This Gospel Shall Be Preached, Volume 1

A History and Theology of Assemblies of God Foreign Missions to 1959

Gary McGee

• Publisher: Gospel Publishing House
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9781607311744
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Reviews the development of the Division of Foregin Missions of the General Council of the Assemblies of God, and analyzes the factors tha tled to its growth between 1914 and 1959.

Part One

Beginnings

1

American Protestant Missions by 1914

The End of the Great Century

The foreign missions program of the General Council of the Assemblies of God arose during the last year of what historian Kenneth Scott Latourette called the Great Century in Christian missions.¹ By the close of this epoch in 1914, the world had witnessed an unprecedented expansion of Christianity, making it the most widespread religious faith. Statistics reveal that 21,307 Protestant missionaries served overseas by 1910 and contributions had reached an all-time high of $39 million.²

The events in Protestant missions during the last decades of this epoch are especially important for understanding some of the major developments in Christendom following World War I. Indeed, one writer attested that these decades “were far more critical in shaping the Christian Church than those decades which culminated in the Peace of Augsburg (1555) and the Treaty of Westphalia (1648)” during the Reformation era.³

The year 1914 proved to be a pivotal year in world history. The Great War which began that year retarded the American missionary effort overseas and ushered the Protestant churches into a period of critical reflection over the nature of missionary efforts. In addition, tensions over Biblical authority, missionary motivation, and missionary strategy caused breaches in the unity that had characterized the movement before the war.

The unparalleled building of vast colonial empires by the major Western powers before 1914 allowed missionaries access to and privileges in many regions of the world that had been closed to Christian influence. America engaged in overseas expansionism and also played an increasingly prominent role in world affairs. In this context, the growing American missionary efforts were consequently fired by a blending of humanitarianism, patriotism, spiritual zeal, and imperialism.⁴ R. Pierce Beaver, formerly a historian of missions at the University of Chicago Divinity School, observes that in the decade before 1914 “tremendous enthusiasm … carried American missions to first place in the total Protestant enterprise with respect to the number of missionaries, the amount of money raised and spent, and the diffusion of the work.”⁵ Several types of missions societies in the United States directed the vast American Protestant missions network. First, most major denominations developed agencies, committees, or societies, such as the American Baptist Missionary Union, that perpetuated and oversaw the missionary work. Second, some independently chartered societies, such as the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, relied heavily on one or two denominations for support. Third, there were independent or nondenominational societies that generally subscribed to a conservative evangelical or fundamentalist theology.⁶ These independent societies often generated like-minded local congregations that provided them with support. Two agencies illustrate this last category: the China Inland Mission and, in its earlier days, the Christian and Missionary Alliance.

The missionary enterprise produced many different kinds of overseas activities besides preaching the gospel. By 1910, there were 180,000 students enrolled in secondary and higher educational institutions supported by Protestant missionary agencies. Over 1,000 missionary doctors practiced overseas during the same year. To assist the converts on the foreign field to read the Bible, translation work became a major concern. Consequently, “missionaries reduced hundreds of languages to writing … taught people how to read, and by 1910 had translated the Scriptures into more than five hundred tongues.”⁷

Another major feature of Protestant missions in the last several decades of the Great Century was the service of women as missionaries. By 1914, about 21,500 missionaries served overseas. Women constituted half this number and single women one fourth. Apparently, as demands for missionaries increased, more opportunities arose for the services of single women. Because the wives of missionaries found they could inexpensively hire local people to help them with household tasks and childcare, they too assumed missions responsibilities. Nevertheless, the single women missionaries had the advantage of greater mobility and could approach their responsibilities with single-minded attention.⁸

After 1890, laymen played an increasingly important role in the missions movement. The Laymen’s Missionary Movement enlisted persons of large and modest incomes in its attempt to finance the missions enterprise. Charles W. Forman, professor of missions at Yale Divinity School, observes that “the role of the lay person as distinct from the clergy was given greater importance by this emphasis. Laymen as well as ministers could be equal participants in mission activity and support.”⁹

The above factors reflect the unparalleled zeal for Christian missions that coincided with the late 19th-century enthusiasm for empire building. With notable advances in science, technology, industry, and transportation, plus an unbridled confidence in the superiority of Western civilization, it appeared that the kingdom of God would shortly be established on earth marked by a universal peace and a spread of Western culture. One of the best known advocates of this perspective was James S. Dennis, a Presbyterian missionary to Syria and widely-read author on Christian progress overseas. In 1908, Dennis wrote of the current missionary challenge: “As if to emphasize and glorify the call of obligation, and magnify the significance of our opportunity, we find ourselves in many distant and perhaps obscure posts of missionary service, not only ambassadors of Christ, and bearers of His spiritual gifts to men, but the forerunners also of the material blessings of a higher civilization.”¹⁰

Another influential writer of the period, John P. Jones, urged his readers to “mark how Christian nations, especially Protestant nations, are multiplying their political influence and showing their qualities of leadership and control in the world.… and … notice also the growing prevalence of the English language.”¹¹

Even President William McKinley, addressing the Ecumenical Missionary Conference at New York City in 1900, said: “I am glad of the opportunity to offer without stint my tribute of praise and respect to the missionary effort which has wrought such wonderful triumphs for civilization.… The services and sacrifices of the missionaries for their fellow men constitute one of the most glorious pages in the world’s history.”¹²

At this point it is important to review the origins of the modern missions movement. The spiritual awakenings in some Protestant churches in the 17th and 18th centuries fueled the new effort in missions in the 19th century. Kenneth Scott Latourette, an authority on the expansion of Christianity, attributed the growth in Protestant missions work to the evangelical strain within Western Christendom that had also produced Pietism, Moravianism, the Great Awakenings, and the Wesleyan revival in England. Characteristically, this evangelical strain “made much of the transformation of the individual through the Christian Gospel and it also gave rise to many efforts for the elimination of social ills and for the collective betterment of mankind.”¹³ The revivals of Dwight L. Moody and other evangelists also influenced the growing missionary movement. Moody’s revivals on campuses and at conference centers influenced students and fired them with the idealism of winning the world for Christ.

A major agency for recruiting college and university students for foreign missions came into existence in 1886 with the formation of the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions. Undenominational in character, it channeled thousands of students into the denominational and independent missions societies for overseas ministry. John R. Mott, a graduate of Cornell University and a Methodist layman, served as its dynamic leader for many years.

The watchword for the above organization was, The evangelization of the world in this generation. In spite of controversy surrounding the meaning of this expression in some quarters, Mott defined it as providing all men “an adequate opportunity to know Jesus Christ as their Saviour and to become His real disciples.… It does not mean the conversion of the world within the generation. Our part consists in bringing the Gospel to bear on unsaved men.”¹⁴

Such an ideal appeared possible because of the available resources, the favorable political climate overseas for the colonial powers, including the United States, and the unity of the Protestant missionary agencies in their efforts for evangelization abroad.

In spite of the optimistic assessments of the future of Christian missions and “Christian” civilization made by such writers as Dennis and Jones and illustrated by some speakers at conferences of the Student Volunteer Movement, more cautious observers became alarmed by the evils arising from the linkage of the missionary enterprise and colonial expansion. Mott warned a student gathering in 1914 that the world situation “is more urgent than ever because of the rapid spread of the corrupt influences of so-called western civilization. The blush of shame has come to my cheeks as I have seen how these influences from North America and the British Isles and Germany, not to mention other countries, are eating like gangrene into the less highly organized peoples of the world.”¹⁵

Other observers had long questioned the opinion held by many that the preaching of the gospel and the advance of Western civilization would usher in the kingdom of God on earth. These writers, distinctly viewing the Kingdom’s establishment as an eschatological event preceded by the second coming of Christ, became increasingly vocal. They perceived that eschatological views affect one’s missionary motivation. By 1914, theological tensions over the necessity and role of Christian missions reached the breaking point.

Motivational Ten...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part One: Beginnings
• Part Two: The Early Years (1914–1926)
• Part Three: The Maturing Years (1927–1942)
• Part Four: The Era of Strategic Planning (1943–1959)
• Epilogue
• Endnotes
• Bibliography
• Index