#Charles spurgeon series#

Slavery had been abolished in England since 1833, but it was still going strong in America in Spurgeon’s day, thanks largely to slave-holding Christians defending the wicked institution through deplorable methods of biblical interpretation. He also found time to campaign against what he perceived to be one of the grossest injustices in history: human slavery. Spurgeon personally established and funded orphanages, a college to train the poor for Christian ministry, a book distribution society for London’s working class, and worked tirelessly to alleviate poverty.

Here is a hero who, despite pastoring a mega-church, preaching several times per week, and publishing hundreds of books, found the time and energy to support dozens of ministries whose purpose was to alleviate suffering in a cultural context where thousands of people were suffering. Here is a man who powerfully practiced what he preached. Spurgeon’s championing of social justice causes can certainly be seen in his sermons, but we see it most clearly in his personal life. Spurgeon believed that followers of Christ were obligated to “be on the side of peace and of justice…on the side of everything that is according to the mind of God, and according to the law of love.” 1 While he most certainly believed that the primary purpose of his preaching was to declare the gracious salvation that can be found only in Christ Jesus, he also understood that the gospel of Christ- the very gospel that eternally saves souls-comes with temporal social implications. He did not, as so many do, draw a sharp line of separation between the important work of evangelism and attention to the social injustices of his day. However, we would be mistaken to assume that this “soul-winner” focused exclusively on winning souls. He reached thousands, and he did so without compromising his faithfulness to preaching the whole counsel of God as the 63 published volumes of his sermons bear witness. By all accounts, Spurgeon’s ministry stands as one of the most numerically fruitful in documented history. His sermons were distributed all over the world with an estimated 100 million copies being sold by the time of his death. The pioneer mega-church pastor attracted weekly crowds numbering in the thousands to his Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, England.

#Charles spurgeon series#

Read the introduction to this series here.Ĭharles Haddon Spurgeon and Gospel-Driven Social JusticeĬharles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) is rightly known today for his preaching.

This is the second post in a series by Casey McCall.