Sacred Roots
Thriving in Ministry
Our Mission
Our Books
Praying the Psalms
Becoming a Community of Disciples
Spiritual Friendship
Christian Mission and Poverty
Books Jesus Read
Renewal in Christ
First Christian Voices
Las Casas on Faithful Witness
Reading the Bible Spiritually
The Pursuit of God
Pulpit Spirituality
The Journal of John Woolman
Reading the Bible to Meet Jesus
Killing Sin
The Interior Castle
The Autobiography of George Mueller
Our Books
Praying the Psalms
Becoming a Community of Disciples
Spiritual Friendship
Christian Mission and Poverty
Books Jesus Read
Renewal in Christ
First Christian Voices
Las Casas on Faithful Witness
Reading the Bible Spiritually
The Pursuit of God
Pulpit Spirituality
The Journal of John Woolman
Reading the Bible to Meet Jesus
Killing Sin
The Interior Castle
The Autobiography of George Mueller
About Us
Get In Touch
Our Research
Cohort Resources
Our Research
What is Our Research?
Sacred Roots produces interdisciplinary research on evangelical
ressourcement
, a return to the sources of the Christian tradition, as well as spiritual classics and ministry in under-resourced contexts.
Sacred Roots in the News
Sharing the gospel through a good book
Emma Holley, writer for the Taylor University student newspaper The Echo, gives an overview of Sacred Roots and reports on progress as of April 2021.
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TU Professor Puts Dreams In Motion With Religious Grant
The Taylor University student newspaper recounts the initial beginnings of the Sacred Roots Thriving in Ministry Project.
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Sacred Roots Year One Report
This project report outlines Sacred Roots' first full year of work, which included six consultations and over sixty conversations about retrieving the wealth of the Great Tradition for under-resourced urban, rural, and incarcerated congregational leaders.
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Presentations and Lectures
Poor Pastors with Rich Friends: Retrieving the Great Tradition's Wealth to Serve the Poor
Rev. Dr. Hank Voss presented this paper to the Muncie Theology Institute in Muncie, IN on December 7, 2019. Using Aelred of Rievaulx's (d. 1167) book Spiritual Friendship as a case study, Voss suggests retrieving the Christian spiritual classics is a way congregational leaders working among the poor can address perennial pastoral problems.
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Making Dead Friends: Christian Connectedness with the Past
Rev. Dr. Hank Voss shares the origin story of Sacred Roots and explains how Christians can use spiritual classics to connect with past brothers and sisters in the Christian faith.
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Bartolomé de las Casas' A Brief History of the Destruction of the Indies (1552) as a Spiritual Classic
Dr. Robert Chao Romero makes the case that Bartolomé de las Casas' book A Brief History of the Destruction of the Indies is a spiritual classic.
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Thomas à Kempis' Self-Centered Imitation of Christ: Late Medieval Reflections on Following Jesus
Rev. Dr. Greg Peters shares lessons he has learned from studying Thomas à Kempis and his book The Imitation of Christ.
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Spiritual Classics and Evangelical Ressourcement: Addressing Perennial Pastoral Problems
Even a cursory glance at church history reveals that many of the problems congregational leaders deal with today have been present for centuries. Rev. Dr. Hank Voss recommends an evangelical "return to the sources," to allow congregational leaders to learn from past leaders' responses to perennial pastoral problems.
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White Papers
Twenty-Three Introductions and Seven Collections of Christian Spiritual Classics: Their Breadth and Purpose
Lucas Hagen and Hank Voss look at four important historical precedents informing the Sacred Roots Project. It then explores introductions to, and collections of, spiritual classics from four traditions: Evangelical, Mainline Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox.
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Barriers and Solutions for Indigenous Leadership Development: An Outline for Equipping a New Generation for Dynamic Mission Among the Poor
Rev. Dr. Don L. Davis and Rev. Bob Engel explore five critical barriers to indigenous leadership training, and five important responses for equipping thriving leaders for the urban church.
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Mentoring and Sacred Roots
Stephanie Lowery dives into a Christian view of humanity followed by an exploration of mentoring, its necessity, and how to develop mentoring relationships.
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Poverty in a North American Context
Nathanael Snow, with research contributions from Benjamin Pettus, summarizes the existing research on poverty and provides the resources to continue learning about the topic.
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A Liberal Arts Education
Kiersten R. Mackintosh identifies the benefits and downfalls of undergraduate research for students and faculty, describes best practices for its implementation, and analyzes why undergraduate research is a necessary pedagogical tool in liberal arts education.
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Undergraduate Research
Cheyenne King – Student Researcher
Cheyenne King worked as a student researcher for the Sacred Roots Thriving in Ministry Project at Taylor University. Her research focused on letters that key figures in Church history have written to one another, the impact of spiritual classics on missionaries, and how spiritual classics have moved throughout continents.
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A Flourishing Kingdom: Rev. Dr. Don Davis and Ministry Among the Poor
Kaitlin Burden explores Rev. Dr. Don Davis' ministry among the urban poor and identifies five barriers congregational leaders face: class, culture, church-amnesia, content, and commission.
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Peer-Reviewed Articles
Spiritual Classics, Retrieval Theology, and the Cure of Souls
Rev. Dr. Hank Voss exhorts professors of practical theology to include Christian spiritual classics—texts that have proven valuable across centuries and cultures—in their classes. Didaktikos: Journal of Theological Education 3, no. 4 (February 2020): 10–11.
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Redeemed on the Inside: Radical Accounts of Ecclesia Incarcerate
Jason S. Sexton interviews twenty-four former prisoners who participated in the incarcerated church in order to present a coherent theological vision of what the members of the prison church both are and could increasingly become "on the inside." Ecclesial Practices: Journal of Ecclesiology and Ethnography 5, no. 2 (2018): 172–90.
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Experiencing Justice from the Inside Out: Theological Considerations About the Church's Role in Justice, Healing, and Forgiveness
Jason S. Sexton argues that lack of engagement with the theological roots of contemporary punishment, correction, and rehabilitation both prevents adequately grappling with the foundational underpinnings of the prison as a reality and also doesn't adequately allow the prison and its fullest operative realities to be understood. Religions 10, no. 2 (2019): 1–14.
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