Posted on 09/01/2023 11:23:07 PM PDT by Morgana
‘Jesus Calling’ author Sarah Young passed away from cancer Thursday night, just days after it was reported she was failing health. She was 77.
In an obituary released by her publisher, Laura Minchew, Senior Vice President and Group Publisher of the Children’s and Gift Book Group at HarperCollins Christian Publishing, writes, “Sarah was a dear friend who will be deeply missed. Through nearly 20 years of publishing with Sarah, I had a firsthand seat at seeing millions of lives changed through the Jesus Calling books. Her books have met people in their darkest hours, taught children about Jesus, and changed lives for eternity. Knowing Sarah professionally and personally has been the privilege of a lifetime.”
Originally from Nashville, Tennessee, Sarah earned her undergraduate degree in philosophy. She credited her background in philosophy and Francis Schaeffer’s Escape from Reason as her motivation for studying with L’Abri Fellowship, a Christian community in a tiny Alpine village in France, where she became a Christian. Sarah earned a master’s degree in biblical studies and counseling from Covenant Theological Seminary. There she met Stephen Young, whom she married in 1977.
In 1977, Sarah and Stephen joined World Presbyterian Missions, which in 1983 merged into Mission to the World (MTW), the global missions-sending agency of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). They spent eight and a half years planting churches and ministering in Japan. From 1987 to 1991, Sarah and Stephen were on loan to Mission to North America, working with the Westminster Japanese Church in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1991, Sarah and Stephen moved to Melbourne, Australia, and began a Japanese language church in cooperation with the Presbyterian Church of Victoria. In 2001, the Youngs moved to Perth, where Sarah began contemplating and eventually revising her personal devotional journals into the manuscript for what would become Jesus Calling. In 2013, Steve and Sarah returned to Nashville, Tennessee, where they remained active with the PCA.
Sarah is survived by her husband, two children, and six grandchildren.
Published in 2004, Jesus Calling has 45 million copies in print. It is one of the most recognizable devotional books in recent history and has spawned a multitude of spin-offs, and is also one of the most dangerous books released in the last twenty years, for it’s espousal of mysticsm, speaking for God, automatic writing, and rejecting the sufficiency of the scriptures.
That last paragraph belies everything written before in this honoring assessment of her life
It’s been a few years since I read Jesus Calling and used it as a devotional…..
….but everything written before the last short paragraph is whole and good.
L’Abri, Francis Schaefer’s retreat in Europe is good and whole as far as I know.
A man in our church studied there in his formative years and is solid in the Word
The PCA Presbyterian Church and Mission to the World is solid and good.
I think most people on this forum, Free Republic, would agree with their principles.
So why malign her in the last few sentences?
I so agree!
Maybe they’re confusing her with Beth Moore
I too gleaned encouragement from Jesus calling several years ago. When I read this obit middle of last night I was listening to some christians I never really heard of on Youtube and this article author including the last few sentences made clear sense.
I can only consider, as I have been myself lately, that we do have many recent ways people are trying to make the Bible more relatable but in doing so may be making people cling to these people who write or make movies or preach or however, but do so in a way that is feel good rather than root gospel which is we are ALL sinners.
Just listening to John MacArthur last evening along with John Lennox and some others I just stumbled on on YouTube. I have heard possible negative about some of them too, but what I listened to last night all had the similar message that just because we said a prayer and maybe go to church or a study or got dunked in water or do good things, Jesus said there are MANY who will want to enter and yet will be judged unworthy, and He will say I never knew you.
Can’t bring people to Christ in a God loves you wants the best for you way without also letting them know they are wretched sinners and will still be sinners daily and need continually help. We each need to truly accept that and truly surrender our life. Need to die to ourself daily, take up cross daily, follow Jesus constantly, not semi worldly way most christians I know in USA do. (God will approve, I been good enough...)
Something along that line may be why the article writer mentioned Sarah’s writings. As I recall they made me feel good, yes they did have scripture quotes If I bothered to actually read them. But I no longer want feel good, God accepts me as I am, make my semi worldly living ok teachings, I want to know what the Bible says in full about things, real change.
I get Sarah’s teachings are a step for many of us, but IMO, God wants us to grow and rise hirer to the smaller top rungs of ladder not the comfortable ones near the ground. He wants us to lean only on HIM and share the Gospel according to what Jesus said the Gospel was not the various alterations we hear mostly today.
Your words are true, heartfelt, and consistent with the Word.
Thank you
I can only say the Jesus Calling books were/are a good gateway to those who are seeking……and if the Faith is real to them, they will also grow and seek the ‘meat of the Gospel’ after they are weaned on the milk.
Sarah had good underpinnings spiritually…….and her life seemed to be given to Him completely
God uses the simplicity of simple words and ideas, I believe, to meet people where they are and then whet the appetite for more in the Word……whether that be an in depth Bible Study…..listening to Faith based pastors, who embrace the Word……etc
I love the powerful presentation of God’s Word from Charles Spurgeon ……and also find comfort and truth in Streams in the Desert…
About the book Jesus Calling by Sarah Young, I found these insights really helpful:
https://www.challies.com/articles/10-serious-problems-with-jesus-calling/
(Many, many reviews of this book that voice similar concerns can be found online.)
‘Jesus Calling’ author Sarah Young passed away from cancer Thursday night, just days after it was reported she was failing health. She was 77.
Saw that elsewhere. Was unaware of the PCA connection.
Someone gave my wife a copy of that. I looked through it, and found the rambling free flow monologue (pretending to be Christ's voice) creepy. Fortunately DW wasn't all that interested in it.
Who is Beth Moore?
I’ve never even heard of her until the other day Protestia had an article (that I didn’t post) that she was very ill. When she died I thought I’d post because I figured you all might know.
Thank you for posting that. I have friends who adore “Jesus Calling.” But the author puts words in Jesus’ mouth, and that’s something Christians have to be very careful about. I stopped watching Jeremy Harrell because he starts every podcast by reading from “Jesus Calling.” It just makes me cringe.
Another wildly popular book that I think is similar to Jesus Calling is Come Away My Beloved by Frances J. Roberts. As in Jesus Calling, the author dares to write under the pretense that Christ Himself is speaking.
Might some of these kinds of Christian writers be naively caught up in the occult practice of automatic writing, channeling a clever lying spirit? I don’t know.
But it’s tragic how popular it is among Christians to engage in pagan practices — such as getting alone and being quiet and receptive and listening for God to speak apart from Scripture, and assume that whatever wise-sounding, extrabiblical impressions or commands they receive are from God, and whatever miraculous things occur when they obey these impressions are also from God.
How do they know it’s from God? They say it FEELS like it’s from God, so they just KNOW it MUST be from God. And they’ve heard “wonderful, mature Christians” on TV and Youtube who endorse this highly subjective, mystical-emotional approach.
But remember that people in the New Age Movement and other forms of paganism use a similar or identical approach, receive supernatural messages, and experience miracles.
It’s tempting for me as a sinful human to assume that if I, a Christian, have sincerely “surrendered” to Jesus, “given my life” to God, I’ll automatically have discernment and won’t be deceived by the wiles of Satan.
What we often fail to realize is that true surrender to God isn’t just being sincere and saying, “God, I surrender to You! I give my life to You!”
Surrender is an ongoing process that occurs when we are transformed by the renovation of our thinking (Romans 12:2), as we learn the Bible and apply it to our lives.
We need to be humble and teachable, recognize the sufficiency of Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16-17), consistently sit under the teaching ministry of a well-equipped pastor, and learn and apply what God has revealed in the Bible.
In pulpits today, there are few well-prepared pastors who faithfully do the hard work of studying and teaching the Bible from the original languages, and offer the kind of sound, frequent, systematic, verse-by verse teaching that builds spiritual growth and discernment.
Here’s a great source of the kind of teaching that’s needed:
https://www.deanbibleministries.org/
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