Church History Project

Hi allOne of the things that becomes obvious as part of the sermonindex family is that there is a wealth of heart and experience and information out there.I have been curious about something for many years and I think sermonindex may provide the solution. I would like to compile a database of the dates of preachers and teachers who have made significant contributions to the church of God. I have a hunch that God moves in waves and that truth has its high seasons in many places at the same time.I would like to compile a list of dates to test out my theory. How about it? I am happy to compile the information if folk can supply it. A very simple format would suffice.eg A W Tozer - borndate-glorydate - very brief bio.Let me know what you think? Perhaps someone has already done this?

What a fantastic idea!Think you might be on to something here Ron.Are you thinking along the lines of the speakers here?Another thought, at a later point maybe a cooresponding cross refrence of who inspired them.Something that I keep finding is the close proxemity of influences, like a thread weaving through many of these greats.Sorry, don't want to muddy the waters.Perhaps I could take on part of that aspect, since I opened my big mouth... :-D

Greg wrote ----------------Aiden Wilson Tozer (A.W. Tozer)Born on April 21, 1897Died on May 12, 1963A 20th-century prophet" they called him even in his lifetime. His message was as fresh as it was uncompromising. His single purpose in life was to know God personally, and he encouraged others to do the same. He quickly discovered a deep, abiding relationship with God was something that had to be cultivated.----------------Is this a good format Ron?This would be fine, perhaps an extra field (column) for the main geographical locations of their ministry?

Hi Ron,Jim Lutzweiler, who is the archivist at Southeastern Seminary, Wake Forrest, Univ. ( not the bartending school),has been very helpful to me in the past along these lines. I recently passed some related information to Greg (that I got from Jim) on Lynn G. Broughton. Broughton was among other things, a controversial preacher, and a contemporary, and personal friend of G.Campbell Morgan. Jim Lutzweiler's email is: lutzjscn@infi.net. If that one doesn't work I've got another one I'll give you.I expect any day to receive a copy of Greg's definative Doctoral Disertation on the life of Broughton. At this point and to my knowledge noone else has written it. :-D Clutch :-P

Greg wrote I think it is a spectacular idea! I don't think its really been done in a non-denominational setting and how far back do you want go Ron? I would help as much as possible and would love to help you display the findings.. maybe I could work on a timeline graphical image after with the compiled findings? anyhow I think its a great idea count me in.A time line would be wonderful, although it might get a bit congested. Did you ever see the shareware Chronos software. It was a good idea but very flaky in use.How far back? mmm? I'm thinking about that timeline... but the Quakers seem to be a genuine fresh start. I think their views particularly on 'perfection' influenced the Wesleys. The Wesleys and the Quakers influenced the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army influenced Hudson Taylor and so on... I was thinking of using a spreadsheet to collect the data. Is that the best way?

Hi Clutchyou wrote Broughton was among other things, a controversial preacher, and a contemporary, and personal friend of G.Campbell Morgan. You see this is the kind of thing that excites me. Campbell Morgan was a unique character in that he was a congregational minister who reckoned his spiritual home was with the Methodists. He is my favourite expositor. The Methodists of his day would have been the folk that Leonard Ravenhill trained under... and so it goes on.

I think that if the info is to be put into a real database we may need to define a few columns first. To give it any real meaning we would need to have the truth that this person emphasised as one of the columns. The idea of linking a person to his mentors would also be of benifit I believe.for instance:Name->Watchman NeeBorn->1903Died->1972Time of Ministry->1920-1952Emphasis->Local ChurchMentors->Jessie Penn Lewis, T Austin Sparks, JNDLooking at the above I am thinking that the best solution is to have two tables interlinked. One with the basic bio info. One with truths empahsised. From those two, interesting queries could be done, like list all truths emphasised between 1800 and 1850 for example. Thats just a rough idea off the top of my head, sitting down to plan it may yield the need for further tables and fields.Great idea Ron.

Sure great idea, what do you think of Mike's idea of having a section for inter-linking relationships or who inspired (was the mentor) of the person?Yes, definitely... a separate or integrated project? I only offered because I was interested. I would be happy for Mike to head up the whole thing if he has the time and inclination.You do have to be careful with the web don't you? A quiet afternoon, a thought or two, and suddenly you have world-wide cottage industry on your hands! :-P

Thats just a rough idea off the top of my head, sitting down to plan it may yield the need for further tables and fields.GregI don't know Mike's background, but Stuart (almondBranch) is a techie. How about asking him to spec it out for us? MSAccess might suite you better for your timeline? Stuart's relational database seems to be heading in that direction?Perhaps we should let it bounce around for a day or two to see if any one else 'comes out of the woodwork'. Stuart's example of fields looks excellent to me.This is exciting, I have wanted this for years!

Hi Ron,Sort of like Issac when he re-dug his father, Abraham's wells. The first two were ones that he tried to dig in the places that he himself chose;1.Esek " to poison your eyes" ( best I can tell); strong implications here about what goes in a person. 2.Sitnah "hatred"; root word for Satan.After failing , he went to: 1.Beer-lahai-roi,"The God who lives and sees what we do" :-o 2.Beer-sheba, "Well of the Covenant"; a great place to camp out. :-D 3.Rehoboth, "space, or room ". A place to grow. Sort of like sermonindex. ;-) I 'm not sure, but I think this MIGHT preach Ron.Clutch :-P

I have MSAccess97 SR-2. In the past I have written fairly simply databases for it but am now very rusty. I am comfortable enough to be a user/owner but if someone creates the database they will need to be sure to save it so that I can access it with MSAccess 97. Anyone familiar with MSAccess should be able to create entry forms etcI am happy to assemble information as it becomes available.Stuart, are you receiving us?If others have other data fields (see AlmondBranch examples in this thread) in mind please let us know. This is not to commit anyone or make promises but it will be easier if we can get it right to begin with.

Sorry guys, all I can offer is moral support. This all is way over my head. Looking forward to the results, though. :-) In Him, Chanin

Stuart, are you receiving us?Loud and clear. I would be glad to give it a go. I will spend some time tomorrow designing tables and playing around with relationships.If anyone has any sugestions in the meantime...post away.

Whew! (Edited version)Being that we have a rough outline going. Will start pulling together what I can from what I have, this will also force me to finish catagorizing my bookmark/favorites links.Assuming that we will have info on certain individuals, for instance McChenyne coming from multiple sources, that should provide a good cross reference in documentation.One question I have is how you want to pull this together. A 'master list' of sorts?Knowing that Greg has a pretty vast library as well as a few others here, the coverage should be pretty good. Finding their mentors may prove to be a bit of a task, but I am willing to 'go fetch' out into the WWWilderness, hit the book store, whatever is necessary.The question still remains if this would be a seperate or intergrated aspect of what you originally intended Ron. Feel that which ever way is the most convientient for you, that will make this go forward and not bog down...at your service.Perhaps we should let it bounce around for a day or two to see if any one else 'comes out of the woodwork'AgreedMike