This book examines how missionaries of the Anglican Church in North America, the Caribbean, and Africa initially spread a religiously-grounded understanding of human diversity that stressed the essential unity of all people but over time developed the idea that slavery and Christianity were entirely compatible and could be mutually beneficial, leading the Church to become an institutional opponent of the abolition movement.

Bestselling author Pastor Rob Morgan provides ten Bible-based laws for productive people by answering the question: How do I gain control over my life right now? A lifelong student of the Bible, Rob Morgan has spent forty years reading thousands of pages about maximizing each day and becoming purposeful and productive. Now he has found a simple plan that works—featuring ten biblical principles that transcend human wisdom. These life patterns can be implemented today whether you’re a student or a senior adult, a novice or an executive. They can help anyone, anytime, anywhere develop a perpetually effective life. 1. Listen to a twelve-year-old: Jesus’ first statement was: Be about your Father’s business. 2. Redeem the time: Wasted hours can never be regained. 3. Clear the decks: God isn’t disorganized; why should we be? 4. Maximize the morning: Schedule a standing appointment with God. 5. Pull off at rest stops: Routinely replenish your inner resources. 6. Operate on yourself: Diagnose and treat yourself spiritually. 7. Live “As If”: Act by faith even when your emotions aren’t cooperating. 8. Bathe in the Dead Sea: Experience the buoyancy of biblical joy. 9. Practice the power of plodding: Effectively complete major tasks by persistently working in small increments. 10. Remember there are two of you: It’s Christ in you Who’s achieving significance. Based on actual Scriptures, this simple, hope-filled plan for mastering life before it’s too late will put you on the path toward a lifetime of success.

This calendar is going to help you take the principles of habit-forming and apply them to character-building. As Christians, our goal is to become more like Christ every day. With daily, weekly, and monthly goals, you will feel your life change and the lives around you change. Your daily life will glorify Jesus, lift your soul, and change the world! Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding. Proverbs 3:13

Beginning in 1701, missionary-minded Anglicans launched one of the earliest and most sustained efforts to Christianize the enslaved people of Britain's colonies. Hundreds of clergy traveled to widely-dispersed posts in North America, the Caribbean, and West Africa under the auspices of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG) and undertook this work. Based on a belief in the essential unity of humankind, the Society's missionaries advocated for the conversion and better treatment of enslaved people. Yet, only a minority of enslaved people embraced Anglicanism, while a majority rejected it. Mastering Christianity closely explores these missionary encounters. The Society hoped to make slavery less cruel and more paternalistic but it came to stress the ideas that chattel slavery and Christianity were entirely compatible and could even be mutually beneficial. While important early figures saw slavery as troubling, over time the Society accommodated its message to slaveholders, advocated for laws that tightened colonial slave codes, and embraced slavery as a missionary tool. The SPG owned hundreds of enslaved people on its Codrington plantation in Barbados, where it hoped to simultaneously make profits and save souls. In Africa, the Society cooperated with English slave traders in establishing a mission at Cape Coast Castle, at the heart of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The SPG helped lay the foundation for black Protestantism but pessimism about the project grew internally and black people's frequent skepticism about Anglicanism was construed as evidence of the inherent inferiority of African people and their American descendants. Through its texts and practices, the SPG provided important intellectual, political, and moral support for slaveholding around the British empire. The rise of antislavery sentiment challenged the principles that had long underpinned missionary Anglicanism's program, however, and abolitionists viewed the SPG as a significant institutional opponent to their agenda. In this work, Travis Glasson provides a unique perspective on the development and entrenchment of a pro-slavery ideology by showing how English religious thinking furthered the development of slavery and supported the institution around the Atlantic world.

Excerpts Page 13 ... Paul saw the trophy; he knew where he wanted to go. He did not have a little wish; he had an all-consuming vision. He saw the trophy and sacrificed to win it. Spiritual victory was his absolute single priority and everything else was secondary, even disposable. Page 18 ... Where there is a will, there is a way. If we really have a hunger to do something, we will find a way. If we don't, we will find an excuse. Anyone can say the right words, but few have the hunger to drive forward. Page 26 ... God created us and "God don't make no junk." In God's hands we are enough to be masters of Christianity. Our confidence is not arrogance, but simply remembering that God is our father. Some people may choose to live in doubt, but as children of God we choose confidence. God is on our side. Page 30 ... Excitement and enthusiasm are common at the beginning of our Christian journey, but when that fades, then it takes something more to keep us moving forward. Masters of Christianity develop strong habits to keep moving forward, even in difficult times. We all go through "desert wanderings" when we feel we are not progressing, but ingrained habits keep us going. We know that every little step forward is a plus. The cumulative effects may not be seen for a while but one drop of water at a time eventually fills a cup to overflowing. Our little steps add up until the cup of our life overflows. Page 37 ... Masters of Christianity know the value of continuous education. They know that there is always something more to learn. The landscape of life is always changing in subtle and big ways. Masters keep learning, evaluating, and digging deeper to live the best version of their life. They understand that just because a strategy worked last year, that doesn't mean it is still a good strategy. They welcome the opportunity to level up, which requires lifelong learning at every level of the journey.

Uncovers the often overlooked participation of African Americans and Native Americans in early Protestant churches Phillis Wheatley was stolen from her family in Senegambia, and, in 1761, slave traders transported her to Boston, Massachusetts, to be sold. She was purchased by the Wheatley family who treated Phillis far better than most eighteenth-century slaves could hope, and she received a thorough education while still, of course, longing for her freedom. After four years, Wheatley began writing religious poetry. She was baptized and became a member of a predominantly white Congregational church in Boston. More than ten years after her enslavement began, some of her poetry was published in London, England, as a book titled Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. This book is evidence that her experience of enslavement was exceptional. Wheatley remains the most famous black Christian of the colonial era. Though her experiences and accomplishments were unique, her religious affiliation with a predominantly white church was quite ordinary. Dividing the Faith argues that, contrary to the traditional scholarly consensus, a significant portion of northern Protestants worshipped in interracial contexts during the eighteenth century. Yet in another fifty years, such an affiliation would become increasingly rare as churches were by-and-large segregated. Richard Boles draws from the records of over four hundred congregations to scrutinize the factors that made different Christian traditions either accessible or inaccessible to African American and American Indian peoples. By including Indians, Afro-Indians, and black people in the study of race and religion in the North, this research breaks new ground and uses patterns of church participation to illuminate broader social histories. Overall, it explains the dynamic history of racial integration and segregation in northern colonies and states.

Could slaves become Christian? If so, did their conversion lead to freedom? If not, then how could perpetual enslavement be justified? Christian Slavery shows how debates about slavery transformed the practice of Protestantism and the language of race in the early modern Atlantic world.