Since the thread seems to be dying off a bit I took the time to quickly compile a list of most of the names submitted. It’s quite a list too. Thanks to every one who dropped a name and if any others come to mind jump right in.
So here goes:
Jonanthan Edwards
an evangelist in the early to mid 1700’s. He is credited with starting/leading the Great Awakening in America
Lottie Moon
a missionary to China who gave her live for the Chinese to help the poor even though there was war and famine. She often gave what food she had to feed the poor.
Jim and Elizabeth Elliot
missionary to south america where he gave his life to witness jesus to the tribes their. His sacrificed turned around the tribes behavior from a culture of killing to one following scriptures and turning their lives around. His Wife Elizabeth Elliot was also instrumental.
** John Wesley**
John Wesely was an instrument used for the conversion of hundreds of thousands.
He built hospitals and orphanages
He wrote numerous books and hymns.
On a side note he died with $34 to his name.
Charles Spurgeon
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Spurgeon
John Bunyan
Wrote Pilgrims Progress. He was thrown in Jail by Charels the 2nd for preaching
** Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison, and Harriet Beecher Stowe **
for their fight against slavery
** Dietrich_Bonhoeffer**
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Bonhoeffer
** John Newton**
Ex captain on a slave cargo ship, after conversion wrote the most influential and well known him in history - Amazing Grace.
** William Wilberforce**
Chief British abolitionist
** Dr Martin Luther King**
for his contribution to civil rights in America
Dr Albert Schweitzer
Nobel Peace Prize winner, who did great work in Africa as a doctor and combined this with a great interest in theology and missionary
Mary Dyer
Quaker martyr, hanged on Boston Commons
E. Stanley Jones
Methodist author
Thomas R. Kelly
Quaker mystic, wrote “Testament of Devotion”
** Clive Staples (Jack) Lewis**
the author of Mere Christianity and The Chronicles of Narnia, among other Christian works. He led a holy life, was good to those in need, and his writings still help people find God and/or a deeper relationship with God
** Betsie ten Boom**
an inspiration and a blessing to others in the concentration camp, helping others, praying with people, giving others encouragement while never complaining or saying anything bad about their torturers. A truly holy woman.
** Eric Liddell**
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Liddell
** Charles Finney**
revivalist professor
** Cassie Bernall**
The Columbine HS girl who said “yes” at gunpoint when asked if she believed in God.
** George Fox**
founder of the Society of Friends.
** Joseph Priestley**
For re-founding Unitarianism, discovering oxygen, changing Thos. Jefferson’s mind about religion.
N.F.S Grundtvig
He was instrumental in the Awakening which took place in Danish society in the mid 1800s, and although people today abuse his name to justify all kinds of ungodliness, the man himself was Christian to the core.
Ivan Vasilevitch Moisejev
A Christian soldier in the USSR who was murdered by the Commies in the most horrible way, for refusing to deny Christ, but not before causing so much “trouble” by the testimony his life was, that at many of his comrades and superiors, indoctrinated with atheism, wondered if there indeed was a God.
** Annie Johnson Flint**
She lived a life of constant suffering, but through it all, she maintained a life of prayer, and wrote poem upon poem about Our Lord.
** A. T. Robertson –
saint of Biblical scholarship
W. A. Criswell
saint of pastors
Janucz Korczak
An assimilated non-religious Jewish pediatrician, who refused many opportunities to flee, who accompanied almost 200 Jewish children from the orphanage he operated in Warsaw–into Treblinka, where they all perished.
Norbert Capek
A Czech-born Unitarian minister who came to the US, returned to Czechoslovakia after WWI, and despite many opportunities to return to the US, chose to stay, preach opposition to the Nazi regime, and be imprisoned, t0rtured and executed.
** AW Toze**
excellent preacher who would probably be the n-C equivalent of Thomas A. Kempis though to a somewhat lesser degree.
** Thomas Starr King**
a great preacher and orator, whose fiery sermons kept California from adopting slavery before the Civil War, also strongly preached on social justice, and attracted a huge following. Died in his 30’s of diphtheria and pneumonia. Had a statue in the rotunda, where each state has a statue of a favorite son (usually), but recently replaced by another favorite son, Ronald Reagan**