and the poverty of his family meant that much of his childhood was spent in the workhouse. He had no more than three...
. A second party set out to join them the following year, including Francis William Newman
Francis William Newman
Francis William Newman , the younger brother of Cardinal Newman, was an English scholar and miscellaneous writer.-Life:...
and John Vesey Parnell. In March 1831 Baghdad entered upon a year of intense misery, with civil war, plague, floods and famine, in which Groves suffered the death of his wife and a recently born baby daughter.
Missionary to India
At this time, a revised charter granted to the East India CompanyBritish East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
opened the way for unrestricted Christian missionary work in India. On invitation from Colonel Arthur Cotton, in 1833, Groves visited widely among missionaries in India, and found open doors for the gospel in many parts of the country. In 1834 he accompanied the Scottish missionary educator Alexander Duff from Calcutta to Scotland, nursing him slowly back to health. Duff probably owed his life to Groves's attentions, as indeed did Arthur Cotton on an earlier occasion.
During his time in Britain, Groves married for a second time. His wife was Harriet Baynes. The wedding took place on 25 April 1835 at St Mary's Church, Great Malvern. She accompanied Groves when he returned to India in 1836. Groves was accompanied by John Kitto, Edward Cronin and John V Parnel (2nd Baron Congleton). Rejoined by his sons and others from Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
, he established a missionary team in Madras supported largely through his dentistry, and later a farm and mission settlement in Chittoor
Chittoor
Chittoor also known as Chittur, is a City and municipal corporation located in the Chittoor District of Andhra Pradesh, India. It is conveniently located on major highways linking the cities of Bangalore and Chennai....
. He recruited a number of missionaries to assist existing efforts in several parts of India, and to pioneer new ventures, notably in the Godavari
Godavari River
The Godavari is a river that runs from western to southern India and is considered to be one of the big river basins in India. With a length of 1465 km, it is the second longest river in India , that runs within the country and also the longest river in South India...
Delta and Tamilnadu.
Groves advocated the adoption of the New Testament as a manual of missionary methods. As a primitivist among missiologists
Missiology
Missiology is the area of practical theology that investigates the mandate, message, and mission of the Christian church, especially the nature of missionary work...
, he pre-dated the more celebrated Roland Allen
Roland Allen
-Life:He was born in Bristol, England, the son of an Anglican priest; but was orphaned early in life. He trained for ministry at Oxford and became a priest in 1893. Allen spent two periods in Northern China working for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel...
by eighty years. One of Groves's Indian disciples was John Arulappan who adopted his principles. As a full-time evangelist, Arulappan lived "by faith" and stimulated the creation of a network of indigenous Indian fellowships. Groves's ideas were later taken up in India by descendants of Arulappan associated with Bakht Singh
Bakht Singh
Bakht Singh Chabra was a Christian evangelist in India and other parts of South Asia. He is often regarded as one of the most well-known bible teachers and preachers and pioneers of the Indian Church movement and Gospel contextualization. According to Indian traditions, he is also known as...
, and, in a Chinese context, by Watchman Nee
Watchman Nee
Watchman Nee was a Chinese Christian author and church leader during the early 20th century. He spent the last 20 years of his life in prison and was severely persecuted by the Communists in China. Together with Wangzai, Zhou-An Lee, Shang-Jie Song, and others, Nee founded The Church Assembly...
.
Groves continued preaching and teaching in India until ill health forced him back to England in 1852. His niece, Lydia Müller, wrote at the time 'Leaning his head on his hand, he sweetly fell asleep in Jesus, at twelve on Friday, May 20, 1853' in the home of his sister's husband George Müller
George Müller
George Müller , a Christian evangelist and Director of the Ashley Down orphanage in Bristol, England, cared for 10,024 orphans in his life...
. He is buried in Arnos Vale Cemetery
Arnos Vale Cemetery
Arnos Vale Cemetery , located in Arno's Vale in Bristol, England, was established in 1837. Its first burial was in 1839. The cemetery followed a joint-stock model, funded by shareholders. It was laid out as an Arcadian landscape with buildings by Charles Underwood.Arnos Vale cemetery is located on...
in Bristol. He considered his life a failure, and did not live long enough to see the worldwide impact of his ideas and example on a new generation of "faith missions" springing from the 1859-60 Revivals.
Author
In 1825, Groves wrote a small booklet Christian DevotednessChristian Devotedness
-Synopsis:Subtitled The Consideration of Our Savior's Precept, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth". It is a little Bible study, expounding Jesus' teaching concerning stewardship of material possessions...
, expounding Jesus' teaching concerning stewardship of material possessions. He exhorted all Christians to live economically, trusting God to supply their needs, and devoting their income to the cause of the Gospel. This booklet had a major impact upon George Müller
George Müller
George Müller , a Christian evangelist and Director of the Ashley Down orphanage in Bristol, England, cared for 10,024 orphans in his life...
, and through him on James Hudson Taylor (who soon after conversion attended the Kennington meeting where Edward Cronin
Edward Cronin
Edward Cronin was a pioneer of homeopathy in England and one of the founders of the Plymouth Brethren movement.-Life:...
was local) and many other significant Christian leaders.
Groves' early journals Journal of a Residence in Baghdad were edited by A.J. Scott and published by J.Nisbet, London in 1831 & 1832. After his death, his memoirs were published in 1856 by his widow Harriet Groves, under the title Memoir of the late A.N. Groves, containing Extracts from his Letters and Journals.
Letters
Throughout his life, Groves corresponded with several prominent leaders of the early Brethren movement. His letters are a notable primary sourcePrimary source
Primary source is a term used in a number of disciplines to describe source material that is closest to the person, information, period, or idea being studied....
for historians of the Plymouth Brethren.
Father of faith missions
The biography by R. B. Dann shows that Anthony Norris Groves may be rightly regarded as the "father of faith missions". By his example, he challenged much of previous thinking about the missionaryMissionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
task through his journeys to Mesopotamia and India which he undertook without the backing of the State or Church. Instead, he put into practice the Biblical principle of trusting God alone to supply his needs.
Books
- Dann, Robert Bernard, Father of Faith Missions : The Life and Times of Anthony Norris Groves, (Authentic Media, 2004), ISBN 1-884543-90-1
- Dann, Robert Bernard, The Legacy of Anthony Norris Groves, (International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Vol.29, No.4, Oct. 2005)
- Dann, Robert Bernard, The Primitivist Ecclesiology of Anthony Norris Groves: A radical influence on the nineteenth-century Protestant church in Britain, Trafford Publishing, 2007, ISBN 1-4251-0374-X
- Dann, Robert Bernard, The Primitivist Missiology of Anthony Norris Groves: A radical influence on nineteenth-century Protestant mission PhD thesis, University of Liverpool, 2006; Trafford Publishing, 2007, ISBN 1-4251-1001-0
- Groves, A. N., Christian Devotedness http://web.ukonline.co.uk/d.haslam/groves/Anthony%20Norris%20Groves.htm
- Lang, G. H., Anthony Norris Groves: A Combined Study of a Man of God and of the Principles and Practice of the Brethren, reprint, 1988, Schoettle Publishing Company
- Groves, Harriet, Memoir of the Late Anthony Norris Groves, ISBN 0-9656519-4-0
- Lang, G.H., The History and Diaries of An Indian Christian: J.C.Aroolappen, U.S.A., Schoettle Publishing Co., Inc., 1988, Schoettle Publishing Company
- Stunt, Timothy C.F., Anthony Norris Groves in an International Context: A Re-assessment of his Early Development, in The Growth of the Brethren Movement: National and International Experiences (Studies in Evangelical History & Thought), edited by Neil T.R. Dickson and Tim Grass, (Carlisle, Paternoster Press, 2006), ISBN 1-842274-27-9. pp. 223–40.
Video
- Anthony Norris Groves - the Quiet Trailblazer http://www.cta.uk.com/shop.asp?pid=164, (2004), Christian Television Association for Echoes of Service
External links
- Christian Devotedness — transcribed from chapter V of Anthony Norris Groves, Saint & Pioneer by G.H. Lang. London, Thynne & Co. Ltd. 1939.
- Anthony Norris Groves (1795-1853) — has some brief biographical data plus a bibliography relating to A. N. Groves, that includes a modern reprint of his Memoirs.
- Groves' famous "prophetic letter" to Darby showing his concerns that the "brethren" were becoming another Christian denomination