f BY 2063) .R67°1925.._, Rowland, Henry Hosie, 1884- Native churches in foreign fields pal ae rs ' eleh), We as ie bid f 7 i] -_ ENE Career “SE&Y OF PRit Ass Aan OF PRINCES 4 *y .% S/ ~ rere Native Churc in Foreign Fields By HENRY HOSIE "ROWLAND _ THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN NEW YORK CINCINNATI Copyright, 1925, by HENRY HOSIE ROWLAND All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian Printed in the United States of America To MY FATHER AND MY MOTHER hay LP ce! » io i i”, noe He CO 12 CONTENTS CHAPTER I THE INDIGENOUS CHURCH DEFINED PAGE . Not as the goal but as the means.............. 15 . Self-supporting, self-governing, and self-extending —the three features commonly accepted....... 16 . With a culture that is native yet Christian also.. 19 . A religion adapted to national needs............ 19 (a) Socially. (b) Industrially. (ce) In esthetics. (1) Architecture. (2) Musical harmony. (3) Ritual. (d) In philosophy. (e) In church discipline. (f) In customs. (a) Before it is self-supporting? (b) While the missionary is still on the field? (c) When the church makes the decisions? . The deeper, spiritual quality of the truly in- UIPOrOe | GET eN s ok e-e 2e k el ees Ue 29 (a) Filled with the Holy Spirit and therefore (1) United. (2) With missionary zeal. . “Indigenous” does not make impossible interna- tional federation or union................ 31 CHAPTER II WHY AN INDIGENOUS CHURCH? . The Christian, democratic point of view demands it 32 . “Christian” nations and Christianity not identical. 5 7 = CONTENTS . The innate difference of different peoples........ 35 . Different emphases in different forms of society have led to different interpretations of Christiantty ooo ei neath: nits eeelae tie ontee e 35 . The same right of adaptation is due the new churches 73) (OS Y a at ote ee tree 37 The best type of Christianity is dependent upon freedom 3! <.y 52 celles rite ee ee ele nei 37 There is a demand for an indigenous church on the’fields 2) iF) 02 4ia ahs ae Si 39 (a) Some churches have become independent. (b) The spirit of the leaders in the movement for indigenous churches is often praiseworthy. (c) Results prove the value of the movement. (d) There has come through the movement a wel- come change in the attitude of the nationals. . Christianity may be more easily understood in the East than in the West.....0...-0 00.0035 44 . The answer in the development of the Church... 44 CHAPTER ITI HISTORICAL SURVEY 1. From THE APOSTLES TO CONSTANTINE...... 46 . Unfavorable and favorable conditions met....... 46 . Features of the early church................... 49 (a) Simplicity. (b) Autonomy. (c) Self-support. (d) Development into a close organization. (e) Literature. (f) Heathen survivals. (g) The change to externalism. The achievement) 420/00 eee a ee 54 Comparison with the present.................. 55 2. From ConsTANTINE TO CAREY............ 56 - The rige of monasticism fios2 it, ee ee ae 56 (a) The condition of the church that caused it. (b) The come-back of the monks. 6 Dore ge 2 = CONTENTS PAGE (c) Their great task. (d) The conditions which they faced. . The evangelizing of the North................. 58 (a) Methods used. (b) The work of the monks. (c) Were the resulting church organizations in- digenous? (1) Self-support. (2) Autonomy. (3) Adaptation to heathenism. (4) Literature. Summary—the loss of indigenous character and Christianity too. . Roman Catholic Missions in the East and in A MErieay estore a wat Acca eat tee a a 64 Protestant eres 360 oak aos se Me Se ia 67 The Nestoriansiteiacts niet ce wae han ees 68 SUOMI ALY. Glee ee ae Bete ar ee REG MER ahs te oT 68 8. From CarREY TO THE EpINBURGH Conrer- RIN CSR ana id Aine NATO UAT GRAD. Yanl 08 Bis A poRL a Ds 69 . Comparisons of periods 1, 2, and 3............. 69 . Conditions met by the missionary.............. 70 (a) Favorable. (b) Unfavorable. . Developing indigenous churches. ............... 73 (a) The ideal set forth. (b) The ideal at work in (1) India. (2) Burma. (3) Africa. (4) Madagascar. (5) The islands of the sea. (6) Korea. (9) The Near East. (10) Other fields. (c) The ideal as carried out by societies. (d) The attitude of converts. (e) The influence of strong personalities. (f) Summary. 7 CONTENTS PAGE 4. From tHE Epinsurcu CONFERENCE TO THE PRI COTY Pinan hak con eaten en 1. The significance of the Edinburgh Conference.... 89 2. The working out of the principles laid down Fed PUNE I OPE ON Fi ara ABH has Aue ts 92 (a) Comity. (hh): Union: eflottes|. 6c. gWiews innate were an 94 (1) Japan (2) Formosa and Chosen. (3) The canna st (6) Africa and Madagascar. (7) Latin America. (c) The development of self-consciousness....... - 100 (1) Self-support. a. Advance in giving. b. Hindrances to self-support. 1. Higher education. 2. Rising standards and prices. c. Methods of different societies. (2) specunenst a eR it el pr PART Ne ome age 104 1. American Methodist. 2. Anglican. 8. Presbyterian bodies. 4. Congregational bodies. 5. India in general. China. | Japan. . Philippines. | . Chosen. Latin America. . Africa. . Summary. (3) Evan elim bi ncce kkk hall ike See ak ee Oa 113 (4) New dimphases. |. 6 oS, necks cos wees ye ee 116 a. Social activity. b. Education. c. Other features. ee roa ho LO oF Ome OF w% — em 6929 a CONTENTS CHAPTER IV INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS PAGE Ly LCPRD DUCTION. GO. lo ade ck te tue cae sed 120 Factors which condition the work of missions. A. Those External to the Church............ 120 . The scientific spirit among the educated classes makes an unprecedented situation for the Christian Church to meet ............... 120 . The rise of the spirit.of democracy and national- ism makes necessary a new approach......... 123 . The changing industrial situation requires a new Bbiatideiccce. © dees teres o etek onde eae 124 . Poverty, ignorance and fatalism of the millions.. 125 Sek 16) tate ATL MUTI ETE Sc sks es Cs acd bs ee eats 126 B. Factors Present in the Church in the Way Of Achrevementa' oo. ete AP Soa et" 126 . The great unlearned multitudes that have come WEN Bo tiehe rth ead Cahn lc ee GPO eer ara Uae Waele a late es 126 . The educated few eager to take control......... 127 . Great educational and other institutions to be WORE Tire cro PE face uh eine aie b ee eG 128 . The desire of many for union.................. 129 2. PROBLEMS As OU SUD DOTES eis | MeL Dae aattaase os 130 Why is self-support essential?.................. 130 Uh dialect elo Phegieh gel eat cur Maly aR eae Ad ha UL aOR AR 131 (a) Financing the work of the church the task of the church. (b) 1. Mostly done by the missionary. 2. Drastic action disastrous. 3. The Grant-in-aid method. 4. Salary schedules. (c) Workers should be responsible to the church, not to the missionary. Med PUSEHULIOS see ee on hick okt rane ee A tm 135 (a) The economic situation on some fields. (b) Well educated workers and poor churches. (c) The lack of training in giving. 9 a CONTENTS PAGE (d) Big plants that entail a large budget for up- keep. (e) Increasing costs of maintenance. . Aids in cultivating self-support................. 142 >.Drvisions of self-stppportsy Us ects ae veloute E 143 (a) The unit of support. Individual church or group of churches? (b) The content of self-support. 1. Support the missionary? 2. Only the pastor? 3. Other evangelistic work as well? 4. The order of items? . Indigenous consciousness the true basis of self- SUPPORE's Vili acaie oie le acute tata ale eh eee res 146 By Leadership oii Geet thee ce ee 147 . The importance of leadership.................. 147 “Education of leaders 20 eave.) tat eaaer a cater te 147 a. Education necessary. b. Different degrees of education for paid workers. ce. Training lay workers. d. Educating the church membership. e. Theological School curriculum. . The leaders should be responsible to the church, not to the amussionaryes. ects ok okie ete 151 a. Difficulties. (1) Dislike of being subordinated to foreigner. (2) Fear of conservative church members. (3) The difficulty in lands of little culture. (4) Racial feeling. b. The solution of the problem in brotherhood. . The dependence of the church on leadership. ... 156 C.. Self-government (aires Sune Sar. ian 157 1,\As-yet. largely unattained .).2 [05021 9. eee 157 2. Stages in the process of devolution............. 158 3. The various ways of devolution............... 158 a. The item-by-item method. b. The local-to-general method. c. Method of increasing the number of ordained men. 10 CONTENTS PAGE 4. The relation of self-support to self-government... 162 5. Shall nationals be allowed to handle foreign LSE ond) Ae d Btae e ¢ ore ls eel a oat 164 6. Ability at self-government to be found by test- Ng PIAS rea Pe ae eile es ee ars 166 7. The deaieh should be trained from the start... 167 8. When grant self-government?................. 168 9. When shall the missionary and the mission board POLICE A EVI ce NAG Site er caie ee cals 169 10. In the solution Christian brotherhood is more vital than the machinery of organization... 170 D. Denominationalism and the Tendency To- ard CHIR a ete oe eee es 171 1. The growth of the spirit of union............... 171 2. The question on the field, Why a divided Chris- RIBDIUY Fotis ote Sts Vee a ate 8 1S otal ves 172 3. Union movements on the field.................. 172 4. The growing demand for union on the field...... 173 Bee Cues ea erates ele a eek d cele das hoe, Miata 173 a. The unwillimgness of the home constituency. b. Denominationalism on the field. c. Ecclesiastical organizations. d. Inertia. e. Doctrinal views. . Methods suggested for union.................-. 175 a. By local and provincial union. b. By union of bodies of similar church polity. PAU ET DENS LOsUTMOM i Abin sak cn cael kaa serie e 176 Behe | DODE LOD UNIO ae calc b ates a lebe tre teeieic is 176 E. The Missionary’s Responsibility......... 177 1. The question of the responsibility of the mis- sionary for the ultimate form of indigenous CHriIshianity:: vid tie css ARR see aatatatioL we ae 177 2. The attitude of the national toward the problem.. 178 3. The right attitude for the missionary........... 179 Me ERIS CRAIC CE fee ere AML, Masa ged les lave sk ates athe bok 179 a. To give the message. b. To develop leadership. c. To lay the responsibility upon the Church. 11 rw > or & oo OW Aorwmoorw CONTENTS PAGE F. The Responsibility of the Indigenous Church 180 . The former status of inability. ................. 180 . Responsibility for evangelism.................. 181 a. A concrete example. b. The need for scientific thoroughness. . Responsibility for education and literary work.... 183 Responsibility for hospitals, ete.............-.. 184 « National 'respousibility,) aa an ss os ee ee 184 . International responsibility.................... 186 CHAPTER V CONCLUSION . Christian character is developed in social con- BATS. cl itlaiosg tapcistaeg mien a sk ie oe tanked ak te eae 187 . Leadership of priceless value................... 187 . Training leaders the first task.................. 188 » Phe methodol traintig wa, 2s i sola eie eek 188 A Tuthire of Dronises aout eee eee eee 189 The indigenous character of the church of the fuse), c Ves ee sates arene 190 .pA: pléa for, equality. ou i en es on erage 190 . The hope of a Church Universal................ 191 12 AUTHOR’S PREFACE Out of ten years of actual effort on the mis- sion field in North China and a year of inten- sive study of the mission fields in general from apostolic times down to the present, the writer has arrived at the conclusions set forth in this volume. Realizing that many are to-day think- ing along the same line, the writer desires to offer this contribution to the as yet somewhat scanty literature on the Indigenous Church. Lest any take offense at the criticism of the work of missionaries past and present, the writer would say that of most of the faults mentioned he himself has been guilty, and some of the conclusions arrived at are trace- able to personal experience as well as to the evidence presented by others. Missionaries are not all statesmen with a far look ahead. Many are men of action, who in the midst of their work have little or no time to get out from under their burden sufficiently to get the perspective necessary for the thinking through of great problems. We are a bit hard on what is known as the “old convert,” but I think not unjustly. A 13 AUTHOR’S PREFACE fellow missionary once told me that when he exhorted one of these gentlemen to stop his bad habits or he would miss the joys of heaven, he replied, “If it is the will of the Lord that I be damned, then let the Lord’s will be done.” Enough said! The author is indebted beyond the power of words to express to Dr. Henry B. Robins, of the faculty of the Rochester Theological Seminary, for his generously given guidance in reading and his invaluable suggestions regarding the form in which the matters treated in this volume appear. Thanks are also due to the librarians of the Rochester Theological Seminary for their kindly assist- ance in the finding of the materials used. In the hope that many who are working on the problem of evangelizing the peoples of the non-Christian Jands may find the same help that the author has found, this little volume is placed before the public. It has been the writer’s aim to gather together the most sig- nificant facts bearing upon the building up of churches in the foreign fields and to present them in such fashion as will not only be in- forming but also use them for the future of the Church of Christ throughout the world. 14 CHAPTER I THE INDIGENOUS CHURCH DEFINED THE aim of Jesus was to restore lost sons and daughters to the heavenly Father and thereby make one family of all who would receive God into their hearts as Father. The church, in so far as it is viewed as identical with this “family,” is therefore the end of missionary effort. But in so far as it is an organization for the purpose of winning men, women, and children to this “family” ideal, it is the means to the end. The inability of the foreign missionary alone to cope with the task is obvious. The best instrument the Holy Spirit can use to bring all the human race through Christ to the Father is the body of Christians raised up each in its own land. It is the purpose of this volume to follow the development of the organized churches in for- eign fields down to the present, in an effort to discover the best ways of building them up as instruments for accomplishing the aim of Jesus as set forth above. With this word of explanation we proceed to the definition of the indigenous church. 15 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS As in education there are the three R’s, so in modern Protestant missions there have been three S’s, namely, self-support, self-goy- ernment, and self-extension or self-propaga- tion. These three have been for decades the recognized marks, as it were, on the hands, the head, and the feet of a really indigenous church: self-support, the members of the church with the work of their own hands sup- porting their church in all its activities; self- government, using their heads to direct their own affairs; and self-propagation, with their own feet carrying the gospel. “How beautiful upon the mountains,” whether the Andes or the Himalayas, “are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings” (Isa. 52. 7). Self-support means the doing away with for- eign grants or subsidies and the assumption by the local, provincial, or national churches of the financial burden incident to such activi- ties as the church carries on. It implies that all the money used for current expenses (1) of an annually recurring nature, as pastor’s salary, and (2) of a nonrecurring nature, such as the erection of a new church building, is raised by the church itself. If the people in the church really recognize the enterprise as their own and not as the creature of the for- eign missionary, they will naturally be willing 16 THE INDIGENOUS CHURCH DEFINED to support it of their substance just as truly as a self-respecting husband and father takes pride and joy in contributing to the necessi- ties of his family and would be ashamed to ask another man to support his family. Self- support, therefore, is not merely a matter of paying the bills: it is that attitude of mind on the part of the church that is not content until it stands before the world in God’s strength without leaning on the golden staff of the foreign missionary. Self-government or autonomy means the government of the church by the church itself. In this state, viewed ideally, the seat of authority in all matters relating to the church life is no longer occupied by the foreign mis- sionary or by the foreign mission board. That this is a reasonable requirement for an indig- enous church is easy to see when we consider how restive our own youth become under par- ental authority and how relations in the family are sometimes strained when the father insists on obedience. How much more restive are peoples of strange races, especially in these days of increasing race and national con- sciousness. God has given other races the same craving for independence that he has given the European, and having this in their nature without satisfying it would keep Chris- 17 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS tianity a foreign religion, whereas the satis- fying of this craving insures the nationalizing of the religion of Jesus. Self-extension or self-propagation means that the vitalizing power of the Holy Spirit is so present in the church that it must express itself in that which is natural to all true fol- lowers of Christ, namely, the carrying of the gospel. A church must have within itself the living heart of Christianity to do this. A dead or dying church has no urge within itself to go with the message. <A church that feels the message belongs to the missionary or the foreign-paid national agent has no interest in this most characteristic of all Christian work. Only a church that has a real fellowship with the Christ and is energized by the power of the Holy Spirit, not pushed and coaxed by the foreigner, accepts the challenge of the ' unreached millions. This, then, is the third and the most convincing of the marks that the church is truly indigenous. To contribute to what is one’s own and to manage one’s own affairs, certainly are activities that do not go as deep into the heart life of the Christian as to pray for, give money for, or go to those outside of his own circle. The goals of self-support, self-government, and self-extension were set forth by two great 18 THE INDIGENOUS CHURCH DEFINED leaders, one on each side of the Atlantic: Sec- retary Henry Venn, of the Church Missionary Society, and Secretary Anderson, of the American Board. In mission conferences and councils since their day these have been the goals of the endeavor of the foreign missionary societies. When they are attained, then it is recognized that the churches in the foreign fields have truly attained their majority. But there are other features in an indige- nous church. A culture that is native yet also Christian is sure to. spring up. A church dependent entirely upon translations for the cultivation of its life in Christ surely lacks in indigenous character. A literature of native production is proof that Christ has captured the heart and the mind; and when poetic souls are inspired to compose hymns in praise of our Lord, we have deeper reason still to feel . that Christianity is growing up in the heart and is no more. regarded as a foreign plant. The developing of a native literature, both prose and poetry, is as natural a one as the unfolding of the rose from the rosebud. Any failure to mature indicates either death or a counterfeit. In addition to literature pure and simple, an interpretation of Christianity that is adapted to the needs of the country, is another 19 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS rightly expected fruit of an indigenous reli- gion. The structure of Western society has led us of the West to emphasize the individuality of Christianity. Among the Eastern peoples, where much, if not most, of our mission work is now conducted, the family and the clan play a greater part. <A very good illustration of the different point of view came with a shock to the writer on one occasion in China when he was examining for baptism a number of converts. A youth appeared among them as proxy for his father, who was too busy to come and be baptized himself! Now, baptism by proxy is in no danger of being adopted even in China, but where the social order is not unchristian, it must stand, or denational- ization, which term includes a church that is not indigenous, must result. Jesus, himself an Oriental, fits better into the social struc- ture we find in the mission fields of the East than into our Western, more individualistic society. The occupations of people and their rela- tions economically to one another all must be allowed to determine the application of reli- gion, For example, an agricultural people need a religion that is interested in the prob- lems of the farmer. There is great room for 20 THE INDIGENOUS CHURCH DEFINED change in emphasis between countries like the United States of America, where over one half of the population live in cities, and China or India, where probably eighty-five to ninety-five per cent live in the country districts. If Christianity gets hold of a people, it will natu- rally be adapted to their industrial needs. Aisthetics also have their place. Gothic architecture in India or Japan seems out of place; our Western music cannot reach the heart of the Chinese as their own music does, and a ritual that is brought from over the seas has a foreign tinge that sets the people of the land against it. These matters are all part of the problem of the indigenous church, Recognizing the religious nature of all peoples, we may well allow the national forms to clothe the Christian religion as well as to clothe their previous religion. A particular style of architecture is not accursed because it has been used by Bud- dhists or Mohammedans. Architecture existed before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. He advised no style of architecture. What did the first Christians use in their church build- ings in the way of architecture? They did not follow the synagogue style of architecture, as one might expect if there was to be a style peculiarly Christian, a model for the whole 21 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS world never to be departed from, settled for- ever because Jesus himself worshiped in the synagogue. The first Christian edifice, erected at Edessa, was built upon a model of the Jewish temple, and this model was followed largely in Nestorian churches. But through- out the Roman Empire the Christians prob- ably first hired or erected plain rectangular buildings, such as were numerous in Roman towns. Later basilicas were used. These were buildings on the style of the Roman court house and exchange for commercial transac- tions. Wealthy Romans also had basilicas in their houses. Hence we see that outside of the Nestorian churches the style of architecture in the early days was not what we could call distinctively Christian, not even religious, but was distinctly adapted to what was already in vogue in the lands where Christianity was preached. The indigenous church of to-day would therefore have excellent reason for us- ing in church buildings such style of archi- tecture as would not provoke the comment that it was foreign, but such a style as would disarm criticism and furthermore make the people feel that it was really their own. That style, of course, would be one to which they are accustomed. One has only to live among the people of 22 THE INDIGENOUS CHURCH DEFINED other countries to find out that each land or race prefers its own kind of music. That is the kind that takes them back to all the pre- cious memories of childhood, their environ- ment, the dreams of the future in which they indulged—in short, the woof and warp of their existence. Nothing can ever take away from them the charm of their own music. For this reason foreign music has a foreign sound, and only when the music of their hymns and their other sacred music is their own will they feel entirely at home with them. For this reason the character of the music should be indig- enous. Ritual too is a feature of religious life that cannot be disregarded. The ritual we have in our religion is not vital to the religion itself. Jesus made no provision for it. It has been a gradual growth through the centuries. Much now used and regarded as Christian came from heathen worship. Saint Gregory intro- duced even the dancing of the Apollo cult into religious services. It seems quite reasonable that a truly indigenous church will develop its own ritual or adapt a foreign one to such a form as will make it seem truly indigenous. Early Christianity likewise coming into con- tact with the then systems of philosophy, more or less adopted them. Jerome, stanchly Chris- 23 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS tian, was nevertheless “fervently addicted to heathen literature and admired Plato and Cicero, the chiefs of profane philosophy.” Beethius, a professed Christian who lived after Constantine, and a man steadfast in suffering, in setting forth the true grounds of spiritual consolation on which he rested in the hour of trial, shows no trace of Christianity, only pure, unmingled naturalism. Merivale, in The Conversion of the Northern Nations cites these two instances as typical of that time. As it was natural in those days for Chris- tianity to relate itself with the philosophy current in those times, so it is to be expected that a truly indigenous Christianity will like- wise relate itself to the philosophy of the nations that are now the fields of foreign- mission enterprise. Church discipline too may be subject to adaptation. Although Jesus himself mingled with men so that they even charged him with being a glutton and a winebibber, many devoted followers of his became hermits, pillar saints, and other kinds of recluse. Mon- tanus, the founder of the Montanist heresy, having been a priest of Cybele in Phrygia, naturally brought over into his discipline Cybele elements, such as ecstatic manifesta- tions and extreme self-mortification. To-day 24 THE INDIGENOUS CHURCH DEFINED there are those that say India will give us a _ Christian type of holy man or fakir, who, while not mutilating his body, will travel about in poverty preaching the Christian religion, and that, in fact, this has already begun in the person of the Sadhu Sunder Singh and others. The expression natural to the country in ques- tion is bound to appear when the church has become truly of indigenous character. Among all these problems one of the most difficult before ‘the missionary has been what to do with native customs. Some have tried to substitute a purely Western form, thinking that it was Christian because it came from a more Christian land than the land to which they had come. Others have attempted to con- serve what was not distinctly opposed to Christianity ; for example, they would have to exclude from the Chinese wedding ceremony the worshiping of heaven and earth. But the ceremony might still be kept with the Creator of heaven and earth as the object of worship. No one would hold that our present cere- monies of marriage or usages at funerals and festivals and our other customs are those laid down by Jesus. The origin of many customs is very obscure. Very few Christians know how Saint Nicholas burst into the Christmas festivities and robbed Jesus of his rightful 25 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS preeminence. In the same way very few Chinese can account for the origin of the fes- tival of the Eighth Moon. The consideration of such facts fosters humility in the attitude of Westerners. Why not expect the people of other lands also to retain their customs, fes- tivals, etc., even in their church life, altering them only so far as they need it to make them Christian? For an indigenous church to do otherwise would be to become foreign and open to the charge of denationalizing its mem- bers. Customs are not Christian simply because they are Western. It is as simple and as reasonable that, as our ancestors put a Christian content into already existing cus- toms, so shall the converts of India, Africa, and other lands do with their customs. To illustrate, let us take a concrete case of fundamental type. A church that disregards, as too often has been done in the past, the ele- ments of filial piety in ancestor worship, which is the most prominent feature in the religious life of the East, throws away a priceless asset of those peoples. Of course the burning of incense and prostration in worship before the ancestral tablets would seem to be steps away from Christianity ; but the preservation of the tablets and the holding of memorial services, or the employment of some other method of 26 THE INDIGENOUS CHURCH DEFINED showing respect for the memory, and some form of rite at the grave, would seem to be essential to the preservation of the inner life so long fostered and of such obvious value to the younger generation. If this is altered— as, indeed, it can be—there is no valid reason why almost all customs cannot be Christian- ized, instead of being thrown overboard entirely and usurped by purely Western ones. When may a church be characterized as indigenous? This is a proper question to ask at the conclusion of this sketch of the various implications underlying the idea of the indige- nous church. Must a church have all these - qualifications before it may be truly classed as indigenous? Or is there a time when it has passed over from the rating of a foreign enterprise into the indigenous column, even though it has not yet produced all the fruits an indigenous plant is expected to produce? Some of these fruits, for example, philosophy and literature, require generations to produce. So much has been said about self-support that the question arises: May the church then be called indigenous when it supports itself? And, may it ever be indigenous before it is self-supporting? Now, there are on the field churches that are self-supporting, as the Samoan Church, but they are unable as yet to 27 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS do without the missionary. Financial ability, then, may be present, but the ability to develop a well-rounded Christianity does not arise alone out of the possession and the generous use of money. On the other hand, there are churches whose economic situation is a prob- lem, as in the Telugu country, but which have developed capable men to manage their affairs, If it is only money that they need, can they not be called as truly indigenous as a weak Presbyterian or Methodist church on the home mission field? Self-support, then, is not the sole criterion. Its attainment does not neces- sarily imply indigenous character, and only partial attainment does not necessarily dis- qualify a church. Another question that naturally arises is: While the missicnary is still on the field is the chureh indigenous? Does even his presence, though only as an adviser, hinder the church from being called indigenous? The presence of French instructors in the American army in the European War was never thought of as denationalizing the army. They had no control over the War Department. Even so, the church may be indigenous and yet have the missionary. To decide otherwise would be to go against a very strong body of opinion in the foreign lands, particularly Japan, where 28 THE INDIGENOUS CHURCH DEFINED the missionary still is working, but where the churches have shown so many qualities of an indigenous nature that it would be an injus- tice to deny their indigenous character. When shall a church be considered indige- nous? Must it pass one hundred per cent on the tests already suggested? We have already hinted that this is not necessary. Mr. J. H. Oldham, in his address at the National Christian Conference in Shanghai, China, in May, 1922, put the issue clearly when he answered the question, “When does Chris- tianity become truly national in its expres- sion?” with these words, “when the main direc- tion and control of the Christian movement is in the hands of the people of the country— when they make the decisions.” That is the turning point. It implies that the church has accepted Christianity not on trial, but as its own for good or ill. It is committed to it, heart and soul. Besides the goals of self-support, self-gov- ernment, and self-propagation, besides an indigenous culture and an interpretation of Christianity that is adapted to the needs of a country, there is a deeper, spiritual quality that is essential to the development of indige- nous Christianity. This quality, in fact, underlies and in natural course works through 29 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS all these external features, just as the spirit of a man shows through the activity of his body. This is none other than the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church, ener- gizing and leading to ultimate victory over the forces of evil. This indigenous force, present in all the fol- lowers of Jesus, a force that is indigenous to all the human race, when. actually possessed of his Spirit, shows itself in two ways that have a deep mutual interrelation. The first of these is a desire to unite with all other fol- lowers of Jesus. The second is the baptism of the missionary spirit, already mentioned under “self-propagation.” The plea of Jesus by act and word for union and his charge to his dis- ciples in word and in the implication of his life and his teaching leave us no room to doubt that a united body of believers with the mis- sionary spirit was the great prayer of his heart. That the mission fields to-day present to us these features so strikingly (1) in the many union and federation movements and (2) in the missionary zeal not only as evi- denced by the support on the part of the home churches of over twenty thousand missionaries abroad, but also in the evangelistic zeal of the people newly won to Christ, indicates that Christianity is firmly grounded and also gives 30 THE INDIGENOUS CHURCH DEFINED rise to the glorious hope that some day we shall see a mighty, united church, actually accomplishing the work that Jesus sent his followers forth to do. This brings us to the question of whether an indigenous church in China, or one in India, or one in other lands, or several in any one land, interferes with an international fed- eration or union. The answer to this question is that the indigenous character of the church in the different lands is merely the adapta- tion of Christianity to those peoples, and that an international bond of union would in no way interfere with the indigenous character of the churches. There is enough in common in human nature, particularly when it is conse- crated to God and baptized by the Holy Spirit, to unite us all in Christian fellowship. That is to say, that by “indigenous” is not meant that offensive type of nationalism which is so present in the world to-day. The indigenous character of the national church is not divi- sive, but looks to the natural development of the different Christian bodies in their own environment with a view to ultimate union in our common Lord, whether we view that union as an external church or as an inner fellow- ship or both. 31 CHAPTER II WHY AN INDIGENOUS CHURCH? Isn’r the American, English, or Continental type of church good enough? is a question that has been asked more in the past than now. Lest there be any vestiges of it yet, let us answer it here. It is a question that arises out of nationalistic pride. If these lands were thoroughly Christian, there might be reason for asking it. But in all these countries mod- ern Civilization is so intertwined with our form of Christianity that in asking it there is no understanding of how much of our civiliza- tion goes with it. “Make Americans of them.” “Teach them the English language.” These are suggestions given to missionaries. But who has the right to make such a demand? It implies that we are the dominating race. Who gave us that position? We say that we believe in democracy; that we are the champions of democracy. If we really are fair-minded, let uS give everyone an equal say. Poll China’s four hundred million, India’s three hundred and fifteen million, Africa’s millions and all the rest, and our question of Americanization 32 WHY AN INDIGENOUS CHURCH? or Anglicizing fades into thin air. We pro- claim freedom to the world and then want to give them our religious customs or want to dictate the form of their church government, or in some other way inflict on them our superiority! It is not only undemocratic but unchristian. What they do with the message that we give them interests us greatly, but we have no authority to compel their acceptance; and to insist that after they accept it they shall also accept our interpretation of it for their lives, our hymns, our literature, our cus- toms, and all the rest, if they want to be called Christians, would be to take an ungentlemanly advantage of those who have placed themselves in our care. Not only is it right to leave to them the choice of the kind of church they wish, but in fairness to them and to the future of Chris- tianity throughout the world, the missionary ought to make clear to them where Christian- ity ends and where civilization and culture of the Western order begin. The only distinc- tion between Christian and nonchristian lands is, to quote James S. Dennis, that in Christian lands, “the forces of resistance to evil are alert and vigorous. The standards of life and conduct are permanently elevated. The demands of public opinion are enforced 33 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS by regnant principles. ... The heathen world is now, as of old, moribund. It is destitute in itself of recuperative power.” To deny, however, that there are powerful forces of evil at work in Christian lands and that much of our life is still strongly pagan, would be contrary to the facts. The mis- sionary is the ambassador of the cross, not the agent of Western theology, custom, methods, and what not. In the light of what injustice the countries of the missionaries have inflicted upon the weaker nonchristian nations and peoples, such discrimination becomes a crying need. Too often have the missionaries been faced with the obvious contradiction between the principles of Jesus and the practice of their own nations. Jesus as the Prince of Peace contrasted with nations which not only spend fabulous sums on armies and navies in prepar- ation for war, but also actually carry on war in such ruthless fashion as the lands of the mission field could not carry on if they would, are as far apart as white from black. There is no explaining it away. The only course is to disavow the connection between such a civi- *Dennis, James S., Christian Missions and Social Progress, vol. I, p. 75f. Fleming H. Revell Company. Used by per- mission. 34 WHY AN INDIGENOUS CHURCH? lization and pure Christianity. The same may be said too with reference to all that is dis- tinctly the outgrowth of former heathen cus- tom or bitter unchristian controversy on the- ology and all that relates to the form of the church—everything, in short, that was added to what Jesus said and did. If the new churches wish to express their Christianity in our way, that is their affair; but it is not fair for us to prejudice them. Let us introduce them to the Christ, but let them receive him in their natural fashion, and we shall then be more sure that the purpose of God for them and for all the world will be better accom- plished. We may well recognize that God as the Cre- ator and Father of all peoples had a purpose in making us as we are. The genius of one people is not that of another. For example, India is called the soul of Asia, China the hands, and Japan the head. Our Western or Hellenized individualistic form of Christian- ity has suited the West. But from the make- up of Eastern society it looks as if a more social type would fit in better with their scheme of life. Different ages and different social groups as well as different peoples have had different emphases. Dr. Shailer Mathews in an article, 35 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS “Theology and the Social Mind” calls atten- tion to various types of social mind that have characterized Christianity at various stages of its development. First, the Semitic with its society an Oriental monarchy and therefore with a Messianic hope of national scope “transcendentalized into a scenario of the world drama.” Next in order he cites the Greco-Roman, with the Logos doctrine loom- ing large, somewhat as the theory of evolu- tion does to-day, with the demand for an abso- lute God, but one that could cleanse and save worshipers by actual contact, as in the mys- tery religions of Isis and Osiris, of Mithras, of Atys and Cybele. This led to emphasis on the doctrine of the incarnation as well as the relation of the Logos to the Father. Then came the imperialistic social mind, developed in Italy, Spain, and Gaul. In the Kast, Orien- tal despotism brought stagnation; but in the West there was the thought of God in terms of the imperial Roman Empire, with a church naturally unsympathetic toward mass move- ments for more social privilege and that “hated democracy and saw salvation in heaven.” North of Latin Europe there was the Na- tionalistic social mind. Imperialism did not get the hold there that it had on southern Europe. National churches arose out of this 36 WHY AN INDIGENOUS CHURCH? type of mind. In the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries there was the Bur- geois social mind. This period is character- ized by commercialism, with the mind blunted to the unchristian character of the slave traffic and the opium traffic, not to mention the injus- tices of industry, and largely concerned with individual salvation. Lastly comes the Mod- ern social mind which is scientific and demo- cratic, with Roman Catholicism still antidemo- eratic and the bulk of Protestantism Burgeois, though moving toward the Modern. The Mod- _ ern social mind would save society as well as individuals. As Christianity in the West has thus been adapted to suit the forms of government, the movements in social life, the changes in indus- try, and the tendencies of thought, so it is reasonable to leave it to the churches of the foreign mission fields to shape Christianity to meet the needs of their own social order. The West has, as we look back over history, made many mistakes in her adaptations, and we may with good reason hope that they may afford to the peoples now in the process of accepting Christianity valuable signposts to keep them from going astray. But whether they go astray or no, Christ is as much the Christ of the African as the Christ 37 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS of the European, and as much the Saviour of the Asiatic as of the American. To have the religious scheme of another land stand between them and God is as harmful to the development of a complete expression of Christianity as the standing of a _ priest between a man and God. It destroys God- given initiative. It makes impossible that sense of nearness to God that Jesus found so precious and stimulating. It restricts the nat- ural growth of the Christian soul, just as the shade of a great tree keeps a little plant from attaining its full size. Christ emphasized freedom. “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Some are afraid of freedom; but if the Spirit is really present in the Christian Church, we shall have that atmosphere of freedom to which Paul referred, when he wrote, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” We have therefore noth- ing to fear if the churches of the foreign fields are given this freedom, but, on the contrary, it is their divine right as Christians; and to grant it to them will release those natural, God-given faculties which will enable them to build up the most efficient churches and the highest type of Christian character through the agency of the unrestricted power of the God and Father of all mankind. Without this 38 WHY AN INDIGENOUS CHURCH? freedom their growth will be dwarfed. With it we should see churches filled with the energy of the Holy Spirit. Out of the feeling about the value of indig- enous Christianity on the part of the peoples themselves has grown an active demand for indigenous churches. This demand is so gen- eral among all capable and educated people that it must be granted or we shall lose the best leadership. Listen to their appeal. This one comes from China: A transplanted religion without being adapted to suit native soil, loses its savor and fails to grow. ... Let the foreign missionaries change their domineering attitude, if they hold such an attitude, and work as servants of Christ for the Church of China. Again, among the demands of the Christian students of China is this: “To have a real Chinese Church.” In 1923 the Y. M. C. A. and the Y. W.-C. A. appointed a student commission. One of the recommendations for the Student Christian Movement was that “it should be indigenous.” Another voice from China says: It is the missionaries’ church. Every plan for work or extension comes from them; they meet, *Chinese Recorder, Aug., 1923, p. 488, art. by Y. T. Wu, executive secretary, Peking Christian Student Work Union. bad 6 Y NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS consult, and decide what is best, and then set about doing it, largely with the help of the native worker, who has not, however, been called in to share their counsels.t And this one from India: Who can long interest himself in a work in the conduct of which he has no voice, where he is con- sidered a machine not to be consulted with, and when he is not at liberty to impress his person- ality, and where the responsibility also is not on his shouiders.? Among the complaints of the Indian Chris- tians has been that the “whole system of doc- trine, worship, and organization is foreign. India wants liberty.”* In the Continuation Committee Conferences held in India in 1912 and 1913 greater freedom was demanded by Indian opinion. It was also urged that the Indian Church should have entire freedom to develop on such lines as will conduce to the most natural expression of the spiritual instincts of the Indians. The movement for independence has re- sulted in some quarters in definite action. As early as 1892 we find what was known as the *World Missions Conference, Commission I, p. 831. Flem- vy Ses Revell Company. Used by permission. a *Church Missionary Review, 1922, p. 296, art. by E. H. M, Waller. Used by permission. 40 WHY AN INDIGENOUS CHURCH? “Ethiopian Movement,” or “Africa for the Africans,” rending some of the churches of South Africa. Since then this expression of racial consciousness, demanding independence from the rule of the white man, has been more or less in evidence in many parts of Africa, now and then flaring up in schisms and inde- pendent movements. In China the independ- ent societies that are due to the desire to be free from foreign control are many. Even Brazil, the Philippines, and Burma furnish us with similar examples. But the greatest progress in attainment of independence from foreign control has been in Japan, where the larger Japanese churches for the most part years ago pressed the question until they were allowed to establish their independence of mis- sionary society and missionary. In these cases there is no longer any question. The matter is settled. And in other situations there is no more staying the demand for an indigenous church than there was in staying the American col- onies from persisting in independence after their world-famed declaration of the fourth of July, 1776, when we see the vigor and nobility of this spirit as set forth in the words of Pro- fessor T. C. Chao: Chinese civilization at its height is thoroughly 41 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS ethical and Christianity in its essence is the God life, issuing in the moral relationships of men and women.... The Chinese Church is national because it has a special message for the Chinese people and a special task of spiritualizing Chinese civilization.! This is the spirit of the leaders in the Chris- tian movement of all lands. Who would put a damper upon such divine enthusiasm? The doxology would be more appropriate. Moreover, this irrepressible demand becomes still more irrepressible when we view the results that follow the encouragement of this spirit. Take Japan, where, as already noted, “Christianity has become in a real sense indig- enous.” There “its influence on the social and intellectual life of the nation has been pro- portionately far in advance of its numerical strength.’’? Considering how little has been done in other lands to adapt national customs to Christianity, the following is significant in showing the result of an indigenous spirit in the church: The question of giving new meaning to ancient customs connected with the religions in Japan, so that they may be transformed into Christian *Chinese Recorder, June, 1923. "International Review of Missions, 1913, p- 4 Used by permission, 42 WHY AN INDIGENOUS CHURCH? ceremonies and festivals, is receiving increasing attention from the missionaries.! The testimony is well-nigh universal that where there has been a recognition of the value of an indigenous church in all its implications, the Christians concerned have taken a new interest in the church. And Amos Burnet, in discussing “Ethiopianism,” says that the growth of “those churches which have from the beginning exercised a generous policy in the calling out and ordination of African minis- ters” is “most marked.’ How true this is in other fields than Africa we dare not say, but it is reasonable to expect that increased enthusiasm naturally resulting from this policy would have a similar effect. There has also come a great change in the attitude of the nationals under the greater freedom grarfted them in directing their churches, as evidenced in the following: Who that knows India to-day and can compare it with fifteen years ago would not choose to deal with the Christian nationalist, outspoken and independent, rather than be stifled, blanketed, and paralyzed by the old clinging subserviences ?* *International Review of Missions, 1917, p. 5. Used by permission, See Japan Evangelist, July, 1916, pp. 243, 246-249. *Church Missionary Review, 1922, p. 33. Used by per- mission. ‘International Review of Missions, October, 1923, art. by Frank Lenwood. Used by permission. 43 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS Substituting for India the name of any other country where a similar change had taken place, these words will apply there also. They take into account too the misunderstand- ings that have arisen between missionaries and nationals. There has, in short, come such a welcome change that it has overshadowed all the perplexities, disappointments, and losses that have come with it. And when we come down to the point, we may well ask ourselves: Since Christianity has been naturalized in our Western lands, why not in theirs? The Bible, our great book for the propagating of our faith, is more easily understood in the East than in the West, for it has an Oriental setting. It is closer to them than to us. The religion of which it tells ought then to be more natural to them than to us. Finally, our answer to the question, Why an indigenous church? is in the study of the development of the churches in the foreign fields. The results of the different methods used by missionaries is a convincing argu- ment. There have been men who have paid no attention to the building up of churches with an indigenous consciousness, and there have been those who have with purpose directed their efforts to the development of 44 WHY AN INDIGENOUS CHURCH? such churches. One kind of church has been developed by one type of work, and quite another kind by the other. In the succeeding chapters we shall proceed to trace this devel- opment. 45 CHAPTER III HISTORICAL SURVEY Ir is the purpose of this chapter to trace from apostolic times to the present the spread of Christianity in those respects which have a definite relation to the formation and develop- ment of indigenous churches as defined in the previous chapters. Such material as is at hand falls into three divisions: (1) condi- tions met, (2) methods used, and (8) results obtained. The first period of missionary endeavor is quite generally recognized as from apostolic days until the time of Constantine, about 300 a. p. The second for the purposes of this book extends to about 1800, or, more exactly, 1792, which date signalizes the begin- ning of the rise of Protestant missionary soci- eties in rapid succession. The third takes us from the days of isolated efforts and the crude beginnings of the early nineteenth century to 1910, the date of the World Missionary Con- ference at Edinburgh, and the fourth from that date down to the present time. In this chapter the above chronological order will be followed in the main. 46 HISTORICAL SURVEY 1. FRoM THE APOSTLES TO CONSTANTINE The religion of Jesus met at its inception the opposition that people everywhere accord to the new. False charges of atheism, of crimi- nal origin, of secret and horrible rites, of responsibility for public calamities and of the aloofness of Christians from accepting civilian duties, were preferred against it by the com- mon people; and charges of lack of culture, of superstition, of being of foreign origin, of being of the lower classes, of plagiarism, and later on even of division over dogmas, came from the enlightened classes—both types of charges that are quite familiar to the pioneer missionaries of our own day. Worst of all, Christians, by refusing to burn incense to the emperor, were persecuted as traitors to the state. Such were the forces arrayed against it. On the other hand, there were forces exter- nal and internal which opened the way for the rapid adoption of Christianity as the natural religion of the empire. Christianity came through Judaism. Jesus was a Jew. The early apostles went first to the Jews of the dispersion. Judaism had permeated the Roman Empire so thoroughly that its tenets were widely known and so opened the way 47 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS for Christianity, for through this as an intro- duction, Christianity did not seem so strange as it does to the minds of the peoples of the modern missionary lands. Also a unified cul- ture and language did away with a great bar- rier which missionaries of to-day have to pass and so made the way incomparably easier. Political unity, the excellence of communica- tion and its wide use throughout the empire also worked for the rapid breaking down of hostile prejudice, in sharp contrast again to the difficulties of communication in Africa, China, and other fields. Meantime the minds of people were being prepared for the recep- tion of Christianity. The Stoics believed in the equality of men and the duty of brother- hood. These were just what Jesus taught. The Eastern mystery religions had met with wide acceptance, because they satisfied in a measure the craving for revelation, and opened up the way for the more complete satisfaction that Christianity afforded. Men were think- ing of the soul as separate from the body, of God as incomprehensible, yet good, of the world as needing redemption; they were crav- ing eternal life, substituting individualism for nationalism and discounting polytheism. These thoughts were vital in Jesus’ mind, and he gave clear and authoritative answers to 48 HISTORICAL SURVEY them all. These were all elements of a live, progressive culture, whereas in modern mis- sion fields, Christianity has had to face a dying, backward and stultified culture. This culture and Christianity were headed in the same direction, both looking forward, while in our time Christianity in its missionary work in foreign fields has had to turn people about from a backward-glancing inertia and fa- talism. Hence we see in the Roman Empire despite the opposition a real outward and inward preparation for the entrance of the Light. It was so striking a situation that scholars have rightly seen in it the providence of God. For the planting of an indigenous church it was a supremely fertile soil that the Roman Empire furnished. Those early days were days of simplicity ; no mission boards, no drives for centenary cele- brations, no question of salary either for the missionary or his loca] helper, no synod, no council, no discipline, no ritual worthy the name, a minimum of authority and a maxi- mum of freedom—truly a great new country with no roads and no signposts. The follow- ers of Jesus went hither and thither to the con- fines of the empire and beyond, most of them independently and each with his own concep- tion of the message. 49 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS From the start the methods used assured an indigenous character to the church. The Christian communities were autonomous in their government and democratic in their wor- ship. Everyone—except the women !—could have the floor. The parent church at Jerusa- lem did not assume authority over the Gentile Christians. Paul exhorted the Corinthian church to purge itself of the wrongdoer. The apostles did indeed appoint leaders in the local churches, but those leaders were local men and what respect and obedience were accorded the apostles was never due to the fear that a grant- in-aid would be withheld; and many of the early churches, especially those not visited by the apostles, chose their own leaders. The question of self-support was never raised. Instead of the Jerusalem church tak- ing up a collection for the propagation of the gospel in foreign parts, the indigenous foreign- field churches established the to-us paradoxi- cal precedent of contributing to her support. The leader, whether teacher, elder or bishop, either supported himself or depended upon the local congregation for his support wholly or in part. Whatever buildings they worshiped in had to be provided for out of their own purses or by the toil of their own hands. The power of the Holy Spirit was manifest 50 HISTORICAL SURVEY in their spirit of unity, their virtuous lives, and their evangelistic zeal to a degree that has probably never been excelled. In short, it was their church and was therefore really indigenous. But there were problems that arose, and in the solving of those problems came a new situ- ation. The very success of the propagation of the gospel brought with it many difficulties. As converts became more numerous there were some whose love cooled. Discipline had to be administered. The numerous wandering prophets and apostles at times had their gen- uineness questioned. Some one had to take them in hand. Differences of opinion regard- ing the person of Christ, culminating in gnos- ticism, required handling. What teaching was authoritative, what creed should be subscribed to, what books were canonical, what proceed- ure was correct in the administering of the sacraments and other questions, must be an- swered. It was felt in all these matters that the word of the apostles, who had been asso- ciated with Christ, was final; and men who had been appointed by them were also entitled to this authority. Out of all this there grad- ually arose a close organization. The bishops became the authoritative heads of the church. Gradually too the churches were organized by 51 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS provinces, with a metropolitan bishop at the head. In the West the development went on into the papal power as the supreme authority, and in the East the various metropolitans became supreme. The former democratic freedom disappeared and a hierarchy arose. The growing need for some form of organi- zation, however, did not determine the particu- lar form that the organization took. It was the form of government to which the people were accustomed that was adopted by the church. It was modeled upon the Imperial Rule of the Roman State. This is a tribute to the adaptibility of Christianity to the envi- ronment it meets. For our day we would accordingly expect that with the rise of democracy throughout the world the prevail- ing form of church organization ‘would be democratic. A study of modern missions goes far to confirm this observation. Besides church organization there were other developments under way.. A Christian literature sprang up. Apostolic letters, those of the New Testament. as it is to-day and others too, Gospels, apocalypses, and later on also apologetic literature and treatises on disci- pline, spiritual life, and other topics bore wit- ness to the indigenous character of the church. In the development of this literature schools 52 HISTORICAL SURVEY at Alexandria, Antioch, and Carthage played a part. Through the influence of Alexandria, the Greek learning, which was fought against as unchristian by one element in the church, was adopted, thus bringing in another indige- nous element. As more and more people joined the Chris- tians, nonchristian elements were increas- ingly adopted. To make up for local divini- ties displaced by the Christian religion, saints were given the position formerly accorded them. Local cults and holy places were insti- tuted. Very likely the celebration of Epiph- any was taken largely from the cult of Diony- sius. ‘These were but a few out of many. Such elements were indeed indigenous, and the adoption of some at least was justifiable. But to substitute for the prerogatives of idols and demons those of saints, was dragging Christ in the mire of heathenism; for, to wor- ship saints, pray to them, and expect help from them, displaced Christ and kept the reli- gion still heathen. For an indigenous Chris- tianity the preservation of Christianity is as essential as is its indigenous character. Discipline and spiritual power too began to wane before the end of this period. At first to become a follower of Jesus was to join the aliens. But as time progressed more of the 53 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS upper classes became Christians. The stand- ing of these folk and the ever-growing num- bers in the church made Christianity more and more popular. In many cases converts clung to the old customs and ways. Instead of purging out the old to make room for the new, they added on Christianity. Church disci- pline began to relax, and the church gradually lost the driving power of the Spirit. To many, Christianity became largely a religion of form, a warning for all time against the disintegrating influence resulting from letting in folk who have not in heart accepted the principles of Jesus and against the assump- tion of authority by clergy alone. Thus we see, before the fourth century, when Constantine founded the state church, the Holy Spirit working through the underworld of the Roman Empire, binding together in the love of Christ a body of men and women, who with a despised culture and a message that appealed to women as well as to men—whereas in the mission fields to-day women are usually slower than men to accept a new religion— until in less than three centuries from the crucifixion of their Lord, the empire was liter- ally honeycombed with Christianity, so that the church (1) felt that the work of evan- gelizing the world had been practically done 54 HISTORICAL SURVEY and (2) had attained a very close form of organization. While there are features in this development which indicate the loss of early spiritual power and a willingness to com- promise, we have the remarkable story of the growth of an indigenous body that was adapt- ing itself more and more, as time went on, to the customs and ideals of the empire. Through compromising with the world came, however, the loss of that sense of difference between the followers of Christ and those who were not, and consequently sounded the death knell of evangelistic fervor, which is ever the life-blood of the church. This period makes clear the adaptability of Christianity and its wonder- ful power to capture the minds and hearts of men and women, but also as well shows clearly the dangers of (1) too much adapta- tion and (2) the monopoly of power by the few. To compare the mission field of that day with the mission fields of our day is a task that requires much care. There are those who would have us return to apostolic methods. In part their contention is worthy of consid- eration, especially in respect to the freedom which the apostles granted the local churches. But, as for self-support, before saying the last word, we would like to wait until a later 5d NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS chapter gives us a chance to view the whole field. Here we cannot but notice that in Paul’s day his social status was on a par with that of his converts. He naturally lived with them. His culture was their culture. His customs, his language, his whole manner of life was theirs. To-day the missionary comes from lands, some of which, because of the difference of level and the impossibility of assimilation (so we are told), restrict or utterly forbid the immigration to their land of the people to whom the missionary goes with the gospel. Culture, social order, customs, language, and the standard of living are totally different. A thoroughgoing apostolic way of doing the mis- sionary task would seem to be suicidal to the missionary cause; and this great difference suggests the advantage of finding and train- ing those who can do the work, at the same time living on the plane of the people, just as the apostles did of old. 2. From CONSTANTINE TO CAREY After the establishment of the Christian religion as the State Religion of the Roman Empire by Constantine, the moral and spir- itual disintegration which had already set in, continued and enlarged. The suppression by the authorities of the church of the Montanist 56 HISTORICAL SURVEY movement toward spiritual freedom in the third century had driven men from the organ- ized church to live as recluses, but they still remained followers of Christ. The corrup- tion that was in the church was a second reason that increased the number of those who took to lives of solitude. A third force was also at work, the desire of some to suffer for Christ. This desire could no longer be satis- fied by enduring persecution, for persecution had ended. They accordingly sought an out- let for their devotion by depriving themselves of human society and the other joys of life. The men who thus withdrew from the out- side world spent their lives in such a way that they developed ability which the church was bound to use. Education became enshrined in the monasteries which they founded. True religion found its vital force there. More than this, the monks who had fled from the hated social order later became the pioneers of civi- lization and the intellectual leaders of the world. In fact, so strong did the monastic system become that monks became Popes, as for example, Gregory the Great. These were not the only ways in which the Spirit of God used this great movement. In the last section was noticed the feeling throughout the church that with the advent dT NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS of the state church the work of evangelizing was done. But the constant pressure of the northern tribes upon the boundaries of the empire kept reminding the more devoted of Christ’s followers that there were great num- bers beyond, to whom the gospel had not been carried. Naturally, the monks, being the most spiritually minded, felt the urge most of all. To them fell the task, therefore, of winning the northern tribes. In the ideals of these peoples there was much that was favorable to the spread of Christianity. The Celts had already become subject in part to Roman influence and those within the empire had accepted the state religion. Throughout the northern tribes, despite the fact that they all—Celts, Slavs, and Teutons—had a degenerate nature wor- ship, there was a passion for immortality, comparatively high regard for women, and a strong, independent, nationalistic spirit— splendid ground for the planting of an indige- nous Christianity. But the methods that were employed from this time were the reverse of those that had been so successful in the early days, Then Christianity had worked up from the bottom to the top. After Christianity became the state religion the process was from the top 58 HISTORICAL SURVEY down. The church had become allied with the state in the empire and laws were passed com- pelling the acceptance of Christianity. The church proceeded to ally itself with the state throughout the North and the East too. Rul- ers were the first object of conversion. Then when the ruler was won, he used his influence, and often his authority, to propagate Chris- tianity among his subjects. The British Isles were the only exception. Augustine’s exegesis of the passage, “Compel them to come in” was accepted as against that of men like Chrysos- tom, who would use only persuasion, not force. For instance, Vladimir, king of Russia, becom- ing a Christian as the result of a vow, made short work of the “Christianizing” of his king- dom. He issued a proclamation that “whoso- ever, rich or poor, shall not come to-morrow to the river to receive baptism, will fall into disgrace in my sight.”! History records a big turnout on the morrow. But that was very mild when compared with the thoroughgoing methods of Charlemagne, the Teutonic Knights and others, who tried to kill the two birds of political and religious opposition with the one stone of armed force. If these had been the only means of con- *Robinson, C. C., Conversion of Europe, p. 499. Long- mans, Green & Co. Used by permission. 59 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS version used, Europe would no doubt be far worse off than she is to-day. Fortunately, there were not only rulers concerned in the spread of Christianity, but the monks as well; and no matter how one may criticize their haste in securing first a nominal acceptance of Christianity, it must be granted that they were devoted men and also did a great work in transforming the northern tribes into na- tions with settled habits. They were tireless in their efforts for the social and spiritual uplift of the people who had been received in wholesale fashion into the church. They cleared forests, taught the people agriculture, practiced charity, and gave them religious instruction. But the religious instruction could not get very far, as the people were already baptized, and therefore saved, as they thought. It left little inducement to learn. In judging the work of the monks, however, it is necessary to take into account the task they had to perform and the training they themselves had. Questioning the indigenous character of the church organizations which resulted from their work, there are a number of features to con- sider. (1) The matter of self-support was easy of settlement. The monks worked faithfully 60 HISTORICAL SURVEY with their hands. Often they secured grants from the rulers, a policy quite in harmony with the principles of an indigenous church, as to-day the government grants for educa- tion in India. Very early too they taught the people to bring tithes and gifts. This part of their work was well done for indige- nous church ends. (2) Autonomy, however, was a different matter. Here there was a distinct lack. The Trish Church for a time held out against the papal power, but finally succumbed, as did Germany and France, whose submission was largely due to the statesmanship of Boniface, not only a redoubtable missionary, but also the avowed champion of an imperial church, sub- ject to the papal see. Of course, also work- ing against autonomy was the wholesale char- acter of the conversion of northern Europe, which made impossible any clear comprehen- sion of Christ’s message and the work of the church. Such a method did not build up an intelligent ministry and much less an intelli- gent laity. Hence churches were born that did not know enough to take the reins of gov- ernment into their own hands. Furthermore, the holding of all authority in the church by the celibates was like laying the ax at the root of the tree of democracy. The man of 61 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS normal development, married and living like the rest of mankind, fitted by normal expe- rience to form judgments and play the part of aman, had nochance. Education and religion were in the cold storage plant of the monas- tery. Hence in government we find only a development still further away from a natural Christianity. ) This weakness in the indigenous character of their religion was felt more and more as time went on and men began to think for themselves. We have seen the revolt of a greater part of Germany, England, part of Scotland, France, Switzerland, Holland, the Scandinavian kingdoms, not to mention the earlier breaking away of the Eastern Church. These all refused to be governed by a foreign religious power, in most cases organizing na- tional churches of their own. (3) During all this time there was con- tinued the adaptation of Christianity to the customs and ways of the people that overdid the work of making the church indigenous. Saints’ chapels were substituted for demons’ shrines, just as earlier in the southern part of Europe. Among the Letts, Maria became the “Mother of Cattle.” Among the Slavs, John _ the Baptist fell heir to the position of Ivan Kupalo, the god of summer. As late as the 62 HISTORICAL SURVEY eighth century German priests still attended Woden’s festivals and made sacrifies to him. Old marriage customs, superstitions about the planting of seed, and countless other heathen beliefs kept on, some of them even to our,own time. The elaborate ritual of the church out- did heathenism and obscured from the half- converted the real message and life of Christ. (4) Another and happier adaptation was the development of a Christian literature and the use of religious plays. The earliest transla- tion of the Bible into the vernacular of any tribe was that by Ulfilas into the Gothic tongue. There followed poems, paraphrases, and translations of parts of the Bible. These date from the eighth century on. The first religious play in England was about 1100. On the Continent there were plays also, and we have in 1204 the instance of missionaries at Riga using the religious play to propagate the faith. The church, however, frowned upon a part of this naturalizing of Christianity, for in 1229 a canon was passed at the Council of Toulouse, rigorously condemning the use of vernacular translations. Another very effec- tive barrier to this feature of indigenous Christianity was the illiteracy of the great bulk of the population. The task of educat- ing these vast numbers was one that took cen- 63 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS turies and, sad to say, it was the policy of Rome, continued until now in many lands, to discourage the education that would bring indigenous development. Thus the church lost its indigenous charac- ter through the rise of the foreign religious power of Rome and its Christian character through the overwhelming flood of heathen- ism coming in and making only a formal acceptance of Christianity. A real, red- blooded Christianity, laymen and clergy work- ing hand in hand for the salvation of the world, had given way to the celibate type alone doing the work. Not that men and women who consecrate themselves to a life of entire self-sacrifice for Christ and his church are to be looked down upon. Far be it from that. Who would belittle the character of their devo- tion? But a church whose sole guides and messengers to the heathen world are of this one Class, is a lopsided development, not a nor- mal, well-rounded one. With Europe evangelized in a superficial manner, there came with the advent of the explorers in North and South America, Africa and Asia, fresh calls to the church to spread the gospel. The methods that were used in these other fields, so far as the Roman Catholic missions were concerned, were for the most 64 HISTORICAL SURVEY part still dependent upon external authority and naturally no strong churches were built up in any of those lands. In India the work of Xavier, of deNobili, who lived like a Brah- man and won one hundred thousand converts, and of others, was so widespread and super- ficial, though generally without the use of authority, that a Roman Catholic, Father Dubois, for thirty-two years in Mysore, wrote on December 15, 1815: In twenty-five years I cannot say that I once found anywhere one single downright and straightforward Christian among the natives of India. ... Their entire religion is confined to the observance of a few external ordinances and the repetition of certain forms of prayer... .1 Bishop Milne of the Anglican Church quite agrees with this, for in writing of Xavier’s work he says: The conversion of the country to Christianity is no nearer than when he left it, for anything that his followers have done; they form but a Christian caste, unprogressive, incapable of evangelizing.” While the government employed force in the conversion of the people, the Jesuits and other orders toiled most faithfully, organized the *Richter, J., 4 History of Missions in India, p. 93. Fleming H. Revell Company. Used by permission. *Robinson, C. H., History of Christian Missions, p. 13. Charles Scribner’s Sons. Used by permission. 65 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS American Indians into villages, taught them various trades, doing in those early days what modern missions have seen necessary in fields where the economic level of the converts is so low that some form of industrial training is a prerequisite to self-support, self-respect, and other elements that make up an indige- nous church. Where their work lasted, their system of paternalism, never encouraging the people to think for themselves and take the reins in their own hands, but ever keeping them in subjection first to Rome and secondly to the clergy of the country, has failed to develop that spirit of initiative and that feel- ing of “my church” and “our church,” which “is characteristic of a really indigenous Chris- tianity. What their system has developed is wit- nessed to by many, both Catholic and Protes- tant. Abbe Dominic, chaplain of the Emperor Maximilian, called Mexican Christianity a “baptized heathenism.” An Archbishop of Venezuela wrote of his field. “The clergy have fallen into profound contempt.’? Sir James Bryce writes of South America: “Men of the upper or educated class appear wholly indif- ferent to theology and Christian worship. It *Robinson, C. H., History of Christian Missions, p. 408. Charles Scribner’s Sons. Used by permission. 66 HISTORICAL SURVEY has no interest for them.”? To sum it up, the masses are heathen, the clergy not respectable, and the respectable folk alienated. Neither “indigenous” nor “Christian” apply. The work of the Puritans among the Indians and that of the Moravians among the Eskimos, slaves, and other backward and downtrodden people though most thorough in method and devoted in spirit, resulting in many conver- sions, failed likewise to build up strong churches. There were two factors that hin- dered the work of the Moravians. The first was the inferior mental capacity of the people. The Eskimos and the Negro slaves when evan- gelized, still needed the guidance of the white man. The second was that they did not work definitely toward the building up of indige- nous communities of Christians. In 1909 the Moravians confessed as much. They felt that their system, at least in some cases, should be modified in the direction of throwing more responsibility upon the native Christians early in a mission’s history. The work of Eliot and others was developing native leadership when wars and removals put an end to it. The Danish-Halle Mission in India, first working to convert outecaste slaves, made no attempt *Robinson, C. H., History of Christian Missions, p. 411. Charles Scribner’s Sons. Used by permission. 67 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS to develop initiative, but was paternalism to the extent that the missionary could fine or flog, with authority from the government. Diffusive effort and neglect to train up a strong, native ministry were other hindrances to the building up of a strong church. Before closing this section a word is due the Nestorian movement. When the emperor out- lawed the Nestorians, they went eastward, founded schools which not only prepared mis- sionaries, but also taught the sciences of the time and carried the gospel as far as into China and India. There they lost their mis- sionary zeal, in China, by the acquirement of wealth and social position, in India by drop- ping into the caste system. In the Nearer East their life was crushed out, as was that of the other Eastern branches of the church, by minute theological speculation, and finally by the tide of Mohammedanism which put an abrupt stop to the propagation of Christianity. Here we see a church that was able to sup- port and govern itself, but was side-tracked from its missionary zeal by worldliness and exclusiveness, and so lost its vitality. SUMMARY This long period from 300 to 1800, then, has no model of a church of a truly indige- 68 HISTORICAL SURVEY nous type established in a foreign land by the work of missionaries. Some were self-support- ing, some became self-governing, but none developed and held a real missionary zeal. The nearest approaches to it were the work of the monks, and we have seen how one-sided that development was and the Nestorian movement eastward. The period, while replete with Christlike heroism on the part of both Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries, failed to produce any theory of an indigenous church, much less any attempt to build up such a church. It is clear that (1) authority of an armed kind and (2) “paternalism,” each alone or combined, were unable to produce a virile Christianity; (3) that. the loss of mis- sionary zeal, as in the case of the Nestorians, is fatal; and that (4) scattered effort is at best mostly a waste of otherwise commendable zeal, so far as the founding of indigenous churches is concerned. 3. From CAREY TO THE EDINBURGH CONFERENCE In the first period we found the develop- ment of missionary activity leading to what we now look upon as an unfortunate conclu- sion. In the second period there were no developments of a really constructive nature. 69 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS But things began to move in the third period. The Protestant denominations took up the work of missions more and more in earnest as the time went on, and we see not only a devel- opment from mere individual effort for indi- viduals to cooperative work in individual missions and between missions, first of the same denomination, and second, of various denominations, but also a development from the one method of evangelistic work to the multiform activities of educational, medical, social, and industrial work, culminating in 1910 at Edinburgh in a great missionary gath- ering at which conditions faced, methods used, and results achieved were considered as a whole and a program laid out for the whole work. In this period there was a situation through- out the mission fields which, though it could not approximate for favorableness the situa- tion that the first apostles faced, yet had many favoring factors. For example, the Confu- cianism of China has so much in common with Christianity that the Jesuit Ricci in the six- teenth century assured the Chinese that Chris- tianity was a development of Confucianism. Scholars like Legge have interpreted the Chinese Classics as committed to a belief in a Supreme Being. In India, deNobili, as 70 HISTORICAL SURVEY already noted, in finding that the Brahmins had a high conception of One God, lived like one of them. In Japan the missionaries found a form of Buddhism which seemed to have met with some form of Christianity and to have been thereby modified so that it possessed features of similarity to Christianity. Among the Karens of Burma there was current a tra- dition much like that in the early chapters of Genesis and a belief that white men from the West would come with the message of salva- tion. In striking contrast with the necessity Christianity had in the first three centuries of developing a culture of its own, the record of the missionary work of the nineteenth cen- tury shows that wherever the missionary went he was the bearer of a culture that was far in advance of the culture of the nation which became his field of labor. The degradation, superstition, and illiteracy of the South Sea Islander, the African, the American Indian, the great masses of China, Japan, and India, placed the missionary in the position of an all-round benefactor, far above the people to whom he ministered. Even to the cultured of the Near East, of China, of India, and of Japan, he brought the fruits of modern medi- cal science and all the learning of the West. 71 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS But there was much too that prejudiced these peoples against Christianity. Besides their natural aversion to anything foreign we must add the oppression of the Spanish explor- ers and rulers in America, those of the Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and English in the East and the injustices committed by the United States, particularly toward Mexico. All these, save the English and Americans, strove at one time or another in one region or another to force Christianity on the people. Later on came the strife for Asia and Africa between France, Germany, England, Italy, Russia, and others—all known as Christian, for from them the Christian missionaries came—and these countries gave protection to their nationals serving as missionaries. It was hard to under- stand the Dove of Peace sitting on the Mailed Fist. And throughout the world the traders from Christian countries committed such atrocities that in revenge the missionaries suf- fered, and sometimes were even killed and eaten. The degenerate type of Christianity in the Near East and of the Syrian Christians in the Far East were a poor recommendation for the Prostestant missionaries. Further- more, where there was a high type of culture, there was a lofty pride which rated that cul- ture as superior to Christianity when the pos- 72 HISTORICAL SURVEY sessor of that culture saw the unchristian, domineering attitude of the Westerners. These all served to neutralize the advantages pos- sessed by the missionaries. At the beginning of this period Carey sounded the note of the indigenous church for the foreign field. He began with (1) the ideal of self-support, (2) started a policy of concen- tration in the establishment of a training col- lege, and (38) began the production of a literature for the uplifting of the people. Says Doctor Mylne, in Missions to the Hindus, I should hardly be saying too much did I lay down that subsequent missions have proved suc- cessful or the opposite in a proportion fairly exact to their adoption of Carey’s methods. The London Missionary Society first, and later the Church Missionary Society in Eng- land, and still later the American Board in America declared their belief in indigenous churches. The second mentioned society expressed it as “the development of native churches, with a view to their ultimate settle- ment upon a self-supporting, self-governing and self-extending system.’”” The carrying out of this ideal was another *Robinson, 4d History of ‘Christian Missions, p. 81. Charles Scribner’s Sons. Used by permission. *Stock, History of the Church Missionary Society, vol. II, p. 15, Church Missionary Society. Used by permission. rys> bo NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS matter. Societies aplenty and missionaries unnumbered seem never to have heard of these ideals. We shall follow the development by fields. In India the early days were taken up with preaching and work with the Bible. The low social standing of the converts, of whom many were rescued famine victims and low-caste people, and all with rare exceptions born and brought up in subjection to others, led to a body of Christians dependent upon the mis- sionary as children upon their parents. Quot- ing Richter: During the first half of the nineteenth century the native churches in connection with all the various missionary agencies were equally depend- ent on the missionaries and their respective societies. .. . Even where they employed native assistants . . . they were only the curates, so to speak, of the missionaries. That it was by no means an ideal arrangement .. . had as yet occurred to hardly a single mis- sionary society.! About 1830 a change of policy toward a widening of missionary activity began. Edu- cation played a larger part, but there was as yet practically no responsibility placed upon trained Indian workers. Theological classes * Richter, Julius, 4 History of Missions in India, p. 230, Fleming H. Revell Company. Used by permission. 74 HISTORICAL SURVEY too were conducted in English, and Latin and Greek were taught the students. Secretary Rufus Anderson of the American Board noted that “men too far uplifted above the average . lust after more cultured hearers than. . are found in the villages and after higher salaries than could be obtained.’? This state of affairs did not harmonize with newly awak- ened conceptions of an indigenous church, as the following shows: Toward the middle of the century the view be- came prevalent that Indian Christendom ought to provide adequately for its own pastoral oversight, and this ought to be so arranged as that the sup- port of the preachers should impose no intoler- able burden upon the native churches.? Accordingly, Greek and Latin, as well as a number of dog- matic subjects, were thrown overboard, instruc- tion was given in the vernacular (instead of Eng- lish) and an attempt was made to preserve the catechist’s sense of nationality as far as possible. Men trained in these lines were now ordained in larger numbers so that the native churches might be sufficiently provided with pastors.® Henry Venn set himself to the task of making the churches of the Church Missionary Society *Richter, Julius, d History of Missions in India, p. 421. Used by Spgs *Ibid., p. 4 *"Ibid., p. 120. 45 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS indigenous. The application of his plan, how- ever, was followed by a checking of the rapid growth of that mission’s work. Doctor Rich- ter offers the explanation that the number of missionaries was reduced too rapidly and the district made too large. But better evidence of the naturalization of Christianity in India lies in the expression of the Indians themselves. In 1870 an inde- pendent church known as the Christo Samaj was founded. Various pseudo-Christian sects also sprang up in the north. In South India more particularly Christian songs were com- posed by Indians and set to Indian music. Early expressions of desire to unite in one Christian body in 1872 and again in 1892 died out. But in 1908 the United Church of South India, combining the churches of the Presby- terians, the American Board and the London Missionary Society, was organized. Then the Presbyterian bodies throughout the rest of India united. Soon after 1900 four separate Indian missionary societies were formed by Indian Christians. Coming along at the same time was a rapid advance in self-support, much of it arising out of the conviction on the part of the Indian preachers and laity that it was their duty. More important still, the self-consciousness of the Indian Churches was 76 HISTORICAL SURVEY rapidly developing and the educated men of the church were growing decidedly restive under the domination of the missionary and the foreign society. This led to the granting of a great measure of autonomy by the major- ity of the missions. The work of the Baptists in Burma fur- nishes a remarkable instance of the working out of a policy consciously directed to the building up of an indigenous church. The work of Abbott, Carpenter, and others in the Karen Basein Mission from the start had in operation a self-supporting and increasingly self-governing church. So thoroughly was the idea of self-respect indoctrinated that in 1849 the “native preachers adopted a resolution that they would not receive any further money from America, and this rule has prevailed in the mission to the present day.”’ Hand in hand went self-propagation. This is a clear case of the workability of the indigenous church if the missionary has vision, faith, and perseverance. In Africa the development of the churches founded by the missionaries took varied forms. The deadly effect of the West Coast climate on Europeans led the Church Missionary Soci- *Merriman, E. F., 4 History of Baptist Missions, p. 74. American Baptist Publication Society. Used by permis- sion. 17 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS ety to appoint a Negro bishop in 1843 (Crowther) and put him in charge. But his lack of administrative ability, despite his fine Christian character, made the experiment dis- astrous, and later English bishops were again appointed. A great falling away followed this return to foreign supervision, but most who seceded and formed independent bodies afterward return to the fold. In Sierra Leone the withdrawal of the Church Missionary Soci- ety in 1861 is now regarded as somewhat pre- mature. Many of the Negro pastors were highly trained intellectually and were men of true piety, but, with some exceptions, they lacked the ripeness of character that guards against occasional backsliding. They also lacked firmness of discipline, self-control, steadfastness and humility. In South Africa the London Missionary So- ciety and the American .Board stressed self- government and self-support with the result that in Natal by 1894 (the work was begun in 1835) the Board in America was no longer asked for aid in supporting the churches, and as early as 1865 the churches were supporting three missionaries of their own race. In 1873 the London Missionary Society withdrew all support. Other missions found autonomy brought vigor and self-support. 78 HISTORICAL SURVEY In Uganda the Church Missionary Society began in 1893 a work on definitely self-sup- porting and self-governing principles. Its success was phenomenal. From the start the entire responsibility for the support of African workers and the building of churches was placed upon the Uganda church, and a large measure of autonomy was granted them, using their local system of government as the church system, with sympathetic superintendence, not domination, by the European. It went far to show that the best work was done where no European other than the missionary was. Putting together the work of the missions noted as the ones most outstanding in their success at developing indigenous churches and adding what other missions throughout the continent have done, and much of it splendid work too, we find that the nineteenth century brought a great development everywhere from the smallest of beginnings to the training up of a body of zealous workers and of churches of no small amount of missionary zeal, with great advance in self-support, and the awak- ening in the African churches of a strong desire to govern themselves, with some seces- sions, with estrangements, particularly where numbers of Europeans and Africans were thrown together, and the giving over of author- 9 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS ity in the more advanced missions very largely to the Africans. During this period, however, the character of the African did not show any general sign of outgrowing its immaturity— in the immediate future, at least. Withdrawal of missionary control or the absence of the missionary was generally followed by lapses in sex relations and reversion to heathen wor- ship. The presence of the white man, too, introduced a very trying factor. Too much of the refuse of Europe, the idea the whites often held of their superiority, and the color- line drawn, hindered the founding of strong churches. In some sections the government, fearing the Ethiopian Movement, forbade the organizing of local congregations unless under the control of a foreign missionary. The fol- lowing quotation sums up the situation: Everywhere native helpers have been educated who give assistance in church and school; but their subordinate social standing and the lack of maturity of character in most of,them prevent the native pastors from enjoying the respect necessary in order to leadership, although there are not wanting commanding individual personalities.? Take it all in all, though self-government was in many missions granted in large measure *Warneck, Gustav, 4 History of Protestant Missions, p. 235. Fleming H. Revell Company. Used by permission. 80 HISTORICAL SURVEY and proved a source of increased zeal to the church, still Africa by 1910 was far from ripe for the withdrawal of European supervision. In Madagascar we have the wonderful story of the withdrawal of the London Missionary Society for twenty-five years (1835-1861), at the end of which time the church was four times as strong in numbers as when the mis- sionaries left. It looks as if there the presence of the missionary were not equal to his absence. But though the missionaries, before the terrible persecution that made their with- drawal advisable, had given the Malagasy the New Testament, and many had learned to read it, there was still the work of training an ade- quate ministry and also much other work to be done. The story of Madagascar goes to show that there at least, just as in the early church, persecution only served to strengthen the cause, and in Madagascar the people were inferior in culture to the early disciples. The work of evangelizing Hawaii and the South Sea Islands was carried on largely by the London Missionary Society and the Ameri- ean Board. When the first difficulties had been overcome, the smallness of the communi- ties made possible the rapid development of church organization. The great distances, the poor means of communication, and the small 81 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS number of the missionaries all combined to lead the missionary early to look forward to local autonomy. Self-support was compara- tively easy of attainment, as on the islands the line, “Man wants but little here below,” applies if it applies anywhere. The great task of the missionary was the creation of a willing- ness on the part of the local church to shoulder responsibility. There was also the danger of moral relapse as already noted in Africa. On the other hand, the evangelistic zeal of these churches was truly remarkable. These little communities early began their development toward the ideal of an indigenous church, but again, as in Africa, they needed either some form of supervision or the presence of the mis- Sionary as adviser. Korea is another field where remarkable progress in the naturalizing of Christianity took place. The Korean Christians took so readily to giving of their goods and to spread- ing the gospel that from 1884 to 1900 little need was felt for training up a ministry. Short period Bible and training classes were well attended and in these strong leaders were developed. Such was the power of the church that it has been called “The Church of the Holy Spirit.” From a subordinate position the Korean leaders rose with the encourage- 82 HISTORICAL SURVEY ment of the missionaries to the position of coworkers with them. From 1900 on, the need of having men to administer the rites of the church led to training that looked forward to the ordination of a ministry. The mis- sionaries for the most part left to the Koreans the task of building their own churches in their national style of architecture, and en- couraged them in self-support. The success attained was largely due to the good sense of the missionaries in keeping the church close to the ideal of an indigenous organization. Almost from the start in Japan there were signs that the churches would not have to be urged to take responsibility. The compara- tively high intellectual character of the first converts and the strong nationalistic feeling of the Japanese led them even to insist in many cases that they be given the authority. Any church that was not self-supporting was looked down upon. Before 1910 the Congre- gationalists, Presbyterians, and Methodists had three separate strong churches, made up of practically all the churches of the same polity, all separate from foreign control. Quoting from the Edinburgh Conference Report: Christianity has become naturalized, has given birth to leaders comparable in character and abil- 83 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS ity to those of the West, and has created some aggressive, self-governing denominations. The passion for independence has driven the churches to self-support.+ In making Christianity their own and aggres- sively assuming their responsibility for the care of the church, the Japanese stand easily first in this period. In striking contrast we have the backward- ness of the Chinese churches, though the work was begun in China many decades before it was started in Japan. The progress of the two churches was much as the progress of the two countries in taking over Western education and invention. Before 1910 there were iso- lated churches supporting their own pastors and there were even churches like those in Manchuria, Fukien, and some in Honan sup- porting their own work entirely or nearly so. In West China the different churches were at the end of this period just at the point where they would have joined in one organic union, but the Home Boards refused to allow the union. Education had as in Japan and India, made great strides, and much of it was union education too; and there was already some moving toward a wider union. The Presby- *World Missions Conference, Commission I, p. 65. Flem- ing H. Revell. Used by permission. 84 HISTORICAL SURVEY terians and the Anglicans each were getting their various bodies together into one organi- zation. But a real national consciousness, such as had early come to the front in Japan and had by 1910 in India reached a very advanced stage of development, was still dor- mant, waiting for the Revolution of 1911-12 to awaken the nation and the Christian Church to its responsibility and opportunity. The church was still pretty much content to lie in the lap of the foreign missionary society. Though the American Board started its work in the Near East with the avowed pur- pose of helping the already established churches, it was driven by opposition to start new churches. At Harpoot, under the guid- ance of Crosby H. Wheeler, there was devel- oped a unique work, promoting self-support and autonomy. Other missions too had worth-while features, but it is impossible to note them all. Under the Rhenish Mission the Batak Church of Sumatra was so successful that it deserves a word here. The local chiefs were used as lead- ers in church as well as society and all churches were built in simple Batak style. AU customs not distinctly antichristian were allowed. The ideal of self-support was kept before the church. Not only was self-support 85 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS developed, but also such a strong missionary spirit that they won seven thousand Moham- medans to Christ. In Brazil a well-established Presbyterian Church had started work among the Indians, and many other bodies in various countries had organized missionary societies and were supporting workers in other fields. With regard to the different societies at work, meaning those in the home lands, we have already noted that some set forth the ideal of indigenous churches. But even the workers of these societies did not always enter into the spirit of that ideal. There were times too when the societies most praiseworthy in their efforts to start truly indigenous churches overestimated the ability of the people they had been training. For example, the Chris- tian Missionary Society withdrew too soon on the Niger, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in parts of South India and Burma, the Wesleyan Missionary Society in South Africa, the London Missionary Society in British Guiana. Robinson cites these cases. To them we may add the early with- drawal of the American Board from Hawaii and the mistake of the Christian Missionary Society in reducing too rapidly the number of missionaries in South India, already noted. It would be strange if we had no mistakes of 86 HISTORICAL SURVEY this kind, and though one cannot help noting: that it was quite often the societies that were emphasizing the indigenous character of the churches that made the mistake, there must in all fairness too be the admission that their work must have been of a high order to bring them to the question of withdrawal at all, for the great majority of the missions in this period never got their churches to the place where they had to think about withdrawing. The general policy of the society must, there- fore, be reckoned as one of the factors, but not the only factor, in the building up of indigenous churches in this period. A very good case to illustrate the variation in the working of the same policy in different fields by different missionaries and in different ways is that of the Christian Missionary Soci- ety. In South India there was too sudden a break away from the missionary supervision, and retardation resulted. In the North another way of working out the policy was tried with success. In West Africa there was too much haste. In Uganda, the last of the fields we are considering, the mistake of put- ting the national ahead too fast was not made. There the basis was self-support and a great measure of autonomy, and the greatest suc- cess was there attained. 87 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS Without the development of the church in self-consciousness any moves evidently ought to be slow. In the cases mentioned the mis- sionary was the one in a hurry. In Japan where there was a high degree of self-respect, the churches themselves sought for autonomy. Self-respect and a national consciousness pre- ceded the change in Japan. This factor is a vital one. Not only the policy of societies and the self- respect of the churches, but also the personal- ity and the policy of the missionary on the field were most vital in the development. Without a Wheeler where would self-support have been in the Near East, or without Abbott and his successors in Burma, what would the church have become? Korea, Manchuria, and many other fields that developed strong churches largely owe their success to the deter- mined, far-seeing policy of the missionaries. In all these factors we see the work of the Holy Spirit. He worked through the Boards, the missionaries, and the hearts of the people won to Christ, striving to develop bodies of Christians to carry on the work of Christ. SUMMARY The period from 1800 to 1910, not only from the point of view of the success of the propax 88 : HISTORICAL SURVEY gation of the gospel, but from the viewpoint of the development of indigenous churches, is nothing short of marvelous. It rose in many fields from zero to the boiling point. The Spirit moved men and women to go one by one and two by two, knowing little of condi- tions and of methods. But they buried their lives in service and there sprang up bands of Christians just as in the early days. Before the end of the period we have churches in many lands with many of the characteristics of indigenous churches. There was too a draw- ing together of many bodies of Christians who found, despite differences of polity and doc- trine, that their task was one. The varying methods and different problems were being recognized more and more as requiring a thor- ough overhauling that the overlapping and the waste might be eliminated and that all might learn from the experience of one another what methods were best for carrying on to a suc- cessful end the great task the Master left for us to do. Out of all this came the Edinburgh Conference in 1910. 4. FroM THE EDINBURGH CONFERENCE TO THE PRESENT The Edinburgh Conference marks the begin- ning of a new epoch. It signifies the real 89 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS beginning of a world-wide cooperation between the different missionary societies of the Prot- estant denominations. Before 1910 there were scattered efforts to get together, but since then that has been the universal watchword. Comity, union movements, federations have all seen great developments. There were many half-recognized and half-believed policies that since Edinburgh have become axiomatic. The Protestant world is now coming to see what its task really is and how to go about it. In the first place the idea of the indigenous church was clearly set forth as the kind ‘of church the missionary should strive to pro- mote. F. Schwager, S. V. D., makes a point of the difference between the Roman Catholic and the Protestant views. He quotes the Protestant view as expressed at Edinburgh: The aim of Christian missionaries should be not to transplant to any country in which they labor that form or type of Christianity which is prevalent in the lands from which they come, but to lodge in the hearts of the people the funda- mental truths of Christianity, in the confidence that these are fitted for all nations and classes, and will bear their own appropriate and beneficial fruits in a type of Christian life and institution consonant with the genius of each of the several nations. To this end, emphasis on the distinctive views of any one branch of the Christian Church, when it is not imperatively demanded by fidelity 90 HISTORICAL SURVEY to what is deemed a vital truth, should be avoided in favor of a simple and elemental presentation of fundamental truth. In contrast to this he states the Roman Cath- olic position: Roman Catholic missionaries regard themselves as bound in their preaching by the saying of our Lord, “Teaching them to observe all things what- soever I command you.” This applies to dogmas of the church and does not distinguish important from others. All are equally valuable so far as we are concerned for teaching them.? To the Roman Catholic the true Christ is the Christ of the church. To the Protestant he is the Christ known in the New Testament and experienced by the believer. The Church of Rome is imperial, and for that reason in these modern democratic times of all times it can- not develop truly indigenous churches. They must always in the last analysis lean upon Rome. The weakness of this type of Chris- tianity on the mission fields we have already pointed out. At Edinburgh Protestantism faced the issue. There were cries from many quarters that there was “a tendency especially in certain lands and districts, to denational- ize converts, that is, to alienate them from the International Review of Missions, 1914, p. 492. Used by permission. *Ibid., p. 492. 91 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS life and sympathies of their fellow country- men, so as to make it possible to suggest that Christianity is a foreign influence, tending to alienate its converts from the national life.’ In Chapter II there were cited complaints that the missionary did not take the national into his confidence and that the church was a foreign church. The Edinburgh Conference left with the leaders of the missionary move- ment the conviction that these complaints should be heeded and that accordingly the churches on the foreign field should be made self-supporting, self-governing, self-propagat- ing, and in all other respects a natural expres- sion of the religious nature of the people, rather than a copy of what the missionary had seen in his native land. A natural corollary to the main proposition of the indigenous church idea was this: since church forms are not vital, but only funda- mental truths, why should two bodies of Christians be working in the same territory in opposition to each other? This question led to the real practice of comity throughout the world. In Japan directly after the Edinburgh Conference a commission was appointed on the distribution of forces. In South America *World Missionary Conference, Commission II, p. 6. Fleming H. Revell Company. Used by permission. 92 HISTORICAL SURVEY relations had previously been inharmonious, but the Regional Conferences following the Edinburgh Conference ironed out the differ- ences, and by 1921 all South America was reported as working well together. In Mexico one mission, the Presbyterian, moved its whole force from the north to the south. In India by one adjustment 15,000 Christians were transferred from the Methodist to the Presby- terian Church. In China the principles of comity were set forth in 1913 and in 1923 almost universal acceptance of these prin- ciples was reported. In the Philippines in 1901 the Protestants had agreed on a division of territory, and in Madagascar soon after the Edinburgh Conference. Still other adjust- ments were made, some of them long-standing differences. In 1912 African Missions seemed far from the practice of comity, particularly in the cities, but some progress has been made since in the Kikuyu Conferences in 1913 and - 1918 and in North Nigeria. The irresponsi- bility of Africans caused some breaches of comity. The Seventh-Day Adventists share with the Salvation Army the charge of violat- ing the rules of comity. But despite these irregularities, the situation throughout the world in the matter of comity is infinitely better than it was fourteen years ago. 93 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS The next step after comity is united effort. This too was not first thought of after Edin- burgh. In the years before that Conference a number of cases of union and cooperation have been noticed. Since then the spirit of united effort has grown wonderfully. Start- ing with Japan, though in that country there has been no movement toward organic union, the Christians of Japan have drawn closer together. Not only have various missions of similar polity become federated, but also five unions in theological education have been achieved. There is still, however, great need of getting together in this field, as, including the schools for women, there are still thirty- one theological and Bible schools, whereas five ought to suffice. In 1911 a federation of eight of the leading churches was formed to pro- mote common action in social and moral questions and in evangelistic work, besides other matters of mutual interest. A further step was taken in 1922 when the Continuation Committee that had been functioning for some years called a National Christian Conference; 120 delegates from the churches and 70 mis- sionaries from 24 missions met in May. At — this Conference a National Christian Council was asked for. It was proposed that it have 100 members—51 Japanese, 34 missionaries, 94 HISTORICAL SURVEY and 15 coopted by the 85 already named. This council was to have no authority in doc- trine or ecclesiastical affairs, no legislative functions, but was to foster fellowship and unity throughout Japan and the world, to serve as a medium for the churches as a whole to speak on social and religious matters, to make surveys and to do various other coopera- tive work. Favorable action has already been taken by a number of the churches and mis- sions, and it is expected that others will follow. In Formosa the Presbyterian bodies have formed one “Presbyterian Church of Christ in Formosa.” In Chosen (the new name of Korea) division of territory has been made among the missions, union in a number of edu- cational institutions, notably Chosen Chris- tian College with five missions participating, achieved ; since 1917 Chosen has had a Korean Church Council, and now there is a movement to unite this with the Federated Council of Evangelical Missions. In the Philippines there are at present a number of agencies of a union nature, liter- ary, medical work, and a Union Bible Semi- nary (five bodies participating). The Fili- pinos themselves desire a united church. In China the progress toward union has far 95 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS surpassed that in Japan in the last thirteen years. To list the number of institutions that are run on a union basis would approach a catalogue in length. In 1917 the number was given as forty-three. Five large Union Uni- versities strategically located, seven strong theological seminaries, one of which (Canton) has eight denominations participating, and the fact that in theological education union work is strongest with general education second and medical work third, shows the remarkable advance that the Missions in China have made toward union. In addition there have been union evangelistic campaigns of city-wide scope, union in Sunday-school and publishing work and the getting together in sectional associations for educational work and nationally for medical work. Next come the church unions. The Independent Chinese churches have two organizations. In some of the large cities the churches of all denomina- tions have organized for social and evangelis- tic work. In Kuangtung, Southern Fukien, and Hupeh Provinces all the churches of Presbyterian type and the American Board and the London Missionary Society type of churches have united in what may be called a divisional council of the proposed United Church of all China. In September, 1920, a 96 HISTORICAL SURVEY constitution was formed by forty-three Chinese and six missionaries for all the churches of Kansu Province. Nationwide unions too have been formed. In 1912 the Anglican bodies had united and formed a general synod. In 1918 twelve missions of the American, German and Scandinavian Lutherans entered into an organic union. The Methodist Episcopals (North) every four years hold an East Asia Conference, at present embracing only China and Chosen. But the largest union of all, if ratified, will grow out of the union of ten Presbyterian bodies in 1918 into a Provisional General Assembly. ‘At that time the British and American Congregationalists expressed a desire for federation looking toward organic union. One year later complete agreement as to doctrinal basis was secured, a temporary plan of union drawn up and the matter referred to the Home Boards. If the plan is voted down, there is still a united Presbyterian Church in Central and North China besides the Presbyterian-Congregational unions al- ready mentioned. Other bodies have as yet done little or nothing toward any large union, though much has been said and written. Very significant too are the national move- ments such as the “China for Christ’? Move- ment, launched in December, 1919, at Shang- 97 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS hai by some hundred leading Chinese Chris- tians and missionaries. This was followed in 1922 by a National Christian Conference sum- moned by the China Continuation Committee, bringing together from practically all the com- munions in China about one thousand dele- gates. Of these over one half were Chinese, and a Chinese leader, Dr. C. Y. Cheng, was chosen chairman. Out of this gathering came a National Christian Council, with the major- ity of its members Chinese and with duties similar to those of the proposed Council in Japan. The China Council has already begun to function. India, well started on the road toward union before 1910, particularly in the South, has continued to progress; but, outside of a few educational consolidations, the advance made has been in the character of the negotiations rather than in any accomplished union of sig- nificant character. In 1919, following a con- ference of Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and the South India United Church, at which a basis of union and a constitution was drawn up, twenty-three ministers of the Anglican and the South India United Church had a meeting at which union was proposed. Soon after, the Malabar Suffragan, of the Mar Thoma Syrian Church, issued an informal statement that he 98 HISTORICAL SURVEY and others of his communion were prepared to take steps for further union on the lines of the meeting just mentioned. There has as yet been no final outcome of these gatherings. Meantime the National Missionary Council of India has become the National Christian Coun- cil of India, Burma, and Ceylon with at least one half of its membership made up of na- tionals. This Council will function on the lines of the similar organizations in Japan and China. In Africa no large union organization as in the fields already noted could be expected, because of the difficulties of transportation and the many different political divisions, but in Madagascar a Continuation Commitee was organized soon after the Edinburgh Confer- ence. Under the influence of “the spirit of Edinburgh” a union normal school has been established for all seven bodies working on the island and in theological education and missionary work there are other unions, though not such comprehensive ones as the normal school. In East, South and Central Africa some union in theological work has come and union of churches too, and in West Africa (North Nigeria) a Continuation Com- mittee. But the most important move of all has been the 1913 and 1918 Kikuyu Confer- 99 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS ences, at which six bodies of widely differing church polity met, and though they recognized that intercommunion between episcopal and nonepiscopal missions was not yet possible, they formed an alliance with mutual relations and aims, agreeing among other things to respect each others’ spheres, foster union, and each respect the other’s decisions in discipline. A doctrinal statement formed the basis of the alliance, a representative council of mission- aries was formed with advisory relation, and provision was made for African participation. Great advance in Latin America followed the Regional Conferences of 1912-18 and a later Conference in Mexico. By 1922 there were Union Theological Seminaries in the City of Mexico (seven bodies uniting), in Porto Rico, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil (four bodies), besides other educational unions and union in literary work. Many other union schemes have been approved but not yet worked out. Thus we see the missionaries and the churches on the fields, with the Presbyterians taking the most active part, drawing closer together in that Christian fellowship that is characteristic of really indigenous churches. In the years since Edinburgh there has also been phenomenal progress in many fields in 100 HISTORICAL SURVEY the self-consciousness of the churches. In measuring this progress a review of their expression in respect to the following matters is in order: 1. Self-support. 2. Autonomy. 3. Evangelism. 4, Social expression. There is no question that great advances have been made in the giving of the churches of the mission fields. Not only increased numbers but an increase in the sense of respon- sibility have been leading factors. Many indi- vidual churches on practically all the fields have become self-supporting. Some missions, as in Samoa, have attained, but probably more attained before the Edinburgh Confer- ence than since. The increase in educational work during the past few years has stayed the arrival at thor- oughgoing self-support, that is, support not only of local churches but also the educational work of the mission. On account of the expan- sion of the activities of missionary work the churches are often further behind than ever, when we consider the whole work. For ex- ample, in Japan, where the Church of Christ (Presbyterian) and the Kumiai (Congrega- tional) Churches are self-supporting, yet their 101 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS educational work is largely supported from abroad. The same is true in large measure among other bodies and on other fields. In the International Review of Missions for July, 1923, G. H. Williams writes, There can be no question whatever that the Indian Christian community will not for many a long day be able either to finance or to administer the work of Christian education. Yet self-support has been pushed in educa- tion by the raising of fees, and in some fields the schools have advanced to self-support. But in many other fields, especially where pov- erty is extreme, for example, South India, the higher the education, the more difficult the matter of support. In some fields where self- support had been a success it has become a problem because of higher education. In Uganda, for instance, it has become difficult to get men of high intellectual attainment for the ministry because of the inadequate pay offered by the churches, which are on a self- support basis. This difficulty is increased where nationals can get high pay working for foreigners. The rise in the standard of living and also the rise in prices have kept back many churches that otherwise might have arrived “Used by permission, 102 HISTORICAL SURVEY at self-support. Many are no nearer propor- tionately than they were ten years ago, though giving twice as much now as then. Some are further from self-support. This has produced in many lands the situation described in a recent report of conditions in one mission in Japan: We have been unable to employ graduates of our theological school, and these men have taken secular positions at more than twice the salary they would have received as catechists and clergy- men. As regards methods and results a given board has not always used the same methods on different fields, and where two boards on the same general field have used different methods there have been sometimes somewhat different results, but so many factors enter in that gen- eralizing is often unsafe. Missions working in the same general section of the field seem to have about the same response in the matter of support. In China, for example, Amoy, Swatow, Foochow, and Canton, regardless of mission, stand first in self-support for China. As already noticed, there are striking excep- tions, but this holds pretty generally as the rule. Many missions have adopted a sliding *Protestant Episcopal Missions, Annual Report, 1919, p. 208. 103 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS scale for self-support, proportionately reduc- ing their grant year by year until at the end of five or ten years the church is self-support- ing. Other missions have made grants to the churches conditional on what the church gives. Human nature the world over is much the same. People will not help themselves if others will help them, unless their self-respect is very strong. Self-support has accordingly been a most unwelcome bone of contention for all societies. We have, then, as far as self-support is con- cerned, no such advance as we have noted in comity and union work. The rise in educa- tional standards, in living standards, and in prices has, for the time being, at any rate, administered a decided check to the prospects of entirely self-supporting churches on the for-_ eign fields. Self-government, however, which presup- poses mental ability, an adequate self-respect, and ofttimes a strong nationalistic feeling, has forged ahead with almost bewildering rapidity in the past twelve or thirteen years. Of the outstanding large fields China and India show the most remarkable progress. In India, with early pressure on the part of the educated members of the church for more authority, there have been many developments, 104 HISTORICAL SURVEY a considerable part of which started before the Edinburgh Conference. In the American Methodist work the vest- ing of authority in the Annual Conferences, the fact that the Methodists have been more ready to ordain men than other missions have (this on the testimony of a Presbyterian), and that, once ordained, an Indian has the same voting power as the foreigner, have all made for the smooth transfer.of power from the for- eign missionary to the Indian. The only real point where friction could come has been that, though the Indians have been in the majority in the Conferences, still they have not been in a majority on the Finance Committees which handle the money from America. But this difficulty is being overcome by the increase of the number.of Indians on these committees. The Anglican societies have worked a par- allel administration, (1) the Indian Churches organized into District Councils with a mis- sionary at the head, and (2) the mission car- rying on the educational work and all evan- gelistic work outside of the local church organizations and the Indian missionary soci- eties, using an Indian staff under foreign con- trol. Out of this state of affairs, which of late years has become impossible, because of the restiveness of the Indians under foreign con- 105 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS trol, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in the Telugu field has changed the complexion of the chief governing body from all missionary to twelve Indians and four Europeans, and the Bishop of Madras has asked the Indian Bishop of Dornakal to pre- side. In the punjab the Church Missionary Society has united the Mission and the Indian Council in one body under the Bishop of Lahore. A further move in the Church Mis- sionary Society work toward devolution was made in February, 1923, when the matter was placed in the hands of a Committee of Refer- ence and it was provided that the government of the dioceses be democratic. The Home Society under this plan still renders financial assistance to the dioceses. Several bodies of the Presbyterian type have followed the policy of gradually increasing the responsibility of the Indians, working through Presbytery, Assembly, or Synod. The United Free Church of Scotland Mission in West India has a Board of ten Indians and three foreigners, all responsible to the Pres- bytery. What is known as the Arcot Assembly has taken over from the Arcot Mission entire control. The Assembly is a joint body repre- senting both the Church and the Mission. The Presbyterian General Assembly in 1915 106 HISTORICAL SURVEY already had thirty-five of sixty-three members Indians and the Moderator an Indian. In the South India United Church the majority in the General Assembly are always Indians. In the Congregational bodies, the turning over of responsibilities has, like the Presbyter- ian, been gradual. The first steps were often to ask Indians to sit in the council of the mis- sionaries, next to take a part in the proceed- ings, gradually increasing the number of Indians, and turning over one responsibility after another, but running the Mission and the Church separately and with the Mission still controlling the funds. When the individual churches, whether Baptist, London Missionary Society or American Board, became self-sup- porting, they became independent. Some at- tempts to draw them together into associa- tions and, where it seemed advisable, allow- ing them to share in the plans of the Mission, have been worked. This also applies to the situation in Burma. The leaders of the Indian Churches, seeing that the Government has given more import- ant posts to Indians, have not been satisfied with the treatment they have been accorded in the churches. Though many modifications have been made, complete control has not been transferred. The Indians do not want to be 107 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS under Europeans, and it is very galling to the Indian to have the financial control in the hands of the Europeans. At an informal gathering at Allahabad in April, 1919, several well-known missionaries and leading Indian Christians gave out their findings, part of which were (1) the growing tension between mission and church and (2) a fundamental breach, made acute because the missionary is of the dominant and too often domineering race. Though since then several years have passed, and many concessions have been granted, the situation is still very acute for many sections of the work. In China the same lines set forth in the situation in India with regard to the church and mission status hold true. The church stands for the organized bodies of Chinese Christians. The mission pays out subsidies to the church and employs Chinese in educa- tional, medical, and evangelistic work. The same may be said for all the fields, with the exception of the Methodist body and a few other bodies which have not made such a dis- tinction between the functions of mission and church; but even in the Methodist work nationals have often felt that the funds were too much in the hands of the foreigners. Many autonomous churches, some independ- 108 HISTORICAL SURVEY ent of any connection with any mission organi- zation and known as independent Chinese churches, others closely related to the mis- sions and depending on and taking an active interest in the mission, such as the schools and the medical and evangelistic work, are the two divisions to be noted. In this second class we have for example the South China Mission of the American Baptists, the Assembly of God in Kansu, which, starting with missionary con- trol, in September, 1923, gave the Chinese eighty per cent of the governing power, the North China work of the American Board which has a Council composed of three for- eigners and eight Chinese, the Foochow Con- gregational Mission, where church and mis- sion are separate with an Association commit- tee usually one half Chinese, also the North China and Shantung Missions of the Pres- byterians, which depend upon an equal number of Chinese and foreigners to administer their foreign funds, besides the larger bodies as the United Churches of Fukien, Kuangtung, Man- churia, Hupeh, and the Union of the Presby- terian bodies, the union of Lutherans, and that of the Anglicans who have made the move of consecrating a Chinese assistant bishop in the Diocese of Chekiang. In the Methodist Epis- copal (North) missions in China not only the 109 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS Annual Conferences have passed over by vir- tue of a majority of numbers to the control of the Chinese, but also the All China Finance Committee which handles the finances has a majority of Chinese members. The same holds good of the Finance Committees elected by and responsible to the Annual Conferences. With many organizations far from these advanced stages the general situation in China is well summed up in the two following quo- tations: In practically two thirds of China the leader- ship is still largely in the hands of the foreign missionary, who alone receives converts into church membership and administers the sacra- ments. In the main it might be said that the present is the period of joint control with Chinese leader- ship becoming more prominent.? In Japan, while there were already inde- pendent churches and the general situation has during this whole period been far beyond China and India in point of autonomous deyel- opment, there have still been missions work- ing. Although some of the Methodist mis- sionaries worked in the church organization except in publication and educational work, *The Chinese Church as Revealed in the National Chris- tian Conference of 1922, 1923, p. 102. *The Christian Occupation of China. 110 HISTORICAL SURVEY the Presbyterian and Congregational bodies of missionaries were working outside also in evangelistic work. In 1922 a great advance was made in unifying the work and taking the Japanese into a share of control of the work of the missions. The Baptists and Pres- byterians took the Japanese in on equal terms, and the Congregationalists gave the Japanese the controlling power, even in the appointment of the missionaries. The Anglican bodies also transferred all control, in the same year, to the Japanese and in 1923 consecrated two Japanese bishops. The Methodists had had a bishop since 1907. Other missions showed similar progress. In the Philippines the Presbyterian mis- sionaries granted the church complete separa- tion in 1914, and it has since been the “Evyan- gelical Church of the Philippines.” In Chosen there are two Korean Presby- teries, self-governing under a Korean General Assembly. The Methodist work is the same with its Annual Conferences. In all South America the sentiment for self- government has been very strong. In Brazil one Presbyterian church has been entirely independent in government and support, and the other also, except for grants-in-aid which are cut ten per cent each year. In Chile there 111 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS are Chileans in the Annual Conference and members of the Finance Committee in the Methodist Church, and the Presbyterian Church Presbytery is composed largely of Chileans, and they have a vote in the distribu- tion of funds. The Presbytery frequently has a Chilean president. Educational work, how- ever, is still largely in the hands of the for- eigners. A number of moves have been made toward devolution in various parts of Africa. In Basutoland the Paris Society has its Assembly more than half African; the Moravians have surrendered the temporal administration to a committee elected by Africans; in Uganda the Church Missionary Society Church Councils have been composed of a majority of Africans and the Bishop has not been known to over- ride their decisions. Now three of twelve large districts are supervised by Africans. In West Equatorial Africa, as well as in the Yoruba country and on the Niger, provisional Church Councils have been found successful, and two African assistant bishops have been ordained. Other societies with long-established work have made similar advances. The evangelistic zeal and pastoral work in some stations in Madagascar have made hopeful the entire transfer of work to the Malagasy Church very 112 HISTORICAL SURVEY soon. But the generations of no literary cul- ture on the one hand and the domination of the whites on the other throughout Africa are serious hindrances to complete self-govern- ment. It will take a long time and much train- ing to develop that ripeness of character and that firmly grounded and genuine self-respect which will make the Negro, not now and then, but as a rule, the administrative equal of the white man. Self-government is the aim that the mis- sionary in many fields has consciously had for the past decade or more. The results we have noted in the various fields. Many fields are far behind what has here been set forth. Those recorded here are only some of the outstand- ing movements. The prospects for the future evidently depend upon Christian education which will develop not only a Christian type of religion, but also a real sense of responsi- bility and ability to assume it. We have seen that as soon as education is well grounded, the converts to Christianity develop a desire to manage their own church, but where they are still partly submerged in the illiteracy of their past, they have no such desire. This state of affairs may be said to be true of every mission field without exception. The amount of missionary work undertaken . 113 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS by the churches on the fields and its success, are also a witness to the genuinely indigenous character of the faith in the hearts of these noble Christian brothers and sisters. It is impossible to do more than cite some of the more striking cases. The Samoan Church, besides maintaining 192 ordained and 260 unordained preachers, has sent 5,000 pounds sterling to London for missionary work in other lands. “A vigorous and successful home- mission work is maintained by the Presbytery of Manila on the Island of Mindoro.”! In Brazil a group of Christians commissioned one of their best-trained preachers to carry the message of salvation back to the mother coun- try. In another part of Latin America a group organized a missionary society and for a num- ber of years has been carrying on work in two different countries. The Christian bodies of Porto Rico have united in sending two mis- sionaries to Santo Domingo. In West Equa- torial Africa Christian traders have yolun- tarily spread their religion. The churches founded support their own teachers and build their own places of worship. In South Africa there are eighteen small self-sown missions founded by laborers from the Rand. In Burma the churches, uniting in “The Burman Mission *Annual Report Presbyterian Missions, 1922, p. 56. 114 HISTORICAL SURVEY Conference,” have gone so far as to appoint a full-time secretary. In India native music has been used largely in evangelistic efforts and women have actively participated in evangelis- tic work. In one field (the Telugu) even non- christians have cooperated in the work. The National Missionary Society, established in 1905, had in 1911 over 400 branches organized, was publishing six journals, and had 26 agents working in five different language areas. In China the “Christian General” Feng has been used to win his officers and men to the num- ber of nearly 10,000. The Anglican Church Mission to Shensi, begun in 1915, had in 1919 a budget of $5,500 and has been doing success- ful work. In 1920 there were reported in China 25 home missionary societies raising between $10,000 and $15,000 almost entirely from Chinese sources. In 1918 a nation-wide missionary movement with the Province of Yunnan as its field was organized and has met with good results. The Koreans, both Meth- odists and Presbyterians, have sent three mis- sionaries to Shantung Province in China, and wherever they have gone as laymen, whether to Manchuria, Siberia, Mexico or the isles of the sea, they have spread the gospel. The Kumiai Churches sent their first missionary to Chosen in 1904. In 1922 there were 143 115 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS organized congregations with 14,000 members (including 6,000 associate members), and the Korean Church had become independent. Lay- men’s missionary organizations have been a feature not only of the Kumiai, but of other churches as well. From these and the numer- ous other missionary agencies not mentioned here one can see that the type of Christianity being propagated in our day is a vital one. A number of changes in emphasis are to be noted in the past twelve or thirteen years. In general, they take the forms (1) of more inten- sive evangelistic work, and (2) of enlarging the activities of the work. Social activity, education of a general nature and of a tech- nical character, as industrial, agricultural, and professional as normal and theological, institutional churches, attempts to reach the educated classes, are all features that one can see at a glance are vital in building up a strong ministry and a laity that can develop strong indigenous churches. In Japan and China particularly the churches have been active for the good of soci- ety and in nearly all lands the Christians have caught the vision of a transformed society and the part the Church of Christ has in bringing it about. The efforts of the Christian churches in Osaka kept that city from granting a sec- 116 HISTORICAL SURVEY tion of territory to licensed vice. In Canton their petition secured the government prohi- bition of gambling. The National Council of the Christian Churches of China has spoken for better working conditions in industry, and various city Church Unions have taken up the matter too. In China alone there are reported to be over seventeen institutional churches. Great attention has been paid to education. Dr. C. Y. Cheng has said regarding the devel- opment of an indigenous church in China, In our opinion it can only be effectively done by means of education. There seems to be no short cut to a success that is real and lasting.? To handle the mass movement in India, says Dr. G. H. Williams, “The only salvation of the church is by education.”? Missions that were backward in education have been striy- ing to catch up. Educational Commissions, composed of representative educators, have visited the fields and laid out programs for the unifying and advancement of educational work. The standards of theological education have been raised, and normal, agricultural and industrial schools have been opened, particu- larly in China, India, and Africa. International Review of Missions, 1923, p. 59. Used by permission. *Ibid., pp. 342-3, 117 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS The work has become truly hundred-handed. The effort to reach the educated classes is seen in the great Eddy and Mott student meetings held throughout the East in the large cities, and the expansion of the work of the Y. W. C. A. and the Y. M. C. A. New emphasis on work for women, Bible study, Christian stew- ardship, the wide distribution of New Testa- ment portions and other literature, newspaper evangelism (in Japan), intensive evangelistic campaigns with great stress on personal work carried on in a dozen different ways, the nation-wide observance of a Week of Evan- gelism (in China), concentration of effort on a smaller area than formerly, sometimes lead- ing to the entire withdrawal of a mission’s forces from a field, massing of evangelistic forces on a given point and many other signs of thorough work, have characterized this period. SuMMARY Thus we see since the Edinburgh Conference not only the Christian churches in the home lands rousing themselves anew to the task, the Boards pulling together with better under- standing of the work to be done and with a strong spirit of fellowship, but also churches on the foreign fields that have, so far as their 118 HISTORICAL SURVEY leaders are concerned, expressed in no uncer- tain terms their eagerness to take charge of their own churches and their longing for the day when they shall not only be free from all foreign control, but may also be strong enough to assume their own financial support. They want, moreover, for the most part (China, India, the Philippines, and parts of Africa) united churches, and all desire churches that shall express Christianity in their own national terms. Lacking, however, sufficient leadership and means on the part of their churches, they recognize the necessity of still using European and American leadership in education and finance for some time to come. 119 CHAPTER IV INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS 1. INTRODUCTION Factors WHICH CONDITION THE WORK OF MISSIONS A. Those External to the Church Wuart the old Hebrew prophet wrote about casting idols to the bats and to the moles is really being fulfilled these days in the lands that are awakening to the truths of the gos- pel. The passion for science in the lands of the Far East has led men to scoff at super- stitions and even to question the value of any religion at all. Prominent educators, such as the chancellor of the Government Uni- versity in Peking and many other leaders in the Chinese Renaissance or New Thought Movement, are avowed atheists and the great majority of the students follow in their train. In China an antireligion organization has been formed. In Japan the last religious census of the Imperial University at Tokyo showed agnostics, 2,989; atheists, 1,511: Christians, 60; Buddhists, 49; Shintoists, 9, 120 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS These figures show what the teaching of science has done to the old religions. In China, Latin America, and, to a large extent, India, government schools would, so far as the number of atheists and agnostics as against men of some religious belief is con- cerned, approximate these figures. The young men of these universities will be the predominant influence in government, in edu- cation, and in the development of a national culture. To meet such a situation, the man who lacks the modern scientific viewpoint is like a flintlock on a twentieth century battle field. Men must be trained to meet these future leaders on their own ground. Old theology, antiquated terminology need to be changed for terms that put real, present, un- mistakable life into religious concepts. To make religion appeal to these men as the sine qua non, it must be stripped of all that denies the findings of modern science. The essence of Christianity, the compelling character of Jesus and his ideal of whole-souled love to God and man, his power to revive and in- spire—in short, the kind of Christianity Abra- ham Lincoln approved of and lived, must be presented. This means that much that is dear to us from its sacred associations, because it seems to them inconsistent with or irrelevant to the truths they are learning, cannot be 121 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS forced upon or even wisely urged upon them as essential. Some would lay this situation to the effects of modern destructive criticism ; but it goes deeper than that; it is the com- mendable spirit of our time that is not con- tent, as men formerly were, to guess and ac- cept what they were told of religion without testing it themselves. The man who is willing to let every truth be put to scientific test and who makes that a condition of the religion he proclaims, is the only man who will to-day get a hearing among the educated classes on the foreign mission fields. How else can one meet them? The writer was once having a friendly chat with a Mo- hammedan cleric. We found much in com- mon but we naturally found disagreements too. At last what happened to Jesus came to the fore. Our Scriptures say he was crucified. His deny it. I suggested that the way to find the truth was to investigate the sources. He came back in a flash that it couldn’t be done, as the Koran had been given to Mohammed straight from heaven. There was no use in my citing the good Christianity has done, for he could have answered it with the good Mo- hammedanism has done and also much evil that has been done in the name of Christ. In the scientific viewpoint lay the solution of our difficulty. His,ground made impossible 122 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS an approach to the modern student. The stu- dent, on the contrary, is willing to take the common viewpoint of science, and one honestly seeking truth can be convinced. Besides the scientific viewpoint among the educated classes, there is the comparatively new spirit of nationalism already noticed and the belief in democracy throughout the world, which makes the national of every country, when aroused by education or by other con- tact with the modern tides of thought, assert that his country ought to have freedom and ought not to be imposed upon by any other country simply because that country is more powerful than his in armed force, and he asserts also his right as a man to equality with any other man, no matter of what nation or race. There was a time when the white man felt himself a better man, and other races to a large extent granted that he was; but they do not grant that any more and some of the whites too are coming to recognize the equality of mankind. By virtue of being the first to grasp and use the truths of modern science, the whites have imposed their rule upon other races, notably in America, Africa, Asia, and the isles of the sea. The mission- ary, being of the dominant race, was allowed by the national, as we have already seen in the previous chapters, to dominate his thought 123 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS and manage his church. But that day is rapidly approaching sunset. In some fields sunset has come, in some it is already passed, and in others it is coming. It behooves the_ missionary to have an exit ready for his grace- ful retirement from the throne of temporal authority. It is his task too to make ready, as Moses did, someone to take his place, thoroughly equipped for the work. Modern industry too is making such an impact on the life of the peoples of the for- eign mission fields that a new situation is before us. In Africa, in India, in Japan, and in China there is a movement toward the manufacturing and mining centers. Factories and mines are employing the people that once worked on the farms in the fresh open air. Crowding in miserable houses, long hours in badly ventilated interiors, pitiably low wages, the exploiting of men and also of women and even of small boys and girls are bringing about a state of affairs in which physical powers are being destroyed, mentality stunted, morals are being submerged, and religious ex- pression crushed out. With the Christian churches of these lands as practically the only agency interested in the welfare of fellow hu- man beings, there is an increasing conviction that the burden of saving these unfortunates from the grinding heel of modern industry is 124 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS one that the churches must take up. The attitude of the churches toward this practical problem is going to be a vital factor in the acceptance or rejection of Christianity by all classes of people in these countries. “By their fruits ye shall know them,” is the test folk of every land are to-day applying to religion. Only those who have lived in non-Christian lands can realize the pall of poverty, igno- rance, and the inertia of fatalism that hangs like a death shroud, so all pervading and so overwhelmingly depressing are these infiu- ences. While the few educated are waking up ‘to modern ideas, there are millions upon mil- lions who are still wending their old-time way, apparently oblivious to the impending doom the economic situation holds for them and the ruin of their moral and religious ideals that threatens in the fast approaching over- throw of their long established social order. To arouse them, to lift them up, to start them in search of a Saviour, is infinitely more than a herculean task. They are truly like sheep without a shepherd. Centuries of illiteracy, dire poverty, the backward look, degraded so- cial position have deprived the great masses of people in these countries almost of all power of initiative. Without the Spirit of God it is impossible to make any impression upon such 125 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS minds, for they seem dulled beyond the pos- sibility of arousing. Numerically too the task confronting the Christian Church is stupendous. In the past one hundred years and more the Protestant Christian missions have won a matter of 400,- 000 or so in China. What are these among 400,000,000? One one-thousandth. And China, though the largest in point of numbers, is but one of the fields. Whole countries, as Afghanistan, have yet to be entered by Chris- tian missionaries, not to mention the lands where the force of workers is ridiculously small. Knowing what we do of the greatness of the task, we should with fervor equal to that of the early disciples of Jesus, “pray the Lord of the harvest that he send forth laborers into his harvest.” B. Factors PRESENT IN THE CHURCH IN THB Way OF ACHIEVEMENTS As in the apostolic days it is mainly the poor that have heard with gladness the tidings of Jesus, but their coming to him has meant a big problem for the churches. In India the churches have literally been swamped by suc- cess. Mass movements there, in Africa, and some parts of China (the native tribes) have placed upon the churches a task of instruction which they have been quite unprepared to 126 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS undertake. There are not enough workers. Taking people into the church without ade- quate instruction has been shown by the re- sults of the work of Xavier, de Nobili, and others to be disastrous. Even the thorough work of the Jesuits in Paraguay and that of other orders in northern Mexico and other parts of the world, must be set down as a failure, because no indigenous leadership was provided for. It has been proved over and over again that people have to be lifted a long way out of heathenism to keep them from falling back in when the missionary is re- moved. Madagascar is not the rule but the exception. The cases just mentioned, the work of the Dutch in Ceylon, that of the Dan- ish-Halle Mission in India, and instances in Africa, all witness to this danger. At the other extreme there are the self- respecting, wide-awake leaders of the churches —few indeed, but of great influence. These men and women are the choicest of the fruits of missionary work. Through their force of character and their lofty and uncompromising Christian ideals they have made in their own lands an impression even outside church circles all out of proportion to their number. Recently a prominent weekly in China took a vote of its readers on the greatest man in China to-day. The two getting the highest 127 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS vote were Sun Yat Sen and Feng Yiti Hsiang, both Christians. In Japan the proportion of Christians prominent in public life is far greater than that of men professing other reli- gions. The Christian leaders, lay and clerical, feel that the church is theirs, not the for- eigners’, and that therefore they should have the say in all matters. They recognize the value of the missionaries’ contribution, but hold that the church is their own, and that, being able to control, the authority should be turned over to them. The main bone of con- tention in this talk of transfer of power from the missionaries to the national leaders is the money question. The national leaders feel that if the control of the funds is in the hands of the missionaries, they have a lever- age with which they control the church. In some way this difficulty must be settled satis- factorily. To say that the large and numerous educa- tional institutions, largely built with foreign money, are factors within the church, is a questionable statement, for the control of them is for the most part still in the hands of the mission; but they are so closely related to the life of the future church, and they must at some time sooner or later become a part of the church’s responsibility. The importance of these institutions lies in their work of train- 128 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS ing the leaders and also the rank and file of the church. On the quality of the work of these institutions depends in a very large measure the future character of the church. But the financial obligation their upkeep en- tails and the direction of them form problems that for the most part have yet to be solved in such a way as will put them under the church, where they must ultimately be. Hospitals, leper and orphan asylums, homes for the blind, and other such agencies are at present also in the same category as the edu- cational institutions just mentioned. How to get them from the control of the mission to that of the church means not only much train- ing but also much confidence in the ability of the national and willingness to surrender the control of funds, of property, and of manage- ment. It is evidently a long time before con- trol in the main will be surrendered, and a longer time still before the local constituency can finance these institutions. A last but potent factor in the situation is the desire for united churches on the mission fields. Many unions consummated years ago by the missionaries had no interest for the nationals, and, as we have noted, there are countries where denominationalism has so strong a hold that there are no prospects of union; for example, Japan; and there are - 129 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS some denominations which do not desire union but, rather, independence or the adoption of their own tenets as alternatives; but in some lands, for example, India and China, many of the leaders of the church have of late been praying and working for united churches, and the same may be said of some denominations. Summary These are prominent features in the situa- tion at present. A scientific outlook demand- ing a highly trained leadership, the rise of nationalism and democracy asking for control instead of domination by the foreigner and the question of support involved in that control by the national, together with the stupendous nature of the task and the conflicting opinions regarding union, all are present problems which are crying for solution. 2. PROBLEMS A. Self-Support Why is self-support essential? Missionaries in every clime answer, “Because subsidizing pauperizes. Human nature, when exposed to generosity and patronage, multiplies avarice in proportion to the willingness of the bene- factor to be exploited.” “Here lies the mis- sionary’s protégé,’ might be inscribed over 130 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS many a dead church and over many a spir- itually dead convert; and “Killed by kindness” would do for the second line of the epitaph. “Heaven helps those who help themselves,” is as true of the church and the convert on the foreign mission field as it is at home, where many a preacher and many another benefactor has learned in sorrow that a dollar spent to help someone to help himself is better than a hundred dollars handed out just for temporary relief. | Financing the work of the Church on the mission field in the last analysis is not the task of the missionary, nor of the national agent, but of the church on the field. In the end it must be so. In the beginning it was so. “The laborer is worthy of his hire.’ The Antioch church did not support Paul. Paul never ex- pected it to, but he did say that the churches to whom the gospel was preached ought to care for the workers. His support of himself was an exception. Jesus made no attempt to finance the Twelve nor the Seventy. He told them to take what the people gave them. That the church should support its own workers is a foundation principle. It is scriptural, laid down by Jesus and by Paul. It is found throughout the Old Testament too. In those times the clergy were supported by the tithes of the people. In the New Testament foreign 131 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS money never entered into the question. The implication is therefore that this principle should be followed. ‘The experience of man with his fellow men, backed up by scriptural injunction, ought to be sufficient for the settle- ment of the question. But it has not been so. Missionaries have argued that since the national could be hired with foreign money more cheaply than a for- eigner can be and, besides, has a better knowl- edge of the language and the customs, it was more than justifiable to pay him a salary out of foreign money to preach the gospel and act as pastor to his own people, who, in the nature of the case, ought to support him; but, since they would not, and the gospel ought to be preached and the converts cared for, therefore the missionary was justified in hiring him with the more plentiful foreign money. This policy, it must be admitted, while not develop- ing strength of character in the individual nor in the church, has been quite successful in win- ning great numbers to Christianity. Much speed has been attained, but the churches de- veloped by such a policy have been a constant drag upon the missionary to whom they have looked as did the early Christians of India for education and for a livelihood. This is com- mon talk among missionaries who share with independent-minded converts a profound con- 132 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS tempt for the churches and, as they are called, the “old converts” who expect the mission- aries to continue the old policy of supporting the work they started, and which the “old convert” feels the missionary should therefore continue supporting. He has no program for the elimination of the missionary nor of the money that comes through the missionary. The financial policy on many a mission field to-day is such that a sudden reversal would tear the church to pieces. A sudden change to self-support would lead to much hard feel- ing, much desertion, and—perhaps to the edi- fication of the church in some quarters even if the change came through the instrumen- tality of the mission. But rarely has a mission dared take such a drastic step. But most missions have been following a policy of subsidizing the work with foreign money, and the task now is to change as rapidly as possible with the least possible fric- tion to a policy of self-support. Many mis- sions have undertaken by yearly diminishing grants-in-aid to bring self-support. The very number of such attempts is a strong recom- mendation of their value. Many missions have gotten so far away from first principles that not only have they disre- garded the scriptural injunction that “The laborer is worthy of his hire” and the frailty 133 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS of human nature, but have gone to the making of salary schedules for nationals, making themselves as a mission responsible for the specified salary for each grade of worker, without any consideration of the ability of the local churches to support their pastors or the possibility that they ever will be able to do so. These schedules, prepared to avoid the muddle into which a non-self-support policy has gotten them, have only added to the misunderstand- ings that come between missions and nationals and led national and missionary alike to loathe the day the schedule was ever invented. This situation has grown out of the carrying the load by the mission, making the nationals re- sponsible to the foreigner. He has been the “poss.” This, of course, is a most unnatural situation. It has educated the churches and the workers in entirely the wrong way. For the building up of strong indigenous churches the responsibility ought to be placed on them. The church should be the employer of the worker. He should work for his own church and not for the missionary nor for someone who supports him from the home field. Ifthe church can support him, well and good. If it cannot do it all, then it certainly ought to do what it can; and what it can’t do still ought to be paid to the church by the mis- sion and by the church to the worker, whether 134 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS it be a local church or a body of churches. Then the worker will work for the church and not for the missionary. If he receives part of his salary from one and part from the other, he is most likely to work for the one who will make up any deficit in his salary. That is more likely to be the missionary, as he is more easily touched by a “hard-luck” story. Until the grant-in-aid is paid to the church and not to the worker, the worker is going to be a foreign-paid, foreign-controlled man. When he gets all his salary from the church, no matter where the church gets it, he becomes an indigenous worker, and, instead of being a rolling stone, is a stone in the building of the church in which he is working. With such a plan the diminishing grant system will work for the advancement of a truly self-supporting church and help to develop a ministry respon- sible to it. But there are many difficulties which make it necessary to qualify the out-and-out state- ments of the preceding paragraphs. We have already hinted at the muddle in which many missions are now through the subsidy plan. The difficulties which led them to compromise are still in the field. First of all, there is the economic situation in some fields: take, for example, the Telugu field in South India. The history of missions 135 s NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS shows us that a church without a well-trained leadership cannot grow, and where people are living in such abject poverty as in South India it is impossible for them to acquire such train- ing as will insure the development of intelli- gent leadership. It is spiritually a parallel to the physical helplessness of famine vic- tims. They are so far down that temporary relief must be given. In some way they must be helped on their feet. Industrial work has been suggested and tried, and for people that are in such a situation as that of the Telugu and others in China and elsewhere, it would seem as if this were the best solution. They must be enabled to get to the place where they can help themselves. In the process, consider- able assistance of a financial nature must be given, but the dispensers of the relief are in duty bound to develop, with all the means God gives them, a spirit of self-reliance and self- respect. The main task is not the extortion of money from the converts, that they may be technically self-supporting, but that they may be so raised in the social scale that their former abject state of mind may be replaced by one that dares with Christian humility to look every man in the face. Being able to pay their own bills will help that self-respect to grow, but the cultivation of ability with the - burden of responsibility for their own church 136 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS is essential. This kind of cultivation has been a potent factor on many fields in the increase of self-support. The second difficulty is that of having well- educated and high-salaried workers with poor churches to support them. When the leaders are trained, their standards of living rise. They require more books, better sanitation, more respectable living quarters, and more suitable food. Their whole outlook upon life has been enlarged. All these things take money. We must have leaders who can hold their own with the leading men in literature and government. In America the situation is quite different. The man far up is not so far above the man way down. In lands like China and India there is a great gulf. The ignorance and the squalor of the poor country Christians is incomprehensible to the person who has not seen them with his own eyes. How can they ever support a highly trained preacher? Yet such have been sent them by the missions. This is the extreme case. But the problem is a real problem all the way through, as, taken generally, the trained man, even when not highly trained, is raised so much higher than the general level of his fel- low countrymen that there is a decided diffi- culty in providing his support. Instead of, as in America, being the one to receive gifts 137 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS from his parishioners, he is more able to give to them than they to him, so much higher has he risen in the scale of living. He is the one to set the standard of living not only spir- itually and educationally, but also in sanita- tion and all that modern civilization has brought us. He is much the type of leader in his community that the minister of a hundred years ago or more was, the best informed and most capable man in the community. Shall we take him away because his local congrega- tion cannot pay his salary? If we do, we take from them the one possibility of their progress, socially, politically, in sanitation, morals, edu- cation and religion—in fact, everything vital to their salvation. It would seem, however, as if some grading ought to be made. The high- est-trained men should go to the churches that can come the nearest to supporting them and so on down. This will place the best men where their influence, as far as man can tell, will count for the most; as such churches, for the most part, can best appreciate their min- istrations. They are not so far removed from them as from the poorer churches. This would also encourage Sself-support. In some missions the churches are given pastors only when they can support them. In such cases the plan works automatically. A third difficulty is the previous lack of 138 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS training in giving. At first in many fields the missionaries were so glad to get converts that they did not dare mention the subject of giv- ing for fear of scaring away their hard-won converts. The nationals have also often fol- lowed this policy, even in some cases urging with vigor that anyone who became a Chris- tian would save money, being relieved from the severe strain upon his purse that idolatry imposed. Truly a far cry from Jesus’ words, “Give and it shall be given you”! and “Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven”! The missionaries have been all too generous in their giving. But too often they have for- gotten that people who have never been under the influence of Christianity but are sur- rounded by crass materialism are strongly tempted to take advantage of the missionary’s generosity as a heaven-sent blessing without any thought that they ought to follow his ex- ample. Such people have to be trained in giv- ing. In many fields no sense of responsibility has been developed among the churches. Win- ning converts has been the exclusive aim. Because of this it has become very difficult to put upon the older established churches the burden they ought to bear. They are so used to having the missionary or the national leader carry it for them that they want no change. But the day has come when such churches must 139 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS be shocked into initiative, even if it means the closing of some of them. Some missions have gotten desperate over such churches and have withdrawn all support, starting in on a new self-supporting policy, for example, the Lon- don Mission field of Tsangchow and Hsiao- chang in Chihli Province, China. A fourth difficulty is the maintenance of foreign-built institutions, churches, schools, hospitals, ete. These could not have been put up by the churches; but they are being put to good use. Many doubt the wisdom of build- ing expensive plants that are foreign in style and on such a vast scale that the churches cannot in the near future, at any rate, keep them up without outside assistance. But how- ever we may criticize the policy that has created these institutions and provided such advanced equipment, and however we may praise the style of church that the Koreans and others have put up, as suited to their purses and their natural tastes, the fact remains that there are these great plants. They are there- fore to be reckoned with. Some such plants have been put up largely by the use of money raised on the field: some of them too are sup- ported entirely and others largely by gifts and fees obtained on the field. Such are not a problem. But there are numbers that are. It would be folly to scrap them; but their control 140 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS by the local church or other body made up of nationals is to be sought for as early as pos- sible, even where the money must come from foreign lands. Surely some agreement can be worked out whereby the wishes of the donors can be conserved and their confidence retained until the local constituency is able to shoulder the financial responsibility. There is also the problem of highly sub- sidized work with increasing costs. These in- creasing costs are due largely to the salaries of the highly trained national staff who are essential to the standard of the institution. As noted before, prices are rising, standards of living are going up, and salaries must fol- low them in the upward trend. There is no use to make light of these facts. The advance made by government and private institutions of learning and medicine makes imperative the raising of the standards of the missionary in- stitutions. It is not a case of the national churches catching up with present situation. It is, rather, a race in which they are increas- ing their contributions and the institutions are steadily increasing their expenses. One does not stand still for the other to overtake it. To keep up the efficiency of the work, it looks as if in many cases it might be necessary to waive for the time being the goal of self- support as the primary goal and put efficiency 141 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS as the first requisite. This applies especially to educational, medical, and social work. Whereas in evangelistic work a definite goal of self-support in terms of years with the diminishing grant system as the method of attainment is generally feasible, for institu- tional work there is good ground for the theory that in time the additional money put into equipment and highly paid workers will so raise the standard of the national giver and so command his respect and interest, whether he be Christian or only interested in the insti- tution, that the question of support will be settled. There are already many institutions like the Anglo-Chinese College in Singapore which have reached this much-desired goal. As aids in the promotion of self-support there are a number of helps that have proven valuable and can therefore be recommended. Education in giving has produced wonderful results in Chosen, among the Karens of Burma, at Harpoot and on other fields. In- dustrial missions have done infinitely more for the Telugu than ever did the old “barrack” system in India. Again and again it has been reported that self-support has seen great ad- vance upon the granting of a larger measure of self-government to the church on the field. And, lastly, the power of the Holy Spirit in special meetings has at times led nationals to 142 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS declare that they would no longer depend upon the foreigner for their salary, but would throw themselves upon the mercy of their own people. The matter of self-support has many divi- sions. Let us consider first the unit of sup- port. Shall it be the local church or a group of churches banded together into one organ- ization? Of course independent churches have already settled this matter for them- selves. But where a number of churches are organized into a synod, presbytery, confer- ence, or association, it would seem advisable that the unit should be the whole body. There may be some churches that are unable to sup- port themselves entirely and must depend upon others for help. Some churches, as in Western lands, are in such localities that they cannot be expected to support themselves, but need to be kept open as missions. Secondly, should support include that of the missionary? Since he is of another nation and his standard of living is so different and often so much higher, it is hardly reasonable to expect that the church on the field should provide his salary. In some of the South Sea Islands, however, it is done, and even furlough expenses are paid. Where the church is able, as these churches are, to do this, it is most commendable. But there can be no question 143 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS as to the order of objects to be provided for. The salary and other expenses of the mission- ary ought to be the last on the list. Third, shall it be evangelistic work only, that is, pastoral support, that shall be counted as self-support? It is often counted that way. Usually because of the high costs of education and other institutional work, the attainment of self-support in evangelistic work is first. But there is a pride born of the fact of sup- porting its own pastor that leads to the rejec- tion of other features of self-support. In edu- cating the church in its self-support ideal, the missionary needs to guard against this by showing the church its duty in education, medical and social work, and outside evan- gelistic and missionary work. But the point of first emphasis for the churches, other things being equal, is the support of their pastors. Educational and other institutional work in our Western lands is largely endowed, so that the matter of self-support in these matters on the foreign field is more difficult of attainment, because of the comparative poverty of our foreign-field churches. Fourth, should there be a division between the work of the churches and the work of the mission in the evangelistic field? Some mis- sions have let the self-supporting churches support their own work while the missions 144 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS have carried on evangelistic work outside, more or less independently of the churches themselves. This policy was pursued in Japan until quite recently, but it has been practically discontinued now. The Church Missionary Society in South India and other missions too have found that such a policy narrows the outlook of the churches and makes needless division in the work. The task of saving their own country ought to be laid directly upon the churches, and how is that possible if all the evangelistic work outside of the Jocal church organizations is left to for- eigners and nationals hired with foreign funds administered by foreigners? We would then conclude that this should be the natural order of enterprises undertaken by the churches as items for their support: first, their own pastors; second, the carrying on of evangelistic work outside their own com- munities; third, the institutional side of the work; and fourth, the missionary. We put evangelistic work outside of the community before institutional work because it is more of the same type as pastoral support, can be managed more easily, and supported usually at less expense. The preceding paragraphs have dealt largely with the state of affairs of the mis- sions that have been operating some time on 145 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS a subsidy basis; but there also arises the ques- tion of newly opened work. Should that be self-supporting from the start? Bishop Tho- burn has expressed himself as believing that it should. Many other missionaries who have studied the field have said the same. Inas- much as some missions have been started and continued on this basis with great success, as already noted, and as the principle of self- support is now admitted by practically all workers to be valid, any work not started on a self-support basis surely ought to be able to show very excellent reasons for departing from the principle of self-support. Certainly, if any aid is granted, it ought to be granted in such a way as would not put the national in the relation of a hired helper to the mission, if he has also any relation, such as pastor, to a body of church members; and a definite self- support program ought to be placed before the new converts so that they will understand very clearly that the help given is only for a short time and is conditional on what they them- selves do. The solution of the whole problem of self- support in the last analysis, is in an indige- nous consciousness on the part of the converts, or, where such consciousness is lacking, in its development. Nothing will take the place of this. The whole matter is a question of the 146 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS attitude of the Christians on the field. As soon as they have sufficient self-respect they will not be contented with the stigma of being supported by money from foreign lands. To cultivate this kind of an attitude is one of the great tasks of the missionary and the indige- nous church leaders. Just as the young man who works his way through school, instead of having his way paid, develops a self-reliance and initiative that will stand him in good stead all his days, so the church that, like the Karen Church of Burma, refuses to take proffered foreign money, will develop into a strong, ac- tive, and progressive Christian organization. B. LEADERSHIP Self-respect and self-reliance are most to be looked for among educated leaders. In a word, this shows the importance of leadership in the indigenous churches being formed on the foreign fields. It is the leaders that are the first to catch the vision of the indigenous church. It is therefore through them that the whole church must catch the vision. For this reason, the development of strong leader- ship is the Open Sesame to the work of build- ing up strong churches. In training leaders an educational system is a necessity. These are days of thoroughly organized education. The church cannot 147 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS afford to be behind in the opportunities she affords her leaders to make themselves as effi- cient as modern education can make them. Without well-educated, scientifically trained minds at the head of the Christian enterprise there is no guarantee of sanity in the church of the future. The mission boards are send- ing only highly trained, well-educated men and women to the foreign fields, as they realize the need of balance and ability to meet difficult situations. The national leaders need educa- tion just as the missionary does. As there are all classes to meet in the work of winning men and women to Christ, different types of institution are needed for the trained worker. ‘To meet the educated classes on their own ground and to preach to educated Chris- tians, there is a type of worker needed who has thoroughly prepared himself in the kind of questions put and the kind of problem raised by the educated man and woman. <A worker without much in common with the one he is dealing with cannot sympathetically discuss with him the difficulties he has, nor answer the objections he brings up. But it is impossible to give all leaders the highest type of educa- tion. Personal capacity and finance are effec- tive limitations. Not all can go through col- lege and theological school. Provision must be made for lower grades of instruction. Be- 148 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS sides the graduate type of institution, there are on the mission-field theological schools, institutes and Bible schools of various grades, providing instruction for men and women who have not been able to go as far as college. Some of these institutions take men and women who have passed through only the primary grades, and some have little or no standard of admission. The standards of these schools, as well as the quality of in- struction in them, is being steadily raised. The ideal on the field as at home is to give all the training possible. Besides the training of men and women who look forward to religious work as their pro- fession, there is also much need for the train- ing of lay workers, who devote whole or part time with or without pay to religious work. The large family unit on many fields in con- trast to the individualism of our Western so- ciety, makes possible a great deal of work by men who have leisure time. Many have re- tired from business; for the Oriental, when his wants are sufficiently provided for, is more likely than the Occidental, to cease the piling up of more wealth. There are also many who can give specified times of the year to Chris- tian work. This state of affairs makes pos- sible the opening of special schools, usually of from ten days’ to a few months’ duration, 149 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS for the instruction of these men and also of women who have leisure. Such schools have been made use of with most encouraging re- sults. To educate the members of the future indig- enous churches so that they may take their rightful place in the conduct of the church is a very vital part of the program of missionary work. Literary, professional, and industrial training all have their place in the creating of an intelligent church. The strength of Prot- estant Christianity is largely here. Much has been accomplished in the way of strengthen- ing lay leadership, but there is much more work ahead in this line. In the training of leaders for religious work there has ever been a tendency to make the course too scholastic, too theoretical, and so divorce it from real life. Men coming out of the theological institutions have been criti- cized on all hands as having lost their grip on the practical matters that concern common folk. This criticism has led to the adapting of the curriculum to the needs of the task and to the practice while in school that keeps the theologue in touch with the world. Much dis- cussion of the value of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin has been indulged in, and these lan- guages have, just as in Western lands, lost the place they once held. English too, as a medium 150 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS of instruction, has come in for its share of criticism, as separating a man from his people. Some years ago the Bishop of Madras, recog- nizing that the study of English books was necessary to give a man the material he needed, and also recognizing the alienation it meant from the people of the country, changed the course of instruction in theology. He had the students do their reading in English, then write out what they got in Telugu, following up this exercise by personal conference instead of using lectures, which he abolished alto- gether. It has not been the fortune of the writer to come across a more sensible plan. Of course many cannot study enough to ac- quire the proficiency in English necessary to carry out this plan. The only thing to do in such cases is to depend upon hearing lectures and reading such books as are available in the vernacular. In the training of leaders there is a funda- mental principle already touched upon in the section on self-support, namely, the relation of the national leader to the church rather than to the mission. The mission is a for- eign institution. The church is national. He is a national. He should therefore be respon- sible to the church and should from the church receive his support. Although the church can- not support him, still the money should pass 151 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS through the hands of the church, that the proper relation may be kept. This principle is easier to state than to work out. It is a rocky road that it has to travel. Some nationals feel that the missionary domi- nates the church because he has in his hands the control of the funds with which the church is largely run. He feels that if he enters Christian work, he will be under the supervi- sion of a foreigner and dependent largely upon the foreigner for his daily bread. His pride rebels at such a relation. For this reason some avoid religious work, and others who are in it are continually protesting and longing for a change. Another difficulty is the fear of the national religious worker that the church will not back him. He would like to be freed from foreign control and from the acceptance of foreign money, but he cannot see how it can be done, because he doubts, sometimes the willingness, sometimes the ability of the church to support him. Some are disgusted with the type of Christianity which has developed in the churches and feel that they would be so ham- pered by the conservatism of the membership that they would be unable to contribute through the ministry what they wish to give to their country. In some fields, as far as the type of leader- 152 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS ship to whom the church may be turned over to goes, the problem is far from solution. The distance from paganism is sometimes too short to make sure that there will be no lapse even on the part of leaders. They are not suffi- ciently developed in character in such fields to be left without the supervision of the mis- sionary. This condition holds in lands where animism has prevailed as the religion and where before the arrival of the missionary there was no literature. Racial discrimination has been a very tender point in the matter of leadership. Men of another race are very sensitive to any indica- tion of the preference of a man of another race over one of their own, when they can see no reason for it save the race of the man pre- ferred. This discrimination may be not only racial but also national. The missionary has often given evidence of his confidence in men of his own nationality and distrust of those of another nationality. At times his dis- crimination has been warranted; at other times it has not. There has been too much hesitation to trust men of another nation or of another race. The solution of the problem of leadership for the churches of the foreign fields lies in Christian brotherhood. ‘There are mission- aries who would ever play the father, as we 153 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS have seen the Roman Catholic clerics do. Some take a peculiar fatherly interest in cer- tain boys whom they delight in educating out of their own purse and follow them in their work afterward. But the opinion of the na- tional leaders is against patronage of this kind. They have no respect for a man who has thus been brought up on foreign bounty and who feels more or less bound personally to his benefactor. Such patronage too de- stroys the freedom of the one helped and does not fit him to be a big-minded man with the self-reliance a real man ought to have. All touches of patronage need to be done away with. All signs of the feeling that the national is a child, in fact, anything that says, “I know better than you do,” must be concealed, if it cannot be entirely erased from the thought of the missionary. The domineering attitude of the missionary he himself is quite unconscious of, and he would never call his attitude that; it grows naturally out of his generalization that the race of people with whom he is deal- ing is inferior to his own and that he is sent as their benefactor. Before he knows it and without his knowing it, he shows his attitude and offends the people he wants to win. He gives the people with whom he is working no credit for having any pride. If in his mind he would reverse the situation and imagine what 154 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS it would be like if he were in the shoes of the national and the national in his shoes, his days of patronizing and domineering would be at an end. He would see that what is needed is brotherly sympathy. He would realize that he is not the proprietor of the concern, but a guest in the home; that it is not his prerogative to give orders as a father to a son or an em- ployer to a workman, but to find ways of sug- gesting improvements and to give inspiration. The way that missionaries of the white race have presumed upon the graces of their hosts, while not to be compared with the arrogance of some other white men, has at least caused much misunderstanding and estrangement. If it were not for the Christian patience exer- cised by the nationals, there would often be no getting on together. . Where patience has been absent, sad results have followed. Just as long as the missionary is the pay- master, there must exist a barrier between mis- Sionary and national. True brotherhood is impossible. The social relation of the em- ployer and his employee in our own land is not, Save in rare cases, on an equality. How much farther apart must they be when not only this relation of employer to employee separates them but also the dividing lines of race and nation! This alone is a powerful argument for the paying of national workers 155 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS by the church and not by the missionary. The man who is employed by the missionary or by the mission feels that he is under them. He must do their bidding or lose his job. This matter of pay ought not to be allowed any jonger to stand in the way of good feeling be- tween missionary and national. The mission- ary should cease being an accountant and pay- master and assume the relation of a brother. What accounting and paying has to be done ought to be arranged for between the church and the mission or the mission treasurer, and the utmost publicity ought to be given to all accounts. This will do away with the sub- servient position that the national is com- pelled to feel and give him a chance to de- velop in self-respect himself and so enable his church to grow in self-respect. The future of the churches depends upon leadership more than upon any one other thing. Without well-trained leaders they must be under the guardianship of the mis- sionary and so be open to the charge of being called foreign institutions. Without indige- nous leadership there will be no such thing as an indigenous church. That it is paying to train national leadership and to intrust it with responsibility is clearly indicated by the following quotation from Secretary J. H. Franklin: 156 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS As a secretary, I have traveled in numerous countries of the Orient, and I have received the impression that the missionary agencies which were most willing to grant a large degree of lead- ership to native forces—yes, in certain fields, to place responsibilities entirely upon such forees— have made the most notable contributions, so far as I could observe. The attitude of the Protestant Episcopal Church which has received the nationals on equal terms is highly commended and their success is ascribed by Secretary Franklin largely to this attitude. To make this leader- ship self-respecting, we must give them the same place, the same privileges, the same social standing as we have. C. SELF-GOVERNMENT Leadership presupposes some stage or form of self-government. In fact, the matter of leadership leads directly to the problem of self- government. The church must have an organ- ization and that implies leadership. Since most missions started work without paying much attention to the formation of the church, there have arisen multitudes of churches, and even whole areas of churches, which know little about the management of their own affairs. For example, in 1923, “in practically two thirds of China the leadership of the 157 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS church is still largely in the hands of the for- eign missionary, who alone receives converts into the church membership and administers the sacraments.”! Many missions are to-day accordingly struggling with the problem of devolving the authority of the missions upon the churches. In the process of growth in missionary work there are usually three stages to be marked. In the first the missionary leads. In the second the missionary and the national leaders work together with joint powers. In the third the national leaders are in charge. The goal is the third stage. In Japan as far as concerns church organization this was arrived at in a comparatively short time. In other fields some churches or groups of churches have also arrived at self-government, as we have noted. Many missions are still in the first stage and many in the second. There are so many ways of making the transition and so many variations of grade that to list and describe them all would be a most lengthy and wearisome task. We can here mention only some of the more outstand- ing ways. The others are closely related to these and partake of much the same features, sometimes more of one and sometimes more *The Chinese Church, 1923, p. 102. 158 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS of another. We here note the three main types of devolution. The first is the method of turning over the church government by the mission to the church item by item. This is the policy that has usually been followed by the Congrega- tional and Presbyterian types of mission. Some examples of these are as follows: (1) In Basutoland the Paris Society has broken up large districts into parishes and created sev- eral pastorates under nationals. (2) In the Madura Mission of the A. B. C. F. M. a District Conference was organized in 1910 with the proportion in members of two Indians to one American, and this Conference was given charge of evangelistic and elementary educational work.? (3) In the West India Presbyterian Mission the decision has been made to transfer to the Indian Church a gradually increasing amount of the work carried on by the Mission Council. Work actually transferred is the evangelistic and primary school work in certain areas, also a hostel in Poona and the work in Thana, including med- ical work. (The names of the places are not sig- nificant, only the types of work.)* (4) Generally the local churches founded by the Baptists and the Congregationalists, on reaching self-support, have become self-governing. International Review of Missions, 1913, p. 59. Used by permission. "American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Annual Report, 1914, p. 126. "The East and the West, 1923, p. 124. Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. Used by per- mission. 159 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS When these churches have become organized into Associations, then the task has been to turn over one activity after another to the Association or Convention until all is in the hands of the church.! This method requires the running of two separate organizations—the mission and the church. The work being done concerns them both. Yet they are separate. Naturally, the question arises: Why can’t they work together? The reason in the past has been that the mis- sionary has been unwilling to share on equal terms the authority which his control of the funds has given him. Sometimes his reason was a good one, where capable leaders had not been developed. Sometimes the leaders might have been developed if the mission had under- stood its task better. It is significant and encouraging to note that some missions which have been working on this line are changing that policy for one in which the nationals are being given a vital part in the affairs of the mission. A very excellent example is the for- mation of the Arcot Assembly (in India) which in January of this year took over the entire work of the church and the mission. The second method of devolution is that *The East and the West, 1923, p. 124. Society for Propa- gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts: also Chinese Recorder, 1917, p. 80, 1923, p. 157, Baptist Missionary Review, 1923, p. 288, 160 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS of building up the authority of the church from the local church to the district, then to the synod, or diocese. The Anglican bodies have largely followed this procedure. This method has broken down at the same place the first one has, namely, the division of work —the mission with its separate native staff doing the work the church ought to be doing and managing. Why the separation? There comes & time when the two administrations be- come impossible. Many of the best workers prefer missionary service to the work of the church because of the certainty that their posts and salary are secure. The church too is limited to its own self and is tempted to for- get the needs outside as these are falsely re- garded as the task of the mission. In India and Japan particularly steps have been taken to transfer the mission work to the church. The third method is the increase of the au- thority of the nationals by increasing the num- ber of ordained men who have equal powers with the ordained missionaries. This is the policy of the Methodist Episcopal mission work, in connection with which there is no mission in the generally understood meaning of that term. The authority, being vested in the Annual Conference which is composed of ordained men, passes without any process of devolution from the missionaries to the na- 161 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS tionals as soon as the latter are in the ma- jority. All institutions and committees are subject to the Annual Conference. Even the character of the missionary is reviewed and reports from all agencies are required by this body. This form of organization with the minimum of friction transfers authority from the missionaries to the nationals. One weak- ness, however, is its failure to provide for ade- quate representation for the laity and for their equal share in the responsibilities of the church. This weakness is shared too by some of the other bodies. The only way it is over- come in the Methodist polity is in the equal lay and clerical representation at the General Conference, the supreme legislative body, meeting once in four years in the United States of America, but this body, because of its international character, cannot give due consideration to the problems of each branch of the church in different lands. Another weakness, though many Methodists will not agree that it is a weakness, is its international character, which interferes with any possible union with other bodies in the formation of national churches. In Japan, however, this difficulty was overcome by separation from the larger body and by a union of three Methodist bodies in Japan itself. The question whether a church should be 162 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS self-supporting before self-government is granted and whether self-government should be granted in proportion to self-support, has been often raised. In some fields the mission has agreed that the church shall govern it- self as soon as it is self-supporting. Most Bap- tist and Congregationalist Missions have adopted that policy in dealing with single churches. The Presbyterians in Japan have done it with an organized body of churches. There a number of Japanese leaders some years ago were even unwilling to receive churches into their organization until they were self-supporting. But ability in self-gov- ernment and ability in self-support cannot always keep together. In some fields, as for example one in the South Sea Islands, the people developed ability to support their church work before they had ability to govern their churches. In other fields the intellectual and moral ability has come before the finan- cial. In such cases it does not seem right to hold back authority from the church. Further- more, the matter of self-support, when applied to a local church, sometimes means one thing and sometimes another. A rich man may have died and endowed the local church. Or the pastor may be supporting himself with the labor of his hands or have enough wealth of his own to forego support by any church. 163 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS Again, a church may be paying a poorly trained man five dollars a month and another church a well-trained man one hundred dollars a month. And all goes as self-support. The fact that there is such a variety of circum- stances favors the granting of self-government without any special reference to self-support. Self-government is not a prize to be paid for but a matter of due responsibility. Of course where a church can support itself and will not, it is lacking in the self-respect that is at the basis of self-government. Either education or an operation is needed. But when mentally equipped and morally capable, that is the proper time to grant self-government. When the church can do it, why not let it do it? There has been much said and written re- garding the expenditure of the contributions of Western churches by the missionaries rather than by the nationals. Some think that because the money has been raised in the missionary’s country, the missionary should determine where and how it should be used. This is another species of race discrimination. The money is not the missionary’s any more than it is the national’s. It is the Lord’s money to be used for his work. As it is to be spent in the country of the national, it is sooner or later going to pass into the hands of the nationals. If the missionary allocates 164 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS money to a certain object, he is not, however, omnipresent, so that he can see that it is spent as he would have it. The writer knows of many cases too where money turned over to a national was made to stretch much further than it ever could have gone if a missionary had the care of it. In many missions to-day nationals are sitting on boards with mission- aries, deciding what to do with foreign con- tributions. When a vote is taken, the ayes are not all missionaries and the nays all‘ na- tionals. In matters of judgment, therefore, it is not the national against the foreigner, but individual against individual, regardless of nation or race. Some years ago missionaries in certain missions were fearful of letting the nationals know the ins and outs of mission finance. When they did let one or two or even more into meetings, they still had to have secret meetings by themselves for fear the nationals would know it all. As the na- tionals have been taken into confidence more and more and the secret meetings discon- tinued, nothing dreadful has happened. In fact, when nationals have been given the chair- manship of finance committees and been given a majority of votes in such committees, there has been no loss in efficiency nor misuse of funds. There should be no national line drawn here. The problems to be solved are (1) the 165 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS capability of the national—a quality which the missionary can easily ascertain by sharing his problems with the nationals, and (2) the willingness of the missionary to give up his control of affairs. If the missionary takes pains to find whether the judgment of the na- tional is sane or not and will put aside preju- dice, the problem will soon be settled. The ability of the church to govern itself is best acquired by giving it a chance to try self-government. In India the complaint has been made that the civil government has given more important posts to Indians than the missions have. There are a few who object that if administration is turned over to the nationals, the leaders will be more domineer- ing than ever the missionaries have been. Such an objection, however, must presuppose authority derived from ‘the missionary and not from the church, for if a church finds its leaders adopt a dictatorial attitude, all the church has to do is to vote for a change. The writer has seen the overbearing national effec- tually rebuked by his brethren. These are mere incidents in the process. With a demo- cratically organized church they will be ironed out by the nationals themselves. Such matters need not concern the missionary. His work is to train the church in self-government, and as long as he fails to experiment, how can 166 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS he expect the church to develop ability? No child has as yet been known to learn how to walk without making the effort himself, and a few falls must come as a matter of course. The policy of the missionary is not faultless, nor is the policy of the church in the home lands. In looking over the whole field one is impressed with the fact that administration has been in a few cases turned over too.soon, or, rather, too suddenly, to the church, but that in most cases there has been too much with- holding of authority. The difficulty in mis- sions where there has been no devolution is that the missionary has kept the reins in his own hands, not trusting the national with power, because he fears the national may mis- use it. The result has been that the national has learned to lean upon the missionary and so has either lost or has not acquired the sense of responsibility he ought to have, or he has gone to the other extreme and thrown off all restraint, starting a church of his own or leay- ing organized Christianity altogether. The solution of the difficulty is in taking into confidence from the beginning the church in the person of its leaders, in all things that concern its welfare. This means that admin- istration on the part of the missionary should give way to suggestion and advice as fast as possible. The administration of the sacra- 167 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS ments, discipline, and the allocation of funds are matters that any body of Christians have opinions on, and the missionary, instead of going ahead without learning these opinions, ought to take time to make inquiry, ought to show clearly that he has respect for those opin- ions, and where he finds them incorrect, should inform or exhort, as the case may require. Usually the missionary has been so much in a hurry to get things done that he has not had time to train nationals to do them and so be fitted to carry the burden which rightly be- longs to them. It has been so much easier and has saved so much time at the moment. But the work is the work of the church, and the church ought to be trained in that work from the very beginning. Through that training there will come the development of the church. In fields where no self-government has been granted or where only a measure has been granted, what should be the attitude of the mission? Should self-government be granted as fast as the church asks for it? Or should the mission urge autonomy on the church? Or should it hold back when its judgment so directs? Forcing is an unnatural process. It would seem better to create a desire for self- government in fields where no such desire exists, or in communities which have so long looked up to the missionary as the source of all 168 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS blessings that they do not want a change, or in the case of the worker who would rather have the missionary rule and also pay his salary for the reason that his own future is in this way better assured. If the appetite for self-government cannot be created in them, it is plainly a sign of disease. Either a drastic self-support plaster or the tonic of a revival meeting may remedy the situation. We would recall here that self-respect will naturally ask for autonomy. Yet in some missions the mis- Sionaries have realized before the nationals that self-government ought to come and have accordingly made provision for the transfer of authority. Where they can anticipate the desires of the nationals and lead them on and up to complete self-government, there is a situation in which the friction is reduced to nothing. This is the ideal. On the other hand, there are cases where the nationals are unreasonable in their demands, or where they have not gotten on well with the missionaries, and therefore ask for authority. Since cases differ so much from one another, it would be very difficult to lay down any principle here other than that of praying and consulting in sympathetic, brotherly fashion with the na- tionals, trusting the Holy Spirit to guide into the truth for the good of the church. When the process of devolution is com- 169 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS pleted, there comes the questions, What shall we do with the missionary? and What shall be the relation of the mission board to the church? In some fields these questions have already been answered. The Samoans have said, “Keep the missionary and pay him.” His spiritual qualities, his advice and the con- nection his presence affords with the rest of the Christian world, are too valuable to lose. In Japan the churches are still able and glad to use the missionary, in some churches not holding him responsible entirely to the church on the field, while in others he is entirely under the church, though paid from abroad. In China the Christian leaders are saying that they do not want the missionary to go, as they need him spiritually. Evidently, if the missionary makes himself indispensable in the realm of the spirit rather than in that of ad- ministration, he has still a long period of use- fulness ahead. And as for the mission boards, though they will have no control over the church, they will still play a great part in the life of all churches that still need financial assistance in education, medical, social, and evangelistic work. While we have in this section gone in some detail into the matter of devolution in a tech- nical sense, the organization that now is and the organization that is to be, though impor- 170 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS tant, are not the primary factors in the matter, The matter of greatest importance is a spirit of Christian brotherhood that has overcome distrust and suspicion with sympathy and “magnanimity, and a deep conviction on the part of the missionary that his task is to serve rather than administer and to train nationals to govern rather than himself to govern. This kind of spirit will make short work of any obstacles that organization may offer. Norrt.—It seems hardly necessary to say that as long as the property on which church activities are conducted is owned by a foreign society and both property and Christians are protected by foreign diplomats, the church will be regarded as a foreign institution. D. DENOMINATIONALISM AND THE TENDENCY TowARD UNION The problem of denominationalism is a very real one on the mission fields to-day, and it is closely allied to the situation at the home base. At the time Protestant missions began there was scarcely any sign of federation among the churches. Each denomination ran its whole work without reference to the feelings or the rights of other denominations. The lack of comity on the mission field is one very good illustration of this, and another is the plant- ing of a church of one denomination across the 171 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS road from one or another right in our own land. To-day in America we have the Federal Council of Churches, joint meetings of the boards of different denominations to discuss policies, organic union of churches already consummated and others under discussion. The times have changed from division to union. The spirit of union has invaded the foreign field. Why one Christ but a divided church? asks the national. The missionary asks the same question. Some seem to feel that they have what they feel is an adequate answer, but their number is diminishing. The progressive man and the progressive woman are saying to- day that union must come. Among the na- tional leaders the feeling is abroad that the denominations are an extra which the missions have brought them, in good faith indeed, but not essential to Christianity; that denomina- tional differences are due to the historical developments of Western lands and that they can therefore well be done away with as of no value to the lands of the mission fields. The union movements of our day have been noted in a previous chapter. It will therefore suffice here to recall the fact that much has been done on the fields to unite the various churches, union in general, professional and other education, organic union of churches, 172 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS national councils, union in publication and other work; but that the task is only well begun is very evident. The movements toward union, it is interest- ing to note, have largely been due to the vision of the missionaries, but the nationals have been fast coming into possession of the same attitude. The union of the Presbyterian bodies in India in 1908 was the desire of the missionaries, not that of the nationals. But since then we have noted in another chapter the negotiations between the Indian Malabar of the Mar Thoma Syrian Church, leaders of the Anglican Church and those of the South India United Church for an organic church union. This shows the growth of the desire of the nationals for union. In China there has been the same progress of feeling on the part of nationals. But there are difficulties in the way in the organizing of great national churches. 1. The home constituency has not all come to the point where it is willing to allow its funds to go to an enterprise which unites the converts of their mission with those of another. A proposed organic union in West China, as we have seen, was held up by the Home Boards of more than one church. Not all com- munions, sad to relate, are as eager for church union as the Presbyterians and Congrega- 173 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS tionalists. Some, in fact, are very chary of the subject. 2. On the field too denominationalism has often been drilled into the converts so deeply that the nationals are less willing for union than the missionaries. They have been led to believe or have themselves developed the be- lief that no other church is doing the work they are doing and that no other can. Often jealousy of their individual influence is mingled with their denominational convic- tions. The two combined are extremely hard to dislodge. 3. Ecclesiastical organizations are hard to alter or adapt. This is especially true because of prejudice in favor of what one has become used to. Few have ever studied the organiza- tion of a sister denomination and so they have naturally no sympathy with it. Practically all the unions of churches on the fields have come between churches of the same style of organization, and the others have been of de- nominations of Presbyterian and Congrega- tionalist polity. In the latter case the union was made less difficult than one would antici- pate by the recognition of the Congregational- ists that a closer form of organization than theirs is an advantage on the foreign field. 4, Inertia is another barrier. The great ma- jority of Christians are satisfied with things 174 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS as they are. They do not see the use of change. Even many of the leaders are too busy with other problems and are content to let what they consider well enough alone. 5. Doctrinal views, while to-day dividing not so much between denominations as inside denominations themselves, are still divisive factors. Some denominations still are inclined to discriminate against the doctrinal liberality of others. The matter of the type of baptism, the question of apostolic succession, and the administration of the sacraments are matters on which some denominations are still unwill- ing to give ground, despite a measure of liber- ality on the part of a minority within the churches in question. These difficulties indicate that the strength of the movement for united churches, while not insignificant, is still far from universal. In Japan and Latin America denominationalism is at present strong. India, China, the Philip- pines and East Africa have a large body of Christians who want to see union. But in these countries too the difficulties previously mentioned are all operating against union. Methods suggested for union have been of two kinds, (1) local and provincial union, and (2) union of bodies of similar church polity. In India we have noted under the first kind of union that of the United Church of South 175 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS India, and in China unions in Kuangtung, Fukien, Hupeh, and Kansu Provinces. Under the second type of union are the uniting of the Presbyterian bodies in Japan, China, Formosa, Chosen, and India, the union of the Anglican bodies in Japan and China, that of the Meth- odist bodies in Japan, and that of the Luther- ans in China. Beyond these in the growth of Christian unity, if they are consummated, will be the union of the Congregationalists, both English and American, and the Presbyterians of China and the union of the South India Church with the Church Missionary Society and the Mar Thoma Syrian Churches. Besides these are the alliance formed at Kikuyu in East Africa and the movement to- ward National Christian Councils in Japan, China, and India, which, though avowedly not looking toward organic union, are great fac- tors toward helping the churches to get to- gether and understand and respect one an- other. The great number of union institutions and other unions are also factors that will have a great bearing on the future. What reasonable hope is there then of union into national churches? It will not come to- morrow, but in most of the fields it is nearer than it was even five years ago. In China it is talked about since the 1922 Conference at Shanghai as never before. In India and 176 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS Japan the present forming of the National Christian Councils is a great step forward, and the actual consummation of a National Christian Council in China is an even greater step. Union as yet is only a fond hope in many hearts. Those who seek shall find, however, and the ever-growing spirit of tolerance and Christian fellowship evidenced in many com- munions is being used of the Holy Spirit to bring about the day when still more far-reach- ing unions than have yet been seen shall be consummated. E. THe MISSIONARY’S RESPONSIBILITY What is the extent of the responsibility of the missionary for the ultimate form of indige- nous Christianity on the foreign mission fields? This is a question that has had many answers. The Roman Catholic, as already noted, holds that he is responsible for the whole teaching of the church as well as that of the New Testament. He would go so far as to make all church organization subject to the supreme authority of Rome, which, in the opin- ion of the writer, makes a church not indige- nous but imperial. Many Protestant mission- aries have attempted to teach as essentials the doctrines of their church. Most have pro- ceeded on the assumption that their particular form of church government and organization 177 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS was suited for every age and circumstance. In discipline too many missionaries have tried to apply the one they have been brought up on. In esthetic appreciation and expression also most have brought to the field their accustomed type; in music, ritual, architecture, and other matters no place has been given in most fields for national expression. A great many mis- sionaries in the past have seemed to proceed on the ground that everything native was heathenish and everything European and American, except whisky, was part and parcel of Christianity, even to nightshirts and the English language. The standpoint of the national has changed like a kaleidoscope. First he fought bitterly against everything foreign. Next he imitated everything foreign. Now he is discriminating. These changes in attitude indicate first an ignorant fear and scorn of the alien; then, see- ing the power of the foreigner and the useful- ness of his inventions, he tried to adopt them wholesale. The spirit of investigation next set him to appraising. He is now more or less ready to take what is of value, but he also real- izes that his own individuality and that of his eountry are in danger. The rise of national- ism throughout the world has made him set up his own heritage against that of the foreigner and he has come to a new conception of its 178 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS value. The intelligent Christian to-day is ask- ing for a church that is not bound in any par- ticulars to follow American or European standards, but one that shall be strictly indige- nous. He is asking the missionary to leave his hands off these things and limit himself to the message of Christ. Under the caption of “Why an Indigenous Church?” (Chapter II) we have already indi- cated the fact that the most real response and the greatest development can come only through a truly indigenous form of Christian- ity. If the missionary is to be of help in this respect, he must take the attitude not of a dictator but that of an assistant. The task of the missionary is (1) to give the message, whether it be by preaching, by friendship, by teaching, by tract, or Bible or other book, by healing or by any other channel through which he can express the love of God in Christ; and (2) to develop leadership among the nationals by instructing, exhorting, advising, suggesting, praying with patience, hoping and believing that God will raise up leaders to carry on his work in his way; and (3) to lay upon the church its responsibility for carrying the message to neighbors near and far, for the development of a Christian system of education and its support, also a Christian literature, and for the care of the body as well 179 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS as the mind and soul. As Doctor Laws, of the Scottish Livingstonia Mission, has well said, “The missionary should never do any work which the native worker is able to do for him- self.”! His task is to make the church realize its burden and to help it all he can to take up the cross and follow Christ. No missionary with a living evangel burning in his heart will ask for a greater task than this. It is a great pity that in the past so many missionaries have been side-tracked from this great work to take up the task of the divider of the inheri- tance or have served tables. Some will say that these duties are all a part of the task, and it is rightly said, but when such things have had to be done, the missionary should have been training nationals to take them over and he should have avoided as far as possible the assuming of any authority. In the mind of the missionary must be constantly the thought that the church must increase and he must decrease, and his actions should show that he is steadily increasing the power of the church and decreasing his own. F. THe RESPONSIBILITY OF THE INDIGENOUS CHURCH In the previous sections has been described *World Missionary Conference, Commission I, p. 338. Fleming H. Revell Company. Used by permission. 180 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS the responsibility of the churches for many things that the missionary has often carried himself, to the exhaustion of body and mind, support and government and many other tasks that are clearly the tasks of the church. The missionary has felt that the nationals were not able to carry the load. The nationals them- selves too, before being awakened from the sleep of centuries of inertia and dependence, were convinced of their inability. In the light of this situation one of the most encouraging signs of our times is the recognition by national and missionary alike that the task of evangelizing any country must be undertaken by the nationals them- selves—that it is the task of the church. It is a task in which the missionary will be al- lowed to help, but in which he will not be the leader. His position of leadership in evan- gelistic work has recently passed in Japan. In many organizations in other lands too the leadership in evangelistic work has passed to the church. The same applies to missionary work. The move is to unite all under the care of the church. With the church getting under this burden her future usefulness is assured. One of the most successful methods of indigenous evangelism has been employed in central Shansi and northern Shensi Provinces of China. A brief description of the method is 181 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS all that can be given here. A fuller account is found in the 1919 China Mission Year Book, pp. 109ff. The plan is as follows: Two Chris- tians arrive at a town incognito. They put up at an inn. They next make the acquaintance of two or three of the leading men of the place and gradually introduce to them the subject of Christianity. When they have won them, they suggest getting a hall for the public pres- entation of Christianity. The people see reputable men connected with the new work, so that opposition is practically nil. After a time the missionary comes and calls. When the work is well established, then the local people are encouraged to go and carry out the Same program in another place. This en- courages indigenous leadership, removes prej- udice, opposition, and persecution and does the work at small expense. By placing the work in the hands of the Chinese in this way and laying upon them the responsibility, a strong church is being developed. Africa, India, China, Chosen, the Philip- pines, and other fields have shown forms of spontaneous but effective evangelism, some of which we have noted, but with scientific methods and common sense at her disposal in accord with Jesus’ words “Be ye wise as serpents,” the church ought in our day to work some definite plan in evangelism as that de- 182 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS scribed above. It is a task that requires the most astute mental effort as well as the deep- est, most self-sacrificing consecration, baptized in the Holy Spirit. In education and the production of Chris- tian literature the transfer is slower. The evangel is simple, but modern education is a complicated matter, and the development of a literature is a task that takes maturity in the Christian life. But the church must under- take, or, rather, the missionary must show the church that it must, the work of education, authorship, and publication. Reports from every land tell of the foreign missionary leadership in education and literature. As yet the nationals have done but little and the churches have been quite content to let the mission boards finance, produce, and super- intend. This is said in the large. There are exceptions. The church should, as in Western lands, control these matters rather than let foreigners do it. The great mass of literature, textbooks, tracts, devotional books, ete., are translations or the product of Westerners. Bibles bear the imprint of foreign societies. We are a long way from indigenous Chris- tianity in this part of the work. There are signs of the dawn, however; for in Japan na- tionals for some time have been producing Christian literature and in India and China 183 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS a beginning has been made, but even in these countries the help of the foreigners will be needed for some time yet; and in Africa and other fields where the life of the people is more primitive than in the three Asiatic countries above mentioned, the nationals will have to be in training for some time before they can arrive even at the early stage reached by the Christians in those countries. In institutions for the relief of bodily ail- ments the situation is about the same. In Japan entirely and in India to a large extent the government has undertaken this work; but in Africa, China, and many other fields there is still great scope for the development of this branch of the service. But the transfer to the church has not even begun to be made. To many it will seem strange to say that this is work that the church onght to be managing, as this type of institution is so distinctly for- eign in its management. But in the home lands we do not have foreigners in control. It must come in time that the nationals shall be in charge, and the sooner the missionary starts to talk about these institutions as belonging to the church and of their work as the work of the church, the sooner will come the time when the transfer will be made. What of the churches on the field in their relation to the country in which they are? 184 INDIGENOUS CHURCH PROBLEMS This question covers everything from govern- ment to social and industrial conditions. Already the church federations and national councils are giving out their pronouncements regarding working conditions in industry and their views on social questions. City unions of churches have done the same. Campaigns for better sanitary conditions, social ideals, etc., have enlisted the support of the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Christian Asso- ciations and the churches. Definite results have been accomplished, in Osaka, Japan, in the limiting of vice, and in Canton, China, in stopping gambling. In this connection there is the great task of adapting national customs to Christian ends, filling them with Christian meaning. A beginning has been made in some quarters. <A particular instance is the work of the Wesley Methodist Church, of Tientsin, China, where a wealthy Chinese Christian is financing the organization of a society for adapting funeral and wedding ceremonies, pre- serving their Chinese character, yet making them Christian in spirit, and striving for higher ideals in the family. In India and Japan as well as in China there is a very strong sentiment among the educated Chris- tians for the preservation of features of the national life. It would seem that in these countries at least the missionaries could safely 185 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS leave these matters to the churches, render- ing aid or giving advice when asked. When we consider the churches of the dif- ferent countries in their international rela- tions, we see a great task ahead of them. In the countries of Europe, Christianity, though supposedly at the helm, was unable to stave off the Great War. The bond that united Christianity was insufficient to check the na- tions in their mad fury. Will the churches on the mission fields unite so strongly in interna- tional fellowship that they will be able to prevent a repetition of that awful cataclysm? Strained relations of a few years ago that led to the refusal of the Chinese churches to send delegates to Japan to the World Sunday School Convention in Tokyo have been healed over. This, the most outstanding break on the mission field, has changed for an ever more cordial feeling between the Christians of the two countries. The National Councils have a splendid opportunity in this field to cement international friendship. 186 CHAPTER V CONCLUSION CHRISTIAN character is the objective of all missionary work. We want the world filled with people who live the Christ life. But the finest Christian character is developed not in solitude but in social contacts. Christianity is nothing if not a social religion. Jesus, the founder, was supremely interested in people. He spent the greater part of his time with them, and it was in them that he placed his hopes. “But where there is no vision the peo- ple perish.” Jesus prayed all night before selecting the men who were to be the leaders of his fol- lowers, for he knew that true leadership has the vision that keeps the people from perish- ing. From the way Jesus worked with these future leaders, we can see that he was thoroughly convinced that his training of them was allimportant. He sought to perfect them, that they might truly represent him when he must leave them. And to-day, much as the missionary sometimes feels he needs money, it is quite safe to say that any missionary would 187 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS rate a consecrated worker of ability above any amount of money. We would then place first of all to-day the training of more leaders. This is the great task in the raising up of an indigenous church. We must have men filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, men who have the balance of a well-rounded education, men who have inde- pendence of spirit, initiative, self-respect, men who are unreservedly committed to the task of creating churches worthy of the Christ who gave himself for them and “ever liveth to make intercession” for them. To assist in the train- ing up of a larger body of such men and women is the main task before the missionary ; for, sooner or later, to them must be committed the burden the missionary has carried. As we have tried to show, this task is not one of handing over any mass of doctrine, nor one that requires any show of authority of an external nature, but the living of the life of Christ by the missionary and his helpful, sym- pathetic cooperation. Nothing can be suc- cessfully forced upon those who have arrived at years of discretion. Far more can be ac- complished by the practice of love than by the use of authority. Authority may coerce, but, when removed, a reaction is sure to follow. Love, on the other hand, compels with the con- sent of the loved. The churches on the fields 188 CONCLUSION will have the advantage of a running start when the missionary is no longer needed, if they are given the place of responsibility and encouraged to take control of their own affairs. The future of the churches in the fields, judging from the signs of a sense of respon- sibility among the churches, particularly among the leaders, is bright. These leaders have, many of them, an aspiration to make their Christianity so national that it may not only get into the hearts of their people, but may also develop, because indigenous, a more real Christianity; that is, one truer to Christ, and one that shall in that power contribute to the world something that shall be both original and a boon to mankind. There is ex- cellent prospect for the fulfillment of this long- ing. Jesus himself was an Oriental, and his religion, brought back into that environment of the Orient after centuries of banishment to the Occident, where his teachings have often been sadly warped and sadly neglected, though accepted in a measure, should shine forth with a new radiance in the lives of the people of the East and those of Africa, who with the people of India possess such deeply religious natures. With all that science has brought us, with the present longing for a world-wide Christian unity, with the experi- ence of the church, mistakes surely ought to 189 NATIVE CHURCHES IN FOREIGN FIELDS be at a minimum, and these new children of the Father can reasonably look forward to a remarkable growth in the Lord Jesus. As to the character of the church, unless all present signs fail, it is going to be indigenous. These are days of democracy and nationalism. With all due respect to the Roman Catholie followers of Christ and with the greatest ad- miration for the devotion of their missionaries, one cannot but feel that in our day their ideal of a great imperial church is out of date. Though such a system as that of our Catholic friends has a hold and will continue to have a hold for some time to come upon large numbers of people, the handwriting on the wall, already seen in Europe and in Latin America in the attitude of the educated men, shows clearly which type of Christianity is going to count for the most in the future for the betterment of the whole world. It is full time for all of the Protestant mis- sionaries, who with the Roman Catholic are not consciously striving to build up indige- nous churches, to look the mission fields over carefully and see what our brothers and sisters of these fields have been doing. They are proving themselves our equals and sometimes our superiors in the Christian life. Let us give them the right hand of fellowship. Let us treat them no longer as children, but as 190 CONCLUSION brothers and sisters in Christ. In racial and national distinctions we must still abide; their customs are not ours, their standards are not ours; but let us not expect of them what they have not a right to expect of us. If we treat them as different socially, we should yet treat them as our equals socially. Their rights are as precious as ours, and it is due to them as Christian brothers and sisters that they be respected. The same God made us all. The same Christ died for us all, and in him there is neither bond nor free, but all one creature. The church that is built up upon this basis instead of upon patronage, will become a self- respecting church just as our churches in Western lands are. God will raise up leaders as he has ever done in the church and his power will be the guiding hand. The broad- minded leadership of Christian statesmen, theirs and ours, we trust may some day unite all Christendom, yes, all the world, in one great church Universal. “City of God, how broad and far Outspread thy walls sublime! The true thy chartered freemen are, Of every age and clime.” —Samuel Johnson. 191 oo ey? sii Wire tT BIBLIOGRAPHY The following sources of information have been used in the preparation of this work, to the pub- lishers of which the author desires to acknowledge indebtedness : Allen, Alexander V. G.—Christian Institutions. New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1897. Allen, Roland—Missionary Methods, Saint Paul’s or Ours? New York and Chicago, Fleming H. Revell Company, 1918. American Arcot Mission—Mysore. Wesleyan Mission Press, 1921, 1922. American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Annual Report, Boston, 1913-1922, inclusive. Arcot Assembly, The Second Meeting of the Tem- porary Organization of, Vellore, January 4-7, 1928. 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