Harold Schofield, a brilliant Oxford doctor who had laboured as a missionary in China for many years, was on his knees praying, 'Lord, give me missionaries from British Universities to help in China'.
The day he died, D. E. Hoste applied to Hudson Taylor for mission work in the China Inland Mission (Now Overseas Missionary Fellowship). Schofield's prayer was answered as seven Cambridge students volunteered to leave behind cosy lives of wealth and privilege to serve God in whatever way they were led.
These seven inspired thousands of others to think seriously of missionary service. Included among them was C.T. Studd, captain of England and the finest cricketer of his day - if he could give all that up, then so could anyone!
The story of these seven are an inspiration that God can take people and use them in incredible ways - if they are willing to serve.
As Pollock says in his book 'Theirs is the story of ordinary men, and thus may be repeated'. Will it be repeated in your life?

Preaching's Best Books for Preachers

Best Theological Memoir from Byron Borger, Hearts and Minds Bookstore

How did one of the twentieth century's most celebrated liberals have such a dramatic change of heart?

After growing up in the heart of rural Methodism in Oklahoma, Thomas Oden found Marx, Nietzsche and Freud storming into his imagination. He joined the post-World War II pacifist movement and became enamored with every aspect of the 1950s' ecumenical Student Christian Movement. Ten years before America's entry into the Vietnam war he admired Ho Chi Min as an agrarian patriot. For Oden, every turn was a left turn.

At Yale he earned his PhD under H. Richard Niebuhr and later met with some of the most formidable minds of the era--enjoying conversations with Gadamer, Bultmann and Pannenberg as well as a lengthy discussion with Karl Barth at a makeshift office in his hospital room. While traveling with his family through Turkey, Syria and Israel, he attended Vatican II as an observer and got his first taste of ancient Christianity. And slowly, he stopped making left turns.

Oden's enthusiasms for pacifism, ecumenism and the interface between theology and psychotherapy were ambushed by varied shapes of reality. Yet it was a challenge from a Jewish scholar, his friend and mentor Will Herberg, that precipitated his most dramatic turn--back to the great minds of ancient Christianity. Later a meeting with then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Benedict XVI) planted the seeds for what became Oden's highly influential Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. This fascinating memoir walks us through not only his personal history but some of the most memorable chapters in twentieth-century theology.

Cyprian of Carthage's story is one of incredible perseverance for the sake of the gospel. Living through a time of terrible persecution towards Christians, Cyprian wrestled with questions surrounding the church and contributed greatly to the writings on its importance as the bride of Christ. He dealt first-hand with the effects which persecution has on church bodies and offered many insights which are becoming increasingly relevant in the West today.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.