f BY 2063) .R67°1925.._,
Rowland, Henry Hosie, 1884-
Native churches in foreign
fields
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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.
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Dore ge
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
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-
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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
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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,
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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
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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,
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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,
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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
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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
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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
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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-
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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