Calvin the evangelist

UCCF's Theology Network is up and running. Lots for me to enjoy exploring in coming weeks.

Interestingly part of the inspiration for setting it up seems to be John Calvin's evangelistic work (sadly much ignored usually):

In 1555, based in Geneva, John Calvin established a top secret programme for the evangelisation of his native France. Using an underground network, with safe houses and hiding places, he slipped agents of the gospel across the border into France to plant new (sometimes literally) underground churches. Its success was astounding: the evangelical faith exploded in both numbers and influence in France. More than 10% of the entire population became Protestant, including something like a third of the nobility. Geneva became a nerve-centre for world evangelisation as missionaries were dispatched from Geneva to Poland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Italy, and even South America. [read more]

This reminded me of something else I had recently read about his few years in Strasbourg at an earlier time:

He placed great importance on fostering the independence of individual members, on kindling and promoting faith in each of them, and on having them assume their individual responsibility for the congregation. Intensive Bible study and a strict church discipline were the means he used to reach these goals. Calvin also succeeded in winning back a remarkable number of Anabaptists to the Protestant fold. It is no coincidence that he entered his name in the membership list of the tailors' guild on July 29, 1539 - a guild known for the many Anabaptists and their sympathizers in its midst. The woman whom Calvin married in Strasbourg, Idelette de Bure, was the wido of an Anabaptist he himself had converted.

(pp. 147f; Greschat, Martin; Martin Bucer: A reformer and his Times)

Of course not everyone might agree that the Anabaptists needed converting :)