House Church Talk - T. Austin-Sparks

[forwarded]

received yesterday from Doug Riggs, Tulsa, OK

 "Mr Sparks", as he was affectionately known, was born in London, England 
in 1888. He came to know Christ as a teenager and later became a Baptist 
pastor. However, his "ecclesiastical" career took a decidedly different 
direction when a physical crisis brought him to a place of brokenness. 

At the same time God also delivered him from his previous prejudice 
against anything that was related to the "deeper life". As a result, he 
joined Jessie Penn-Lewis in the ministry of the spiritual growth of 
believers; a ministry to which he devoted his life and which also cost 
him his reputation and his career in the denominational circles of 
England. 

He was based in southeast London at Honor Oak Christian Fellowship which 
is where Watchman Nee met and fellowshipped with him during a visit to 
England in 1933. Nee's refusal to disavow Austin-Sparks later became the 
grounds for him being disfellowshipped by the Taylor Brethren. It has 
been said that Watchman Nee considered Austin-Sparks as his spiritual 
mentor, and their fellowship appears to have been rich and fruitful. 

T. Austin-Sparks Ministries T. Austin-Sparks "T. Austin-Sparks was one of 
the greatest spiritual figures of the twentieth century. Perhaps no one 
in the last one hundred years gave us ministry that is so 
Christ-centered. 

When the measure of a man's ministry is taken as to how much he exalted 
Christ, then T. Austin-Sparks is without peer. 

Sparks wrote over one hundred books. The golden chord, which ran through 
all these works, was the exaltation of his Lord. He has given us more 
spiritual insight into Christ than perhaps any other man of the last 1700 
years . . .. 

Sparks' writing speak little of the Christ of Galilee, rather he has 
given us the resurrected and enthroned Lord. He has gone even farther 
than this, to show us the insuperable Christ who dwells within us. This 
presentation of his Lord would be enough to make Sparks' ministry unique, 
but Sparks went on to join head to body (Christ and the church). As 
surely as his spoken and written ministry exalted the Lord, so also 
Sparks called forth the almost forgotten centrality of the church. For T. 
Austin-Sparks, the two were inseparable. Nor did he speak of the church 
that most men have known and experienced."
 
Gene Edwards (Author)

http://www.austin-sparks.net/testimony.html

Online Books and Articles:
http://www.austin-sparks.net/enter.html