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Most of the world's people are sick and in pain. Healing is a
Christian mission. When Zaire rece'ived its independence in 1960 there
was not a single doctor in the whole country. (J.H. Kane, Understandin£
Christian Mission , rev. p. 312). Yet when Jesus first sent out his
disciples in mission, he told them, "preach the kingdom of God and.. heal
the sick." (Lk. 9:2).
Half of all the world's people cannot read. Literacy and
Bible translation"^ Christian missions. The mind learns through the
eye more than through any ot|;ier sense t^nsmissjon process. ^ t
MSr'rthaiTfe^f of the w^d'^s people suffer from injustice and
oppression. The never-ending struggle for human rights, both individual
and collective, is a Christian mission. "The Lord., executes justice
for the oppressed; FHel sets the prisoner free [and] lifts up those who
are bowed down", says the Psalmist (Ps. 146).
The whole world today, they tell us, teeters on the brink of
instant total and unprecedented physical destruction. The making of
peace in a warring world is a Christian mission. "Blessed are the
peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God", said Jesus
(Matt. 5:9).
If all this is not enough mission for 20th century
Christians— the struggle against human hunger, ignorance, suffering,
poverty, injustice and war— what more can I say? Well, there is one
thing I must say. You can do all this in mission, and still fail in the
Christian mission. You can do all this, and leave the deepest need of
the human heart unmet. Two-thirds of the world's people, after two
thousand years, still do not know and believe the good news that Jesus
Christ is Lord and Saviour. "What shall it profit them, said Jesus,
"if they gain the whole world and lose [their] own soul[s], (Mt. 16.26)
Put very simply, the Christian world mission in this
century is to break through any barrier that separates any part of the
world from Jesus Christ to tell the good news about Him in every
possible way, to anyone who will listen. As Jesus used to say, "He that
hath ears to hear, let him hear".
• Charles W. Bryan, Foreign Mission
Board senior vice president for
overseas operations: "World popula-
tion, standing at above 4.5 billion,
has more lost people than lived on
earth in the year 1900. If this trend
continues, the increase to the year
2000 will exceed the population
living on earth as recently as 1980."
- Samuel Hugh Moffett
Princeton, N.J.
86 ACTS THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
situation changes before the book is printed. However si
reports can indicate trends which can be analyzed and give help
insights for future evangelism and church growth. I want to tha
Chart for Korean Church Growth (1784- 1990)
1784--1884 1900 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 0
Largest Protiesl'ant Denominations in the Third World
1. Church of Christ, Zaire
2. Assemblies of God, Brazil
3. Philippine Independent Church (Aglipay)
4. Kimbanguist Church, Zaire
5. Anglican Church, Nigeria (CMS)
6. Council of Dutch Reformed Churches, S. Africa
7. Protestant (Reformed) Church, Indonesia
8. Nigeria Fellowship of Churches of Christ (S.U.M.)
9. Church of South India
10. Church of Christ, Manalista (Philippines)
11. Anglican Church Uganda (CMS)
12. Anglican Church of South Africa
13. Presbyterian Church in Korea (Tonghap)
14. Council of Baptist Churches, N.E. India
15. Baptist Convention, Brazil
16. Batak Christian Protestant Church, Indonesia
17. Pentecostal Churches of Indonesia
18. Congregations Crista, Brazil
19. Evangelical Pentecostals . Brazil for Christ
20. South African Methodist Church
21. Methodist Church in South Asia (India)
22. Presbyterian Church of Korea, (Hapdong)
23. Madagascar Church of Jesus Christ
24. Burma Baptist Convention
25. United Ev. Lutheran Churches in India
26. Church of Central Africa, Malawi (Presbyterian)
27. Korean Methodist Church
28. Evangelical Lutheran Church, Brazil
29. Presbyterian Church of Brazil
30. Zion Christian Church, South Africa
31. Tanzania Evangelical Lutheran Church
Adherents (Adults Adherents
1980 1980) 1952
4,728,000
(1.519.000)
1,174,000
4,000,000
(2.753,000)
220,000
3,500,000
(1,860,000)
3,000,000
3,500,000
(2,000,000)
- -
2,941,000
(359,970)
403,000
2,142,000
1.665,000
1,959,000
(987,000)
1,033.996
1.746,000
(100,550)
25,000
1.556,000
(516,000)
895,000
1,500,000
(400,000)
1,384,000
(306,000)
321.000
1,236,000
(327,000)
597,000
1,100,000
(280,000)
240.000
1.065,000
(230,000)
1.050.000
(350,000)
125,000
1,044,000
(465,000)
502,000
1,000,000
(750.000)
1,000.000
(600.000)
1,000,000
(250,000)
942,000
(374,000)
684,000
901.000
(421,000)
450,000
900,000
240,000
881,000
(250,000)
600,000
798,000
(249.000)
439,000
790,000
(340,000)
483,000
766,000
(282,000)
386,000
700,000
(301 ,800)
129,000
629,000
(136,000)
740,617
623,000
(124,900)
123,000
600.000
(300,000)
592,000
(274,000)
62,000
The largest denominations (World) Adherents Adult
1. Evangelical Church in Germany
2. Church of England
3. Southern Baptist (USA)
4. United Methodist (USA)
28.500.000
27.660.000
14,000,000
14,000,000
22,000,000
9,600,000
11,600,000
10,300,000
- Statistics adapted from
World Christian Encylo-
pedia, 1982
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16
The Fifteen Largest Churches in the Third World
1. China House Church Movement 35m
2. Assemblies of God, Brazil (Pentecostal) 22m
3. Anglican Church, Nigeria 17m
4. 3-Self Church, China 15m
5. Church of Christ, Congo/Zaire (Federation) 9.2m
6. Kimbanguist Church, Congo/Zaire 7.5m
7. Anglican Church, Uganda (CMS) 7.4m
8. Zion Christian Church, S. Africa (Pentec.) 7m
9. Kale Hewet (Word of Life) Church, Ethiopia 4.6m
10. Universal Reign of Life Ch., Brazil (Pent.) 4m
11. Congregation of Christ, Brazil (Pentecostal) 3m
12. Church of South India, Anglican 3m
13. Reformed Church Fed., S. Africa 2.8
14. God is Love Church, Brazil (Pentecostal) 2.7
15. Reformed Church, Indonesia 2.7
Of these fifteen largest, note that five are pentecostal, three are independent,
three are Anglican, 2 are Presbyterian/Reformed, two are united churches.
Using a different category 7 are "mainline”, 8 are "evangelical".
Geographically, 7 are in Africa, and four each in Asia and Latin America; bat
of the first 5, 2 are in Asiar2Ja-Mrica,~lr in-Latia America.
But since my emphasis is on Asia, compare this list of the twenty
largest church in ASIA:
The Twenty Largest Protestant Churches in ASIA
1. China House Church Movement 35m^
2. 3-Self Church, China 15m
3. Church of South India 3m
4. Reformed Churches of Indonesia 2.7m
5. Batak Church [Lutheran], Indonesia 2.5m
6. Pentecostal Church of Christ, Indonesia 2.5m
7. Philippine Independent Church (Aglipay) 2.4m
8. Presbyterian Church, Korea (Indep., Hapdong) 2.1m
9. Presbyterian church, Korea (Ecumenic.,Tonghap) 2.05m
10. Jesus Assembly of God, Korea (Pentecostal) 2m
11. Independent Catholic Church, Philippines 2m
12. Burma Baptist Convention, Myanmar 1.7m
Missions, Protestant
(K.S. Latourette and Scott W. Sunquist)
This article gives: (1 ) a brief history of Protestant missions, and (2) a survey of
their status in 2001 .
1. History Protestants were slow in taking up missionary work among non-Christians.
This was partly because they were engrossed in consolidating their position in Europe
and also because some of their early leaders believed that the obligation to spread the
faith did not apply to them. But the delay was chiefly attributable to the fact that
Protestants were late in establishing commercial or colonial contacts with non-Christian
peoples. When Protestantism was still in its infancy, and even before it had been bom,
Spanish and Portuguese Catholics had led in the explorations and conquests of the 15^
and 16*‘' centuries and under the impulse of Roman Catholic reform had initiated
extensive mission in the Americans, Africa, Asia and the East Indies.
The English and the Dutch were the first Protestants to undertake commerce and
colonization on a large scale outside of Europe. Wherever they made contact with non-
Christian peoples some missionary effort followed, although tardily in some countries.
Thus in Virginia and New England, especially the latter, missions to the Indians were
inaugurated in the 17^ century. Early in the 18^ century the (Anglican) Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (est. 1701) sent missionaries to the indigenous
tribes in the 13 colonies. Dutch missionaries went to the East Indies. In the 18^ century,
under the impulse of Count Zinzendorf, the Moravians had missions in the Danish and
British West Indies, India, Ceylon, Russia, Central America, Greenland, Labrador, the
Gold Coast, and South Africa, as well as among North American peoples. In the 1 8*^
century, beginning in 1706 under the auspices of the King of Denmark, German Pietists
had missions in India and were aided by the (Anglican) Society for the Promoting
Christian Knowledge (est. 1699). Thus, the first Protestant missionaries to Asia were
Germans, Bartholomew Ziegenbalg and Henry Plutschau.
Missionary Societies. Protestant missions had their main beginning in the closing
decade of the 18'’’ and the opening decades of the 19**^ centuries. In 1792, at the
insistence of William Carey, the Baptist Missionary Society was founded in England.
The following year it sent Carey to India. There he and his colleagues translated the
Bible into the languages of India and into Chinese, and founded a college at Serampore
that became the chief center for the training of Indians for the Protestant ministry. Bible
translation and educational work would be major concerns of all Protestant missionary
work. In 1795 British evangelicals who did not conform to the Church of England
organized the London Missionary Society. Four years later evangelicals within the
Church of England inaugurated the Church Missionary Society. In 1804 evangelicals,
both Nonconformists and Conformist Anglican, organized the British and Foreign Bible
Society. In continental Europe Protestant societies emerged also. Among them were the
Netherlands Missionary Society (1797) and the Basel Missionary Society (1822). In the
U.S. the interdenominational (chiefly Congregational) American Board of
Commissioners for Foreign Missions was initiated in 1810, and in 1814 American
Baptists founded a missionary society. In the next few years a number of societies were
founded, most of them as organs of particular denominations. In 1816 members of
several denominations united in the American Bible Society.
Protestant missions were given a major impulse from various revival movements in the
English speaking world which culminated in 1886 with the formation of the Student
Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions (SVM). It had as its watchword: “the
evangelization of the world in this generation.” By this was meant not the conversion of
the whole world, but the conveying of a knowledge of the gospel by each generation of
Christians to their generation the world over. The SVM was nondenominational. It
spread among students in many countries. One of its original members, John R. Mott
(1865-1955), was long its chairman. Under its influence thousands of students offered
themselves to their denominational societies and were sent to many different countries.
Mott became an evangelist to students in scores of countries. In one of his widely read
books, Strategic Points in the World’s Conquest (1897), he outlined a program for
winning all people to Christ. The book and the movement reflected the progressive,
optimistic Protestant missionary spirit of the age.
Mott became the chief agent also in bringing Protestants together to fulfill the purpose of
the evangelization of the world and was chairman of the World Missionary Conference
(Edinburgh, 1910). Out of this gathering came, first, the Continuation Committee of the
conference and then (1921) the International Missionary Council (IMC). Both had Mott
as chairman. The purpose of the IMC was the coordination of Protestant missionary
effort the world over. It had as members national and regional bodies. The members in
Asia and Africa were called National Christian Councils, and increasingly enlisted the
Protestants of these lands. In America and Europe the members were bodies that
represented the Protestant missionary organization of their respective countries or
regions. The IMC embraced the overwhelming majority of the Protestants of the world.
Substantial minorities held aloof, chiefly and increasingly, on doctrinal grounds. By the
1960s the World Evangelical Fellowship (founded 1951) was growing rapidly and in
1974 the Lausanne Committee on World Evangelization was formed as alternative
Protestant mission organizations.
In 1961 the IMC was integrated with the World Council of Churches (WCC) and became
the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism of that body. The WCC (est. 1948)
was to a large degree an outgrowth of the Protestant missionary movement. After 1961
the organization of Protestant missions becomes more diverse worldwide. There are three
main reasons for the rapid growth and diversification of Protestant mission societies after
1961. First, many churches and individuals felt that the greater dialog with Roman
Catholics and the WCC unit on “Dialog with People of other Living Faiths” were signs of
compromise and a change in mission theology. The 1973 call for a moratorium on
foreign missions, first by a John Gatu, General Secretary of the Presbyterian Church of
East Africa, further divided what would be called the “ecumenical” missions from the
“evangelical” or “independent” missions. Secondly, the sudden national movements of
independence from 1945-1969 where 71 non- western nations became independent
encouraged the diversification of Protestant missions. Many of these new countries
identified themselves with a non-Christian religion and restricted Christian missionaries.
As a result new indigenous mission societies were founded and new Protestant
missionary societies were founded with particular countries, regions or religions in view.
On the average over 100 new mission societies have been founded each decade for the
past 30 years in North America. More significantly for the diversification and
multiplication of mission societies has been the explosion of non-western mission
societies in countries like Korea, India, Taiwan and Brazil. Cooperation among societies
has been more a matter of relationships and elective participation in umbrella
organizations such as the World Evangelical Fellowship or World Pentecostal
Fellowship, rather than official membership in an organization such as the WCC.
Thirdly, the decline in denominationalism in the West and sudden drop in
communications costs has encouraged the formation of mission societies by local
churches or groups of churches often by-passing the national church bodies.
Developments. From the beginning of Protestant missionary endeavor there has been a
primary interest in translation work and educational work to train future church leaders.
Church planting was always related to the production of Bibles in the local language and
literacy work. Another aspect was the fostering of efforts to influence wholesomely,
from the standpoint of Christians, various aspects of the cultures in which missionaries
lived. Protestant missions worked in association with Western enterprises that
profoundly influenced non-western portions of the globe. The impact of the West
brought about a mounting revolution in these areas. Protestant missionaries endeavored
to prepare non-Western peoples for this and to make the resulting changes beneficial
rather than harmful. To do so they introduced western medicine and surgery, training
physicians and nurses in Western techniques, promoted public health, established schools
that combined western and indigenous learning (e.g. “Anglo-Chinese Schools”),
pioneered in improved methods of agriculture and forestry, fought famines and such evils
as opium and slavery, sought to improve the status and education of women, fostered
Christian standards of marriage and family life produced Christian literature, and strove
to raise the level of rural life. This revolution in missionary work began before the
middle of the 19^*’ century.
In the 20^^ century, with the emergence of anti-colonialism in the non-western world,
Protestant missions sough to deepen the foothold they had won among non-Europeans.
In the East Asian Christian Conference, (est. 1954; Christian Conference of Asia), with
the aid of missionaries, the Protestants of that part of the world undertook cooperatively
to spread the faith among their neighbors.
More and more the direction of the “younger churches” that had sprung up out of
Protestant missions was transferred to indigenous leadership. Thus in India after the
1950s all Methodist bishops were men from India, the only Lutheran bishopric was
transferred ( 1 962) from a Swede to an Indian, and an increasing proportion of Anglican
bishops were Indians. Similar developments were seen in Protestant churches that did
not have bishops, not only in India, but also in other non- western countries. In 1958 the
Theological Education Fund of U.S.$4 million was created and placed under the direction
of the IMC. It had as its purpose the training of an indigenous Protestant clergy in
Africa, Asia and Latin America and the islands of the Pacific. In 1963 an all-Africa
(Protestant) Christian Conference met under African leadership and created a continuing
organization to embrace the continent. Following World War II the Batak Protestants
(Sumatra) became completely independent of foreign control and received only that help
from missionaries for which they specifically asked.
In order to erase some of the church divisions which had been exported from the West,
and to form a more united Christian front, Protestant Christians formed unions of diverse
denominational bodies. Thus, in 1934 the Church of Christ in Thailand was formed, in
1941 the Church of Christ in Japan (Koyodan) was constituted and the Church of South
India was formed in 1947. The latter’s constituent members were Anglicans,
Presbyterians, Congregationalists and members of the Reformed Church. It had an
episcopate which sought apostolic succession through the (Anglican) Church of India,
Burma and Ceylon. Other unions soon formed in several countries.
The cooperation and unions among churches that occurred from the 1930s through the
1980s shifted to become cooperation and sharing in mission without the organic unions.
With the rapid growth in non-Orthodox and non-Roman Catholic Christianity in the last
decades of the 20^^ century (house churches in China, Africa Independent Churches in
Africa, etc.) came the need for new models of cooperation in mission. The largest global
cooperation among Protestants for prayer and strategy came in the 1990s as the “AD
2000 and Beyond Movement.” This global and grassroots movement was supported
mostly by non-westem churches and had as its goal, “A church for every people and the
gospel for every person by the year 2000.” Conferences were held to aid in the sharing of
resources and plan cooperative strategies in Singapore (1989), Seoul (1995) and Pretoria
(1997). One of the many resources used has been the Jesus Film, shown to over 2 billion
people and translated into over 700 languages by 2001.
Five major shifts in Protestant mission have taken place since World War II, the first
occurring immediately after the War was over. Independence movements caused a
redistribution of missionary personal, and the spread of Communism in Eastern Europe
and China reduced the mission activity further. The ascendancy of the United States as a
world power paralleled its rapid growth in Protestant mission activity. The predominance
of both personnel and financial support shifted from the British Isles and the Continent to
the United States. The second major shift occurred in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
With the democratic revolutions in Eastern Europe, the collapse of Communism in the
Soviet republics and the new openness to the world in countries like Vietnain, Cambodia
and China came new Protestant mission development in areas that had been “closed.
Along with new work, both official and unofficial, came one of the most rapid
developments of Protestant work since the “opening” of China in the 1840s. Thousands
of missionaries from Europe, the U.S. and Korea moved to the former Soviet republics
and hundreds of others found ways to work in China. The third major shift has been
taking place since World War II and that is the change from ecumenical to evangelical
and independent missions. In 1954 about half of the 19,000 long term missionaries from
North America were from mainline churches. Today less than 5% of the long-term
missionaries from North America are from the ecumenical sending agencies. Fourth,
whereas in 1910 western church bodies and mission agencies were discussing how to
evangelize the world, today most of the church planting is being done by non-western
missionaries. The fastest growing church in the world is in China and virtually all of the
work is being done by Chinese. In Nepal, India and Myanmar and most nations of sub-
Saharan Africa, the evangelistic and church planting work of mission are being done by
nationals or missionaries from the region. Finally, the fastest growing missionary work
in the world is now Pentecostal. Not only in Latin America, but also the missionary work
in much of South and East Asia today is from Pentecostal groups both working regionally
as well as from the West.
Status at the end of 2001 A look at the four major regions of Protestant missions at the
beginning of the second millennium shows the extent of the changes that have transpired.
Asia. Although Christianity has been introduced to China in the seventh, 13'’^, 16^ and
1 9^^ centuries, it has been the most recent reintroduction, from within, which has had the
greatest impact. With the deportation of all missionaries between 1948 and 1952, the
Protestant churches suffered from closures, arrests of leaders and relocation of many
Christians to work on farms or in factories. Even though the Christian population was
estimated to be 1.5 million in 1948, today estimates vary between 15 million (Roman
Catholic and China Christian Council-CCC) and 90 million (inclusive of non-registered
churches). Most of this is Protestant Church and, except for some groups who began
smuggling Bibles in the early 1980s, has all been done by Chinese. The formation of the
Three Self Patriotic Movement (1954) and the CCC (1980) created a “post-
denominational” church recognized by the government. Flowever the largest number of
Protestants today still meet in unregistered churches. Mission to China is coordinated
and directed from the Amity Foundation with offices in Nanjing and Hong Kong.
Korean church growth increased dramatically in the South after the Korean War.
Thousands of Christians from the North migrated to the South and after the War churches
and missions were reestablished with the help of many American missions. Today about
40% of South Korea is Christian with the largest Christian church in the world (Yoido
Full Gospel) and the largest Christian gatherings ever (15 million at Yoido) and many of
the largest denominational churches and seminaries found in the world. These churches
are very strong in their missionary leadership. E.g., in 1996, 60,000 Korean students
committed themselves to be missionaries at a gathering at the Seoul Olympic stadium.
With the gradual opening for travel to Vietnam and Cambodia, some educational and
church missionary work has begun in these two countries. Most of the Protestant
missionary work to these countries is also done by Asians. The largest number of
missionaries is from Korea and diaspora Chinese communities working out of Singapore,
Malaysia, Taiwan and Indonesia. A number of refugees from Cambodia and Vietnam (as
well as China) have returned to work with Christians in their home countries or have
organized missions in the West to reach their home countries. Although after the Pacific
War it looked like both Thailand and Japan would have rapidly growing Christian
communities, this never happened. Both Countries, with a fairly large Protestant
missionary presence, are still between 2 and 3.5% Christian. Nepal, until 1980, had less
than 10,000 Christians. Today, mostly from the work of Indians and other Asians, plus
the long-term service work of the United Mission to Nepal, there are over 500,000
Christians (2.4%) in Nepal. These are nearly all Protestant. Missionary work in
Indonesia is mostly educational and medical now, but Indonesians are very active in
missionary work within their own nation. Protestant Christianity is one of the five
recognized religions in Indonesia (also Roman Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism and
Islam) and it continues to grow in the midst of the largest Muslim population in the
world. In Malaysia large numbers of Chinese and Indians have become Christians.
However, except for tribal groups in East Malaysia (North Borneo) the bumiputra
(indigenous Malay) are still mostly Muslim. India has one of the largest numbers of
cross-cultural missionary groups in the world (after the United States), although most of
their missionaries work within the sub-continent. Close to 40,000 Protestant Indian
missionaries work full-time, mostly in church planting, literacy, educational and medical
work. Northeast India (Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya) is predominantly a Christian
area sending out missionaries throughout the sub-continent. In many areas of India large
movements of Dalits (untouchables) are turning to Christianity. In the Philippines, the
dominance of missionaries from North America is now being challenged by missionaries
from Korea. The Philippines now send out more missionaries (some to unreached areas
within the Philippines) than it receives.
Africa. The 20^*^ century in Africa, especially since the independence of most of the
African nations, has marked one of the greatest religious changes in the history of
Christianity. In 1900 Africa was less than 10% Christian. By 2000 it was nearly 46%
Christian. Some of the fastest growing churches are not technically speaking Protestant,
since they don’t trace their lineage to a Protestant denomination or split. Many of these
African Initiated (or Independent) Churches have been started by local prophets — often
resisting western domination-with a vision for planting churches in different regions in
Africa. Two of the main streams of AICs are the Ethiopian stream (looking to Ethiopia
for their Christian heritage) and the Zionist churches (which tend to be more Pentecostal
in worship and mission). South Africa has had the largest number of AICs which, after
the collapse of apartheid in 1991 continued to multiply and divide. Today there are nearly
as many African missionaries serving cross-culturally as there are foreign (western and
Asian) missionaries working in Africa. Political struggles in countries like Uganda,
Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, and Nigeria, tribal conflicts in countries like Rwanda,
Burundi, Sierra Leone and Liberia and religious conflict between Islam and Christianity
have all affected the missionary work in Africa. The attempt to impose Islam on southern
Sudan, for example has led to the longest running civil war of the century; over 3 million
people displaced from their homes, over 2 million deaths and yet a church growth in the
south from 5% in 1960 to over 70% in 2001. Northern Africa is still mostly all Muslim
with only small Christian communities scattered across the Sahara.
Eastern Europe, West and Central Asia. With the independence of nations of the
Middle East came a rise in Islamic consciousness. Countries like Lebanon and Syria
have had a marked decline of Protestant Christians with mission work increasingly
difficult to maintain. Islamic regimes in places like Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan
have all but stopped ongoing Protestant missionary work except in small “tentmaking”
operations. Upon the collapse of the Soviet Republics in 1991 missionary work suddenly
took off in countries like Russia, Albania, Yugoslavia and Romania, largely with
Americans, Western Europeans and Koreans. The response has been mixed with large
rallies and media events in countries like Albania and Romania having a great impact, but
in areas like Eastern Germany and Poland there have not been large Protestant
movements. In most of the central Asian republics there has been a large influx of
Protestant missionaries since 1991, although the overall impact is minimal. In countries
like Uzbekistan the rising tide of Islam has caused a great exodus of Christians from the
country.
Latin America. A century ago nearly all of Latin America was Roman Catholic. The
twentieth century has been marked by a decline in religious belief in general, but also a
growth in Protestantism. Brazil is the largest country with over 170 million people, 22
million who are now Protestant. Brazil sends more missionaries out of the country today
than they receive. As with most of Latin America, the fastest growing churches in Brazil
are Pentecostal or Charismatic in theology and worship. In all of Latin America and the
Caribbean Protestant and Independent churches are growing at a rate of about 4% per
year, compared to the annual population growth rate of only 1 .6%. Still, in most
countries of Latin America, the Protestant population is only between 5 and 15% of the
total population. As with much of Africa, the missionary work in these countries will be
related to poverty, disease and political stability, since most of the poorest countries of
the world are found in Africa and Latin America.
Bibliography: K.S. Latourette, A History of the Expansion of Christianity. 1 v. (New
York, 1937-45); Christianity in a Revolutionary Age, 5 v. (New York, 1958-62); S.W.
Sunquist, ed. A Dictionary of Asian Christianity (Grand Rapids, 2001); Barrett, Kurian
and Johnson, World Christian Encyclopedia (Oxford, 2000).
1
[Moffett: achvol2 . int
A HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN ASIA, VOL. II (1500-1900)
Samuel Hugh Moffett
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INTRODUCTION
The great religions of the world were all born in Asia.
Why is it that Christianity, which is larger and more '^^iversal
thL any one of them, spread more slowly in the land of its bir
than on any other continent on earth?
Buddha was born in Asia, and most of the world's Buddhists
live in Asia.
Confucius was born in Asia and most of the world s
Conf ucianists live in Asia.
Hinduism was born in Asia, and most of the world's Hindus live
Muhammad'^tis' born in Asia, and most of the world's Muslims
Abraham'^was’^born in Asia, and the only Jewish nation in the
world is in Asia. . . • nn .^4-
Jesus Christ was born in Asia. But statistically at least,
Asia is the least Christian continent in the world.
A table rating the proportion of professing Christians in the
population of elch major continent in 1900 and 2000 A.D. would be,
roughly :
North America
Europe
Latin America
Oceania
Africa
Asia
at td, botto. o< the llatla, aanc,
AsL^s°plpulTtlo^^^^^ tle^lontlnent^aTreaTy^ havfenough great
re^t^f^°rAs^^af^andl^iis"t^^n^^^ ^p^elh^f l^e^tel^ fTr^som^whlre^lhe^
1900
2000
Change
96.6%
84 . 5%
-
11.0%
94.5%
76.5%
-
18 . 0%
92.5%
92.7%
+
0.2%
77 . 5%
82 . 6%
+
5.1%
9.2%
45.6%
+
36.4%
2.3%
8 . 5%
+
6.2%
■ see David Barrett, World Christian Encyclopedia, 2nd ed^
(Oxford Press, 2000), 13. The fractions t ^^^^^^g^ian is
nearest IhU y l„„„dat'i=. ot HuMla
SSnsY'.TIt'fs^lc'al^-eo.pa'S.oS'ot Asia "and Enrope 1„ 1,00 and
2000 .
5
If the four hundred years of history in Asia which are
the subject of this volume are any criterion for judgment, an
answer to these questions will not be easy. Fifty or so years ago
at Yale, the story floated around the divinity school quadrangle
that the professor of homiletics one day met the professor of
church history, Roland Bainton, coming out of chapel. He said,
"Roley, how can you know so much about church history and still be
a Christian?" I do not know how Bainton answered him, but in all
honesty it must be admitted that in Asia the missionary story of
those four hundred years is a tumbled mixture of guns, greed and
amazing grace. It was the period of the greatest global, colonial
occupation of conquered territory by Christian nations in history.
It was the period of greatest church expansion in history. It was
not all bad, and it was not all good.
But which word describes it better? This volume will not
pretend to have found a definitive answer to that question. It
will, however, attempt to describe the four centuries from 1500 to
1900 of the history of Christianity in Asia, both the good and the
bad, in a way that may suggest an answer.
(D
4
Moffett: achvol.2\int
INTRODUCTION
The great religions of the world were all born in Asia.
Why is it that Christianity, which is larger and more universal
than any one of them, spread more slowly in the land of its birth
than on any other continent on earth?
Buddha was born in Asia, and most of the world's Buddhists
live in Asia .
Confucius was born in Asia and most of the world's
Conf ucianists live in Asia.
Hinduism was born in Asia, and most of the world's Hindus live
in Asia.
Muhammad was born in Asia, and most of the world's Muslims
live in Asia .
Abraham was born in Asia, and the only Jewish nation in the
world is in Asia.
Jesus Christ was born in Asia. But statistically at least,
Asia is the least Christian continent in the world.
A table rating the proportion of professing Christians in the
population of each major continent in 1900 and 2000 A.D. would be,
roughly :
North America
Europe
1900
96,6%?
94 . 5%j^^
2000
84.5%)
76.5%J
Chanqe
- 11.0% )
- 18.0% j
- \S"!.
Latin America
92 . 5%
92.7%
+
0.2%
Oceania
77 . 5%
82 .6%
+
5 . 1%
Africa
9.2%
45.6%
+
36.4%
A. 36
Asia
2.3%
8 . 5%
+
6.2%^
> 6
Asia in 1900 and still today in 2000, if measured by the number of
Christian adherents, has been at the bottom of the listing since
the fall of Constantinople in the 15th century. Why?
A second question, often asked, is just as important.
Why should Christianity be expected to have any more than 9% of
Asia's population? Doesn't the continent already have enough great
religions of its own? Are not its traditional majority religions
best for Asia, and Christianity perhaps better for somewhere else?
* See David Barrett, World Christian Encyclopedia, 2nd ed.
(Oxford Press, 2000), 13. The fractions are here adjusted to the
nearest full percentage digit. Asia, adjusted to 9% Christian, is
more accurately 8.5%. And the shifting boundaries of Russia
confuse statistical comparisons of Asia and Europe in 1900 and
2000 .
©
5
If the four hundred years of history in Asia which are ,
the subject of this volume are any criterion for judgment, an
answer to these questions will not be easy. Fifty or so years ago
at Yale, the story floated around the divinity school quadrangle
that the professor of homiletics one day met the professor of
church history, Roland Bainton, coming out of chapel. He said,
"Roley, how can you know so much about church history and still be
a Christian?" I do not know how Bainton answered him, but in all
honesty it must be admitted that in Asia the missionary story of
those four hundred years is a tumbled mixture of guns, greed and
amazing grace. It was the period of the greatest global, colonial
occupation of conquered territory by Christian nations in history.
It was the period of greatest church expansion in history. It was
not all bad, and it was not all good.
But which word describes it better? This volume will not
pretend to have found a definitive answer to that question. It
will, however, attempt to describe the four centuries from 1500 to
1900 of the history of Christianity in Asia, both the good and the
bad, in a way that may suggest an answer.
2
EPILOGUE
Thinking Back.
The 19th century has been called "the great century" in
the expansion of Christianity, but it did not begin that way.
It began with Roman Catholic missions still staggered by
the suspension and expulsion of their famous missionary order, the
Jesuits. It began with Dutch Protestants vigorously pursuing trade
in their colonies but neglecting their missions. In India it began
with British colonialists driving William Carey out of Calcutta
into the interior where he was forced to take on superintendence of
a failing indigo factory in order to support his family. In China
it began with an empire, fearing British imperial expansion,
forbidding permanent residence to Robert Morrison in 1807, and
allowing Protestant missionaries little progress for the next forty
years. There was no resident Protestant missionary at all in Japan
until 1859. The first half of the 19th century in Asia was more of
an attempt to recover from setbacks and shaky starts than of great
missionary achievements .
The 19th century has also been called the great century
of colonialism, the climax of three hundred years of intrusion i^to
Asia by the strangers from the west. To return to the metaphor
with which this volume began, they came by sea like three great
tidal waves--first the Iberian, Spanish and Portuguese in the
1500s; then the Dutch in the 1600s; and finally in the 1700s and
1800s the British. Like three great walls of water they washed
over the eastern islands and crashed on the coasts of Asia in
lethal devastating waves. There was death in those invading seas.
But seawater carries salt, and when the water recedes, the salt
remains--and salt brings savor to the food of life.
If the colonists were like the water, the missionaries
were the salt. Jesus described them as "the salt of the earth .
But the fact that they came together, colonizers and missionaries ,
made it difficult for Asians to believe that the western Christian
missionaries who came in with the same waves were anything but the
religious arm of imperial colonialism. And another hard fact must
be factored into tte metaphor, the fact that the salt left by a
tidal wavdeils'^b^ plants in the fields it covers, however much
it may later add taste to the food on people's tables.
By the end of the 19th century, most of Asia had
concluded that the two were indeed inseparable. But 19th century
mission records give considerable reason to believe that empire was
more of a prickly companion of mission, sometimes helpful,
sometimes hostile, and not the inseparable ally of the missionary
5
1900.'’ Measured in percentage of growth rate, world population
grew 57%, and Christianity grew a remarkable 188%. A third of all
the people in the world were Christians, with Catholics
outnumbering Protestants in 1900 nearly two to 1.
From a wider chronological perspective, beginning with
Catholic expansion in the 16th and 17th centuries, never had any
religion expanded so globally as Christianity between 1500 and the
early 1900s. The nearest parallel would be Islam from the 7th to
the 15th century. But unlike Christianity, Muslim expansion was
never global until the 20th century, and then only marginally.
In Asia Christian growth was not so dramatic. In
proportion to total world population, the number of Christians in
Asia ranked next to the lowest in a comparison of the five ma3or
continents. The chart below shows how unevenly Christians were
distributed in the world, and how much or how little that had
changed in the 19th century:
1800
World POP . 980,000,000 1,
World Christians 174,000,000
Christians bv continents
AFRICA
ASIA
EUROPE (UN def . )
I.'t'w,
tie H
1900
,619,000,000
558,000,000
9,000,000
21,000, 000
368,000,000
OOO, COO
59 n-o
! 1'^
^ David Barrett, in International Bulletin of Missionary
Research . (Jan. 2000) 25.
" The percentage of all Christians (adherents) was estimated
as 34.4% (David Barrett, IBMR. Jan. 1999, p.25). The figures
were: Catholics 266 million, total Protestants 141 million, and
Orthodox 103 million.
^ Statistics vary greatly. See United Nations Population
Division, "World Population Growth from Year 0 to 2050", (Online,
1999), pp.1-2. Figures from the Catholic Encyclopedia, — 1912 ,
"Statistics of Religion" (Online, 1999), citing MalteBrun,
report the total population of the world in 1810 as 653 million:
of which the number of Christians was 228 million (36%) , Muslims
110 million, Hindus 60 million, Buddhists 130, and 'other
heathen" 100 million. Cf . William Carey, An Enquiry (1792),
facsimile (London: Carey Kingsgate Press. 1961), 62. Carey
estimated that 420 million of the world's 731 million people were
pagan "in heathen darkness"; 174 million were Christians (100
million Catholic, 44 million Protestant, 30 million Greek and
Armenian Orthodox); and 30 million Muslims. He estimated the
population of Asia including Oceania at 377 million, and China at
60 million, India ("Industan") at 110 million, and "Great
Tartary" (Central Asia?) at 40 million. (pp- 45-51) .
LATIN AMERICA
NORTH AMERICA
OCEANIA
60,000,000
59,600,000
4,000,000''
6
While Asia's continental population was increasing 65%,
from 980 million in 1800 to 1,619 million in 1900, ® the total
microscopic segment of the religious mosaic of a continent which by
then contained more than half (57%) of all the people in the world.
The Christian segment itself was split. Of the estimated nearly 22
million Asian Christians in 1900: , ^
But what were some 21 million Christians, compared with Asia’s
830 million adherents of the continent's other major faiths:
Confucianists and "ancestor worshippers" 240,000,000
’ David Barrett, in IBMR (Jan. 2001), 25.
® United Nations, Population Division, "World Population
Growth from Year 0 to 2050", (Online, 1999), p.3 of 4). Asia's
population in 1500 was estimated as 500n\; in 1750, 790m; in 1800
980m; in 1850 1.26b; in 1900, 1.65b; in 1910, 1.75b; in 1920,
1.86b; in 1930, 2.07b; in 1940b, 2.30; in 1950, 2.52b; 1960,
3.02.
® R. Cameron, Concise Economic History of the World, (1993),
cited by Univ. of Botwsana History Dept., August, 2000, cited by
Univ. of Botswana, Aug. 2000 (www.thuto.org/ubh/h202/wpop.htm).
David Barrett. World Christian Encyclopedia, 20_0.0_,13 Cf
estimates for religions in Asia about 1901 (in the Online 1999
"Statistics of Religion" figures from the Catholic Encyclopedia,
1912 : 32.3m Christians (3.9%), 155.1m Muslims, 210 m. Hindus,
125m Buddhists, 240m "Confucianists and ancestor worshippers",
and 49m Taoists and Shintoists. (pp . 8-9).
“ The numbers here do not add up to 21 million, based on a
different set of estimates. (H. A. Krose, "Statistics of
Religion", 6-7. Krose includes Greek Orthodox in Europe. The
term "Oriental Schismatics" used in his text as referring
apparently to non-Roman Syrian Christians is not appropriate.
12.6 million were Catholic
2.4 million were Protestant
1.8 million were "Greek/Russian Orthodox" I?- ^
1 . 5 million were Armenian Orthodox, and Syrian Christian .\^-
Hindus
Muslims
Buddhists
SK'hfo , 5
210,000,000
207.000. 000
125.000. 000
X
Taoists and Shintoists
49,000,000
12
Christians
21,000,000
Add all the Christians together and in 1900 still they
were little more than a scattering of sand along the beaches of
Asia's then 900 million people. But they were not sand; they wer
"the salt of the earth", and on any plate or planet a little salt
goes a long way.
Protestant Advance.
The second generalization is that the 19th century was a
Protestant nanturv. the golden century of Protestant missions. If
this seems to conflict with the statistics above which show
Catholics as outnumbering Protestants two to one in Asia in 1 ,
one explanation is that in rate of growth, as distinct from
numerical growth, Protestants, who had the mathematical advantage
of a lower starting point, reached the year 1900 increasing far
faster than their Roman Catholic counterparts. Admittedly, this
makes 19th century Christian missions sound like a not very cordial
race between two wary competitors, but remember that the softening
influence of the Second Vatican Council was f
future. Mission literature of the period still bristled_ wit
hurled epithets — "papists" as in William Carey" s Inquiry^ and even
more angrily "heretics" as in Ch. Dallef s Controversr^
Catechism^^ .
Protestants were on the march to claim the world,
exuberant and prematurely confident, at times arrogant. The
assocC^e editor of the popular Protestant journal, Mission.a^
Rovi^w Of the World wrote in 1895, "The Anglo-Saxon is the
colonizer, and civilizer, and Christianizer under the sun -Such
self-conceit was not uncommon then. But to balance the record,
when similar claims of ethnic superiority had surfaced seven years
earlier at the 1888 London Centennial Missions Conference,
protesters from both America and Britain had the saving grace to
remind the boasters that the west was not without its o™ sms an
exorbitantly profitable opium market for example, and the slave
H. A. Krose, "Statistics of Religions", 7.
Ch. Dallet, Controversial Catechism , 5th ed. (Bangalore:
Spectator Press, 1894) .
Delavan I. Leonard, A Hundred Years of Missions., (New
York: Funk & Wagnells, 1895), 131f.
8
trade, and traffic in liquor and guns/^ not to mention the "unequal
treaties" that gave westerners extra-territorial land rights in
defeated or intimidated countries.
The 19th was the first century in which Protestants (with
the brave exceptions of little Holland and the Danes and Moravians)
ventured away from their comfortable home in the "Christian" west
to meet the challenge of a world still largely unreached. For
nearly 300 years since the Reformation, Protestant strength had
been consumed by the struggle to survive in Europe after the break
from the Roman Church. Now, breathing easier, they turned to their
Bibles, and their Bibles turned them to the world, and in the next
hundred years they almost overtook a three hundred year Catholic
lead in the number of foreign missionaries worldwide.
The missionaries on the field were more apt to be openly
critical of western imperialism than people in their Protestant
home churches. Mission archives often reveal how mixed were their
attitudes, sometimes patronizing and arrogant toward the cultures
they were trying to reach, sometimes honestly angry at barbarities
and injustices, and sometimes superficially optimistic, report^ing
missionary triumphs while glossing over missionary failures.
Yet, all in all, weaknesses and mistakes admitted, and
strengths not unduly magnified, it was a Protestant century. The
numbers were with the Catholics, growth was with the Protestants.
Statistics for 1880-1885, the five years preceding 1888, which was
the reference point of the above statistics, show Protestants
increasing three times as fast as Catholic adherents in east and
south Asia. (9% a year for Protestants; compared to 3.5% for
Catholics) And Protestants did not stop growing in 1900.
Thomas A. Askew, "The 1888 London Centenary Conference^
Ecumenical Disappointment or American Missions Coming of Age? ,
(IBMR, V.18, no. 3, July 1994), 114f. Much the same mixture of
western pride and rebuke of western greed occurred at the New
York Ecumenical Mission Conference in New York in 1900.
(Ecumenical Missionary Conference., 1:402, 405, 457; and 2:2:79;
and passim .
A helpful book of essays on the problems^ of academic
research and fair reporting of the Protestant missionary movement
is Missionary Encounters: Sources and Issues,, ed . by Robert A.
Bickers and Rosemary Seton, (Richmond, England: Curzon Press,
1996) .
17
Handbook of Foreign Missions, 1888_, 334.
9
These beginnings of rapid Protestant growth ^
decades of the century a time of °rth^
missions A respected church historian, William^ Schaff,
s^l 1888 London Conference reflected the prevailing mood in this
rnnfident analysis of mission history: *. t ; ^
"There are three epochs of missions in History--the apostolic,
thfmldieval, and the modern. The result of the first was the
conversion of the Roman Empire; the result of the second was
Taristian Europe; and the result of the third will be the
conversion of the whole world .
Enthusiasm breeds its own heroes and heroines, and the
churches in the west found in news from the mission fields its
modelf of Christian courage and self-sacrifice. The -os t popular
avamnles in Asia were Carey and Henry Martyn in India, Robert
Morrison and Hudson Taylor in China, and ^tholi«
Lesser known to the American and British pv^lic
hundreds of them: the martyrs of Korea and of the Boxer KeDeriion
i^ China who were not martyred, like Alexander of
Rhodes in what is now Vietnam.
and later, Lottie Moon of China.
Protestants may have overly glamorized their heroes and
cListian community spread for the first time around the world.
This points to a third generalization: it was a centum:
..,.naelism. This was true of both Protestants and Catholics,
but Protestant preaching was more urgent, more the
laid more stress on planting the church ; for Protestants one
to dlocipl.., to conoort "h* »"toU.vo»P to
a personal faith in Jesus Christ. True to their roots in the Great
Awakenings, and the Wesleyan revivals, they were mindful
church membership is not salvation.
The ruling theology of missions in
Protestantism, was a message revived and ref ired f
in the late 1800s. Its authority came from the Bible. Its tocus
Quoted by Thomas Askew, "The 1988 Centenary Mission
Conference" , 114 .
See, for example, Ernest Brandewie, Tn the Light of the
Word {Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2000), 153t.
10
was unambiguous: Jesus is the only Saviour. Critics describe it as
^nLrowly ^^.teriological", but its effects were^more global than
the narrowly western theologies of the critics. Its metho
was outlined in three stages: proclaim, convert, and then organize
a church.^’"
Young volunteers learned it in college. President
Timothy Dwight told them at Yale in 1813 that if they had the will
t-he faith it was reasonable to believe that with God s help
the whole world could be brought to the Saviour,
f rL the year 2000" Charles Hodge at Princeton in 1856 told them
"Sere a/e now 800,000,000 or 900,000,000 human beings living on
the larS If they do not believe, they cannot be saved. " In
igS the' president of Columbia University, Seth Low, told
organizers ^f the Ecumenical Missionary Conference in New
"What can Christians do better, in such ^ ^Sre is
to bear their unshaken testimony to their belief that there is
no other Name under heaven, whereby men must be saved, but the
Name of Jesus Christ?"
The response to this challenge was sudden and
orSin'SearSrSw^'Tn S^Ste foSTSTeS^ly iSsOs! loOO
David Bosch, m^.^^formina Missioji, wav^S'o^
Books 1991) 281. He uses the phrase in a non-pe^orative way to
fi?fl;entiaU it from the broader range of interests in the
evangelical philosophy of Jonathan Edwards.
- For source material on the early emphasis
and conversion, see D. Philip Corr, "The Field is the World ,
lerinaS"l993)."pP-43^ror2^
Lcus is' on the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign
Missions .
Timothy Dwight, Sermon: Delivered in Boston Sept. 1.0,,
ISIS. hefoT-e the American Board of Foreign Missions., 2nd ed.
(Boston: Samuel T. Armstrong, 1813), 27f.
Charles Hodge, Conference Papers: Or Analysis ^
Discourses Doctrinal and Practical CWles
the Theological Seminary, Princeton, N.J., (New York.
Scribner, 1879), 326-329.
24 Missionary Conference of New York, 1900., _
Rpnort (New York/London: American Tract Society/ e
Tracrg^iety, 1900), 1:14. President James B. Angell of the
University of Michigan added his presence and support to the
conference. (1:47, 180, 320, 341; 11.37
11
volunteers, including 500 women, had signed pledges of missionary
intent. By the hundreds, then by thousands they went- "marching
as to war", but to a gentle war. Their only armor was the gospel,
the good news that Jesus Christ is "the Saviour of the world".
Some have described it as "fundamentalism" which is
partly true, for it emphasized basic fundamentals of the faith the
uniqueness of Christ, the canon of Scripture, the central role of
God's grace, the reality of sin, salvation by faith, and the
mandate to make disciples. But as popularly misused the word makes
the mistake of applying a much abused 20th century term to a 19th
century situation. The "fundamentalist" controversy takes its name
from later pamphlets and controversy in America shortly before the
outbreak of World War What the earlier missionary pioneers
were preaching was 19th century mainlin4'*Pr6t:estaritism.
The message was so clear and simple that more
sophisticated observers often missed its inner complexities and
practical flexibility. They were therefore unduly surprised when
the simple gospel was received with joy. Alexander Duff, though he
is remembered more as an advocate of advanced education in India
than as an evangelist, kept the priorities straight: education, of
course, "but the church that is no longer evangelistic will soon
cease to be evangelical", he said.
As the century progressed, America entered the
international arena both in Christian mission and in nationally
expanding political relationships. Its fresh enthusiasm for
foreign missions and a growing sense of national identity added a
sharper edge to questions of mission priorities and motive. Britons
and Germans led the way in Protestant missionary outreach in the
first half of the century, but as early as 1810 American
involvement, both political and missionary, began to spread. As in
Catholicism earlier, western political expansion and Christian
mission moved in tandem, and America though less obviously, was no
exception .
“ See J. Christy Wilson, ed.. Student Mission Power: Report
of the First International Convention of the Student Volunteer
Movement for Foreign Missions, 1891, (Pasadena, CA: William Carey
Library, 1979; Michael Parker, History of the Student Volunteer
Movement . 1806-1926 ; and Thomas Askew, "The 1888 London
Centenary Missions Conference", 116.
See the series named The Fundamentals, (Chicago), 1910ff.
Ecumenical Missionary Conference, Mew York, 1900 , 2:329.
Duff was quoted at the Conference by A. T. Pierson, editor of The
Missionary Review.
X
12
In 1811 America sent out its first missionaries. In 1812
it challenged the British Empire, In 1900 it defeated the Spanish
Empire. And from the beginning this small, new country in North
America regarded itself publicly if not constitutionally, as a
Christian nation. In the process of thus forming a national
identity, complex tensions grew between American traditional
nationalism and Christian missionary internationalism. George
Washington had warned, "Beware of foreign entanglements" , but Jesus
Christ had said, "Go ye into all the world." On the missionary
side America sent Adoniram and Ann Judson to Burma, Abeel and
Bridgeman to Malacca, Peter Parker to China, Justin^Perkins to the
Nestorians in Persia, and James Ballagh to Japan.
After the War of 1812 internationalism gathered momentum
in American society, but the tensions only grew more complex. In
mission, the challenge was how to choose between two goals facing
a Christian America: "Is the aim of the missionary to Christianize
or to civilize?". In the 19th century, Hutchison suggests,
Protestant America chose the first answer; to Christianize.
the contributing reasons for the choice, he goes on to imply, have
been the example of two recent American Christian missions. One of
them failed--the missionary effort to bring native American Indian
culture into the TUnerican mainstream. This weakened Christian
confidence in "civilizing" as an effective model for mission. The
other example was the startling contrast presented by the initial
evangelistic success of the American Protestant mission to Hawaii
in the 1820s which seemed to be God's seal of approval on direct
proclamation of the gospel .
Incomplete Protestant statistics in 1888^ show the trend
of increasing American participation. The American societies
were younger and were growing faster. They had the larger number
of Asian Protestant communicant church members (98,000), closely
followed by the British, and with a lesser nun^er the Germans
(24,000). The numbers for adherents , as distinct from
communicants, is: British societies (268,000), American (225 ,000 )
and European (80,000). The larger British number here is perhaps
attributable to the prestige of British rule. But hasty
conclusions should be avoided for the quoted statistics are
neither totalled, nor coordinated. (Handbook of Foreign Missions,
London: 1888, 12 and passim. )
William R. Hutchison, Errand to the World: American
Protestant Thought and Foreign Missions (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1987).
William R. Hutchison, Errand to the World: American
Protestant Thought and Foreign Missions., (Chicago: University ot
Chicago , 1987 ) ,
13
A somewhat similar but not so apt parallel might be
in Asia. It would be to compare Catholic missions in India with
Protestant missions in the South Pacific. ^
Catholic missions. It builds on the unfavorable but ^rue
perception, that a perceived Catholic decline in India in the ear y
19th ^century was due to the blighting shadow of Portuguese
coSnialism^^^ and in contrast, that the remarkable Protestant
growth in the South Pacific islands under new and independent
British and American mission societies vindicated a Jesus only
mission of evangelism unencumbered and undiluted by the trumpets
and guns of imperialism.
More important, though, than comparison of isolated
examples, the records of the Protestant missionaries themselves
point to a more deeply-rooted factor in the shaping =
motives. To most missionaries, the choice of a goal was not to be
dictated by the success or failure of a mission. The determining
factor was not temporary results, but the over-riding authority
Jesus Christ as given clearly through the Scriptures. This, they
b^lilvel was not a mandate to civilize, but a co^ission to
proclaim, to make disciples, to evangelize. All else was
secondary. If through lives transformed by conversion, the world
was changed for the better, that was a
devoutly to be wished, but to be actively worked for, always
mindfulT however, that the future was not in human hands but in
God's.’^ Francis Wayland, for almost twenty years president of
Brown University, wrote in the 1850s:
"The Son of God has left us with no directions for
civilizing the heathen, and then Christianizing them. We are
not commanded to teach schools in order to undermine paganism,
and then, on its ruins, to build up Christianity ■
19th century missionaries did build schools, and
sick, and rescue slaves, and champion women's rights, but that is
not why they went to the ends of the earth. 'They went, as they so
often said, "to tell the world about the Lord Jesus Christ.
After the Civil War, another infusion of toerican
personnel poured out across the seas. In the 1880s the infusion
became a flood. The Moody revivals, the Student Volunteer
Movement, and German Pietism poured streams of ®
to the coasts of Asia, and on into the unreached interior. In
See above, chap. 8.
Cf. Rufus Anderson,
Francis Wayland, The Apostolic Ministry:, (Rochester: Sage
& Brother, 1853), 19, cited by Hutchison, Errand to the World,
84.
14
America foreign missions became a student movement.
A fourth generalization would be to venture the
proposition that the 19th century was a century of women in
mission . Pierce Beaver rightly catches the sense of movement toward
such a goal in the subtitle of one of his books on the role of
women in mission: "The First Feminist Movement in North America" .
But it was a century of progress toward equality for women, not a
century of equality achieved. And it was more apparent in
Protestant missions than in Catholic societies.
It was in the 1800s that Protestant women in America took
their first steps toward that goal. Missionary wives (and
unordained men) were still not classified as "missionaries" in many
early statistics, and until the 1860s single women were rare in
Protestant missions. Their lives as missionary women were
harder, their sacrifice was greater, and they died faster. Beaver
sadly made note of the grave of an early China pioneer in Ningpo,
surrounded by the graves of his seven wives, some widowed, some
single women missionaries, whom he had married one by one, as one
after another died so far from home.^® In India William Carey's
wife broke under the strain and lost her mind. Mrs. Harriet
Newell, one of the first two American women foreign missionaries,
was the first American foreign missionary, male or female, to die
overseas .
By 1820 the Church Missionary Society, the "low-church"
alternative to the Anglican Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel, first began to use the term "assistant missionary" for
women. In 1822 in America a double wall was breached, the wall
against single women, and the wall against black women. The
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions sent a single
woman, who was also an African American born in slavery, Betsey
Stockton, a Presbyterian of Princeton, N.J., as a missionary to
See J. Christy Wilson, ed. , Student Mission Power: Report
of the First International Convention of the Student Volunteer
Movement for Foreicm Missions. 1891. Pasadena, CA: Wm. Carey
Press, 1979 .
Pierce Beaver dates Oct. 9, 1800, as marking the first
step toward equality for American women in mission, the day that
Mary Webb organized the interdenominational Boston Female Society
of Missionary Purposes. (American Protestant Women in World
Mission, (1980), an updated and revised second edition of his
(All Loves Excellincr) (1968) . For a discussion of the relation
between women in mission and feminism, see Ruth Tucker, Guardians
of the Great Commission. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1988), 37-
40.
36
Beaver, American Protestant Women in World Mission , 54ff.
15
Hawaii. It hesitated to call her officially "a missionary", but
emphatically noted that she was not a servant. She founded one of
the first schools for the children of commoners in the islands.
Ten years later, in 1834/5, a man finally stepped up to
battle publicly for the cause of single women in mission. The Rev.
David Abeel, of the [Dutch] Reformed Church in America was on
health leave from Malacca where he had been a missionary to the
Chinese. He became aware of the prejudice of his mission board,
the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) ,
against the formation of "female agencies", as he called women’s
boards for mission, and raised a strong protest. His pamphlet,
"Appeal to Christian Ladies in Behalf of Christian Education in
China and Adjacent Countries" was one of the first significant
public statements to call for a clearly defined role for women in
mission.^® The independent voluntary societies were even more
receptive of women. From its beginnings in the 1860s the
independent China Inland Mission granted equal status to its women
missionaries .
But for the most part the goal was not achieved in the
"great century". Among both Protestants and Catholics, not until
they proved so indispensable and so numerous that women could no
longer be treated as extras, did the inequality of recognition
begin to lessen. A rollicking bit of doggerel, date and source
unknown, exaggerated the injustice but was wickedly true enough to
draw blood:
"In the field of Christian missions,
In this bivouac of life,
You will find the Christian soldier
Represented by his wife."
Nevertheless, already by 1900 women were a Protestant
missionary majority world-wide. In the 249 Protestant mission
societies reporting to the Ecumenical Missions Conference in New
York, women missionaries outnumbered men 6,772 to 6,259, out of a
Eileen F. Moffett,
"Female Agency Among the Heathen...", (London: Edward
Suter, 1850), 261-265, as cited in Beaver, American Protestant
Women in World Mission, 89-91. A quotation from Rufus Anderson,
the outstanding secretary of the ABCFM, reflects the Board's
attitude toward formation of women's boards of mission. "In a
word, woman was made for man. . though it is unfair to judge
him by this short quote taken out of context. See To Advance the
Gospel: Selections from the Writings of Rufus Anderson, ed. by R.
Pierce Beaver, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans) , 211, and
cf. 15, 28-29, 199.
X
16
total of 13, 609 X®. Irene H. Barnes paid tribute to them in 1896,
"By the turn of the century the woman medical missionary was widely
acclaimed as an icon of the mission movement, her office was seen
to represent 'the noblest, and perhaps the divinest, calling for
Christian womanhood' " .
They had earned their place in mission history, however,
not by weight of numbers. They earned it the hard way. The Annie
Taylor story should be better known. Annie Taylor of Tibet was
born of "wealthy but worldly" parents who tried to dissuade her
from going off to China with the China Inland Mission. She studied
midwifery and dentistry to prepare for the mission field. In
China, against all advice Annie Taylor twice entered forbidden
Tibet alone. She dressed in native clothes, and lived for a while
in a Tibetan monastery. Later she spent five months in a Tibetan
village, but was forced to leave. She reached what she thought
would be safety in the border kingdom of Sikkim, between Nepal and
Bhutan, but was arrested, robbed and left with no means of support.
Twice she survived attempts to poison her. Turned loose, she
stumbled toward India, 20 or 30 miles a day with no fire at night
and often without food. When at last she struggled across the
border she had nothing to show for her long ordeal except for one
thing. She brought out with her the one Tibetan convert she had
made, a young man escaping from an angry village chief whose
bleeding feet she had treated on the way. And that made it all
worthwhile .
Women like this proved their worth to skeptical men and
stubborn board executives at home. Long before they were given the
vote in their missions or societies, their male colleagues had
discovered the disconcerting fact that mission was only half
effective without the help of women who could do what men could
never do in Asian cultures. They could work directly, woman to
woman, in situations where cultural barriers kept male missionary
doctors away from treating women, and native husbands kept the
foreign evangelists away from their wives and daughters. "Woman's
Work for Woman" , a journal founded in 1871 in an America which was
wary about suffragettes, became the favorite missionary reading in
Ecumenical Mission Conference , 2:424.
Irene H. Barnes, Behind the Great Wall : The Story of the
C.E.Z.M.S., Work and Workers in China (London, Marshall
Brothers: Church of England Zenana Missionary Society, 1896),
cited by Rosemary Fitzgerald, in Robert A. Bickers and Rosemary
Seton, ed. , Missionary Encounters: Sources and Issues, (Richmond,
Surrey: Curzon press, 1996), 176.
A. T. Pierson, The Modern Mission Century, (New York:
Baker & Taylor, 1901), 191-193.
17
many a home and congregation.
A fifth generalization which may be made about the 19th
century in Protestant mission is this: its characteristic mission
structure was the voluntary society. It evolved in part into
church missionary societies, but it began as a movement of pietists
and independents. This was soon challenged by a return to
denominational dominance in organized mission societies, but the
voluntary missionary ideal survived to see denominations wane in
the next century and independent missions and specialized
parachurch organizations were hailed by many as the wave of the
future . .
Not even William Carey, the "father of Protestant foreign
missions" in 1792, could get all his fellow Baptists to become
involved at the same time in any one thing, not even a mission
society. The church support of the Particular Baptists soon dried
up, and the "church society" became a "volxintary society", and
Carey was forced into complete independence.
The earliest surviving Protestant voluntary mission
organization was the renowned London Missionary Society (1795) . It
set the pattern for evangelical, ecumenical obedience to Christ as
superseding dependence on denominational ecclesiastical control or
government authority.'*^ The independence was clear; the ecumenicity
selective and vaguely negative. The founders declared as their
"fundamental principle: we will not "send Presbyterianism,
Independency, Episcopacy, or any other form of Church order (about
which there may be difference of opinion among serious persons
but the Glorious Gospel of the blessed God, to the heathen..."
Ralph D. Winter and R. Pierce Beaver, The Warp and the
Woof: Organizing for Mission. (Pasadena, CA: Wm. Carey Library,
1970. In the technical language of sophisticated sociology a
"voluntary society" is called a "sodality"; a "church mission" is
called a"modality". The sodality is formed within a larger
community for a more focussed task than the total community may
be ready to attempt. The modality is the larger community- -a
nation, or tribe, or a Christian denomination. For Catholics
papal mission would be a modality ( a "church" mission) ; a
missionary order, like the Jesuits, would be a sodality, a
voluntary society.
See above, chapter 12.
N. Goodall, History of the London Missionary Society ,
(Oxford: 1954) . It name since 1966 was the Congregational
Council for World Mission, and in was changed to
See Richard Lovett, History of the London Misasionary.
Society , 2 vols., { London: Henry Frowde, Oxford University
18
This was beautifully cooperative, but lacked the fiber of creedal
and ecclesiastical identity. The Society eventually drifted into a
denominational connection, British Congregationalism.^® In the 19th
century, however, its roster of missionary heroes is probably as
illustrious as any society in Protestant history: Morrison in
China, Chalmers in New Guinea, Livingstone and Moffat in Africa,
and many more .
The first American missionary society was also
independent, an interdenominational union of Congregationalists ,
Presbyterians, Dutch Reformed and Baptists-- the American Board of
Commissioners for Foreign Missions (1810) . For years, even after
the Baptists left to form their own denominational mission, the
ABCFM was the flagship of American missions. Three of the most
famous European mission societies were likewise independent: the
Basel Mission (1815) , founded by the German Christian Fellowship
whose missionary seminary trained hundreds of overseas workers
noted for their effective integration of evangelism and social
service;^^ the Berlin Mission (1824) , a Pietist branch of the Basel
Mission which began to send missionaries itself in 1833; and the
Rhenish Missionary Society (1828) which included Lutherans,
Calvinists and non-confessional Pietists. Even the renowned
Church Mission Society of the English church was criticized by
Anglican traditionalists for organizing too independently. Only
after it had operated for forty years of successful missionary
outreach was it officially approved, and then perhaps only because
Press, 1899),l:28f, 49-51.
See C. Sylvester Horne, The Storv of the L.M.S._, 2nd ed.,
(London: London Missionary Society, 1895.
W. E. Strong, The Storv of the American Board, Boston:
1910; F. F. Goodall, You Shall Be Mv Witnesses , (Boston: 1959);
R. Pierce Beaver, ed. , To Advance the Gospel , 64-68.
H, Wiltschi, Geschichte der Easier Mission, 4 vols.,
(Basel: 1965); Dank and
J. Richter, Geshchichte der Berliner Missions-
gesellschaf t , (Berlin, 1924) .
A. Bonn, Hundert Jahre Rhein. Mission, (Barmen 1928) .
On the difficult relationship between the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel (high church) , and the Church
Missionary Society (low church), see M. E. Gibbs, The Anglican
Church in India, 1600-1970. (Delhi: Indian SPCK, 1972) , 71-82f ,
121-125.
19
it appealed to high church Anglicans as a parallel to plural
missionary orders in Catholicism.
Roman Catholic missions.
But after all these generalizations about Protestants and
the Protestant century, an important counter point should be made:
never count the Catholics out. Protestant missions were already
forty years into their great century before the Catholics in 1832
began to recover from their discouraging 18th century missionary
decline. One Catholic writer described what was left of Catholic
missions in that disastrous period as "pitiful relics and ruins" in
"a fallow field".
By contrast, Protestants were multiplying in every
direction. Their Ecumenical Missionary Conference in New York,
1900, was not as ecumenical as its title claimed. It was
thoroughly evangelical and Protestant and missionary, and delegates
spoke proudly of its spirit of Christian unity. But there were no
Catholics, no Orthodox, and no leaders of the new indigenous
churches forming across the seas among the delegates.
Pqj- 3^ broader view of world missions, that ecumenical
conference" might at least have appended a brief survey
missions, as did the Handbook of Foreign Mission_s published in 1888
twelve years earlier for a world missionary conference in London
which frankly recognized that the largest missionary body then in
the world was still the Roman Catholic Church. Its comparison of
Catholics and Protestants in Asia made that very clear:
RC Adherents (1888)
Foreign miss'ries
Prot . adherents (1893)
” J. Schmidlin, Catholic Mission Histor_yi, chapter 4,
"Period of Decline, from the Second Half of the 17th to the
Beginning of the 19th Century", tr. and ed. by M. Braun, (Techny,
IL: Mission Press, 1933), p. 555, quoting Robt . Streit, Die
Missionsliteratur des 19 Jahrhunderts. (1917).
A Handbook of Foreign Missions 1888., 327-338, 341. The
date for the statistics is 1886/7. "adjacent to India" includes
Burma, Siam to Indochina and Malaysia; "around China" includes
Korea, Japan, Manchuria, Mongolia and Tibet. Not included
Asia are the Philippines, Indonesia, Central Asia and the Middle
East .
India Adjacent
1,282,000 674,000
996 342
710,000
China Adjacent
482.000 77,000
472 416
150.000
20
Foreign ordained miss. 998
Comparing world-wide Catholic mission statistics for 1800
and 1900 gives yet more proof of a remarkable Catholic recovery.
In 1800, according to Louvet, one could coimt scarcely 300
missionaries (Franciscan, Dominicans, Lazarists and Paris Mission
Society) overseas. In 1900, in the male missionary orders alone
there were 12,000 ordained priests and 500 lay Brothers, to which
he adds an additional 10,000 "indigenous Sisters". His overall
total was 60,000 missionaries, apparently including European
Sisters. In one century, the 19th, he estimated that the total
number of new Catholic Christians in the mission fields (including
England, Scotland, Holland--and the United States!) had climbed
from 5 million in 1800 to 25 million at the end of the century.
There had been nothing like it since the time of the apostles, he
exclaimed.
In Asia as a continent, however, there was little ground
in 1900 for Christian triumphalism, whether Catholic or Protestant.
Asia was the largest continent in the world, containing about two-
thirds of all the earth's land space. It had the largest total
population, 980 million, between a third and a half of all the
people in the world, 1620 million. It was the home of all five of
the world's major religions. But Christianity was by far the
smallest .
World-Wide in 1900 there were 1,061,000,000 adherents of
non-Christian religions (Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, tribal, etc.),
almost all in the third world; and 558,000,000 Christians, almost
all in the west. The earth’s population was about
Delevan I. Leonard, A Hundred Years of Missions, (NY:
Funk & Wagnalls 1895), 131f.
L . E. Louvet, Les Missions Catholicoues au XIXme Siecle ,
412ff .
21
1,600,000,000.
57
a i.ook the 19th century as Preparation for the Future
• 'Se'chStiis ch“ ctr “tv"."*t;.°L:£KS.”
recovery of Catholic missions, and expanding Protestant growth and
vigor, would not the 2 0th century turn out to be two
the "areat century"? Or as has happened so often in the tw
thLsfnd Ur st^y, would advance in mission be followed by
another recession?
perhaps a final optimistic generalization
century will be the key to open the door to hope for the futur .
®rmev be stated thus: the 19th cer^tnrv was the beginning of the
It may f^^^^atea t millions: That statement,
in hind.ight .nd tTIh. ““
happening as one century ended and a new century unfolded.
It was in the 19th century that missionaries came to
grips with the consequences of the fact that there cou
indiaenous churches without indigenous leadership, and if that
Ue^ then lUvitably there must follow a shift in the role of the
foreign missionary .
Conferences of missionaries in India and China in the
mid-1800s, in Japan after 1860, and in Korea after l^°--again and
:rdUa!rfefdeU fUm^ ^onTthU.^^ bV fhe lUUf Ue^^Bcumenical
MissUary Conference in New York there was general agreement that
not translate into agreement on how to reach it.
far from the Barrett overall estimate ooO
Chhstians in the world in 1999. Leonard estimated 225 000 , 000
Roman Catholic and Orthodox, and ^"^'^^sp®cified n:^b^^^^ f
Protestants, nominal and communicant; (A Hundred Years
Mission , 418 .
” Ibid. Cf. United Nations, World Population qq
1998 re^on, (New York, by internet) which estimates 1,650,000
population in 1900, 947 million of whom were in Asia.
H M. M. Hackett, former Anglican Church Missionary
Society in India, in F.cumenical Missionary Conference, New Yo
1900 , 2:251; and see chapters 23-25 on indigenization o
missionary work, 2:251-324.
22
The missionary representatives from Asia at the
conference differed markedly, for instance, over the viablilty of
the "three-self" missionary principle (self-support, self-
government and self-propagation) which was advocated in England by
two leading mission statesmen of the century: the Anglican Henry
Venn, Secretary of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) , and in
America by the Secretary of the American Board (ABCFM) . The
central premise of the principle called for training national
leaders and reducing dependence on foreign funds. In Asia
variations of the policy had proved effective at Harpoot, Syria, in
the 1860s, and in Burma with the Baptists, and in an adapted form
called the Nevius Method, it had been most faithfully and
successfully demonstrated by the recently arrived Presbyterian
missions in Korea in the 1890s.
Two representatives from Korea, the Rev. H. G. Underwood
and Dr. C. C. Vinton, a medical missionary, strenuously urged the
policy of disciplined, measured self-support in every department of
missionary work, evangelistic, educational and medical, as the key
to the development of indigenous leadership. Statistics from Korea
supported their case. The medical doctor, C.C. Vinton, told the
assembly, that six years after the policy had been adopted, "Where
four years ago [1896] less than 800 baptized Christians were
reported, in the present year the number reaches nearly 5,000".®^
Underwood cited the case of Suh Kyung-Jo, one of the earliest
Korean converts, who later became one of the first seven to be
ordained a minister. When a missionary guest offered him payment
for teaching him Korean at home, Suh replied, "Well, you pay me
just for what it costs for your board. . . , but I cannot take your
money for preaching. If I take your money and go out and preach
they will all laugh at me; I will lose my influence and the work
will stop" .
The conference was impressed, but not swept off its feet.
Critics reminded the Korea enthusiasts other factors could explain
growthin Korea. God’s providence, not just the Nevius Method,
surely had a hand in any growth; and Japan's recent defeat of China
with methods learned from western Christian nations might have
explain Korean willingness to listen so seriously to western
Ecumenical Missionary Conference . 2;292ff.
Ecumenical Missionary Conference, 2:297f.
Ecumenical Missionary Conference, l:534ff.
62
Ecumenical Missionary Conference. 2:306f.
23
missionaries . ethod. “ Two important American mission board
secretaries, Presbyterian and Methodist, took a mediating role in
the argument. They supported the policy but suggested that the key
was the difference between "beginning right" and "beginning wrong",
namely that "self-support" was remarkably effective if begun early,
but if introduced too late was usually doomed. Dr. F. F. Ellinwood
expressed the wise opinion that if a policy of dependence continues
too long, it takes "a century to uproot the evils of a system of
coddling" .
Enthusiasm was on the side of the "three-self" policy,
and supporting statistics from the 1888 London Centenary Conference
on Protestant Mission spoke well for the future of Protestant
missions. If true as reported that of the 36,000 Protestant
missionaries in the world in 1888, 30,000 were native evangelists,
then 6,000 were foreign missionaries.®^ Most of the indigenous
workers were undoubtedly still on foreign support. But on that
critical point — the extent of the dependence- the statistics are
not clear. What is clear is that few leaders in third-world
churches were known by name outside their local national
communities .
There were exceptions like Liang A-Fa, whose early tracts
indirectly influenced the rise of the Taiping Rebellion, and
Pandita Ramabai of India, and Joseph Niijima (Neesima) of Japan,
the founder of Doshisha University; and Yun Tchi-Ho of Korea who
was an early supporter of the Student Volunteer Movement in
America. But the 19th century was still primarily the century of
the western missionaries.
As the century drew to its close in 1900, the important
all-Protestant missionary conference often mentioned above. New
York, 1900,®® brought up to 200,000 people to Carnegie Hall and
city churches near it for the most ambitious celebration of
worldwide mission in the history of the modern missionary movement
to that date. It was "the largest sustained formal religious event
®^ Arthur H. Erwin of India, in Ecumenical Missionary
Conference, 307f. Other influential critics included R. M. Mateer
of China.
Ecumenical Missionary Conference, Mew York 1900 , 321-324.
®^Thomas Askew, "The 1888 London Centenary Missionary
Conference", in IBMR, 18:3 (July, 1994), 114.
Ecumenical Missionary Conference. New York, — 1900 ,
Report . . . . 2 vols . (New York/London: American Tract
Society/Religious Tract Society, 1900) .
24
in the history of the Republic”. Former President Benjamin
Harrison, President William McKinley, future president Theodore
Roosevelt, then governor of New York, all three sat on the front
row of the platform at the grand opening and addressed it.
Some of the statistics printed with the Conference Report
help to explain the upbeat mood of the occasion. By 1900, in
little more than 100 years of Protestant missions, the total number
of "native Christians" in their mission fields had risen from
almost none to 4,414,000. Communicant membership of the churches
was 1,300,000. Protestant foreign missionaries had risen to a new
high total of 15,460, and the number of ordained indigenous clergy
to 4,053.®®
A survey in 1895 by the editor of the Missionary Review
of the World gives a revealing glimpse of how the "great century of
missions" appeared to an observant Protestant in 1895 as it neared
its end. Looking back at the hundred years since William Carey, he
described the world in Biblical terms as an advancing Christendom
marching against unbelieving Heathendom, but on a mission to
persuade, not to conquer. And, best of all, the advance was no
longer monolithically western. He counted 11,450 western
Protestant missionaries, now outnumbered by 47,200 ordained and
unordained native Christian workers, missionaries in their own
countries. Adding the two figures together, he described the rise
of a force of more than 55,000 Protestant missionaries on the
mission field a "stupendous achievement". In their mission
churches he estimated were 1,000,000 communicant members, which
together with some 2 to 3 million adherents formed, in his
estimate, an overseas world community of three or four million.
Thomas A Askew, "The Ecumenical Missionary Conference,
New York, 1900: A Centennial Appraisal", {unpublished mss., 1999,
1.
Former president Grover Cleveland, though not present,
was an honorary member of the Conference.
The statistics, prepared by James S. Dennis, were
appended to the Report of the Conference. ( Ecumenical Missionary
Conference . 2: 424-431, with the most condensed summary on p.
427 .
Delavan I. Leonard, A Hundred Years of Missions, (New
York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1895), 417. His statistics reported
11,450 Protestant missionaries, about 4,300 were ordained men,
less than 1000 unordained men, 3,650 were wives and 2,575 were
single women (his numbers do not quite add up) . Of the 47,200
native workers, 4,200 were ordained, 43,000 were lay pastors,
evangelists, teachers, etc. Cf. the more accurate figures of
1
asiastat . 00
ASIA STATISTICS
(adapted
from World Christian
Encyclopedia, 2001)
1900
2000
ASIA Population
956, 196, 000
(100%)
3,696, 958,087
(100%)
Asia Christians
21,897,500
(2.3%)
312,849,400
(8.5%)'
[ Roman Cath.
11,162,800
(1.2%)
110,480,000
(3.0%)
Protestant^
4 , 531,500
(0.5%)
209,428,700
(21.8%)
Orthodox
6,864,200
(0 . 7%)
14,113,500 (
0.4%)
Non-Christian Asia
Muslim
156,139,600
(16.3%)
832, 878, 900
(22 . 5%)
Hindu
202,546,700
(21.2%)
805, 119, 900
(21.8%)
Non- re 1 .
47, 000
( 0%)
608,594,400
(16.5%)
China folk.
379, 914, 700
(39.7%)
383,407,700
(10.4%)
Buddhist
126,618,500
(13.2%)
354,354,700
( 9.6%)
[Christian
21,897,500
( 2.3%)
312,849,400 (
8.5%)]
Anim/Shaman
50,564,000
( 5.3%)
128,295,500
(3.5%)^
WORLD POPULATION
★ Vr***************************
1900 2000
1,619,626,000 (100) 6,055,049,000
WORLD RELIGIONS
Christians
558,132,000
(34.5%)
2,100,563,800
(33.0%)
Muslims
199,940, 900
(12 .3%)
1,188,242,800
(19.6%)
Hindus
203,003,440
(12.5%)
811,336,300
(13.4%)
Non-Relig .
3 , 023 , 600
( 0.2%)
768, 159, 000
(12,7%)
China Folk Relig
. 380,006,000
(23.5%)
384 , 806,700
( 6.4%)
Buddhist
127,176,800
( 7.8%)
359,981,800
( 5.9%)
New Religionist
5, 910,000
( 0.0%)
102, 356, 000
(1.0%) .
Animist /Shaman
117,558,400
( 7.3%)
228,366,500
( 3.4%)
Sikhs
2, 962,000
( 0.0%)
23,258,000
( 0.0%)
Jews
12,292,000
( 0.8%)
14,434,000
( 0.2%)
Non- Christians
1,061,494,000
(65.5%)
4,055,485,000
(67 . 0%)
* This figure includes Marginals, and double -memberships .
^ Protestant figures include Independents and Anglicans.
^ World Christian Encyclopedia, v.l, p. 13.
2
Continents by percentage of Christians:
1900 2000
Latin America
92 . 5%
Latin America
North America
96.6%
North America
Oceania
77 . 5%
Oceania
Europe
Africa
94.5%
9.2%
Europe
Africa
Asia
2.3%
Asia
Change +/
92.7%
+
0.2
84 . 5%
-
11 . 1
82 .6%
+
5.1
76 . 5%
-
18 . 0
45 . 6%
+
36.4
8.5%
+
6.2
***********************
*****************************************
Asian Countries with largest Christian community:
1 .
China
89m (+/-)
2 .
Philippinews
68m
3 .
India
62ra
4 .
Indonesia
27m
5 .
Korea South
19m
6 .
Vietnam
6 . 6m
7 .
Japan
4 . 5m
8 .
Papua New Guinea 4.4m
9 .
Pakistan
3 . 8m
10 .
Burma (Myanmar)
3 . 7m
11 .
Armenia
3m
12 .
Georgia
3m
13 .
Kazakhstan
2 . 7m
14 .
Syria
1 . 7m
15 .
Lebanon
1 . 6m
16 .
Taiwan
1 . 4m
17 .
Thailand
1 . 3m
18 .
Malaysia
1.2m
19 .
Bangladesh
0 . 9m
20 .
Saudi Arabia
0 . 8m
21 .
Iraq
0.7m
22 .
Nepal
0 . 6m
23 .
Singapore
0 . 4m
******
*****************************
*****************************
Asian Countries with highest percentage of Christians in pop.
1 .
Papua New Guinea
95.1
2 .
Timor, Eastern
92 . 1
3 .
Philippines
89.7
4 .
Armenia
84 . 0
5 .
Lebanon
47 . 8
6 .
Georgia
66 . 6
7 .
Korea, South
40 . 8
8 .
Kazakhstan
16.7
9 .
Indonesia
13.1
10 .
Kuwait
12 .7
11 .
Singapore
12 . 3
12 .
13 Russian/Arab
sts 10%
13 .
Burma (Myanmar)
8.3
14 .
Vietnam
8 . 3
15 .
Burma (Myanmar)
8.3
“ [Average] former Russian: [including Kazakhstan, Kuwait
above], Kyrgistan (10.4%), Azerbaijan (4.6%), Turkmenistan
Tajikistan (2.3%,), Uzbekistan (1.7%); and Arab: United Arab
Emirate (11.1%), Qatar (10.4%), Bahrein (10.2-s), Palestine (8.6-s),
Oman (4.9%), Yemen (0.1%). Figures include expatriates.
3
LARGEST PROTESTANT DENOMINATIONS IN THE THIRD WORLD, 2000 A.D.
adherents %pop^
*1. China House Church Movement
2. Assemblies of God, Brazil
3. Anglican Church, Nigeria (CMS)
*4. 3 Self Church, China
5. Church of Christ, Zaire (Federation)
6. Kimbanguist Church, Zaire
7. Anglican Church, Uganda (CMS)
8. Zion Christian Church, S, Africa
9. Kale Hewet (Wd of Life), Ethiopia
10. Universal Reign of Life Church, Brazil
11. Congregation of Christ, Brazil
*12. Church of South India
13. Reformed Church Fed. Council, S. Africa
14. God Is Love Church, Brazil
*15. Reformed Church, Indonesia
16. Evangelical Church of W. Africa, Nigeria
*17. Batak Church, Lutheran, Indonesia
18. Methodist Church, S. Africa
19. Church of Jesus Christ, Madagascar
20. Baptist Convention, Nigeria
*21 Pentecostal Church of Christ, Indonesia
22. Anglican Church, S. Africa
*23. Philippine Independent Church (Aglipay)
24. Anglican Church, Tanzania
25. Lutheran Church, Tanzania
*26. Presbyterian Church Korea (Hapdong)
*27. Presbyterian Church Korea (Tonghap, WCC)
*28. Jesus Assemby of God, Korea
*29. Independent Catholic Church, Philippines
30. Pentecostals of Brazil in Christ
31. Evang. Mekane Yesus Church, Ethiopia
*32. Burma (Myanmar) Baptist Convention
*33. Manalista Church of Christ, Philippines
*34. Baptist Churches of NE India
35. Methodist Church, Nigeria
*36. Evangelical Lutheran Churches, India
37. Brazil Baptist Convention
*38. Methodist Church, Korea
*39. United Church of North India
35.000. 000
22.000. 000
17,500,000
15,000,000
9.200.000
7.500. 000
7.400.000
7. 000. 000
4.600.000
4. 000. 000
3. 000. 000
3.000. 000
2. 800.000
2,700,000
2.700.000
2. 500.000
2,500,000
2,500,000
2,500,000
2,500,000
2.500.000
2.400.000
2.400.000
2.300.000
2.200.000
2,100,000
2.050.000
2.000. 000
2,000,000
2,000,000
2,000,000
1.750.000
1.750.000
1. 600. 000
1,500,000
1. 500.000
1.400.000
1.300.000
1,300,000
^ (I) 7.1%
(P)
91.4%
(A)
45.9%
(U)
7.1%
{ u)
95.4%
(I)
95.4%
(A)
88.7%
(P)
83.1%
(I)
57.7%
(P)
91.4%
(P)
91.4%
(A)
6.2%
(R)
83.1%
(A)
91.4%
(R)
13.1%
(I)
45.9%
(L)
13.1%
(M)
83 . 1%
(U)
49.5%
(B)
45.9%
(P)
13.1%
(A)
83.1%
(I)
89.7%
(A)
50.4%
(L)
50.4%
(R)
40%
(R)
40%
(P)
40%
(I)
89.7%
(P)
91.4%
(L/R)
(B)
8.3%
(I)
89.7%
(B)
6.2%
(M)
45.9%
(L)
6.2%
(B)
91.4%
(M)
40%
(U)
6.2%
[Cf. German Evangelical, 29m; Ch. of Eng., 24.5m; S.Bapt.USA,
21.5m; Methodist USA 11m] . * marks Asian churches.
- Source: D. Barrett, World Christian Encvc . 2000 vol . 1
(statwce . ' 01
^ country's percentage of Christians in population.
^ Number adjusted to lower scale of suggested estimates.
Status of Global Mission, 2004, in Context of 20th and 2 1st Centunes
Year:
GLOBAL POPULATION
1. Total population
2. Urban dwellers
3. Rural dwellers
4. Adult population (overage 15)
5. Literates
6. Nonliterates ,
WORLDWIDE EXPANSION OF CITIES
7. Metropolises (over 100,000 population)
8. Megaaties (over 1 million popiilation)
9. Urban poor
10. Urban slum-dwellers
GLOBAL POPULATION BY REUGION
1 1 . Total of all distinct organized rebgior\s
12. Christians (total all kinds) (=World C)
13. Muslims
14. Hindus
15. Nonreligious
16. Chinese uiuverslsts
17. Buddl^ts
18. Atheists
19. New-Religiorusts
20. Ethnorellgionists
21. Sikhs
22. Jews
23 Non-Christiat\s (^Worlds A and B)
global CHRISTIANITY
24. Total Christians as % of world (eWorld C)
25. Unaffiliated Christians
26. Affiliated Christiaiw (church members)
27. Chuirdt attenders
28. Evangelicals
29. Great Commission Christians
30 Pentecostals/Charismatiffl/Neocharismatics
32. An^cans
33. Independents
34. Marginal Christians
35. Orthodox
36. Protestants
37. Roman Catholics ,
membership by 6 CONTINENTS, 21 U.N. REGIONS
38. Africa (5 regions)
39. Asia (4 regions)
40. Europe (including Russia; 4 regions)
41. Latin America (3 regiorxs)
42. Northern America u region)
43. Oceania (4 regioru)
(3IRISTIAN ORGANIZATIONS
44. Denominations
45. Congregations (worship centers)
46. Serv^ agencies
47. Foreign-mission sending agendes
CONCILIAIO^: ONGOING COUNCILS OF CHURCHES
48. Confessional councils (CWCs, at world level)
49. International coimdls of churches
50. National councils of churches
51. Local coundls of churches
CHRISTIAN WORKERS (dergy, laype^ns)
52. NatioruJs (dtizens; all denominatiorw)
53. Abens (foreign missionaries)
CHRISTIAN FINANCE (in US$, per year)
54. Personal income of church members, $
55. Giving to Christian causes, $
56. Churches' income, $
57. Parachurch and lnstituHor\al income, $
58. Coet-effectiveness (cost per baptism), $
59. Ecdesiastical crime, $
60. Income of global foreign missions, $
61 Computers in Christian use (number oO
CHRISTIAN LITERATURE (titles)
62. Books about Christianity
63. Christian periodicals
SCRIPTURE DISTRIBUTION (all sources)
64. Bibles, per year
65. Scriptures, mduding gospeb, selections, per year
66. Bible derxsity (copies m place)
CHRISTIAN BROADCASTING
67. Total monthly listeners/viewers
68. via Christian statiorxs
69. via secular statioris
CHRISTIAN URBAN MISSION
70. Non-Christian megadties
71. New non-Christian urban dwellers per day
72. Urban Christians
CHRISTIAN EVANGELISM
73. Evangelism-hours per year
74. Hearer-hours (offers) per year
75. Dlsdple-opportunlties (offers) per capita per year
WORLD EVANGEUZATTON
76. Unevangelized population (=World A)
77. Unevangelized as % of world
World evangelization plai\s since A.D. 30
1900
1970
n\id-2000
Trend
% p.a.
1.25
1.94
0.60
1.40
1.76
0.17
iiud-2004
2025
1.619.625.000
232.695.000
1.386.930.000
1.073.621.000
296.258.000
777363.000
3.690.924.000
1353.051.000
2337373.000
2312333.000
1.475.194.000
837339,000
6.056.715.000
2382.917.000
3.173.798.000
4341.648.000
3361345.000
980303,000
6364317300
3,113353300
3351,064300
4,484358300
3,497306300
986,952.000
7,936,740300
4.660.918.000
3375322300
6,004,953300
5.046337.000
958316,000
300
20
100 million
20 million
2,400
161
650 million
260 million
4,050
402
1,400 million
700 million
2.09
1.70
3,07
3.39
4400
430
1380 million
BOO million
6300
650
3,000 million
1 ,600 million
1,000
558.131.000
199.914.000
203,003300
3.024.000
380306.000
127.077.000
226,000
5.951.000
117358.000
2.962.000
12392,000
1,061,494,000
6,000
1.234.431.000
547.979.000
462323.000
532344.000
231365.000
232361.000
165391.000
78323.000
162.917.000
10.618.000
15,097,000
2.456.493.000
9,900
1.999314.000
1,185,920300
803394.000
762.132.000
390.735.000
363.964.000
148,055300
104.066.000
237.023.000
23358.000
14364.000
4.057301.000
1.72
1.12
1.76
1.15
0.41
0.63
0.86
0.25
0.68
0.61
1.21
0.67
1.31
10,600
2,090,763300
1371384300
841.078.000
774300.000
400,600300
376.574.000
149364300
106.937.000
242382.000
24/402,000
14,956,000
4,273354300
15,000
2.642.724.000
1336367300
1.068327.000
844342.000
456.625.000
450303.000
157,742300
123360300
276.103.000
31398.000
17.195.000
5394.016.000
343
36/489,000
521342.000
469303.000
71,726300
77,931,000
981,000
34300
33.4
105.723.000
1,128,708,000
885.777.000
98375,000
277.153.000
167320.000
377,000
33.0
105.012.000
1394302300
1359320,000
225.733.000
650.199.000
532,917300
160,000
3.12
0.39
1.16
1.04
1.83
1.20
1.73
1.08
32.9
106.665.000
1,984398,000
I3I63423OO
242,697300
682.026300
570306.000
167300
333
113390.000
2328334300
1,760368,000
355339.000
876325300
818.637.000
210.000
30371,000
7,931,000
928,000
115344.000
103324.000
266347.000
47.401.000
97.011.000
11.100.000
139346.000
210,969300
665.477.000
76329,000
385369300
29/485.000
213/423,000
347374,000
1.056,189,000
1.65
1.85
1.90
0.37
1.43
1.07
81305.000
414,913300
31.786.000
216374.000
367.742.000
1,101,930300
115399.000
609313.000
47,161,000
233398.000
495327.000
1376,632,000
8.756.000
20.759.000
368309,000
60.027.000
59370.000
4322.000
117327.000
96.462.000
467.935.000
263352.000
168.943.000
14389.000
347.071.000
303329.000
531.177.000
475307.000
215361.000
20300,000
2.48
1.64
3.18
1.14
0.81
1.19
382316300
323.936.000
527323300
497.949.000
222358.000
21311,000
640.460.000
455350.000
508.147.000
632353.000
263.736.000
27,979,000
1,900
400,000
1300
600
18,600
1,450,000
14,100
2300
33300
3,448,000
23,000
4,000
2.29
1.52
2.11
1,65
37300
3,663300
25,000
4370
63.000
5335300
40.000
6,000
40
10
19
70
150
45
450
2,600
282
110
840
9,000
2,00
3.00
1.90
4.20
310
115
890
9,700
460
150
950
13300
1,050,000
62,000
2350,000
240,000
5,104,000
420,000
0.97
1.11
5305,000
439,000
6300,000
550,000
270 billion
8 billion
7bmion
1 billion
17300
300,000
200,000,000
0
4,100 billion
70 billion
50 billion
20 billion
128,000
5,000,000
3.0 billion
1,000
15327 billion
270 billion
108 billion
162 billion
330300
16 billion
15 billion
334 million
2.28
5,41
4.53
5.99
2.80
6.07
6.46
6.40
16390 billion
330 billion
130 billion
200 billion
349300
20 billion
20 billion
430 million
26,000 billion
870 billion
300 billion
570 billion
650300
65 billion
60 billion
1,700 million
300,000
3300
1300,000
23300
4300,000
35300
3.08
4.03
5343300
41300
11300,000
100300
5,452,600
20 million
108 million
25,000,000
281 million
443 million
53,700,000
4,600 million
1,400 million
4.96
1.02
1.02
65,166,000
5,025 million
1310 million
180,000,000
8300 million
2,280 million
0
0
0
750.000. 000
150.000. 000
650.000. 000
2.150.000. 000
600,000,000
1310.000. 000
2.30
3.14
1.76
2355.000300
679,000,000
1.941.000300
3300.000300
1300300,000
2300.000300
5
5300
159300,000
65
51,100
660300,000
226
129,000
1,160,000,000
1.14
1.70
1,58
236
138300
1,235.000300
300
200,000
1,720,000,000
5 billion
10 billion
6
25 billion
99 billion
27
165 billion
938 billion
155
1.04
1.06
4.91
192 billion
1,195 billion
188
425 billion
4350 billion
529
879,672,000
543
250
1.641300,000
443
510
1,711,440,000
28.3
1300
0.52
3.72
2.87
1,747334300
273
1,680
1,946,411300
243
3300
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'"|’’11KHE was a time wlicn Christians didn’t feel
1 tlio need to re-examine the Christian Mission.
I hey didn’t lu erl to ask why they had missionaries,
and what missionaries were supposed to do. It was
almost axiomatic. It was simple, and dangerous,
and overwhelmingly urgent. It was as simple as the
command of Christ, and as urgent as life and death.
For million.s upon millions were dying without
Christ. Every second saw more souls slipping into
a Clirislless eternity. No one had ever given them a
chance. No one had ever told them that they could
live forever in Christ. Faced with a challenge as
simple as that, the Cdmrch exploded into the mod-
ern missionary movement, a race against time and
against the devil for the greatest of all prizes, the
etenial salvation of the human soul.
If you are expecting me to ridicule that chal-
lenge, I am going to disappoint you. It has never
seemed ridindous to me. A.s a matter of fact, in
l.irge measure it was t|ie challenge which sent me
to the mission fietl. But you know as well as I that
there came a day of the shaking of the foundations.
The old urgencies were denied, or at least ignored.
No one seemed sure of anytliing eternal any more.
So the (ludli-ngc (hanged. The Jerusalem Con-
ference of tire International Missionary Council
said: “Our fathers were impressed with horror that
men should die without Christ; we are equally im-
press(ul with horror that they should live without
Clirist." It was a shift of balance, really, more than
a denial— a stiat<‘gic withdrawal to what was con-
sidered firmer ground. Millions upon millions are
living in misery and in filth. No one can deny that.
No one has ever given them a chance. No one has
ever helped them to the life abundant that Jesus
came t(» give them. It was a challenge to a future
in history— a futures without hunger and without
hate, witiiout sickness and without tears, where all
num are brothers and the nations shall study war
no more. So the Church went forth to build the
Kingdom.
1 do not intend to ridicule this view eithci. It has
never seemed ridiculous to me to feed the hungry
and heal the sick and work for peace. But again you
know as well as I how tlic paralysis of doubt struck
once more. The foundations shook and the roof fell
in. Wars, depressions, brutalities, corruptions in a
disheartening crescendo of defeat— and all tins with-
in what loo many had believed was the Kingdom,
western civilization. The Kingdom refused to stay
built, and the builders began to lose hope.
Those have been the two familiar symbols of the
missionary: the saver of souls, and the builder of
die Kingdom. The problem of our lime is that nei-
ther is quite able to carry all Christendom with him
to the Mission.
Actually, in basic motivation, there is not much
difference between the saver of souls and the build-
er of the Kingdom. In both the motive is love. But
I am begiiming to question just how far love i.s the
motive of the Christian Mission. Was it the motive
in the original mission of the Church?
Of course, love is fundamental. It was love that
started die mission. “For God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth In him should not perish but have ever-
lasting life." But that was the love of God, the
Fadier. The missionary was God the Son.
Of course, I am not preparing to deny that it was
love that brought Christ into the world on Ilis mis-
sion of reconciliation. However, it may be worth
noting that the Bible does not say so. It is full of
His love for men, a compassion that knows no
bounds, but where are we told that He came to the
world because He loved it? Insofar as the Bible dis-
tinguishes between the Son and the Fadier in ref-
erence to die mission, it tells us that the Father
founds the mission because He loves, the Son goes
on the mi sion because He is sent. The motive of
the Son, the missionary, is obedience.
Look at the glimpse Paul gives us into the mind
of Christ before the mission. The lesson is not love,
but humility and obedience, "even unto the deatli
of the cross." (Phil. 2:5-8). lie loves the world, of
course, but He goes because He is sent. He loves
the whole world, but He goes to the Jews because
lie is sent. That Is the only explanation He gives of
the narrowness of His mission: “I am not sent but
to the lost sheep in Israel." He loves die world
enough to die for it, but He goes to the cross be-
cause He is sent: “Not my will, but thine, be done."
The insistent, compelling motive of the mission is
3
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'STATUS OF GLOBAL MISSION,
WORLD POPULATION
t. Total populahon
2. Urban dwellers
3. Rural dwellers
4. Adult population
5. Literates
6. Nonliterates
WORLDWIDE EXPANSION OF CITIES
7. Metropolises (over 100,000 population)
0. Megacities (over 1 million)
WORLD POPULATION BY RELIGION
9^Christians (total all kinds)
10“Muslims_
11. Nonreligrous
l?~Hindu5 ~
13.~Buddhists
1f~Atheists
15. Tribal religionists
io. jvjew Kellgiohisis
17. jews
18. Sikhs
19. Other religionists
GLOBAL CHRISTIANITY
20. _Total Christians as % of world
21. Affiliated church members
22. Practicing Christians
23. Charismatics in Renewal
24- Crypto-Christians
25. Average Christian martyrs per year
MEMBERSHIP BY ECCLESIASTICAL BLOC
26. Anglicans
27. Catholics (non-Roman)
28. Marginal Protestants
29. Nonwhite indigenous Christians
30. ~Orthodox .
317 Protestants ‘ ”
32. Roman Catholics
MEMBERSHIP BY CONTINENT
33. Africa
34. East Asia
“35.*Europe
36. Lahn America
37. Northern Amenca
38. Oceania
39- South Asia
4U. USSR
CHRISTIAN ORGANIZATIONS
41. Service agencies
42. Foreign-mission sending agencies
43. Institutions
CHRISTIAN WORKERS
44. Nationals
45. Aliens (foreign missionaries)
CHRISTIAN FINANCE (in U S. $, Per year)
46. Personal income of church members
47. Giving to Christian causes
48- Chur^es' income
49. ParachurcH and Institutional income
50. Ecclesiastical crime
51. Income of global foreign missions
Year;
1987, IN
CONTEXT
OF 20TH CENTURY
1900
1970
1980
1987
2000
1,619,886,800
232,694,900
1.387,191.900
1,025,938,000
286.705.000
739.233.000
3.610.034.400
1,354,237,000
2.255.797.400
2,245,227,300
1,437,761,900
807,465,400
4.373.917.500
1,797,479,000
2.576.438.500
2,698,396,900
1,774,002.700
924,394,200
5.004.622.800
2,187,850,500
2.016,772,300
3.072.585.800
2.060,565,100
1.012,020,700
6.259.642,000
3.160,381.900
3.099.260.100
3,808,564.300
2.697.595.100
1.110,969,200
400 •
20
2,400
161
2.700
227
3.050
296
4,200
433
558.056.300
1.216,579,400
1.432.686,500
1,646,007,800
2,130,000,000
' 200,102,200 ■
2,923.300'
1,300“
),000
),60r
"203;033,
127,159,
^225,
106,339,
S.91D,
12,269,
2,960
400,907,
,600
,000“
,800
,600
100
34.4
•521,563,200"
469,259,800
0
3,572,400
35,600
30,573,700
276,000"
927,600
7.743,100
" 115,897,700"
' 103,056,700
•266,419,400 '
■ 550,919,000
— 543,065,300
— 465,784,800“
" 231,672,200
165.288.500
88,077.400
76,443,100“
15,185,900
10,612,200
246,406,600
33.7
" 1,131,809,600 '
884,021,800
1,587,700
55,699,700
230,000
47.557.000
— 3.134.40(T
10,830,200
58.702.000
"14X'402,500"
"233,424.200"
672,319,100'
""715,901.400
■~582,749.900"
273,715,600
■”195.119,400
89.963.500
96,D21,800"
16,938,200
14,244.400
233,620.300
32 8
'1,323,389.700
1,018,355,300
11.005,390
70.395.000
270,000
49.804.000
3,439.400'
14.077.500
82,181,100
— 160,737,900'
— 262,157,600
— 802,660.000
5,201,800"
9,592,100 _
2.491.700
4,182,900
9.086.300
1,308,600“
8.278.300
6.427.700
4,951,600
32.9
1,519,585,400'
1,159,000,000
19,830,400
121,537.000
334,900
51.627.900
— 3,667,600'
16.503.900
125,512,800
173,349,900'
305,470.000 •
• 907.536,700 '
,Sb«fu » EMC ASIA '
8.756.400
1.763.000
273,788,400
60.025,100
59,569,700
4.311.400
16,347,200
IIP J
1.500
600
9.500
1.050.000
62.000
115,924,200
10.050.200
397.108,700
262,027,800
169,246,900
14,669,400
76.770.200
~~ 86,012,300
14,100
2.200
80,500
2,350.000
240.000
164.571.000
16.149.600
"403,177,600 ■"
340,978,600
178,892,500
16.160.600
106,733,200 _
"96,726.500 .
* “* .6»l> 1
17,500
3,100
91,000
2.950,000
249^00
20,100
3,700
98,000
3,747,700
250,40p_
270 billion
8 billion
7 billion
1 billion '
^00,000"
0.2 billion
Uiving per church member per week
52. to all Christian causes
53. to global foreign missions .
54~C6mpulers in Christian use
CHRISTIAN LITERATURE
55. New commercial book titles per year
56. New titles including devotional
57. Christian periodicals
SCRIPTURE DISTRIBUTION (all sources)
58. Bibles per year
59. New Testaments per year
CHRISTIAN BROADCASTING
60. Christian radio/TV stations
61. Total monthly listeners/viewers
62. . for Christian stations
63. for secular stations
CHRISTIAN URBAN MISSION
64. Non-Christian megacities
65. New non-Christian urban dwellers per day
66. Urban Christians
67. Urban Christians as % of urban dwellers
68. Evangelized urban dwellers, %
CHRISTIAN MEGAMINISTRIES
69. World total all persons reached per day
WORLD EVANGELIZATION
70. Unevangelized population
4,100 billion
70 billion
50 billion
20 billion '
5,000,000'
3 billion
5,878 billion
100 3 billion
64.5 billion
35.8 billion
"■■30.000,000'
5 billion
8,191 billion
139 billion
79 billion_
60 billion
“ 115,000,000
8 billion
Unevangelized as % of world
72. Unreached peoples (with no churches)
$0 29
$0.01
0"
2,200
3,100
3,500
5,452,600
7,300,000
5
5,200
159.600.000
68 8
72.0
250,000
788.159.000
'48.7~
"3,50(r
$1 19
$0.06
1,000“
17.100
52.000
23.000
25.000. 000
45.000. 000
1,230
750.000. 000
150.000. 000
650.000. 000
65
51.100
660,800,000
47 0
80.0
10,000,000
1.391,956.000
1,300 ■
$1 46
$0.07
3.000. 000"
18.800
60,000
22,500
36.800.000
57.500.000
1,450
990,474,400
291,810,500
834,066,900
95
69,300
844,600,000
46.3
83.0
30.000. 000
1,380.576.000
31.6'
700'
$1.82
S0.10_
29.000. 000
21,600
62,800
20,400
45.763.200
66.801.200
1,620
1.132.556.300
406,857,200
956,802,300
131
86,300
1.003.887.300
46.0
87.0
48.000. 000
1.317,466,600
"'26.6'
530
1,l]21,888,400
_859,252,300
359.092.100
262.147.600
100,535,900
— 138,263,800
20,173,600
23,831.700
143.503.600
340
1.967:000,000
1,377,000.000
55.000,000
176,208,000
500,000
61.037.200
— 4,334,100
24.106.200
204,100,000
“199,819,000
■“386,000.000
1,144,000,000
202,844,000
71,228,100
407.464.500
401,592,400
185,874,500
17,218,600
130.325,900
■“104,429,400 ,
i( 3uoi rw,OQ>J_
323,914,900
128.000.000
“411,448.700
555,486.000
201,265,200
21.361.500
185,476,700
";n8,lQl,0()0 .
(iiV JeO I
24.000
4,800
103.000
4,500,000
400.000
12,700 billion
200 billion
80 billion
120 billion
“550,000.000
12 billion
$209
$0,10
“140,D0O,0O0
25.000
75.000
35.000
70.000. 000
110,000.000
4.000
2.150.000. 000
600,000.000
1.810.000. 000
202
140.000
1,393.700,000
44 5
91-0
70.000. 000
1,038^19.000
166
“■ " 100
Gf'
January 1987
25
Aimual Statistical Table on Global Mission; 1987
David B. Barrett
Introduction
The table opposite is the third in an annual series. This year we
draw attention to some of the larger implications of these data.
Megastatistics and the Christian
(lines 1-6, 9-40)
Huge numbers tend to numb the imagination. Here is an example. The
Bolshevik dictator Stalin was in the habit of dispatching to city chiefs of
police terse cables such as "Eliminate 10,000 enemies of the people by
Tuesday." He used to philosophize on this by saying, "One man's
death is a tragedy; 10,000 deaths are merely a statistic."
Christians know better; for us, statistics are signs from God. They
form the most concise way available of quickly informing us about the
true magrutude of the human dilemma. They can help us to grapple with
situations of otherwise mind-boggling magnitude. Consider the biblico-
geopolitical comment in the following paragraph.
The last book of the Bible portrays divine signs of the End, especially
in the dread vision of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Rev. 6: 1-
8). Here are symbolized the massed horrors of war, insurrection, famine,
disease, death, terror. Most people imagine that in the twentieth century,
the biggest killer of all these has been war, with its 36 million combatants
killed so far. But instead, this century's biggest killer has proved to be
civil terror: since 1900, 119 million innocent citizens have been tortured,
shot, slaughtered, killed, or otherwise executed by their own governments
(including 20 million murdered by Stalin). The great majority have been
Christians. As a "sign from God," this appalling statistic warns us
about theescalatingconflictbelweenchurch and state, and henceour future
prospects in global mission.
Geopolitical Complexities
(lines 1, 7, 33-40 et passim)
The segments that make up the world, the area of our Christian mission,
become clearer every year. We now talk of the world as comprising nine
continents or continental areas — the eight defined by the United Nations
(shown in lines 33-40), plus Antarctica with its massive material resources
and growing population. These continents are divided by the United
Nations into 24 regions; these into 243 different countries (sovereign and
David B. Barrett, a contributing editor, has been a missionary of the Church
Missionary Society since 1956, and research officer for the Anglican Consultative
Council and the Lambeth Conference since 1970. He is currently Research Con-
sultant to the Foreign Mission Board, Southern Baptist Convention, Richmond,
Virginia.
nonsovereign); and these in turn into 2,000 major civil divisions (MCDs)
The world contains 3,050 rapidly growing metropolises (mother cities of
over 1(X),000 population each) housing 1.4 billion people; of these, 300
are megacities (over 1 million population) housing 800 million souls. And
across this world are some 11,(K)0 distinct ethnolinguistic peoples speaking
7,(X)0 languages.
The Church in China (reflected in lines 34 el
passim)
Up to 1979 the Western Christian world regarded China as one of the
five great unreached monolithic blocs of the world (along with Islam,
Hinduism, Buddhism, and tribal religions), implacably opposed to the
gospel of Christ. Suddenly, by 1986 China has become the fastest-ex-
panding nation for church growth ever. This year's surveys indicate that
China has a total of at least 81,600 worship centers (churches, congre-
gations, house groups) with 21,500,000 baptized adult believers, and a
total Christian community of 52,152,000 Christians affiliated to churches,
including children. Thirteen large cities have baptized church members
numbering over 10 percent of the population. House churches are now
known to exist in virtually every one of China's 2,010 administrative
counties. A vital, evangelizing church has come into existence almost
everywhere throughout the nation.
At the global level, this has dramatically halted and reversed the
eighty-year-long numerical decline of Christians (this is evident in lines
20, 29, 31, and especially in 34).
Unreached Peoples (lines 70-72)
The exact delineation of the unfinished task of world evangelization is
rapidly coming clearly into focus. Fifty-one percent, or 5,500, of the
world's peoples are today each composed of over 50 percent church mem-
bers. Churches of varying strengths are present in 95 percent of all the
world's peoples. Only 530 ethnolinguistic peoples have no churches or
house groups of any kind in them. Many of these have long been left
throughout the twentieth century totally unreached by the gospel— they
have no disciples, no churches, no witness, no evangelists, no evangel-
ism, no missions, no scriptures, no literature, no agencies, no institutions,
no broadcasting. This is a shocking situation.
Another way of looking at the unreached world is via rural-urban-
metropolitan categories. Churches exist everywhere across the rural
world. Strong churches exist likewise in 98 percent of the world's 3,050
metropolises; the remaining 70 cities have either only one or two small
churches each, or no churches or house groups at all.
Many Christians want to do something to alter this situation, but
'This kind cometh not out but by prayer and fasting" (Matt. 17:21).
METHODOLOGICAL NOTES ON TABLE (referring
to numbered lines on facing page) Indented cate-
gories form part of, and are included in, unindenled
categories above them Definitions of categories are
as given and explained in World Christian Eita/clopedia
(1982), with additional data and explanations as be-
low. Sources include in-process world surveys by au-
8. Megacities are also metropolises ("mother cit'
ies") so are included in line 7,
9 Widest definition: professing Christians plus sccrei
believers, which equals affiliated (church members]
f lus nominal Christians.
6. Adherents of Asian so-called New Religions.
19. Mainly Chinese folk religionists.
20. Definition as in 9.
attenders, by churches' own definitions.
22-24. These entries are selected subgroups of 21 and
are not intended as a complete breakdown of 21.
Active iTiembers of the Renewal in older mainline
denominadons (Anglican, Catholic, Orthodox, Prot-
estant).
24. Secret believers.
25. World totals for all confessions (from survey by
author, forthcoming).
26-32. The total of tnese entries can be reconciled to
line 9 by referring to WCE, Global Table 4. To the total
of these entries, add the catego^ "nominal Chris-
tians," and subtract "doubly-affiliated" and "dis-
affiliated" members, as found in WCE, Global Table
4.
33. Definitions of the eight continents or continental
areas follow exactly United Nations' practice.
41 Including 42.
46-53. Defined as in ardcle "Silver and Gold Have
I None," in hilernatiomi Bulletin of Missionary Research,
October 1983, p. 150.
49. As disHncl from churches' (denominadonal) in-
come,
50, Amounts embezzled (U.S. dollar equivalents, per
^^Total computers and word processors owned by
churches, agencies, groups, and individual Chris-
dans
55. On strict UNESCO definidon of book (over 49
pages).
56. As 55, but adding the mass of smaller devoHonal
literature (prayer books, service books, liturgies,
hymnbooks, choruses, etc ).
6l. Total of audiences in 62 and 63. excluding overlap.
63. Total regular audience for Chrisdan programs
over secular or commercial stations.
64- Megaatics with long non-Christian or and-Chris-
dan tradition (Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, etc ), under
25% Chrisdan, and usually hostile to Christian mission.
69. Megaminislries are defined here as ministries
which each reach over 1 million persons every day.
Total includes Scripture distribudon, literature, tracts,
broadcasdng, mass media, films, audiovisuals; it also
includes duplicadons and overlap
70-71 (also m). Defined as in WcE, parts 3, 5, 6, 9.
24
International Bulletin of Missionary Research
STATUS OF GLOBAL MISSION, 1986, IN CONTEXT OF 20TH CENTURY
Year;
1900
1970
1980
1986
2000
WORLD POPULATION
1. Total population
2. Urban dwellers
3. Rural dwellers
4. Adult population
5. Literates
6. Nonliterates
1,619.886,800
232,694.900
1,387.191,900
1,025,938,000
286.705.000
739.233.000
3.610.034.400
1,354,237,000
2.255.797.400
2,245,227,300
1,437,761,900
807.465,400
4.373.917.500
1,797,479,000
2.576.438.500
2,698,396,900
1,774,002,700
924,394,200
4,867.006,100
2.108.978.000
2.758.856.000
2,990,163.500
1,999,603,300
990,701.500
6.259,642,000
3,160,381,900
3.099.260.100
3,808,564,300
2.697.595.100
1,110,969,200
WORLDWIDE EXPANSION OF CITIES
7. Metrop>olises (over 100,000 population)
0. Megadties (over 1 million)
9. Superdties (over 4 millionl
10. Supergiants (over 10 million)
400
20
2
0
1,614
( 161
24
4
1,677
227
38
9
1,780
266
46
14
2,200
433
79
24
WORLD POPULATION BY RELIGION
11. Christians (total all kinds),„._ , .
558,056,300
1,216,579,400
1,432.686,500
1,572,875,100
■ 837.308,700
■* 825,072,900 •“
2.019,921.400
12- Muslims
13- ~NohrcliRidiis
200,102,200
2,923,300
*"■ 550,919,000
543.065,300
' 722,956,500
715,901,400
071,888, 400
14. _Hindus ..
15. 'Buddhists • - —
— 203,033,300
127.159,000
• “465,784,800
231,672,200'*‘*
273,715,600
■ 300,146,900 ■
359,092,100
16. Atheists
225. 6UU
106,339.600
~ ” 165,288,500
88,077,400
89,963,500
96,021,800 ”
16,938,200
14,244,400
233.620.300
91,365,600 _
100,535,900
18. New ReUgionists
19. Jews
20. Sikhs
21. Other religionists
• — 5,910.000
12,269,800
2,960,600
400,907,100
' '76,443,100
15,185,900
10,612,200
246,406,600
lUH,5U5,bUU
18,023,700
16,560,600
222,676,100
20,173.600
23,831,700
203,582,200
GLOBAL CHRISTIANITY
22. Total Chrishans as % of world
23. Affiliated church members
24. Practicing Christians
25. Charismatics in Renewal
26. (irypto-Christians
27. Average Christian martyrs per year
34 4
521,563,200
469,259,800
0
3,572,400
35,600
33.7
1,131,809,600
884,021,800
1,587,700
55,699,700
230,000
32-8
1,323,389,700
1,018,355,300
11,005,390
70,395,000
270,000
32.4
1,447,369.100
1,105,346,600
18,230,500
79,843,300
330,000
32 3
1,844,614,200
1,330,325,100
38,861,500
106,208,700
500,000
MEMBERSHIP BY ECCLESIASTICAL BLOC
30,573.700
47,557.000
49.804.000
51,363,300
61,037,200
'29~Catholic? (^non-Roman)
30. Marginal Protestants
31. Nonwhile indieenous Christians
' 276,000
927,600
7,743,100
3.134.400
10,830,200
58,702,000
3,439,400
14,077,500
82.181,100
3,634,100
16,133,200
97,544,400
24,106,200
154,140,400
199,819.000
32. Orthodox
■-* ” 115,897,700
143,402,500
160,737,900
262,157,600
103,056,700
233,424,200
34, Roman Catholics
266,419,400
672,319,100 •
8UZ,W>U,ULIU
8tib,b90,bUU
{•mU U tMA
35. Africa
36 EasI Asia
37. '~Europe
38. Latin America
39. Northern America
40- Oceania
41. South Asia
42. USSR' ■■ ■
CHRISTIAN ORGANIZATIONS
43. Service agencies
44. Foreign-mission sending agencies
45. Institutions
CHRISTIAN WORKERS
46. Nationals
47. Aliens (foreign missionaries)
CHRISTIAN FINANCE (in U.S. $, per year)
48. Personal income of church memoers
49. Giving to Christian causes
50.. Churches' income
51., Parachurch and institutional income
52. Ecclesiastical crime
5.3. Income of global foreign mis.sions
Giving per church member per week
54. to all Christian causes
55. to global foreign missions
56. Computers in Christian use
CHRISTIAN LITERATURE
57. New commercial book titles per year
56. New titles including devotional
59. Christian periodicals
SCRIPTURE DISTRIBUTION (all sources)
60. Biblesper year
61. New Testaments per year
CHRISTIAN BROADCASTING
62. Chrishan radio/TV stations
63. Total monthly listeners/viewers
64. for Christian stations
65. for secular stations
CHRISTIAN URBAN MISSION
66. Non-Christian megacities
67. New non-Christian urban dwellers per year
68. Urban Christians
69. Urban Christians as % of urban dwellers
70. Evangelized urban dwellers, %
CHRISTIAN MEGAMINISTRIES
71. World total all persons reached per day
WORLD EVANGELIZATION
72. JJney.angelized populations
73. Unevangelized as % of world
8:756:400
1,763,000
273,788,400
60,025,100
59.569,700
4,311,400
16,347,200
, 97,002,000
C MO
115,92000
10.050.200
397,108,700
262,027,800
169,246.900
14,669,400
76.770.200
86,012,300
I VcpT
164,571.000
16.149.600
403.177.600
340.978.600
178,892,500
16.160.600
106,733,200
' 96,726,500^
LlliJSl
196.874.500
20,041,700
406.649.300
392,314,400
184,860,600
17,063,300
126.660.300
103.292.500 . ■
323.9l4.900
27,560,300
411.448.700
555,486,000
201.265.200
21,361,500
185.476.700
■"US.IOLOOO.
1,500
14,100
17,500
19,700
24,000
600
2,200
3,100
3,600
4,800
9,500
80,500
91.000
97,000
103,000
1,050,000
2,350,000
2,950,000
3,621,700
4.500,000
62,000
240,000
249,000
250,200
400,000
4,100 billion
5.878 billion
7,612 billion
12,700 billion
8 billion
70 billion
100.3 billion
133 billion
200 billion
7 billion
50 billion
64 5 billion
77 billion
80 billion
1 billion
20 billion
35. 8 billiori
56 billiort
‘ '300,000
5,000,000 *
— 30,000.000
'64,000,000'
35U,UUU,0uii
0.2 billion
3 billion
5.0 billion
7.5 billion
12 billion
$0.29
$1 19
$1 46
$1.77
$209
$0.01
$0.06
$0.07
$0.10
$0 10
— . Q
i.ooo
3,000,000
22,000,000
340,000.000
2,200
17,100
18,800
21,200
25,000
3,100
52,000
60,000
62,400
75,000
3,500
23,000
22,500
20,700
35,000
5,452,600
25,000,000
36,800,000
44,360,100
70,000,000
7,300,000
45,000,000
57,500,000
65,385,600
110,000,000
0
1,230
1,450
1,600
4,000
0
750,000,000
990,474.400
1,111,074,400
2.150.000,000
0
150,000,000
291,810,500
387,991,200
600,000,000
0
650,000,000
834,068,900
938,220,700
1.810.000,000
5
65
95
126
202
5,200
51,100
69,300
60,900
140,000
159,600,000
660,800,000
844,600,000
980,000,000
1.393,700.000
68 8
47 0
46 3
45.5
44 5
72.0
80.0
83-0
86.0
91.0
250,000
10,000,000
30,000,000
45,000,000
70,000,000
788,159,000
1,391,956,000
1,380,576.000
1,326,319,700
1.038,819,000
48.7
' 38.6
31.6
27.3
16:6
January 1986
23
Annual Statistical Table on Global Mission; 1986
David B. Barrett
Introduction
The table opposite is the second in an annual senes. Last January
we gave statistics on sixty variables and commented on general
twenl.elh-century trends. This year we add thirteen new variables (lines
7-10, 27, 52, 56, 66-71), and we shall now comment on them.
Worldwide Expansion of Cities (lines 7-10)
One of the most startling phenomena of the twentieth century been
the massive increase in the number of large cities. In the year im the
world had some 400 metropolises defined as mother cities of over 100,000
population each. Of these, only 20 were megacities (over 1 million pop-
ulation each), and 2 were supercities (over 4 million), i.e , London and
New York By 1986 these have mushroomed startlingly to 1,780 metrop-
olises, 286 megacities, 46 supercities, and 14 supergiants (oyer 10 rndhon
population each). By a d 2000 megacities will have reached some 433 in
number.
The Central Role of Christian Martyrs (line 27)
People often criticize statistics of Christians tor not including quality of
commitment. Line 27 describes Christians who undergo the ultimate test
of commitment: martyrdom, which means losing one's life for Christ as a
result of human hostility. The annual numbers involved throughout the
twentieth century are far higher than any of us had hitherto imagined.
Martyrdom continues to play a major role in local, national, reg'ona ,
continental, and global evangelization. Pentecostal theologian W. ).
Hollenweger was right when he once wrote: "Evangelism is the most
dangerous business."
Ecclesiastical Crime (line 52)
It brings a note of reality to any analysis of Christian finance (line 48
onward) to realize that ecclesiastical crime is becoming a significant factor
in many parts of the world. In the first world (Western world), embezzle-
ment of church funds is still rare, largely because of the power of public
opinion, tenacity of the investigating press, and swift retribution from the
law. In the second world (Communist world), secret police discredit clergy
and bishops with false accusations, and agents deliberately subvert or
entrap church leaders with large cash payments In the third world, ec-
clesiastical crime has now reached serious proportions. Whereas95 percent
David B. BarrctI, a conlributntfi editor, has been a iiiissionaiy of the Church
Missionary Society since 1956. and research officer for the Consw/fnfme
Council and the Uwibeth Conference since WO. He is currently Research Con-
sultant to the Foreign Mission Board. Southern Baptist Convention. Richmond.
Virfiinia.
of church leaders there are honest persons of rntegnty, some 5 percent
have become small-time ecclesiasHcal crooks embeazlmg sizable church
funds, overseas grants, relief donations or foreign current^, or sethng up
nhonv relief or third-world-mission projects, A major factor contnbutmg
to this rash of petty crime has been the reluctance of Western donor apn-
cies to enforce strict accounhng for the huge sums of money fhey unload
on third-world churches every year.
Christian Use of Computers (line 56)
There are now some 50 million computers of all kinds in the world, in-
cluding mainframes, minicomputers, microcomputers, and word-proces-
sors Line 56 gives one result from our ongoing survey of computenzation
as practiced or planned by all Christian confessions and denominations
and agencies based in Rome, Geneva, Canterbury, Paris. London New
York. Washington, Moscow. Tokyo, et alia. At present, almost all of these
are operated as stand-alone systems solely for the benefit of individual
Christians or offices. We hope it may soon be possible to link up all such
systems into a single voluntary global network.
Christian Urban Mission (lines 6&-70)
The number of urban Christians as a percentage of urban dwellers has
fallen markedly during this century from 68.8 percent m the year 1900 to
45 5 percent today, largely as a result of massive urban population increase
in third-world countries traditionally hostile to ChrisHanity (line 69). The
churches are losing the cities at the rate of 80,900 new non-Chnstian urban
dwellers every day, or one every second (line 67) Whereas in the year
1900 there were only five non-Christian megacities in existence (the largest
being Tokyo, Peking. Calcutta. Osaka), today that number has mush-
roomed to 126 non-Christian megacities and is likely to reach 202 by a 0
2000. Many of these cities show growing hostility to organized Chnstian
mission. This is formidable opposition indeed, totally unexpected by mis-
sion strategists in the year 1900.
Christian Megaministries (line 71)
Lastly, we should note that over the last five years, the number of persons
reached by organized mass Christian outreach every day has been mcre^
ing markedly- In 1983 the United Bible Societies distributed 497,714,000
Scriptures (Bibles, Testaments. Portions, and Selections) in 1,800 languages
(which is an average of 1.4 million a day). Christian movies in 1985 were
shown to audiences averaging a million each night. Chnstian broadcasting
in 1985 reached 23 percent of the entire world once a month or more,
which means an average of 37 million different people every day. Such
megaministnes offer the only hope for keeping up with or surpassing the
global population explosion of 84 million a year.
METHODOLOGICAL NOTES ON TABLE (referring
to numbered lines on facing page) Indented cate-
gories form part of, and are included in, unindented
categones above them Definitions of categories are
as given and explained in World C/insImn Eiio/clrpedm
(1982), with additional data and explanations as be-
low. Sources include in-process world surveys by au-
thor . „
7-10. Indentation means; supergiants are also
counted as supercities which are also mcgacities, all
of which are also metropolises ("mother cities ).
11 Widest definition, professing Christians plus se-
cret believers, which equals affiliated (church mem-
bers) plus nominal Christians
18 Adherents of Asian so-called New Religions (non-
Christian, syncretistic)
21 Mainly Chinese folk religionists
22. Definition as in 11.
24 Church attenders. by churches' own definition
24-26. These entries are selected sub-groups of 23
and are not intended as a complete breakdown of 23.
25- Active members of the Renewal in older mainline
denominations (Anglican, Catholic, Orthodox, Prot-
estant).
26. Seaet believers,
27. World totals for all confessions (from survey by
author, forthcoming)
28-34 The total of these entries can be reconciled to
line 11 by referring to WCE. Global Table 4 To the
total of these entries, add the category "nominal
Christians." and subtract "doubly-affiliated" and
"disaffiliated" members, as found there.
35 Definitions of the eight continents or continental
areas follow exactly United Nations practice
43 Including 44 . ^ ,j u
48-55 Defined as in article Silver and Gold Have
1 None," in Internalioml Bulletin of Missionary
Research. October 1983. p 150-
51 As distinct from churches' (denominational) in-
come.
22
?8.^ As 57, but adding the mass of smaller devotional
literature (prayer books, service books, liturgies.
Smnbooks, choruses, etc )
. Total of audiences in 64 and 65, excluding overlap^
65 Total regular audience for Christian program
over secular or commercial stations.
66. Megacities with lone non-Chrishan or
tian tradition (Hindu, Muslim. Buddhist,
25% Christian, and usually hostile to ^^hnstian mis^on
71 Megaministries are defined here as ministries
which each reach over 1 million
Total includes Scripture distribution, literature, hacls,
broadcasting, mass media, films, audiovisuals, it also
includes duplications and overlap^ , , e ^ o
72-73 (also 70). Defined as in WC£. parts 3, 5, 6, v.
International Bulletin of Missionary Research
- *» -***^**
S'I’ATUS OF GLOBAL MISSION, 1985, IN CONTEXT OF 20TH CENTURY
WORLD POPULATION
1. Jotal population
2. Urban dwellers
3. Rural dwellers
4. Adult population
5. Literates
6. NonJiterates
^ WORLD POPULATION BY RELIGION
7. Christians (total all kinds)
8. Muslims
9. Nonreligious
10. Hindus
11. Buddhists
12. Atheists
13. Tribal religionists
14. New Religionists
15. Jews
16. Sikhs
17. Other religionists
GLOBAL CHRISTIANITY
16. Total Christians as % of world
19. Afhliated church members
20. Practicing Christians
21. Charismatics in Renewal
22. Crypto-Christians
MEMBERSHIP BY ECCLESIASTICAL BLOC
23. Anelicans
24. Calnolics (non-Roman)
25. Marginal Proleslants
26. Nonwhite indigenous Christians
27. Orthodox
28. Protestants
29. Roman Catholics
fpM'. * ^7r^\ - uk.fif n\lifl A
(ft MEMBERSHIP BY CONTINENT '
^ 30. Africa
O' 31. East Asia
LP 32. Europe
W 33. Latin America
^ 34. Northern America
^ 35. Oceania
CP 36. South Asia
37. USSR ,
(\.‘i
CHRISTIAN ORGANIZATIONS ^
38. Service agencies
39. Foreipn-mission sending agencies
40. Institutions
CHRISTIAN WORKERS
41. Nationals
42. Aliens (foreign missionanes)
CHRISTIAN FINANCE ( in U.S. $, per year)
43. Personal income of church members
44 Giving to Christian causes
45. Chur^es’ income
46. Parachurch and institutional income
47. Income of global foreign missions
Giving per church member per week
48. to all Christian causes
49. to global foreign missions
CHRISTIAN LITERATURE
50. New commeraal book titles per year
51- New titles including devotional
52. Christian periodicals
SCRIPTURE DISTRIBUTION (all sources)
53. Biblespcr year
54. New Testaments per year
CHRISTIAN BROADCASTING
55. Christian radio/TV stations
56- Total monthly listeners/viewers
57. for Christian stations
58. for secular stations
^ WORLD EVANGELIZATION
59- Unevangelized populations
60. Unevangelized as % of world
Year:
1900
1970
1980
1985
,619,886,800
3,610,034,400
4,373,917,500
4,781,124,000
i32,694.900
1,354,237,000 ‘ '
1.797.479.000
2,053,544,000
.387,191.900
2,255.797,400
2,576,438,500
2,727,580,000
,025,938,000
2,245,227,300
2,698,396,900
2,939,432,000
286,705,000
1,437,761.900
1,774.002.700
1,960,103,100
739,233,000
807,465,400
924,394.200
979,328,900
558,056,300
1,216.579.400
1.432.686.500
1.S48 .592.200
200,102,200
550,919,000 ' *
722.956,500
817.065.200
2,923,300
543,065.300
?15.90l,400
805,784,900
203,033.300'
465,784,800
582,749,900
647,567,500
127,159,000
231,672,200
273,715,600
295,570,800
225,600
165,288,500
195.119,400
210,643,500
106,339.600
88,077,400
89,963.500
91,130,400
5.910,000
76,443,100
96,021,800
106,317,600
12,269.800
15,185,900
16,938.200
17,838,100
2.960,600
10,612,200
14,244,400
16,149,900
400,907,100
246.406,600
233,620,300
224,463,900
34 4
33.7
32.8
.32.4
521.563.200
1,131.809,600
1,323.389,700
1,425,927,300
469,259,800
884.021,800
1,018.355,300
1,090,348,400
0
1.587,700
11,005.390
16,759,700
3,572,400
55,699,700
70,395,000
78,184,800
30,573,700
47,557,000
49,804,000
51,100,100
276,000
3,134,400
3,439,400
3,600,900
927,600
10,830,200
14,077,500
15,770,800
7,743,100
58,702,000
82,181.100
94,797,600
115,897,700
a| % 143,402,500
160,737,900
169,648,700
103,056,700
|f,r’>233,424,200 '
262,157,600
277,914,100
266,419.400
H 7,7 *.672,319,100
802,660,000
872,104,700
2000
6,259.642,000
3,160.381.900“
3.099.260.100
3,808.564.300
2.697.595.100
1.110,969,200
-il* 2,019,921,400
.1,200,653,000
iI.r'k.07l,888,4(XI
|\.^ 859,252,300
1.5 T* 359,092.100
' 262,447,600
100,535,900
138,263,800
20,173,600
23.831,700
203,582,200
32 3
1,844,614,200
1,330,325,100
38,861,500
106,208,700
'.'1
61.037.200
4.334,100
24.106.200
154,140,400
199,819,000
^.3 1.)
8.756.400
1,763,000
273,788,400
60,025,100
59.569,700
4.311.400
16.347,200
97,002,000
1.500
600
9.500
1,050,000
62,000
270 billion
8 billion
7 billion
1 billion
0.2 billion
$0.29
$0.01
345,709,100
132,541,500
2,200
3,100
3,500
5,452,600
7,300.000
788,159,000
48.7
115,924.200
10.050.200
397,108,700
262,027,800
169,246,900
14.669,400
76.770.200
86,012,300
14.100
2,200
80,500
2,350,000
240,000
4,100 billion
70 billion
50 billion
20 billion
.3 billion
$1 19
$0.06
17,100
52.000
23.000
25.000. 000
45.000. 000
1,230
750.000. 000
150.000. 000
WO.OOO.OOO
1,391,956,000
38 6
164,571,000
191,080,700
16,149,600
19.333.300
403.177,600
406,235,000
340.978,600
383,250,800
178,892,500
163,852,300
16,160.600
16,909,400
106,733,200
123,097,800
96,726,500
102,168,000
17,500
19,300
3,100
3,500
91,000
96,000
2,950,000
3,500,000
249,000
250,000
5,878 billion
7,450 billion i;
100 3 billion
127 billion
64 5 billion
75 billion
35.8 billion
52 billion
5.0 billion
"7 billion
$1 46
$1.71
$0.07
$0.08
18,800
20,600
60,000
62,000
22,500
21,000
36,800,000
43,000,000
57,500,000
64,000,000
1.450
990.474,400
291,810,500
834,068.900
1,380,576,000
31.6
1,580
1,090.000,000
370.000. 000
920.000. 000
1,335,212,000
27.9
323.914,900
27,560.300
411.448.700
555.486.000
201,265,200
21,361,500
185.476.700
118.101.000
24,000
4,800
103,000
4,500.000
_ 400,00p_.
200 billion
80 billion
'120 billion
12 billion
$2.09
$0.10
25.000
75.000
35.000
70.000.000
110.000,000
4,000
2.150.000. 000
600,000.000
1.810.000. 000
1,038,819,000
16.6
METHODOLOGICAL NOTES (referring to num-
bered lines above). Indented categories form part of,
and are included in, unindented categories above
them. Definitions of categories are as given and ex-
plained in World Chrislian IticyclKfviim {\9S2), withad-
dihonal data and explanations as follows
7. Widest definition: professing Christians plus se-
cret believers, which equals affiliated (church mem-
bers) plus nominal Christians.
14, Adherents of Asian so-called New Religions.
17. Mainly Chinese folk religionists.
18. Definition as in 7.
20. Church altenders, by churches’ own definition
20-22. These entries are selected sub-groups of 19
January 1985
and are not intended as a complete breakdown of 19
21. Active members of the Renewal in older mainline
denominations (Anglican, Catholic, Orthodox, Prot-
estant).
22 Secret believers.
23-29. The total of these entries can be reconciled to
line 7 by referring to WCE, Global Table 4. To the total
of these entries, add the category "nominal Chris-
tians," and subtract "doubly-aniliated” and "disaffi-
liated" members, as found in WCE. Global Table 4
30- Definitions of the eight continents follow exactly
United Nations practice.
38. Including 39.
43-49. Defined as in article "Silver and Cold Have I
31
none," in Uiternalioiial ButlelDi, October 1983, p 150
46. As distinct from churches' (denominahonal) in-
come.
50, On strict UNESCO definition of book ( over 49
pages).
51. As 50, but adding the mass of smaller devotional
literature (prayer books, service books, liturgies, cho-
ruses, etc,)
56 Total of audiences in 57 and 58, excluding over-
1^.
58. Total regular audience for Christian programs
over secular or commercial stations.
59-60. Defined as in WCE. parts 3, 5, 6. and 9.
^ At r
Annual Statistical Table on Global Mission: 1985
i
David B, Barrett
Introduction
The table opposite is the first of an annual series. It is a brief, ab-
breviated, quick-reference, statistical summary of the present sta-
tus, in the year 1985, of the Christian world mission in its totality.
It views this mission under sixty different criteria or indicators or
variables. It depicts the broad sweep of global mission over the
years by setting the 1985 data (in bold type) in the context of the
twentieth century. This is done by giving three earlier years of ref-
erence (1900, 1970, 1980), and a later one (a.d. 2000, with esti-
mates based on present long-term trends).
The Century of Massive Growth (lines 1-17)
The twentieth century would have startled all earlier Christian ob-
servers by the sheer magnitude of its numerical increase. Just
about every category has experienced uncontrolled growth since
the year 1900; population (line 1, opposite), children, city dwellers
"What totally new surprises
. . . can God have in store for
the world of the twenty-first
century?"
(line 2), literates (line 5), refugees, the blind, the poor, the hungry
and starving (now over 1.5 billion in number). Urban dwellers in-
crease by a million a week. Psychotics at present number over 45
million, psychoneurolics over 800 million. For the Christian who
cares about God's world, and His mission in it, it has already be-
come a global nightmare.
The great non-Christian world religions share in this growth
too. Muslims (line 8) increase by 17 million a year, Hindus (line 10)
by 12 million, Buddhists (line 11) by 4 million. By virtue of their
location in countries with high fertility, Islajn an^Hinduism are
alsp growing in percent of world population, while Christianity is
d^cre^sing very slightly proportionately, though increasing in ab-
solute numbers (line 7). 1-3 c- . CKt)
ry. - 1 4o ’* • ••
East Asia as a Powerhouse (line 31)
China is the country to watch here. Line 31 presents a conserva-
tive scenario. But if the growth in China's Christians evident at
present continues, it may soon reverse the global trend and make
Christianity also a proportionately expanding world religion. The
1984 evidence is not yet conclusive. In 1980 the World Christian En-
a/clopedia (WC£) estimated the total of evangelized persons in
China (persons aware of Christianity, Christ, and the gospel) at
258 million but with known baptized members of known churches
conservatively estimated at only 1,800,000 (pp. 231, 234, 798, 810).
David B. Barrett, a contributing editor, serves with the Church Missionary Society
in East Africa, where he is Research Officer, Church of the Province of Kenya, and
for the Anglican Consultative Council, and the Lambeth Conference. The World
Christian Encyclopedia, which he edited, was published in 1982.
1
Since then, serious estimates of the size of China's burgeoning
house-church movement have mushroomed, first to 15 million,
then to 50 million, then to 75 million, and now to 98 million.
Clearly such claims cannot refer in their entirety to newly baptized
members (No Communist party in power would tolerate such cat-
aclysmic overt church growth!). A large proportion must be seek-
ers, inquirers, sympathizers, the interested, the attracted, the
influenced, the fascinated, the almost persuaded — what the WCE
calls "evangelized non-Christians" who know about Christ and
the gospel but who have not yet taken the step of commitment.
Such enormous numbers would obviously overturn the conserv-
ative estimates here (line 31) for East Asia (China, Japan, Korea).
By A.D. 2000, East Asia would then have become a major center of
dynamic Christianity — perhaps the major Christian global pow-
erhouse of the twenty-first century. And all this with little or no
active help from most strands of Western Christianity— except
prayer.
The twentieth century has also seen a phenomenal mushrooming
of Christian resources and ministries. Service agencies (para-
church organizations, line 38) have increased twelvefold from
1,500 in 1900 to 19,300 today: Christian institutions, tenfold (line
40). The fifteenfold increase in Christian stewardship of money
(line 44) is not nearly so spectacular because the United States dol-
lar of 1900 was equivalent to $11 today. We note further that par-
achurch income (line 46) is rapidly overtaking denominational
income (line 45). Literature and Scripture ministries (lines 50-54)
have all risen phenomenally. So, of course, has the ministry of
Christian broadcasting — from absolutely nothing in 1900 to a total
regular audience for Christian programs of 2, 150 million projected
for A.D. 2000. What totally new surprises of this type, completely
unknown and unexpected, can God have in store for the world of
the twenty-first century?
Progress in World Evangelization (lines 59-60)
The last two lines attempt to measure progress with the unfin-
ished task of world mission, at least by one criterion. Everything
depends here on what definitions we espouse. If we adopt the
narrower definition that only Christians can be called evangelized
(or the even narrower one that only active, committed, believing
Christians can be termed evangelized), then progress, on this cri-
terion, is nil. Line 18 then gives us the progress of world evange-
lization, and the unfinished task becomes 100 percent minus the
percentages on that line. No progress has occurred across the
twentieth century; there is even a small decline.
But this "high-church" measure of evangelization counts
only Christians or church members. It ignores the massive in-
creases since 1900 in the whole vast range of resources and min-
istries just described (lines 38-58). A measure that includes all
these is defined in WCE, parts 3, 5, 6, and 9. This yields the figures
in lines 59 and 60. This method demonstrates the very considera-
ble progress that there has been across the twentieth century in
terms of reducing the magnitude of the unfinished task.
Growth in Global Ministries (lines 3S-58)
30
International Bulletin of Missionary Research
loJi/Cf -
s. Moffett. CH02 ' 95 . asi [a]
Asian Christianity in the 20th Century
Samuel Hugh Moffett
My subject is Christianity in Asia, but anyone who talks
about Asia has a problem. Anything you say about Asia is false,
Asia is so vast and so varied that what you say about any one part is
going to be false about another part. Let me give you an example:
. iwT-
two eminent authors who write about Asia come up with two
diametrically opposite conclusions. The first is a highly respected
Indian historian, K. M. Panikkar. In a much quoted book (1953), he
says flatly, "...the [Christian) attempt to convert Asia has
failed."' Christianity has failed in Asia.
But the second. Harvard's mercurial Harvey Cox, writing a
few years later, this year 1995 in fact, comes back from a visit to
South Korea with a completely different view. Instead of terminally
ill, as Panikkar described it, Cox found Christianity so alive and
crackling in Asia, particularly in Korea, and especially
Pentecostalism, that he says, "...there is no reason why
Pentecostalism could not eventually become a major force in all of
southeast Asia, in China, and in Mongolia and Siberia." "..nearly
half the populace [of South Korea] is churched," he said.^
Which one is right, Panikkar or Cox? Is Christianity dead
in Asia, or is it about to explode across the continent as a major
actor in the continent's future?
My thesis in this lecture will be that Panikkar and Cox are
both wrong. "Anything you say about Asia is false". But both are
also partly right, and I think Cox, the optimist about a Christian
future in Asia, is more right than Panikkar the pessimist. I'll tell
you why I think so, and in the process I'll be telling you why I
believe that Asia is the greatest political, the greatest economic,
and the greatest Christian challenge in the world today. I'll begin
with three revolutions.
* K. M. Panikkar, Asia and Western Dominance. (London: Allen
& Unwin, 1953, 297.
^ Harvey Cox, Fire From Heaven. (Reading, Mass.: Addison-
Wesley 1995) , 220.
ti'sv ■
2
A«:;ia^s three revolutions.
Asia in our time has passed through three revolutions which
may soon make it the center of the world, as Europe once was, and
North America is now. Not today's Asia, but tomorrow's 21st century
Asia. Asia changes so incredibly fast. It has changed as much in
two generations, my father's and mine, as the West changed in 200
years during the industrial revolution.
There is an island off Korea's east coast where, in the
1960's, they put a bicycle wheel in the school museum. The island is
so isolated and rises so steeply from the sea that no wheeled
transportation was possible, and the islanders apparently wanted
their children to know what a wheel actually looked like. Yet at the
same time, just down the coast, other Koreans were already building
what is said to be the largest steel shipyard in the world, a huge,
sprawling thing, bigger than anything in Japan or the United States,
where they assemble and weld together in one piece the biggest oil
tankers yet made, bigger than the Empire State Building.
The 1950s were the years of the first revolution, which
Gunnar Myrdal calls the revolution of rising expectations. The west
was affluent; the east poor; but all that Asia needed to catch up, it
was told, was to do away with laissez-faire capitalism and exploiting
colonialism, and let national planning bring freedom and prosperity
to the people, preferably under the leadership of a communist Marxist
elite .
It didn't work, as we know, so the 1960s and 1970s brought
in a second revolution: the revolution of falling expectations.
Central, bureaucratic planning did not bring in what was designed.
Asia had been "more planned against than planned for", according to
Myrdal.^ And Asia didn't like the taste of that failed revolution.
So now Asia seems to be entering another period, not as
optimistic as the first, but not as discouraged as the second. It
appears to be on the verge of a third revolution: a revolution of
\ Myrdal, Gunnar, Beyond the Welfare State. (New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1960; and Asian Drama, 3 vols., (NY:
Pantheon, 1965), esp. 2: 937 ff.
3
reassessment . China is the prime example, China is pausing to look
back at the failure of the great Communist revolutions of Mao Tze-
Tung and Lenin. Their failure makes a western recession look good.
What this means for the history of Christianity in Asia in
our time is that this third revolution gives the church a second
chance. Panikkar was partly right, Christianity in Asia in the 1950s
did look like a failure. Some of his criticisms of Christianity's
link to colonialism are right on target.^ But in reassessment,
historians are taking another look at two forces in history to which
many of them had been strangely blind. On the one hand, either
through ignorance or secularist arrogance they underestimated the
power of religion; it has changed history again and again. And
second, they consistently understated the positive role of
Christianity in the third world. Marxist historians caricatured
religion as "the opiate of the people", and missionaries as "running
dogs of the imperialists". But today many new Asian historians are
changing their minds. The most prestigious university in communist
China is actually opening a Department of Christian Studies, More
and more they are willing to admit that Christian missions were a
primary liberating agent in the modernization of Asia. Apparently
the missionaries were doing something right. Colonialists and
communists were both on the wrong side of history, and both lost.
The missionaries, I believe, have usually been on the right side of
history, and it is their disciples who have won the battles for
freedom in so much of the third world — Africa and Latin America as
well as Asia.^ But now back to Asia: a quick continental overview.
^ Panikkar gives four important criticisms which must be
taken seriously: 1) The Christian churches were hopelessly
divided into warring sects; 2) This cast doubt on its claim to
have "a monopoly on truth"; 3) Christian missions were
unforgivably tainted by their ties to colonial imperialism; and
4) Western missionaries were offensively arrogant about the
supposed superiority of western culture. (Op. cit., 297).
^ On the need for rewriting the history of missions in
Africa, see Lamin Sanneh of Yale, "Christian Missions and the
Western Guilt Complex", Christian Century (4/8/1987), 330-334,
and West African Christianity: the Religious Impact, (Maryknoll
4
Asia: four continents and five manor religions.
Asia is not just another continent; it is a supercontinent.
It is so big that the United Nations divides it into four continents,
North, South, East and West Asia/ (See Handout, #2 FOUR ASIAS for
statistics. Europe, by comparison is just a big promontory jutting
off the Asiatic mainland to the West where it loses itself in the
Atlantic Ocean. And Asia is crowded . It holds 58%, nearly 60% of
all the world's people. By contrast. North America has less than 6%
of the world's people. And Asia is religious . It is the birthplace
of the world's five largest religious blocs: Buddhism, Confucianism,
Hinduism, Islam and Christianity.’ (See Handout, #3 WORLD RELIGIONS)
If Christianity is Asian, then why is Asia, in terms of
percentage of population, the least Christian continent in the world?
(See Handout, #5 CHRISTIANS BY CONTINENTS):.
LATIN AMERICA,
89%.
440,000,000
of
492,000,000
population
NORTH AMERICA,
78%
230,000,000
of
289,000,000
M
EUROPE & USSR,
66%
530,000,000
of
800,000,000
M
AFRICA
48%
341,000,000
of
700,000,000
n
ASIA (+Mideastl
1 7%
252,000,000
of
3,588,000,000
It 8
NY: Orbis, 1983).
^ Out of Asia's total population of 3,344 m. (excl. USSR):
East Asia has 1,366 m. people, more than Africa and Latin America
combined (700 m. , and 402 m = 1,192 m.); China alone has more
people (1,150 m.) than Europe and North America combined (800 m.)
South Asia has 1,461 m. people. India alone has more than all
Africa (866 to 700 m.)
’ Worldwide, the religions in order of numerical strength
and proportion of world population are:
Christians 1
,940,000,000
33.7%
Islam 1
,058,000,000
18.3%
Non-religious
937,000,000
16.3%
Hindus
777,000,000
13.5%
Buddhists
341,000,000
5.9%
Atheists
242,000,000
5.6%
New religionists
128,000,000
2.2%
Tribal religions
99,000,000
1.8%
—
adjusted from
IBMR, Jan. 1995.
p. 25
* Numbers refer to "affiliated" (i.e.
total who claim
to be
Christians. (adapted from
Jan. '95; and World Almanac
Int'l Bulletin
of Missionarv Research
, 1995).
5
Why is the percentage so low in Asia? One answer is the
powerful counter-claims of the other great Asian religions. But
another answer lies in the history of Christianity, itself. Most
Asians still look at Christianity and find it wanting. They believe
that their own inherited ways of thought and behavior are more than a
match for anything the West has to offer. So 93 out of every 100
Asians have resisted the expansion of Christianity.
for the rest of this hour let me use East Asia as my '
example to make a counter-claim: despite its history, Christianity is
expanding so fast in East Asia that although it has made some
mistakes, its future, far from hopeless, may change the religious
history of the whole continent for the next hundred years.
East Asia consists essentially of just three countries--
China, Korea and Japan. But those three occupy more land than North
America, and contain more people than Africa and Latin America
combined. And economically and culturally East Asia is now the
leading edge of change in the whole continent. Let me use China as
my first example.
China: where failure now looks like success. .
Five times in the long history of Christianity in East
Asia, Christians opened the door to China, and five times China
slammed the door shut against them. (See Handout, #6 FIVE PERIODS)^
Panikkar tends to remember only the times the door closed. I would
remind him that each time the door closed, Christians opened it again
and kept coming.
But when the door to China slammed shut on me personally in
1951, I came close to agreeing with Panikkar. I thought we had failed
again. I had reached China just in time to see 150 years of
remarkable Christian progress |ln the period I call "Protestant I"^
’ FIVE PERIODS OF ENTRY & REJECTION IN EAST ASIA
I. Nestorian I (635-907). Alopen reaches China.
II. Nestorian II; R. Cath. I (1200-1368). Sorkaktani
III. Roman Catholic II (1552-1773). The Jesuits
IV. Protestant I; R. Catholic III (1807-1949). Morrison,
Hong, the CIM
V. The Communist Revolution (1949...)
6
(1807-1949) wiped out by a communist revolution,
with Robert Morrison the first Protestant missin
n. The period began
<
inary to China. ' The
owner of the ship that took him across the Pacific laughed at him,
"Mr. Morrison, do you really expect that you will make an impression
on the... great Chinese Empire"? And Morrison said, "No, sir. but I
could still not report a single convert. In the first 25 years of
baptized — ten out of 300 million Chinese. About all that Morrison
plished was to translate the Bible into Chinese.*® As Panikkar
translation of the Bible. "And twice in the next hundred and fifty
years Chinese Christianity seemed on the verge of a breakthrough that
would win the whole country. The story can be told in terms of three
military revolutions, somewhat paralleling continental Asia's three
social revolutions which I described earlier:
1860), was a curious thing. In 1851 a native revolt broke out
against the corrupt Ch'ing dynasty and almost toppled the Manchu
emperor from his throne. What was so remarkable about it was that
the leader of the rebels. Hung Hsu-Ch'uan (I'll call him Brother
Hung) , considered himself to be a Christian, and Christians were very
rare in China then. He had come across a portion of Morrison's Bible
and was converted. I think he was only semi-converted, for though he
was very earnest he was far from being orthodox. He was, in fact, a
narrow, rigid, heretical Christian. He announced that all Chinese
must worship God — good; and destroy their idols (that depends) . He
published his own edition of the Bible (a dangerous business) . All
officers in his army were required to attend Sunday worship. If they
*® Elizabeth Morrison, Memoirs of the Life and Labours of
Robert Morrison (London: 1839); 1:136, 4089 f., 212 f.
expect that God will." Was he wrong? Seven years later Morrison
that first Protestant China mission only ten Chinese Protestants were '
said, it was impossible to convert Asia.
^ But all God needed there at the beginning was that
1. the Taipina Rebellion of 1850;
2. the nationalist revolution of 1912;
3. the communist revolution of 1949.
The first military revolution, the Taiping Rebellion (1850-
7
missed, they were flogged. If they missed two Sundays in a row they
were executed. It was a violent, unchristian kind of discipline, but
for an army, very effective, VJhen he captured the southern capital,
Nanking, even the western powers began to take Brother Hung
seriously. Perhaps he would be the Constantine for which Asia had
been waiting for 1500 years, at last a Chinese Christian emperor.
One report estimated that Brother Hung had 30 million Chinese
followers, all calling themselves Christians, just as he ordered.
But he never became emperor. His "Christianity" turned out to be a
flawed mixture of Bible truth, Chinese myth and imperial ambition.
In the end the so-called Christian west sent a Christian general to
an anti-Christian dynasty to put down what called itself a Christian
uprising, and the Taiping Rebellion failed.'*
Now jump forward about 60 years. Another revolution — the
Chinese revolution of 1912, which ended the old Manchu dynasty and
established the Republic of China. This revolution also had strong
Christian connections. Its leader was a young radical educated by
Protestants, baptized in 1884. His name was Sun Yat-Sen. For a
while he became an enthusiastic lay-preacher. Now unlike the Taiping
rebellion this revolution succeeded. The dynasty fell, and the new
Republic of China elected as its first president, the young Chinese
Christian, Sun Yat-Sen. The next fifty years, says Latourette, were
a time of "unprecedented open-mindedness to the Christian message and
of friendliness to the messengers", the missionaries.'^ For a time
in the 1920s and early '30s there were 8,000 Protestant missionaries
in China. The Chinese Catholic community was twice as large as the
Protestants. The next president was also a Christian, a general
named Chiang Kai-Shek, a Methodist. Christian colleges blossomed,
interest in the Christian faith boomed, and it was said that in the
"Who's Who in China" 25% of China's intellectual and political elite
" On the Taiping Rebellion see, for example, the three
volumes of Franz Michael, The Taiping Rebellion. (Seattle: 1966-
1971) .
Latourette, History of Christian Missions in China. (New
York, 1929), 610.
8
professed to be Christian. Would General Chiang, an acknowledged
Christian ruler of the largest country in the world, be the second
Constantine? History's answer was "No”.
I found that out very quickly. Fast forward another
twenty years. I reached China in 1947.. My timing could not have
been worse. China was in civil war — Chiang Kai-Shek's nationalists g/v
against Mao Tze-Tung's communists. When I asked, "Who will win?", ^ ^f\
they said, "The communists," and they were right. Within a year and
a half the communists captured the university where I was teaching,
and went on to take the rest of the country. Two years later I was
expelled. "When we get rid of you missionaries," the communists
boasted, "the Chinese church will wither away". And when I left
China I was almost discouraged enough to believe them. Maybe
Panikkar was right, and Christianity was about to die in Asia. That
was in 1951. There were then about three million Christians in
China — two million Roman Catholics and one million Protestants, and
the executions began shortly after we were expelled.
the communist revolution, it is the communists who are withering
away, and it is the Chinese Christians who are still there, growing
and growing and growing — stronger every year. No one really knows
how many Christians there are in China today. The government says
about 15 million. But the real figure, which has to be an educated
guess, is probably somewhere between 45 and 65 million — from three
million to 65 million is not "withering away".
problems, the most pressing of which is the split between the
government-recognized churches of the Protestant "Three-Self Church",
and the "underground" churches of the "House Church Movement." The
"Three Self Church" chose the Biblical admonition, "Let everyone be
subject to the governing authorities" (Rom. 13:1) and its churches,
though severely restricted, were allowed to remain open. The "House
Churches" chose a different text, "We must obey God rather than any
human authority" (Acts 5:29), and refused to be governed by an
atheistic regime.
But Panikkar was wrong. Today, after nearly forty years of
What, then, of the future in China? There are still
9
But be careful before you jump to judge one of them right
and the other wrong. The "Three Self Church" is to be commended for
preserving a visible presence for Chinese Christianity through the
long years of the revolution. It was right in thinking that
Christians must not be afraid of social reform. But it ran a risk —
too much dependence on government, and a tendency to emphasize
political social action over faithfulness in worship and prayer. The
right wing went underground, and is now the largest and fastest
growing segment of the Protestant movement, though still without
government recognition. But it, too, runs a risk — the lack of an
educated Christian leadership, and too little appreciation of the
necessities of social reform. Valiant efforts are being made on both
sides to heal that crippling division.
The Catholic side split also. Their left wing developed
into the Catholic Patriotic Association. It accepted the communists'
demands that they cut all foreign ties, which meant a renunciation of
the authority of Rome and the Pope. Their right wing, steadfast
through persecution and imprisonment, and fiercely loyal to Rome, has
virtually disappeared. But on both sides there are attempts to
recover the relationship with Rome that alone would restore Chinese
Catholicism's validity as a Catholic Church.
Japan: The Church That Didn't Grow.
Japan is a very different story. I wish I had time to tell the
story, for it would bring a refreshing breath of hard realism into
this too brief survey. Japan is a good antidote to too much
Christian triumphalism. One statistic will have to suffice. It is
interesting to reflect that there were more Christians in Japan in
the 17th century, three hundred and fifty years ago, than there are ^
today: Japan is less than 2% Christian today; China about 6%; and
Korea perhaps 30%. I must move on to Korea.
■"^The story of Christian mission in Japan, sandwiched in
between two brighter stories of triumph (China and Korea) , should
remind us that Christianity is not always a success story as the
world defines success. But time does not allow that.
In the 19th century, while the Chinese empire was
10
crumbling, the Japanese empire set out to conquer the world. In 1894
it defeated China. A Chinese army came rolling south with Mongolian
cavalry straight out of the days of Genghis Khan with banners and
drums. But its officers were still being chosen on the basis of
their ability with the bow and arrow. The Japanese, silent and
efficient, had modern guns. The great land battle of the Sino-
Japanese war was fought over Pyengyang, where my father had just
established residence as a missionary. And after the battle, as he
rode horseback through the battlefields and counted the Chinese
bodies laid out for miles, he said he felt he was watching the end of
the Middle Ages — guns against armour. Less than ten years later
little Japan defeated the Russian empire in the Russo-Japanese war
(1904-05), and when my father saw his first Russian prisoners in
Japanese prisoner-of-war camps, he said he felt he was watching the
end of another age, the age of the end of western domination of Asia.
So a victorious imperial Japan, unlike defeated imperial China,
met the incoming wave of 20th century Christian missionaries with an
air of assurance that felt no need to reexamine its own religious
foundations and consider Christianity. After all, it had just
soundly defeated one of the greatest Christian empires in the western
world, Russia. The result was little progress in Christian missions
in Japan. And in thirty more years the Japanese began a crusade to
conquer East Asia, first, then the rest of Asia, and perhaps next,
the world. But to conquer the world, Japan knew it needed more than
an army. It needed a faith, and what better faith than Japanese
Shinto with its syncretistic ties to Japanese Buddhism. So,
beginning with Korea, which they absorbed into their empire in 1905
after defeating Russia, they began to force Christians to adjust to
Japanese Shinto shrine worship, worship of the Emperor as divine.
While China was beginning to think it had a Christian Constantine,
Chiang Kai-Shek, Japan already had its emperor-god, Hirohito.
Korea: a success storv, but with problems.
My last example is Korea. It is hard for Christian observers
not to be triumphalist in describing South Korea. A recent visitor
11
returned not long ago from that country almost in shock. Methodism,
he said, began in England with John Wesley, but the largest Methodist
congregation in the world is not in England. It is in Seoul, Korea.
Presbyterianism began in Geneva with John Calvin, but the largest
Presbyterian congregation in the world is not in Geneva. It is in
Seoul, Korea. Pentecostalism as a modern movement began in Southern
California, but the largest Pentecostal congregation in the world is
not in Southern California. It is in Seoul, Korea.
But you don't have to go to Korea to sound triumphant about
Korean Christianity. in Princeton, American mainline
Protestantism is in decline all around us. But put the point of a
draftsman's compass at Mercer and Nassau, and draw a circle with a
70-mile radius around where I am standing, and you can count 700
Korean churches within that circle - 700 new churches which were not
here 35 years ago.
Or take the whole continent of Asia. In 1900 in all Asia
there were only 18 million Christians. Today there are 275 million —
a 15-fold increase in 100 years, which is more than 3 times as fast
as the increase in the number of Muslims in Asia in that same
period.*^ There are more Christians in Asia than there are people in
the United States. And for any of you who are Presbyterians and are
wondering whether at the rate we are declining in the west, there
will still be any Presbyterians fifty years from now, cheer up; there
are more Presbyterians in Korea than in the United States, and for
every Presbyterian we lose here, in Korea two or three new
Presbyterians are added. Korea has about 14 million Christians, of
whom in 1995 more than eleven million are Protestants, and about six
million of those are Presbyterians.
What happened in Korea? Whatever happened, it certainly
In Asia since 1900 Christians increased from 18 million to
more than 275 million, a factor of 15; while Muslims grew from
170 million to 688 million, a factor of only 4. In that same
period Hindus increased from 200 million to 745 million, a factor
of 3.6;, and Buddhists from 100 million to 332 million, a factor
of 3.3; (World Almanac. 1995, p. 731, and Catholic Encyclopedia.
1910) . The growth of Christians far outpaced all other Asian
religions.
12
impressed Harvey Cox, though in his understandable surprise at the
Pentecostal explosion, he missed the fact that there are five times
as many Presbyterians as Pentecostals in Korea. (Cox is mistaken,
also, when he labels Korean Pentecostalists as "Christian
shamanists" .
The question still stands. What happened in Korea? The
growth is obvious. Protestants grew faster than Catholics; and
Presbyterians grew faster than Methodists, Pentecostals and Baptists
combined. When my father went to Korea lOp years ago there were less
than 250 Protestant Christians in all Korea,'“north and south, and ^
only two little Protestant congregations; one Presbyterian and two ^
Methodist. Those 250, north and south, in 1890, grew to nearly
12,000,000 Protestants in the south alone today, not counting 2\
million Catholics, and a half million "marginal sects", like the
Unification Church. (Operation World. ^95)
But what made it grow? The best answer I know was given by
my father sixty years ago. To an inquiring committee from America,
he simply said, "For the last fifty years we lifted up to this
people the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit did the rest." Too
simple, maybe, but if Christians don't begin there, they usually
don't begin at all.
However, there are other important reasons why the Korean
church grew. I would mention, first, a non-theological reason.
Christian missions to Korea came in with no imperialist, colonial
baggage. It was an Asian colonialism (Japan) which Korea resented,
not the west. The American missionaries came as friends, not
exploiters JC ww ^ ^ j
2. A second non-theological reason is that the Protestants came
at a time when Korea's religious and cultural heritage was crumbling.
A 500-year-old Korean dynasty was tottering to its end.
Confucianism, Buddhism and Shamanism had all failed them when the
country was conquered by Japanj^ The failure of the old traditions
opened the way for them to look for hope to the new faith brought by
their friends, the missionaries.
3. But just as important, and probably even more effective, was
13
a third reason: the wise mission policy of those early missionaries.
It is called the Nevius Method, named for an 1850 graduate of
Princeton Theological Seminary, who went to China and reacted against
old methods of mission work there which, in his view, had kept the
control of the Chinese church in missionary hands too long. His
advice to his colleagues in China was, "Trust the Holy Spirit, and
trust the converts the Spirit gives you. Let them evangelize their
own country and build up a Chinese church". It was too late; the old
methods were too well established. But in 1890 when he brought the
same message to a meeting of pioneer missionaries in Korea, they
listened, and it became a turning point in the history of Korean
Christianity. The Presbyterian mission adopted the "Nevius Method"
as the official mission policy. It is no coincidence that although
Catholic missions began a hundred years earlier, and Methodists at
the same time as the Presbyterians, there are now twice as many
Korean Presbyterians as Catholics, and five times as many
Presbyterians as Methodists.
The Nevius Method, known today as the "Three-Self
Method",*"* was so successful in Korea that China's communists today
unknowingly borrowed the term from the Chinese YMCA, which in turn
had borrowed it from Korean Christians. Three Self: the first "self"
is self-government , that is, turn over the church to Korean control
as soon as there is a Korean ordained ministry to lead it. That was
done in 1907, the year the first class graduated from the first
Korean seminary. The second "self" was self-support. That was done
even earlier, in the 1890s. The mission decided not to pay the
salaries of Korean pastors or build Korean churches with American
dollars. Instead, they in faith entrusted the full responsibilities
of Christian stewardship to their converts. Koreans have been
"tithers" ever since.
4. A fourth reason for growth was what could be called the
Korean initiative. Mission policy called it the third "self", "self-
*"* TThe Nevius Method also has roots in the "three-self"
mission stategies advocated by Henry Venn in England and Rufus
Anderson in America.
14
propagation*'. More accurately, it was lay-evangelism, the
propagation of the gospel by laymen and laywomen, and it was started
in Korea not by the missionaries but by a Korean layman, Suh Sang-
Yoon, even before the first missionaries arrived. Suh was converted
in Manchuria by Scottish missionaries in 1876 and there helped in the
first translation of the New Testament into Korean. He brought some
copies of portions of the gospels with him back to Korea in 1893 and
formed a little Christian community in his home village. The next
year the first American missionaries landed — Horace Allen, a
Presbyterian doctor, Horace Underwood a Presbyterian minister (whose
great granddaughter, Laurel Underwood Brundage, may be a member of
this class), and Henry G. Appenzeller, a Methodist minister. But Suh
Sang-Yun was first. As one missionary remarked in admiration years
ago, the Korean Christians have been one step ahead of the
missionaries ever since!".
5. A fifth reason which helps to explain the rapid growth was
the firm grounding of the church in the spiritual basics of the
Christians faith: Bible study for theology, personal Christian
spiritual discipline, and enthusiasm for Christian witness. Both the
study and the outreach are important. Too much concern about one's
spiritual temperature is dangerous. Korean Christianity from its
infancy was outreaching, not narcissistic, not selfish. It was
evangelistic, missionary, and socially and politically active.
6. So a sixth reason for growth was prayer. A distinctive
feature of Korean church life is the day-break prayer meeting. It
takes spiritual discipline to get up at 4 or 5 in the morning for
spiritual, not physical exercise, prayer. One Presbyterian church in
Seoul has two day-break prayer meetings for its congregation: the
first at 4:30 to which 5,000 come; and the second, at 5:30 with
another 5,000. The pastor said to me, "I wasn't a very good student,
as you know (I had been one of his teachers), and I'm not a very
good preacher; but I pray."
7. A seventh reason was Bible Study. The early missionaries
translated the Bible into common, vernacular Korean using the Korean
alphabet so that everyone could read it. They didn't use the
15
difficult Chinese characters which were taught only to sons of the
elite by Confucian scholars. One of the requirements quickly
established for full communicant membership in the church in those
pioneer days was learning to read. How can you be a Christian if you
can't read the Bible? That may explain why Korea today has a higher
rate of literacy than the United States.
8. And revival . The Presbyterian church in Korea was organized
in the midst of revival. It was a spiritual revival, explosive and
spectacular, sweeping through the peninsula from 1903 to 1907 that
touched off the first massive ingatherings of church growth and
permanently stamped its character with revivalistic fervor that has
been compared with the revivals of John Wesley. Though the principal
benefactors from the revival turned out to be mostly Presbyterian,
the revival also gave Korean Christianity an ecumenical seal of
fellowship. The Koreans said to the missionaries, "Some of you go
back to John Calvin, and some of you to John Wesley, but we can go
back no further than 1907 when we first really knew the Lord Jesus
Christ".*^
9 . A ninth reason for growth was Korean Christianity's refusal ^
to polarize evangelism and social action. It practiced both, because
to Korean Christians both were gospel, good news. The early
missionaries were anything but spiritually other-worldly. The first
missionary. Dr. Allen, opened Korea's first modern hospital and then
moved from the mission into diplomacy to become an early American
Minister (ambassador) , No national problem or concern was considered
out of bounds for Christian care and concern. The pioneers gave
Korea its first schools for women, its first schools for the blind.
Underwood imported kerosene and agricultural implements, and
naturally a little later his brother's new product, the Underwood
typewriter. ^ Moffett opened a timber concession on the Yalu River,
managed by Christian Koreans. Foreign traders objected. That wasn't
missionary business, they said; it was infringing on the trader's
profits. The missionaries replied, "We are not doing it for personal
Moffett, Christians of Korea. 53 f.
16
gain. We are teaching our converts modern techniques and business
methods so they will be able to compete on a more equal footing as
Western civilization sweeps in one them". Besides, they said, "No
national problem or concern is out of bounds for Christian care and
attention.' It is no coincidence that the Republic of Korea's first
president after independence from Japan was a Christian, a Methodist; .
AtVvrv IV ^
and its ^r«Serrt president is a Presbyterian elder, and tjie -leader of
the opposition is ^ Roman Catholic. ^
But I must not let myself be carried away with beating the
success drums for Korean church growth. It speaks for itself (See
KOREAN CHURCH GROWTH in handout) . There is one reason for church
growth that I don't brag about. It is church schism. One of the
hard facts of Korean church history is that one way the Korean church
grows is by splitting. They call Korean Presbyterians "the Split
P's". There are more than 60 different Presbyterian denominations in
Korea. Each has its own General Assembly and its own moderator.
Where else in the world will you find a Jesus Presbyterian Church and
a Christ Presbyterian Church and Jesus isn't speaking to Christ. But
by the grace of God who allows even "human wrath to praise Him" (Ps.
76:10), when a Korean Presbyterian church splits, in ten years each
half seems to grow to be as large as the whole was before the split
occurred. It is perhaps significant that all the schisms have
occurred after the ravages and social disruption of the Korea War
(1950-53) .
But my time has run out. Let me close with seven one-
sentence lessons to learn from the history of the church in Asia,
beginning with this preliminary generalization: namely: the future of
Christianity in the 21st century will be largely shaped by the rise
of the third world church. But... now, the SEVEN LESSONS..
1. Christians will lose if they depend too long on political
power, whether national or foreign.
2. They will lose if they fail to be identified with and
appreciate their own national cultural heritage; and also
if they fail to bear a counter-cultural witness within that
heritage.
3. They will lose if they fail to produce educated leadership
for the nation and the church.
4. They will lose if they do not validate their spiritual
17
message with social compassion and integrity.
5. They will lose, however, if they concentrate on social
programs to the neglect of the personal and corporate
disciplines and responsibilities of the Christian life.
6. They will lose if they fail to keep their enthusiasm for
evangelism - sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ.
7. And finally, Christians will lose everything if they abandon
their theological center: One God, the Father, who is known
most clearly through His Son Jesus Christ, our only Savior,
who is known in truth through the Holy Spirit speaking
through the Scriptures.
And a final challenge to mission in Asia:
Confucius was born in Asia, and there are more Confucianists in
Asia than anywhere else in the world.
Buddha was born in Asia, and there are more Buddhists in Asia
than anywhere else in the world.
Hinduism was born in Asia and there are more Hindus in Asia
than anywhere else in the world.
Muhammad was born in Asia, and there are more Muslims in Asia
than anywhere else in the world.
Jesus Christ was born in Asia, but there are fewer Christians in
Asia, in proportion to population, than on any other
continent .
Asiafail.#2 (S. Moffett)
HAS CHRISTIANITY FAILED IN ASIA
(Statistics, 1998)
Christianity bv Continents:
LATIN AMERICA
89%
Xn.
461
in
Xns .
490
m.
pop
NORTH AMERICA
75%
II
223
m.
II
296
m.
II
EUROPE & RUSSIA
66%
II
535
m.
II
727
iti.
II
AFRICA
44%
II
330
m.
II
748
m.
II
ASIA (+ W.ASIA)
8%
II
286
m.
II
3513
m.
II
Christianity bv Country;
KOREA
27.0%
18
m.
Xns
45
m.
CHINA
6.5%
50
m.
II
1214
m.
INDIA
2.7%
31
m.
II
950
m.
JAPAN
1.6%
1
M.
II
126
M.
II
18
s. moffett. CH02'95. Asia
OUTLINE AND STATISTICS
I. Three revolutions in Asia. (2 expectations & a reassessment)
II. Four Asias; North (former USSR), pop.
West (Asian Middle East)
South Asia
East Asia (China, Korea, Japan,,)
296.000. 000
219.000. 000
1.461.000. 000
1.366.000. 000
III. Five World Religions (total membership)
Christians 1,
905,
000,
, 000
(33.6
Islam 1,
004,
000.
,000
(12%
Non-religious
930,
000,
,000
(16.3%
Hindus
770,
000,
.000
( 8%
Buddhists
340,
000,
,000
( 6%
Atheists
245,
000,
, 000
( 5.6%
New religionists
125,
000,
, 000
( 2%
Tribal religions
99,
000,
,000
( 1.8%
1 Christians ftotal
1/
905,
,300,
000)
Roman Catholic
1/
034,
,300,
000
Protestant
572,
, 000,
000
Orthodox
187,
,000,
000
of world pop.
V. Christians bv Continent (total claimed members) ,
Latin America
89%
Christian
(440 m.
out of 492
m. )
North America
78%
M
(230 m.
" 289
m. )
Europe (+USSR)
66%
II
(530 m.
" 800
m. )
Africa
48%
II
(341 m.
" 700
m. )
ASIA (incl. W.Asia)
7%
II
(252 m.
" 3,588
m. )
(adapted.
IBMR
Jan. 1995
; World
Almanac, 1995)
VI. CHRONOLOGY FOR EAST ASIA CHURCH HISTORY
1. Nestorian I (635-907), T'ang dynasty; Alopen
2. Nestorian II: R. Catholic II (1200-1368). Sorkaktani, John of
Montecorvino, Marco Polo.
3. Roman Catholic II (1552-1773). Xavier, Ricci, the Jesuits,
the Rites Controversy.
4. Protestant I; R. Catholic III (1807-1949). Morrison; the
Taiping Rebellion; the China Inland Mission; the
Chinese Republic.
5. The Communist Revolution (1949 — ). Three-Self
Church; House Churches; Catholic Patriotic Association.
19
CHURCH
STATISTICS.
EAST ASIA
I KOREA. CHINA.
JAPAN
KOREA. South
f33% Christian; est.
vary 20% to 43%
) / pop. ■45 rt
churches
members
affiliated*
Protestant
(27%) 37
,985
5,080,000
11,805,000
Roman Cath. (
6%) 2
,950
1,336,000
2,423,000
Marginal (0
. 6%) 3
, 150
183 , 000
594 , 000
Total 44
, 085
6,600,000
14,822,000
CHINA f6% Christian; est.
vary 2%
to 6%); pop. 1,
214 m.
Protestant
(5.1%)
25,000,000
58,000,000
Roman Cath.
(0.8%)
6,000,000
9,000,000
Marginal
(0.2
1.000,000
2 . 000 , 000
Total
32,000,000
70,000,000
JAPAN (2% Christian; est.
1.5% to
2.5%); population 126.3 m.
Protestant
(1.1%)
6,587
391,000
649,000
Roman Cath,
(0.3%)
950
290,000
414,000
Marginal
(0.7%)
4 . 100
605.000
870,000
Total 11,717
1,286,000
1,933,000
TAIWAN Christian) ; population
21.5 m.
Protestant
(3.1%)
2,794
280,000
608,000
Roman Cath.
(1.6%)
782
169,000
307,000
Marginal
(0.3%)
380
52.000
81,000
Total
3,956
501,000
1,196,000
HONG KONG fl4% Christian)
; population 6.15 m.
Protestant
(8.5%)
995
272,000
495,000
Roman Cath.
(4.8%)
47
165,000
280,000
Marginal
(0.8%)
66
24.000
45.000
Total
1,108
461,000
820,000
Korea, North
(0.7%)??;
population 26 m.
Protestant
(0.4%) ?
2
12,000
80,000
Roman Cath.
(0.2%) ?
1
40,000
7
7
* "Affiliated" = total claiming to be Christians, including adherents
whether baptized and communicant or not. Statistics from Operation
World. 1995. adjusted..
20
SIX LESSONS LEARNED FROM ASIAN CHURCH HISTORY
Thesis:. The future of Christianity in the next century will be
shaped by the rise of the third-world churches. BUT. .
1. Christianity will be weakened if it depends too long on
political power, national or foreign.
2. It will fail if it relates too little or adapts too much to a
national cultural heritage.
3. It will not grow if it loses its enthusiasm for
evangelism, for sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ
4. It will not succeed if it produces no committed, educated
leadership for the nation and the church.
5. It loses credibility if it does not validate its spiritual
message with social compassion and integrity, or if it so
concentrates on social programs that it negLects the
personal disciplines and responsibilities of Christian life.
6. And finally, Christianity is no longer Christian if it
abandons its theological center: One God, the Father, known
effectively only through His Son Jesus Christ, revealed by
the Holy Spirit through the Bible.
READING: SHORT LIST
China
Brown, G. Thompson, Christianity in the People's Republic of
China, rev. ed. (Atlanta: John Knox, 1986)
Hunter, Alan, and Kim Kwong Chan, Protestantism in Contemporary
China. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University, 1993)
Latourette, K. S., A History of Christian Missions in China. (NY:
Macmillan, 1929)
Ross, Andrew C., A Vision Betrayed: The Jesuits in Japan and China.
1542-1742. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1994)
Korea
Clark, Allen D., History of the Church in Korea. (Seoul:
Christian Literature Society of Korea, 1971)
Huntley, Martha, To Start A Work: Foundations of Protestant
Mission Work in Korea (1884-1919). (Seoul: PCK, 1987)
Moffett, Samuel Hugh, The Christians of Korea. (NY: Friendship
press, 1962) .
Shearer, Roy E., Wildfire: Church Growth in Korea. (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1966) .
Nelson, Marlon & Bong Ro, Korean Church Growth Explosion. (Seoul:
Word of Life, 1983) .
Japan
Drummond, Richard H., A History of Christianity in Japan. (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971)
Phillips, James M., From the Rising of the Sun. (Maryknoll, NY:
Orbis, 1981).
Tetsunao Yamamori, Church Growth in Japan. (Pasadena: Wm, Carey
Libr. , 1974) .
1U
/Vv
They call it the ecumenical century. That's all right, but it depends on what
/s
is meant by ecumenical". It doesn't mean the century of the World Councd
of Churches, though we need one,* we need to let the world know that even
Protestants are not hopelessly divided. And ecumenical does not mean
"interfaith", as so many use it today. As Christians have used the Greek
word from which we derive "ecumenical", it means Christian unity, not
religious unity, and it means "global" in the sense of "world-wide". But it
falls apart unless it is combined with that 19th century word, "Mission."
Which is why Marge Carpenter, our moderator of the General Assembly a
few years ago, still covers the country saying, "Mission, mission, mission".
And why John Mackay, when he was moderator of the General Assembly
forty years ago, told us Presbyterians, " Mission loses credibility without
some visible evidence of Christian unity; but ecumenics without mission
ceases to be Christian".
So despite some dark shadows, it's precisely because of the 20th
century in missions that I can't be a pessimist about the 21st century and the
third millennium. In terms of actual, visible progress, the 20th was greater
than the "great century" the 19th.
smof fett . 20c-miss
WORLD MISSIONS TODAY: THE 20TH CENTURY
My mentor in doctoral studies at Yale, Prof. Kenneth
Scott Latourette wrote three thick volumes on what he called "the
great century in Christian missions", the 19th. But halfway
through the 20th century, writing in 1945, he wondered how to
describe it for a final volume. World War II had just ended. He
finally decided to describe 20th century missions, up to the half
century at least, as "Advance Through Storm". He was quite sure of
the last word "Storm", but he was not sure whether by the end of
the century we would still be able to call it "Advance" .
I wish he had lived to find that he was right. The 19th
century was not the end of foreign missions. If anything the
missionary movement is stronger, broader, and more global than it
was 100 years ago when the century began. But what a change!
Where is the growth? Where are the missionary "ends of the earth"?
Where are the missionaries coming from, and more important, where
are they needed most?
The 19th century, the great century (1792-1900), did not
begin as a "great century". For Protestants, at least, it began so
small it was not even noticed. But unlike the tiny ripple that
sent Carey to India at the beginning of the 19th century, the 20th
century started with a tidal wave of missions. A tidal wave
traveling west to east and north to south, building up into a great
one-directional movement of missionary advance with what seemed to
be irresistible force- -it carried with it a thousand new
missionaries a year for a while, crashing across the coasts of
continents as tidal waves do, sweeping, breaking all before it at
least it seemed so for the first ten years of the new 20th century,
up to the great World Missionary Conference at Edinburgh in 1910.
Then the picture begins to change. The great wave of
missions begins to break up on the rocks, as tidal waves do. It
hits World War I in 1914, and for the first time millions of non-
Christians see Christian missionary countries fighting against
2
other Christian missionary countries. But it survives the war and
regroups for a second great Missionary Conference, Jerusalem 1928.
(My father was a delegate at both Edinburgh and Jerusalem) .
But Jerusalem 1928 was not so confident as Edinburgh 1910
about missionary advance. Indian and Chinese and African
Christians from enthusiastic young mission churches were puzzled
when they saw Christian leaders from their mother churches in the
West argue heatedly with one another on what the missionary
movement is all about. It was the first hint of a theological
revolution that to many seemed to cut the nerve of missions, that
began to ask, "Are we so sure that we should try to convert people
who already have such beautiful old religions of their own?
People were beginning to think that the day of the
missionary was over. It sounds like the end of foreign missions.
"We have enough problems right here at home, let's not mess up the
rest of the world". BUT IT WAS NOT the end. Let me begin with a
little good news.
Perhaps the best brief way to describe the stormy but by
no means ineffectual course of the Christian mission in the 20th
century is to take the general outline of the characteristics at
which we looked in the last hour, and ask how 20th century missions
remained the same, or changed for the better, or for the worse, in
the 1900s.
19th Century
1. Predominantly Protestant
2 . Expanding
3 . Pioneers
4 . Evangelistic
5. Theologically Biblical
6. Structure voluntary, moving
toward denominational ism
7. Tinged with colonialism.
8. Mission to plant churches on
unreached continents .
20th Century
1 . Diverse : Protestants ,
Catholics, Pentecostal .
2. Leveling off
3. Ancillary partners
4. Evangelistic/wholistic/and
sometimes confused
5. Theological tensions
6. Church, Unions, Schisms
and parachurch tensions
7 . Tinged with economic and
cultural pressures
8. Mission with the churches
on all continents to
the world.
A good deal of those generalization in the second coliiinn
are not good news, but let me begin with the good news.
The 19th century saw great expansion; but are we still growing?
3
Yes. Latourette was right, it was a stormy century, but
he was also right to think it might be an advance. Look at point
2 of the outline: "Expansion". world. As it turned out, it was ;
it was a story of a great advance in mission, as great as any in
the "great century", the 19th-- but very different. It has been a
bumpy road. Stephen Neill, in his History of Christian Missions
(1964) reminds us that only three religions
"have been always and essentially missionary- -Buddhism,
Christianity and Islam". Buddhism, he says is declining
despite sporadic revivals and its effective influence does not
extend beyond East Asia. Islam, despite vast oil wealth, is
not expanding except by population increase in the Middle
East, parts of Africa [and token growth among blacks in the
United States] . Christian missions alone, he said are
worldwide and expanding beyond their national, ethnic base.
That is still basically true though it underestimates the
counterforce represented by Islam. But American Christians do not
quite realize how much their own missionaries accomplished in the
last 100 years. They went out to evangelize and plant churches.
See # 8 on the outline. And they did- -how well they did it! How
many of you know the names of the ten largest denominations in the
third world?
3
smof fett . 20c-miss
The Largest Protestant Denominations in the 3rd World
Eight (about one fifth) of the largest Protestant
denominations in the third world are Pentecostal,
Independent/Indigenous; 5 Presbyterian, 4 United, 4 Anglican;
Baptist, 3 Lutheran, and 3 Methodist, and 1 Seventh Day Adventists.
By continents: Asia 15, Africa 14, Latin America 5.
(Operation Wor:
[ China House Church Movement -
1. Assemblies of God, Brazil
2. Anglican Church, Nigeria
3. 3-Self Church, China
4. Church of Christ, Congo/Zaire
5. Kimbanguist Church, Zaire
6. Anglican Church, Uganda (CMS)
7. Kale Heywet (Wd of Life) Ethiopia
8. Univ. Reign of Life Ch, Brazil
10. Congregatio Crista, Brazil
11. Church of South India, India -
12. Reformed Churches, S. Africa
13. God Is Love Ch., Brazil
14. Reformed Churches, Indonesia
15. Batak Church, Luth. , Indonesia
16. Evang. Chs, W. Africa, Nigeria
17. South African Methodist
18. Hapdong Presbyterian, Korea -
19. Tonghap Presbyterian, Korea -
20. Anglican Church, South Africa
21. Manalista Ch. of Christ, Phil.
22. Council, Baptist Chs. NE India
23. Ch. of Jesus Christ, Madagascar
24. Reformed Churches, Indonesia -
25. Burma Baptist Conv'tion, Burma
26. Methodist Church, Nigeria
27. Brazil Baptist Convention
28. Christ Apostolic Ch., Nigeria
29. Pentecostal Church, Indonesia
30. Baptist Convention, Nigeria
31. Ev. Lutheran Chs, India (11) -
32. Ch of God Miss., Nigeria
33. Ev. Lutheran, Tanzania
34. Methodist Church, Korea
35. Jesus Assembly of God, Korea -
35. Church of North India, India -
36. Seventh Day Advent., Brazil
(Cf. in West: Ev. German Ch 29m; Anglican 23m; US S Bapt 22m)
35,000,000
(Indep]
22,000,000
(Pent , )
17,500,000
(Angl . )
17,000,000.
(United)
9,200,000
(United)
7,500,000
(Indep. )
7,400,000
(Angl . )
4,600.000
(Ind., SIM)
4,000,000
(Pent . )
3,000,000
(Pent . )
3,000,000
(Angl . )
2,800,000
(Pres/Ref . )
2,700,000
(Pent . )
2,700,000
(Pres/Ref . )
2,500,000
(Luth. )
2,500,000
(Indep . )
2,500,000
(Meth. )
2,100,000
(Pres/Ref)
2,000.000
(Pres/Ref)
2,000,000
(Angl . )
1,700,000
(Indep. )
1,630,000
(Bapt . )
1,560,000
(United)
2,700,000
(Pres/Ref)
1,500,000
(Bapt . )
1,500,000
(Meth. )
1,400,000
(Bapt . )
1,300,000
(Pent . )
1,280,000
(Pent . )
1,250,000
(Bapt . )
1,200,000
(Luth. )
1,200,000
(Pent . )
1,150,000
(Luth . )
1,000,000
(Meth. )
1,000,000
(Pent , )
1,000,000
(United)
900,000
(7th Day)
5
Numbers, of course do not tell the whole story, but if
the Christian churches around the world are not getting better,
they are at least getting bigger. In numbers and strength our 20th
century has been of even greater, nprecedented expansion than "the
great century" . By the end of the century, the number of
Christians in the world had increased from 558 million to 2
billion, almost quadrupling in 100 years. That's the good news.
The bad news is that world population increased even
faster, and in proportion to world population Christians had
slipped, not increased- - from 34.5% to 33%. That isn't so much, but
when compared with the Muslim growth in that same period from 12.4%
in 1900 to 21.5% in 2000 it is ominous. (Operation World, 1993, p.
159. Add to that the fact that in 1900 we had almost caught up to
Roman Catholic worldwide expansion, in 2000 almost 16% of the world
is Roman Catholic; less than 12% is Protestant, though thanks to
the third world we may be growing just a little faster than they
are. (Operation World, 2000, p. 2).
The difference between the 19th and 20th century is that
today, most of the planting and growth is not in our western world,
but in the third world, and not by mainline western churches, but
by the evangelical wing of western Christianity and their fast
growing partners, the Christian of the third world churches.
The great mission-minded John Wesley said that the world
was our parish, but we in our major denominations in America are in
danger of forgetting it. We are collapsing in on ourselves.
Almost every year for the last forty years we have been cutting
back on the number of long-term missionaries which we send out
across the world. Despite an excellent record in short-term
mission, which are indispensable for young people, over all we in
what is no longer "mainline" Protestantism are shrinking. I have
read that 60% of the new churches started in America in the last
ten years have been started by our somewhat dissatisfied
"evangelical" fringes. We shake members like dandruff out of our
churches and don't realize that we are going bald. Meanwhile, the
splintering sects --the independents, the parachurches , the jumping,
shouting Pentecostals--have, not so quietly, been taking the world
away from us. Fifty years ago we outsent them in sending long-term
career missionaries overseas 9 to 4; today they are beating us 40
to 3. (OMSC publication pamphlet, Robert Coote, ed, 2001).
In important sectors of the world we are no longer the
dominant "living presence of missionary witness". I stress the
words "living presence". The phrase calls to mind a Methodist
phrase, "a warm heart", as in Wesley's description of his
Aldersgate experience. An often non-verbal, compassionate love
must be the inseparable companion of the verbal evangelistic
proclamation of the gospel, the Word of God. But along with other
mainliners Methodists, Presyterians , Episcopalians, even Lutherans
seem to be cooling off. "If God so loved us, we also ought to love
one another," our neighbors", our global neighbors
II. Protestants. If the 19th century was predominantly Protestant
in missionary advance, was the 20th century also Protestant? The
answer is NO. [See #1 on the comparison outline] . In the 19th c.
Protestants drew virtually even to 400 years of Roman Catholic
expansion in the third world. But about midway in the 1800s, after
recovering from fifty years of sharp decline (1790-1840), in the
20th century Catholics once again outpaced the Protestants in
missions.
In 1911 Protestants had about as many foreign
missionaries as the Catholics, but by 1980 the number of Catholics
overseas in mission far surpassed the Protestants. Here in the USA
we have a distorted view of Protestant predominance. We see how
about three times as many American Protestants go out as
missionaries compared to the number of American Catholics (32,800
to 16,000 in the 1980s). What we fail to note is that worldwide,
catholic missionaries far outnumber Protestants. In fact, of the
220 countries sending the highest proportion of the population
overseas in mission, the US ranks only 16th. It sends out the
largest number, but only 1 in 4,870 Americans is an overseas career
missionary, while 9 out of the top 10 sending are predominantly
7
Catholic. Little Catholic Ireland, for example, in proportion to
its population, sends 15 times as many career missionaries as huge
Protestant America. (Mission Handbook. 13th ed., 1986, 79f.)
But now the good news. I am not ready to give up on the
Protestant mainline churches. Look at that chart of great third-
world churches again. Nineteen were the fruit of mainline missions
(Presbyterian/Reformed, Anglican, Methodist, Lutheran and United;
more than the sixteen which were Pentecostal or independent,
including Baptists as independent. And almost all of them are
mission minded, which is characteristic of most of third world
Christianity today.
Asia alone is now sending out 69,000 foreign missionaries
all over the world, ten thousand from Korea, not counting their
pastors of Korean churches in America. If could put a finger on my
desk in Princeton, and draw a circle on the map with a radius of 70
miles, I can find 700 Korean churches within that circle. And 60%
of those Korean Americans in those churches were not Christians
when they came as immigrants to America. They are the fastest
growing churches in most of our denominations here.
But let me focus, in closing this hour, on the largest of
all those third world churches, the fruit of the work of the 19th
century's pioneers. How ironic that the largest 3rd world
Protestant church denomination is in China, a country which is
anti-missionary. The Three-Self Church in China, is the only
organized Protestant denomination in Communist China. Its Catholic
8
counterpart is the Catholic Patriotic Association in China. When
I left China in 1951 the communists who were expelling me
confidently told me that after they had gotten rid of all the
missionaries (there were about 8000 Protestant missionaries in
China at the height in the late 1920s) the Chinese church would
wither away. Even in our western churches many reluctantly assumed
the worst. When people talk so confidently about the end of the
missionary era, I am reminded of how wrong they were about the
church in China. They thought both the missionary movement and the
Chinese church were destroyed by the Chinese revolution. They were
wrong .
Four times in history the door to China has been
opened to the gospel, and four times it was closed, and four times
the Christian faith was declared dead or dying in that great land.
Four failures--the 10th c., the 14th, the 18th and the 20th:
1. Nestorian I (635-906 AD). Alopen & the T'ang dynasty.
2. Nestorian II (1200-1368) . Nestorians, Mongols and early R.C
3. R.C. II, (1552-1773). Jesuits, Ricci & Rites Controversy.
4. The Protestants (1807-1949). Morrison, Taylor, Hung Hsiu-
Ch' uan .
But what happened after that? Well the truth is that
after I left, the Chinese church not only did not wither away, it
came back to life in what some call the greatest explosion of
church growth in the history of the Christian faith.
When all is said and done, we must remember that the
ground of hope for the future of the Christian world
mission is not the number of Christians, and not a partnership of
churches. Our hope is never in ourselves but in God- -Father, Son
and Holy Ghost; God the Sender who "so loved the world that he
sent; and God the Sent, Jesus, the "Saviour of the world"; and God
the Holy Spirit who is "with us to the ends of the earth" .
And this world, the whole world, is still our parish.
Samuel Hugh Moffett
a., ^irv
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If the 19th century was "the great century" of missions, as
U ytg s^; ^ • Vi. \ Jf !p , V aUt^-. •
Prof. Latourette so persuasively demonstrates in his great seven volume ^ ^
history of mission expansion, how shall we describe the 20th? ^
Latourette himself described it halfway through the century as "Advance ny: ■
Through Storm". He was quite sure of the last word, "Storm", but not
about the first word "Advance". In 1945 when he wrote that volume, he
was not at all sure that by the end of the century we would still be
able to claim that the missionary movement had actually advanced in the
hundred years since 1900.
Some are quite sure it has not. They say that we have come to
the end of the missionary era.*^h? Christian mission has been washed
down the drain with its partner, imperial western colonialism, ami as
the mh was the century of missions, the 20th is the century of
ecumenics, and the 21st will be the century of civilized religious
pluralism. ^ No more missions.
Others take a gentler, more moderately negative view. This is
not the end of Christian missions, they say; it is only the end of the
missionary. Now that there is a Christian church in every nation, we no
longer need foreign missionaries. Asians will complete the mission task
in Asia; Africans in Africa; Latin Americans in the south. "Missionary,
r V ft I il ^ ' V , C a r^u1 , A* ' ^ \
9° V ' .uJi T- V. ' - - , ^
>It will be the thesis of today’s lecture that neither of these _ '
two popular assumptions are true. The 20th century has ^proved to be
neitiaer ^he end of 2000 years of Christian missions, nor has it been
called to mSum-^&r-re^ce-'^dependi-ng on -your prej^id^es) ovef^-the
ex-tmctio^f what we once called "foreign missionaries". If anything,
the missionary movement today appears to be stronger, better supported
and more global than 100 years ago in iis-goWen-days-, its "great
century'^ But^the last hundred years have not been easy. Ahey began
high on missions; they hit new lows, and though the present seems
brighter, the end of the century is not here yet. I make no predictions
about the year 2000.
The 20th century in missions did not begin like the 19th with
an almost unnoticed ripple--a shoemaker, two books and a Bible on the
iW. I i ] ■ : ; .1.. . /-i,
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V
pietist fringe of Christian England.) The ?0th century began ‘witli-a
/ A
tidal wave of missionary enthusiasm traveling west to east and north to
south building up into a great one-directional movement of missionary
advance that crashed into the 20th century with what seemed to be
• -UH r u .
irresistible force--a thousand new missionaries a year for a while,
crashi-ftg across the coasts of continents, as tidal waves do, sweeping
all before itj^it seemed, at least for the first ten years of the new
century, up to the greet missionary conference at Edinburgh in 1910.^^j ^
WitJs 1 ■ ■ fc-
Then the picture^change^. The great wave of missions heg“n^ ■
to break up on the rocks as even tidal waves do. It hit World War I im
IW., and for the first time millions of non-Christians saw Christian
missionary countries fighting against other Christian missionary
countries. But it survived the war and regrouped for a second world
missionary conference, Jerusalem 1928. This one, however, wass'not so
confident as Edinburgh had been in 1910, and Indian and Korean'^and
Chinese and African delegates from enthusiastic, new, young mission
churches were pu7?led when they saw western Christian leaders argue
heatedly with each other on what the missionary movement is all about,
and whether Christians should spend their missionary energy on
conversions or on learning more about the world's other religions. It
was the first hint of a theological revolution that seemed to many to
threaten to cut the nerve of mission advance. The next year the Great
Depression hit missions in the pocketbock. And in stunning succession
there followed another world war and an atheistic revolution in
Christian Russia which proved more threatening to Christian missions
than any world war had ever been. By the middle of the 20th century the
advance of this new missionary faith, communism, had stripped away from
free contact with Christian missions about one third of the whole
population of the earth.
How then can anyone say that the missionary movement in the
?0th century is alive and well and growing stronger every year?
Well, let me begin by saying that at least it is getting
bigger. Here are three handbooks on Protestant missions. This one you
saw the other day: "all you needed to know" about Protestant missions in
1792 at the end of the 18th century. It is Carey the shoemaker's
Enouiry, a very thin small book. This next one is a slightly larger
We(/
4
6)
handbook on missions written a hundred years later, at the end of the
19th century. It is A Short History of Christian Missions by George
Smith in 1886. It is all my father "needed to know" about missions in
1890 when he went to Korea. But Smith's handbook isn't that much bigger
than Carey's Enquiry. It doesn't make 19th century missions look like
much of a tidal wave. Not when you compare it with this little 1000
page handbook on ?0th century missions. This is what we have to struggle
' with to know about missions today: David Barrett's World Christian
Encyclopedia, and this is just the statistics, not the story of the
Christian world mission in the 20th century. At least we're bigger.
means ineffective course of Ch^stian missions in the 20th century is to
take [the general outline of the) characteristics of 19th c. mission and
ask what remained the same and what changed in missions in the 20th
century. Here is a comparison:
outreach and in one short century virtually draw even to 400 years of
Perhaps the best brief way to describe the stormy but by no
1 9th Century wv M;
20th Century
1. Ecumenical, but with Roman
r'a-f- hr*l ■? mny'Q
I- — ^ Predominantly Protestant
— ^ ^ 4. ..Evangelistic and confident
5. Cooperative
6. Structurally voluntary but moving
4. Motives diffused by
^ /^fSjogicaJ controversy
5. Polarized
6. Structurally mixed: church ire. Jctw./
toward church societies*. ^
7. Tinged with colonialism
7. Tinged with cultural and
economic imperialism
Cov-i-*’ i' ,<4 -
8. Two-way mission on six
continents
8. Mission to plant churches on
unreached continents
missionary advance. Was the 20th? No, { The. 19th century saw Protestant
missions shake off 250 years of relative indifference to worldwide
\ . c .
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Roman Catholic expansion in the third world^ But about midway in the
19th century Catholics recovered from fif-^, years of sharp decline
^fWtii
(1790-1840), and in the 20th century once again surged ahead.
A
In 1911 Protestants had about as many foreign missionaries as
the Catholics and almost as many converts but by 1980 the number of
Catholics overseas in mission once again far surpassed Protestant. Here
in the U.S.A. we have a distorted view of Protestant predominance. We
see how about three times as many American Protestants go out as
missionaries compared to the number of American Catholics (32,800 to
12,000). What we fail to note is that worldwide Catholic missionaries
far outnumber Protestants. In fact of the twenty countries sending the
highest percentage of their population overseas in mission, the United
States ranks only 16th. [Tt sends out the largest number, but only one
in 4,780 Americans is an overseas career missionary; while 9 of the top
10 sending countries are predominantly Catholic. Spain, for example,
ranks second to the U.S.A. in total number of missionaries sent overseas
(27,900 to the USA's 44,800), but of Spain's 27,900 missionaries only
'V
ten are Protestant. . And littl_e_Catholic Ireland, in proportion to its
population, sends 15 times as many career missionaries out across the
world as huge Protestant America (USA). (Mission Handbook, 13th ed.,
MARC 1986, p. 79 f.).
For a while, after a century of colonialism and after World
War II, people were saying the younger church grov/s best without foreign
missionaries. A closer look at the comparative growth rates of
missionary-rich Roman Catholicism, and the Protestant experiment with a
\ moratorium on missionanes suggests dust the oppos i te . ^
W ■ kC ^nijoh Catholics led in missionary sendinq/.the good news
^ V ''k ^ \ ^ y - -A — ;
about Protestant missions is that contrary to the general impression,
rO*! ^ number of overseas missionaries sent out from Protestant North
/Ho- i<i -
> 3*?
VcJ
America is n^ decVhring. U continues to leap upward. In 1960 there
were 29,400, in 1973 37,000; in 1985 67,200. There are now actually
i
37,000 more American missionaries overseas than there were just M years
ago». in 1960,.v (41% of the total in 1985 were" short-termers; ten years
earlier in 1973 only 10% were short termers, but factoring in the short
termers on the basis of months served, the increase in missionary
numbers remains phenomenal). (Mission Handbook, 13th ed., pp. )
hA*) ^ ^ ^
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■*73 A«'ty^/('y3fvyj
The bad news is that none of this dramatic explosion in
contemporary North American missions overseas can be credited to our
mainline Protestant churches. The increase is outside the
ecclesiastical establishment. The figures are ominous. WCC-related
ecumenically denominational mission agencies overall lost 50% of their
missionary personnel in just the last 20 years; independent agencies
like the Southern Baptists, Pentecostals, and Wycliff Translators gained
50%;[whilp the old-line faith and evangelical denominational agencies
also gained, but only 10%^ Numbers is not everything, as they say, but
a 50% loss in 20 years in personal involvement in world mission is not
something to boast about.
Here are the figures for eight years, from 1972 to 1979:
Episopal, down
United Presbyterian
Lutheran Ch. in America
United Church of Christ
United Methodist
But Southern Baptist up +88%
Assemblies of God +49%
(ibid., 9/18/81, p. 16)
In our own Presbyterian USA church, in 1927 in the northern branch alone
we had 1606 overseas career missionaries; in 1982 putting both northern
and southern branches together the number had dropped to 831; and in
1986 our total number was 627, a thousand less than the northern branch
alone had in 192^ fi" ^^elps our figures a little if we factor in other
categories like short termers, but it doesn't help much. Even there the
independent groups outnumber us. Compare our^400 or so, with a
missionary parachurch organization like Youth With A Mission's 4000 ^
short m ^ ^ ^ W ^
— — — " As David Stowe, executive of the United Church pf Christ's
Board of World Ministries wrote in 1980:
"1. The traditional missionary sending system is stronger than
ever.
2. The foreign missionary force is at an all-time high and still
growing.
3. [But] the center of gravity of Protestant missionary-sending is
shifting constantly away from 'ecumenical' agencies toward
conservative and fundamentalist ones..."
I can remember the first indications of that trend appearing
as early as the end of World War II when the first much-heralded
shipload of foreign missionaries, over 300 of them, sailed for the
orient after the years of war-enforced exile from their mission fields.
Mv brother Charles was on the ship with his family sailing for India.
and that the Christian religion" (p. 559)
It is Neill's thesis, which he argues well, that only three religions
"have been always and essentially missionary--Buddhism, Christianity and
Islam" (ibid). Buddhism, he says, is declining despite sporadic
revivals and its effective influence does not extend beyond East Asia.
Islam reached its peak five centuries ago. and not even the financial
bcnenzo of its oil discoveries has yet revived its spiritual and
religious power much beyond its base in the Middle East. Christian
missions alone, he says ore worldwide and still expanding.
His statement needs revision. Islam is also expanding,
perhaps in recent years faster even than Christianity, but it is quite
true that its base is smaller and its influence more localized.
At any rate, whereas the number of Christians at the end of
the 19th century had almost tripled in the one hundred years from 1800
to 1900 f?00 m. to 558 m.); the 20th century will almost quadrupled the
number of Christians,, in our 100 years from 1900 to the year 2000 (558 m.
to 2,000 m.). Even if we stick to what we know, that is the 20th c. to
/
1987, the numerical increase has been enormous:
-from 558,000,000 in 1900 to J->l6,«)0,-000-in 1987. '’‘”1
-- More than half of this number are Roman Catholic, 266 to
v/hich is an increase of from 48% to 55% of the world's
Christians. ^
--Protestants have increase almost as much propcrtiorately, from
36 ^ W
25% to of the world's Christians, but less numerically,
Of ^
from 141 m. in 1900 to 483 m. in 1^.
--The big loss has been in Orthodoxy, from 21% of all Christians in
1900 to 18^ in 19^7, though thanks to population increase,
I s f
their numbers showed an increase, from 116 m. to-4^ m.
■ ' Tt is well to remember that the bottom line in measuring the
state of Christianity globally is to read it within the context of the
world's population explosion, which means that the important figures are
not the overall numbers, but the percentage increase in the ration of
Christians to the v'orld's total population. The stark missionary fact
of the 20th century is that despite the astounding numerioal increases
between 190C ard iWI, the percentage of Christians to population
1
declined in that period, not much, only 1^%, from 34.4 to 3^., while
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Islam" (ibid). Buddhism, hp says, is declining despite sporadic
revivals and its effective influence does not extend beyond East Asia.
Islam reached its peak five centuries ago, and not even the financial
bonanza of its oil discoveries has yet revived its spiritual and
religious power much beyond its base the l^iddle East. Christian v /V-- ' -
missions alone, he says are worldwide and still expanding.
universally global religion spread throughout the inhabited earth.
At any rate, whereas the number of Christians at the end ot
the 19th century had almost tripled in the one hundred years from 1800
to 1900 (200 m. to 558 m.); by the end of the 20th century the number
will have almost quadrupled in our 100 years from 1900 to the year 2000
(558 m. to 2,000 ni.)^ Even if we stick to what we know, that is the
20th c. to 1989, the numerical increase has been enormous:
— from 558,000,000 Christians in 1900 to 1 ,722,000,000 in 1989.
-- more than half of this number are RomafTTathol ic , 266 to
which is an increase of 7%, that is, from 48^ to 55% of the ***"
world's Christians. There were 678 million more Catholics in
the world in 1989 than in 1900. '
-- Protestants (incl. Anglicans and "nonwhite indigenous) have — '
increased almost as much proportionately, 4%, that is
from 25% to 29% of the world's Christians , Tut much less ior---
numerically, from 141 m. in 1900 to 509 m. There were 678 ^
million more Catholics in the world in 1989 than in 1900, but ?
only 368 million more Protestants.
-- the big loss has been in Orthodoxy, from 21% of all Christians in
1900 to 18^ in 1989, though thanks to population increase,
their numbers showed an increase, "l^ron ’’lb m. to 177 m.
His statement needs revision, and clarification. Islam is
also expanding, in recent years^^faster even than Christianity , but Neill
localized, and that it is not Islam but Christianity which is the only /tit
is Quite right that Islam's base is smaller and its influence more
state of Christianity globally is to read ii within the context of 1
population explosion. The important figures are not the overa'''’
numbers, hut the percentage increase in the ratio of Christians to world
population. The stark missionary fact of the 20th century is that
despite astourding numerical increases t^etween 1900 and 1989, the
c^4.
percentage of Christians to population decl ined in that period. Not
EC41 EAST ASIA: COMPARATIVE STATISTICS (Rev. 6-6-90)
Mr. Moffett. 1990
PoDulation :
China
Janan
S . Korea
N . Korea
Taiwan
USA
Total
1,100 m
123 m.
43 m.
22 m.
20 m.
247 m
Density
288
844
1,189
471
1,460
68
(sq.mi. )
Growth rate
1.4%
0.5%
1.3%
3.2%
1.1%
0.0%
(annual )
Per cap inc.
$ 283
15,400
4,040
1,114
5,520
16,400
Life exp.
66
78
65
70
73
76
Univ. stud.
2.1 in
2.1 xn.
1.3 m.
n . a ,
480 th.
Christianity
•
Adherents
30 itl.
1 m.
10 m.
7
0.9 in.
147 ra
Xn % of pop.
2.7%
0.8%
24.0%
9
4.5%
60%
Growth rate
7
1.3%
6.6%
9
3.1%
Protestants
22 m.
0.5 m.
8.0 m.
9
0.7 m.
% Prot .
2.0%
0.4%
19.0%
9
3.5%
Catholics
8 m.
0.4 ra.
1.8 m.
9
0.3 m.
% Cath.
0.7%
0.4%
4.5%
9
1.4%
East Asia Ranked bv Nations
Christians
1. China
2 . S . Korea
3 . Japan
4 . Taiwan
5. N. Korea
Xn % of POP.
l.S, Korea
2. Taiwan
3 . China
4 . Japan
5. N. Korea
Xn
arowth rate
Protestants
1.
S .Korea
1 . China
1
. China
2.
China ?
2. S. Korea
2
. S.Kor
3.
Taiwan
3. Taiwan
3
. Japan
4.
Japan
4 . Japan
4
. Taiwan
5.
N. Korea
5. N. Korea
5
. N. K.
Sources (adapted): World Christian Encyclopedia
(1980, and 1990 update); Asia 1990 Yearbook (H.K.);
World Almanac 1990; Operation World (1987)
Here is the record... Who says we are falling behind?
fGIobal Population Growth through 2,000 Years
Total Numbers
Added Numbers
per DAY
Year
All BBC
(Bible-
believing
Christians)
(in
millions)
BBC %
Everyone :
Else on
Earth
(not BBC):
(in I
millions) :
Total
World
Population
(millions)
(Col 2-h3)
Dally
Addition
Bible-
believing
Christians
BBC %
Daily
Addition
Everyone
Else
(Not BBC)
Daily
Addition
World
Population
(Col 5+6)
Ratio of
additional
non-BBC
to BBC
(Col 6/Col 5)
Col 1
1 Col i
Col 2 %
Col 3 J
Col 4
Col 5
Col 5 %
Col 6
Col 7
Col «
100 AD
0.50
0.28%
iSO.5 ;
i8i
1.6
M
220
140 tol
200 AD
0.56
0.30%
188.7 :
189
1.8
0.76%
228
230
130 tol
300 AD
0.63
0.32%
197.2 :
198
2.0
0.82%
239 :
241
121 10 1
400 AD
0.70
0.34%
206.1 i
207
2.2
0.88%
249 :
252
11310 1
500 AD
0.79
0.37%
215.4 :
216
2.5
0.94%
261 :
263
105 to 1
600 AD
0.89
0.39%
225.1 :
226
2.8
1.0%
272 :
275
98 to 1
700 AD
0.99
0.42%
235.3 :
236
3.1
1.1%
284 1
287
91 to 1
800 AD
1.1
0.45%
246 :
247
3.5
1.2%
297 :
300
85 to 1
900 AD
1.2
0.48%
257 :
258
3.9
1.2%
310 i
314
79 to 1
1000 AD
1.4
0.52%
269 :
270
4.4
1.3%
324 :
328
1100 AD
1.9
0.63%
294 1
296
15
2.0%
719 :
734
48 to 1
1200 AD
2.5
0.77%
321 i
324
20
2.5%
784 :
804
39 to 1
1300 AD
3.4
0.95%
351 i
354
27
3.0%
853 :
880
32 to 1
1400 AD
4.5
1.2%
384 :
388
36
3.7%
928 1
964
26 to 1
1500 AD
6.0
1.4%
419 :
425
48
4.5%
1,008 1
1,055
21 to 1
1600 AD
11
1.8%
583 :
594
168
3.1%
5.262 i
5,430
31 to 1
1700 AD
19
2.3%
811 ;
830
298
3.9%
7,289 i
7,587
24 to 1
1800 AD
34
2.9%
1,126 :
1.159
530
5.0%
10.071 i
10,601
1910 1
1900 AD
60
3.7%
1,560 1
1,620
943
6.4%
13,869 :
14,812
15 tol
1950 AD
120
4.8%
2,384 ■
2,504
4.523
7.6%
54,925 :
59.448
12 to 1
1980 AD
275
6.2%
4,183 :
4,458
20.527
8.8%
211.903 :
232.431
10 to 1
1992 AD
540
9.9%
4,940 :
5,480
80,843
32%
175,015 :
255,858
2 to 1
‘The meek shall inherit the earth," (Matt 5:5 )
This simple listing tells you century
y century the miracle of the growth of
hose who call Jesus, Lord and Savior.
The left half tells the total number of
Christians at each century. The right half
ells the day by day growth at that date.
Don’t let anyone tell you we are
'falling behind.” Bible-believing Chris-
ians were less than one percent of world
)opulation in 100 AD and were nearly
0% in 1992. That’s not falling behind!
However, note something puzzling
nd curious. It is ‘‘the phenomenon of a
ore rapidly growing minority.” Com-
lare Col 5 with Col 6. It would seem
at the number of Bible-belicving
'hrisiians is lagging every year in annu-
l additional growth, yet by expanding
t a higher rate it actually gains a larger
percentage of the total (Sec ‘‘Col 5 %”).
Look at 300 AD in Columns 5 and 6.
Bible-believing Christians increase by
just 2 people per day while others
around the world increase by 239 per
day.
How could Christians be catching up
if this is true? It’s like rabbits and cattle
in Australia. In the early years it did not
seem like the rabbits could possibly
catch up. The annual increase in rabbits
was small. But rabbits were ‘‘expanding
at a higher rate” even though they may
have seemed to be ‘‘falling behind” in
sheer additions every year until they
overtook the caiUc. Well, the “meek," or
the Bible-believing Christians are the
rabbits. They are ‘‘falling behind” every
year, but surely catching up. This is
God’s world!
Where did all these
numbers come from?
The esiimates for world population at 100
AD. 1000 AD. 1500 AD, 1900 AD and after
come from David Barren, the specialist who
is the author of the World Christian Ency-
clopedia.
The estimates of the number of serious
Christian believers (he uses the phrase
Great Commission Christians) for the same
years are his except for 1900 and 1950,
where I have thought it better to use slightly
larger figures.
All other numbers are derived from these
givens, using exponential projection for in-
termediate values, and additional amounts.
In case anyone would like to use a "spread-
sheet” to figure even more intermediate
dates, such as amounts for every decade, the
formula in Excel lo bridge the gap between
AD 100 and AD 1000, for example, is
=((MSl4/M$5)M/900)y'($K6-
$K$5)*MS5, while that for increments per
day is =(M6-(M6/((M6/M5)^(1/
100))))*1000000/365.25
< /
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9
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May-June 1993 Mission Frontiers Bulletin
MISSION EXECUTIVES SECTION
Part II
Crucial Issues in Missions
Working Toward the Year 2000
— by Ralph D. Winter
The October issue of MF presented Part
/ of this analysis of the critical issues in
the church’s mission in the 90s. The first
8 points ended with a definition of a
"unimax” people as "the maximum-sized
group still sufftciently unified to allow the
spread of a church movement without
encountering barriers of understanding
or acceptance.” (To order the October 1990
MF. contact VSCWM Records Office. See
information on p. 3.)
9. The Challenge of the Cities. The
astonishing thing is that once the ’82
definition of Unreached Peoples is clear,
it is possible to anticipate that the global
urbanization of humanity may very soon
carry at least a few key individuals from
every unimax people into a city some-
where in the world, where they will like-
ly be much easier to reach. In the 90s the
gradual urbanization of much of the
world will continue, and it may well be
that by the end of the nineties a slight
majority of the world’s population will
be found in cities. The continuing exis-
tence of nationalities and ethnic groups
in the cities, and even the creation with-
in cities of new groups, will require us
to be much more perceptive about the
different kinds of peoples we need to
deal with in the growing cities of the
world.
JO. The concepts of closure and
countdown. One of the expectable and
irrepressible trends in the nineties — at
least until the middle of the decade —
will be for many to do what was done a
hundred years ago, namely, to try to an-
swer the essentially unanswerable ques-
tion, “What will it take to complete the
Great Commission, and can it be done
by the year 2000?” Those who feel it is
necessary to wipe away every tear, re-
solve every social problem and cure all
poverty, disease, and injustice, may not
be attracted to schemes to conclude the
task by the end of the century. However,
the Unreached Peoples terms defined in
'82 make realistic, I believe, the year-
2000 goal of completing the necessary
initial missionary penetration of every
unimax group. This is a heartening and
strengthening challenge to work toward
with all we have to give. This goal is es-
sentially a refined version of the one de-
veloped at the Edinburgh 1980 World
Consultation on Frontier Missions: A
Church for Every People by the Year
2000.
Meanwhile, many other goals are be-
ing forged for completion by the year
2000. Some of these are not, strictly
speaking, closure goals — that is, they do
not complete any particular process but
simply constitute legitimate, measurable
goals to shoot for. An example would be
the goal of planting a million churches
by the year 2000. By contrast, DAWN’s
closure version of this goal aims to plant
a church in every human community of
500 people or more by the year 2000,
however many that may be — an estimat-
ed total of 7 million new congregations
(Montgomery, 1989:). Incidentally, this
additional number of 7 million, is about
equal to the present number of vital con-
gregations world-wide!
Another significant goal, for which
no closure version exists, is the initiative
of one Roman Catholic group toward
enough individuals being won to the
faith that half of the world’s population
will call itself Christian by the year
2CKX). I personally think it is best, how-
ever, not to think in terms of conquest —
how many are won to the faith — but of
extending opportunity — how many have
been given a chance to respond. The
Bible seems to give no basis for assum-
ing that any particular percentage of the
world’s population will become Chris-
tian on a personal level. Rather, the
Bible speaks mysteriously of ethnic
groups being “discipled” in some sense,
which is clearly not a case of winning ei-
ther a ceruun number of persons or of
winning a certain percentage. To plant
“a viable, indigenous, evangelizing
church movement,” (a paraphrase of the
’82 definition) only requires some mini-
mum, vital, incamational response with-
in a group. Yet the Bible does speak of
every single group being at least partial-
ly represented in the ultimate family of
God.
Changes in Methodology
1 1. The changing order of worship.
Already it is obvious that the world
church is rapidly taking on the cultural
characteristics of the so-called pentecos-
taVcharismaiic tradition. This mutation
is being resisted, but mainly by non-
growing groups. Our modern world is
now irretrievably more of an emotion-
accepting world. It is no longer only at
football games that the full range of hu-
man emotions can be expressed.
This is not to say that emotions are
now being invented or created, nor that
the Christian movement had no emotion-
al content before. It is certainly not as
though the Spirit of God has been out of
action all these centuries. Rather, there
is a new dimension in what is more and
more a world mood, which has allowed
Christian groups in recent years to give
this element legitimate public expres-
sion. It would not appear that the nine-
ties will retreat in this area.
12. Recovering from a professionally
trained ministry. Despite the normal
perspective of newly arriving missionar-
ies from the United States, the Christian
movement on a global level continues
doggedly to depend upon informal ap-
prenticeship methods of ministerial
training rather than the historically-
recent adoption in the United Stales of a
European state-church style of profes-
sional education in residential schools.
This is mainly because apprenticeship is
more versatile and flexible than the
classroom. It may even be that move-
ments in the U.S., such as the rapid
growth of new “charismatic” congrega-
tions often called Christian Centers, will
assist the Christian movement to out-
grow the kind of “professional” process-
es of ministerial formation which have
been so assiduously cultivated in the
past fifty years in the United States. The
fact is, wherever seminaries— or other
types of lengthy residential programs —
have been introduced overseas and
made mandatory for ordination, the
growth of the church has been severely
crippled.
Thus, what has in some circles be-
come almost universally hailed as a le-
gitimate goal— a “seminary educa-
tion”— may become more clearly a
questionable goal in the nineties, even in
the United Slates. Hopefully, the goal of
a highly trained ministry will be
November 1990
MISSION EXECUTIVES SECTION
acheived, but that methods other than an
extractive, residential process will be
employed. The latter must be seen both
as an inappropriate technology for most
of the earth's surface, and also as an un-
desirable method even where it is em-
ployed. Even the Assemblies of God
now has its own seminary in the USA,
although its great strength was achieved
without the help of this kind of residen-
tial training that lends to exclude older
persons as well as those with jobs and
families.
13. Going to, through and beyond
partnership. In the nineties we will
more and more come to doubt the uni-
versal applicability of the very idea of
partnership in mission. We arrived at
the concept legitimately as missionary
efforts produced church movements ^1
around the globe. Wherever these ef-
forts succeeded, it became necessary to
shift gears from outreach among un-
touched-populations to church-to-church
relations, and the definition of mission
has adjusted to fit.
Westerners tend to think in terms of
political entities, and mistake them for
nations in the ethnolinguistic sense.
Many of our church boards have over-
looked until recently the fact that in
most countries they are dealing exclu-
sively with, or through, one tiny minori-
ty population and are therefore unable to
deal fairly and effectively with the many
other legitimate peoples and nations of
that same country.
If Christianity were only today reach-
ing the United States through Japanese
missionaries to the Navajo Indians, the
logic of partnership in mission might
suggest that the resulting Navajo church
be called “The Church in the United
States.” This could happen even though,
say, its membership were entirely within
the Navajo nation. Worse still, it would
then be expected that all other Ameri-
cans could best to be reached only
through Japanese partnership with Nava-
jo Christians. Worst of all it might imply
that the Navajoes could not reach out on
their own without Japanese being in-
volved. No, the ultimate worst thing is
that partnership has been employed to
deny the validity to any pioneer evangel-
ism at all — because, some say. a church
must already be there to be able to invite
missionaries!
Thus, what for Western mission of-
fices has been an administrative conven-
ience (dealing with one church per coun-
try) has turned out to be a missiological
Mission Frontiers
nightmare. Missiologically, it would be
far better to denote church movements
by their culture base than their country.
However, surging national churches will
in the nineties drastically question the
significance of the partnership perspec-
tive on a country-wide basis.
Westerners tend to think in
terms of political entities, and
mistake them for nations in
the ethnolinguistic sense.
14. Pluralistic church, plural mis-
sion. Pluralism in mission is one of the
inevitable developments in all the older
church traditions, especially those that
have over the centuries expanded into
strikingly different parts of the world,
and even within the highly pluralistic
United Slates. A wholesome pluralism is
the natural outgrowth of an intelligent
response to rich diversity. But, a pluri-
form unity in a sending church cannot
easily be expressed through a single of-
fice. In fact, a pluralism in mission fully
expressing the pluralism of the home
church is a goal yet to be achieved for
most Protestant denominations as we be-
gin the nineties.
The United Methodist church has
sprouted a new mission sending board in
Atlanta, which is at least as well accept-
ed by Methodist leadership as the
Church Missionary Society was for
many decades in the Anglican tradition.
Hopefully the nineties will see a more
rapid transition than that within Protes-
tantism. The Roman Catholic tradition
has provided us with many excellent
models to demonstrate that mission or-
ders are in order in Protestantism. The
Internal Revenue Service in the United
Slates is right now involved in a study of
what the Protestant equivalent should
look like.
15. Home and foreign boards. In the
shuffle of recent history, many church
boards have wondered if the old home/
foreign dichotomy is valid. It is easy to
put all “mission” in a single board, as
some denominations have done, but this
may only perpetuate a confusion about
the very definition of mission.
Hopefully, in the nineties, the fact
that thousands of Unreached Peoples
have at least some small representation
within the United States will be recog-
nized as requiring classical “foreign”
mission work to be pursued “at home.”
But local churches and donors are not
prepared for this. Much mission money
goes only to “those unfortunate country-
men who have been willing to go and
suffer in foreign circumstances,” and
thus builds on sympathy for the mission-
ary rather than concern for the mission
purposes involved.
This misunderstanding is not some-
thing that will quickly be resolved, even
though it is eminently clear. Frontier
mission work, everywhere in the world,
needs to be cut out of cloth different —
both in training and approach — from the
kind of mission which emphasizes help-
ing churches to expand within their own
ethnic nationalities, but which does not
necessarily help them to reach out to
Unreached Peoples beyond them. The
fact is that about 85% of all missionary
personnel are at best now engaged in
church expansion programs.
16. Value in secular approaches.
Dozens of major mission agencies, both
denominational boards and interdenomi-
national agencies, have seen fit to found
perfectly secular entities through which
they can offer valid, understandable ser-
vices without confusing governments
with their religious motivation. This
method of approach will continue to in-
crease. It is not helpful here to mention
the names of any of these, but it is worth
noting that the most widely respected
agencies, denominational and interde-
nominational, have found this approach
helpful.
17. Preparation for mission. It is
amazing how much progress has taken
place in formal education for mission in
the past 25 years. It is probably clear by
now that off-the-shelf courses and
schools can help a person become well-
trained for cross-cultural missionary ser-
vice. What must be recognized more
clearly, and soon, is that the present pro-
cess holds people back from cultural im-
mersion for at least a decade udo long.
Thus, budding missionaries face an im-
possible choice between becoming well-
trained but arriving on the field loo late
to make the proper depth of adjustment,
or arriving on the field inadequately
trained but with greater potential in
some ways. The only possible answer to
this dilemma is for schools to unbend
and allow for field-based education.
This can be done. Will it happen in the
nineties? I think so.
18. Proportionate share in the task.
A hundred years ago, church leaders
who were serious about doing some-
thing significant by the end of that cen-
tury thought very concretely about di-
viding up the work to be done on a
proportionate basis among the several
MISSION EXECUTIVES SECTION
major denominalions. Recently, in a na-
tionwide, interdenominational mission
congress in Costa Rica, evangelicals
broke down proportional shares of the
remaining worldwide task of reaching
ihe Unrcached Peoples for each country
in Latin America. Their breakdown was
based on the estimated number of people
in each Latin American country who
might be counted on to fuel a global
missionary outreach focused on Un-
reached Peoples. Since then, other coun-
tries have enthusiastically adopted their
proportional share. These national-level
meetings have been catalyzed by Edison
Queiroz, who heads the COMIBAM
movement, and by the AD 2000 Move-
ment, a global phenomenon headed by
the former international director of the
Lausanne Committee for World Evan-
gelization— Dr. Thomas Wang.
Changes in the
Not-Quite-Panaceas
Among the many positive forces in
the nineties will be five strategics which
each have a great deal to offer, but
which cannot, by themselves be consid-
ered panaceas. They deserve mention
because an overemphasis of any of them
may divert attention from a balanced ap-
proach and lead to an improper balance
of funding.
19. Tentmaken — the bi-vocational
approach. History reveals the value
from lime to lime of the involvement of
missionary personnel in self-supporting
activities not directly related to their
ministry. The apostle Paul, for example,
"made tents for a living” in certain peri-
ods of his ministry. There are literally
thousands of missionaries working un-
der standard agencies who are occupied
in this way, even though the details are
not publicized. It is rather unusual, how-
ever, for a person not linked in accounta-
bility and supervision to a standard mis-
sion agency to have a significant impact
just by virtue of working in another cul-
ture.
Yet there is certainly no doubt that
with proper guidance and encourage-
ment the million committed Christians
from the Western world already living
and working in the non-Wesiem world
ought to be able to be more effective in
mission. The same is true for the hun-
dreds of millions of national believers
who live as citizens in the non-Wesiem
world. Who will encourage and assist
them to become involved in true cross-
cultural outreach to Unreached Peoples?
This question leads to the next point.
20. Native missionaries — a funda-
mental confusion. When, in 1983 and
1986, Billy Graham brought thousands
of “itinerant evangelists" to Amsterdam,
he was touching only the hem of the gar-
ment of the non-Wesiem church. There
are probably at least a million such lead-
ers. Very few of these, however, arc in-
volved in the Pauline kind of outreach to
other peoples within which there is “not
yet a viable, indigenous, evangelizing
church movement” — a paraphrase of the
March 1982 definition.
Some organizations specialize in sup-
porting “native missionaries,” but don’t
stop to distinguish between those who
are faithful, native non-missionary ser-
vants of an already existing church
movement (created by frontier missions
of an earlier era, perhaps) and those very
few who are truly frontier missionaries
in a language and cultural situation in
which they are no longer “natives.”
The very phrase “native missionary”
is thus a contradiction in terms. I once
was a missionary in Guatemala, where I
was no longer a native. I am now a na-
tive in California where I am no longer a
missionary.
21. Short termers in an age oftenta-
tivity. The trend to short term missions
will continue into the nineties simply be-
cause the strain between generations in
the Western world keeps young people
in a mood of lenialivity for a lengthy
and unhealthy period. It is unfortunate
that young people in short terms usually
do not learn about the work of the long-
term missionaries, but rather contribute
what is almost necessarily of minimal
value in view of the limited training, or-
ientation, and language skills involved.
In such cases the short term experience
may only be an inocculaiion against fur-
ther involvement, rather than a basis for
lifelong C£u-eer effort in mission or even
loyal support of long-term mission
work.
22. Mass media — the value of the air
force. One of the truly marvelous di-
mensions of life in the nineties is the
enormously expanded potential of mass
communications. Reference has already
been made to the extensive ministry of
the great missionary radio groups, now
working more closely together than
ever. The full impact of the cassette re-
corder was glimpsed in the rise to power
of the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran. The
significance of the fax machine was seen
in the Ticnanmen Square in China. The
spreading plague/blcssing of the ubiqui-
tous VCR is also clearly evident. The
printed page is still the most significant
single mass medium. But none of these
can take the place of incamaiional wit-
ness any more than mass media can re-
place parents. Our mission is not less
than a global family, and families need
more than messages coming in the door,
or window, or by electronic radiation.
However, the effective contribution of
the mass media will be developed much
further in the nineties.
23. Church-based missionaries — has
U ever worked? This is one of the most
delicate issues, and no doubt will contin-
ue to be throughout the nineties. Some
church traditions have emphasized the
sole validity of the local church so
strongly that any kind of denominational
or mission agency type of collaboration
is seen as exira-Biblical. Many large
congregations in the United States with
thousands of members have established
their own mission boards. But also cer-
tain long-standing traditions, such as the
Churches of Christ, and the Plymouth
Brethren, also emphasize the idea of
missionaries being under the authority
and support of only one congregation.
This emphasis is common, too, in the
thousands of new congregations in the
independent Charismatic Center move-
ment, and among similarly independent
Chinese congregations all over the
world.
The nature of cross-cultural mission
is much too complicated, as well as geo
graphically distant from a supporting
congregation, for that home body to be
solely responsible for the field strategy
and supervision of effective mission
work. The direct interest of congrega-
tions in a particular missionary is cer-
tainly to be cultivated, but it is patently
obvious from the historical record that
direct congregational supervision is a
rather unlikely method for the effective
deployment of missionaries.
In Summary
The Lord of History has never been
outguessed by mortal man. Perhaps no
one thing is has more regularly humbled
His servants is their inability to control
the complexity of human events. At the
very moment of this writing it is almost
terrifyingly clear how ambiguous the fu-
ture actually is. At best the comments
here are only made in view of what is in
view. But as someone has said, “we do
not know what the future holds, but we
do know Who holds the future.” and in
that we can seek to give “our utmost for
His highest,” with profound confidence
of His steadfast love and mercy. □
November 1990
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Don Simkovich, producer of the Global
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through the ministry of Far East Broad-
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world. Perfect for sharing mission vi-
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Get Your Complete
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Be sure to get this year’s complete Re-
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by Gerry Dueck
“We are just introducing missions in
our Sunday School. Where do we
start?”
“Please send resource material — I
can use all the help I can get!”
If you’re asking questions like these,
cheer up. There is help available now —
everything from children’s books to
complete curriculum packages, videos,
sets of puppet skits, books on mission
skits to children’s mission musicals.
One of the services now offered by
the Children’s Missions Resource Cen-
ter is a lending library for local use in
Southern California. We’re working to
equip area offices to carry similar items.
Help J'our nearest area office as listed
on the back cover to develop a lending
library of children’s mission resources!
You can check out foreign artifacts,
maps, pictures, posters, songs, mission-
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Get acquainted with the best of chil-
dren’s mission resources from all pub-
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schoolers and much more.
Contact me for free brochures, a ref-
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and publishers, the Children’s Mission
Resource Center newsletter and/or ideas
on children’s mission education in the
church.
NEW! What Does God Want With A
Kid Anyway? A for-kids slide story of
Chet Bitierman, martyred missionary in
Columbia. For kids. Write to BCM In-
ternational, 237 Fairfield Ave, Upper
Darby PA 19082 USA.
More next time! — Gerry
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Other North American Centers for World Mission
Washington DC Center for World Mission
(Charles Powell)
7600 Maydan Lane
Falls Church VA 22043 (703) 207-9020
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(John and Eldora Schwab)
3465 Fosberg Rd.
Turlock CA 95380 (209) 668-8734
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(Wayne Gregory)
P O. Box 14443
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Korean Center for World Mission
Pasadena C A 9 1 1 04 (8 1 8) 398-2207
The United States
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1605 Elizabeth Street
Pasadena, CA 91104
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3 Wexford Street
Needham Hts. MA 02194 (617) 449-7208
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406 N. Beech Street
Portland OR 97227 (503) 249-0151
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(Tom & Teresa Craig)
2040 S. Oneida St-Suite 2B
Denver. CO 80224 (303) 691-9877
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/305-1 Hihenge Court
Raleigh, NC 27615 (919) 846-1839
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P.O. Box 558
Southeastern PA 19399 (215) 971-0255
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1605 Elizabeth Street
Pasadena CA 91 104 (818) 398-2233
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(Jim & Michele Nielsen)
P-O, Box 8126
Minneapolis. MN 55408 (612) 823-1635
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11302 58 SL
Edmonton, AB T5W3W5 (403) 474-1712
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52 Carondale Crescent
Agincourt. ON M1W 2B1 (416) 499-8339
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Samuel Hugh Moffett
20th Century Missions: Is the Day of the Missionary Over?
If the 19th century was "the great century of Mission,
as Prof. Latourette so persuasively demonstrates in his gre^at
seven-volume on The Expansion of Christianity, how shall we
describe the 20th century? Latourette himself, writing in 1945,
halfway through the century, called it "Advance Through Storm".
He told us he was quite sure of the last word, "Storm", but about
the first word, "Advance" he was not quite so sure. He wondered
whether, by thke end of the century we would still be able to claim
that the missionary movement had actually advanced in the one
hundred years since 1900.
Some are quite sure it has not. They say that we have
come to the end of the missionary era. They say Christian mission
has been washed down the drain with its partner, imperial western
colonialism, and that as the 19th century was the century of
mission^, the 20th has become the century of ecumenics, and that
the 21st century will be the century of civililzed religious
pluralism. All religions are true. No more missions.
Others take a gentler, more moderately negative view.
This is not the end of Christian missions, they say. It is only
the end of the missionary. Now that there is a Christian church
in every nation, we no longer need foreign missionaries, Asian
will complete the mission in Asia, Africans in Africa, Latin
Americans in the south. "Missionary go home!"
It will be the thesis of my lecture today that neither
of these two popular assumptions is true. The 20th century has not
proved to be the end of 2000 years of Christian missions. And,
depending on your prejudices for or against missionaries , ^are we fv*"
about to mourn the disappearance in our denominations of what we
once called "foreign missionaries". If anything, the missionary
movement today is stronger, better supported and more global today
than it was one hundred years ago in its golden days, its "great
cnetury" .
(
fJJV-
But these past one hundred years have not been easy for
Christian missions. Mission hit new lows, as well as new highs in
the 1900s, and though the present does indeed seem brighter, the
end of the century is not yet here, and I make no infallible
predictions about the year 2000. My name is Moffett, not prophet.
This 20th century in missions did not begin, like the
great 19th century, with an almost unnoticed, unheralded ripple of
movement around the world: a shoemake, two books (Brainerd's
.Tnurnal and Cook's Voyages), and a Bible, on the pietist fringe of
Christian England. A hundred or so years later, the 20th century
began with a triumphant shout: "The Evangelization of the World in
Our Generation". It began with more than a shout; it began with
a tidal wave of missionary advance traveling west to east and north
to south building up into a great one-directional movement of
global expansion that crashed into the 20th century with what
seemed to be irresistible force. A thousand new missionaries swept
out of the west every year for a while, crashing across the coasts
of continents as tidal waves do.
For at least the first ten years of the new century they
swept all before them, it seemed, right up to the historic meeting
of the great world missionary conference at Edinburgh, in 1910.
Then the picture begins to change. The great wave of missions
began to break up on the rocks as even tidal waves do. It hit
World War I in 1914, and for the first time millions of non-
Christians see Christian missionary countries fighting against
other Christian missionary countries. It survives the war,
however, and regroups for a second world missionary conference,
Jerusalem 1928.
But Jerusalem was not so triumphantly confident as
Edinburgh had been in 1910, and Indian and Korean and Chinese and
African delegates from enthusiastic, new, young mission churches
were puzzled when they saw western Christian leaders argue heatedly
with each other on what the missionary movement is all about, and
what missionaries are supposed to do. This was the first hint of
a theological revolution that seemed to many to threaten to cut the
nerve of mission advance. The next year the financial base of
missions hit the Great Depression. And in stunning succession
there followed another world war and an atheistic revolution in
Christian Russia which proved more threatening to Christian
missions than any world war had ever been. By the middle of the
20th century the advance of this new missionary faith, communism,
had stripped away from free contact with Christian missions about
one-third of the whole population of the earth.
How then can anyone way that the missionary movement in
the 20th century is alive and well and growing stronger every year?
Well, let me say, first, that at least it is getting
bigger. Here are two handbooks on Protestant missions. This one
[Carey's] was written in 1792 to tell "all you needed to know"
about Protestant world mission at the end of the 18th century. It
is Carey the shoemaker's Enquiry into the Obligation of Christian^
to Convert the Heathen..", a very thini small book. Compare it
with this ponderous 1000 page handbook on 20th century missions.
This is what we have to struggle with to know about missions today:
David Barrett's World Christian Encyclopedia, and this is not the
whole story, just the statistics. Whether we are better or
stronger in missions today or not, at least we are bigger.
Perhaps the best brief way to describe the stormy but by
no means ineffective couse of the Christian missions in the 20th
century is to take the general outline of the characteristics of
19tth century mission at which we looked in my first lecture, and
ask how 20th century missions either remained the same or changed
in the 20th century. Here is how a
19th Century
1. Predominantly Protestant
2. Expanding
3. Heroic: the pioneers
4. Evangelistic and confident
5 . Cooperative
6. Structurally voluntary but
increasingly church-
centered .
7. Tinged with colonialism
8. Mission to plant churches
on unreached continents
comparison might look:
20th Century
1. Ecumenical, but with Roman
Catholics more active
2. Expanding still more
3. Ancillary: the partners
4. Motives diffused by theo-
logical controversy
5. Polarized
6. Structurally mixed: church
and parachurch missions
7. Tinged with cultural and
economic imperialism
8. Mission with the churches
on all continents.
Let me elaborate on some but not all of these eight points.
First, if the 19th century was predominantly Protestant
in missionary advance, was the 20th century also dominated by
Protestant missionar success? The answer is, No. It is quite true
that the 19th century saw Protestant missions shake off 250 years
of relative indifference to worldwide outreach after the
Reformation, and in one short century by 1900 AD draw virtually
even to 400 years of Roman Catholic expansion in the third world.
But about midway in the 19th century, after recovering from fifty
years of sharp decline (1790-1840), once again in the 20th century
the Roman Catholics outpaced the Protestant in missions.
In 1911 Protestant had about as many foreign missionaries
as the Catholics, and almost as many converts, but by 1980 the
number of Catholics overseas in mission once again far surpassed
the Protestants. Here in the U.S.A. we have a distorted view of
Protestant predominance. We see how about three times as many
American Protestant go out as missionaries compared to the number
of American Catholics (32,800 to 16,000). What we fail to note is
that wordwide . Catholic missionaries far outnumber Protestants.
In fact, of the 20 countries sending the highhest proportion of the
population overseas in mission, the United States ranks only 16th.
It sends out the largest number, but only one in 4,780 Americans
is an overseas career missionary, while 9 of the top 10 sending
countries are predominantly Catholic. Little Catholic Ireland, for
example, in proportion to its population, sends 15 times as many
career missionaries out across the world as huge Protestant America
(USA). (Mission Handbook, 13th ed., 1986, p. 79 f.).
For a while, after a century of colonialism and after
World War II, people were saying the youngner churches grow best
without foreign missionaries. A closer look at the comparative
growth rates of missionary-rich Roman Catholicism in Africa, and
the Protestant experiment there with a moratorium on missionaries
suggests just the opposite.
The good news for Protestants is that though Catholics
lead in missionary sending, contrary to the general i
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number of overseas missionaries sent out from Protesatnt North
America is not declining. It continues to leap upward. The
figures are most surprising: in 1960 there were 29 . OOP North
American Protestant missionaries overseas; in 1985 67_*_000. ^ There
'V
are now actually 37,000 more American missionaries oversaes than
there were just 25 years ago. rMission Handbook. 13 ed.T? 41% of
'A
the total were short termers in 1985; ten years later only 10% were
short termers. Factoring in the short-termers on the basis of
months served, the overall increase still remains phenomenal.)
That is the good news. Let me balance it with two pieces
of bad news . The first piece bad news is that none of this
dramataic explosion in contemporary North American missions
overseas can be credited to our mainlfine Protesthat churches. The
increa^ is outside the ecclesiastical establishment. The figures
are ominous. WCC-related ecumenical denominational mission agencies
lost 50% of the^ missionary personnel in just the twenty years from
1965 to 1985. But independent aagencies like the Southern
Baptists, the Pentecostals , and: Wycliff Translators^ gained 50%.
(Old-line faith and evangelical denominational agencies also
gained, but only about 10%, Mission Handbook^ 13th ed.). Numbers
is not everything, as they say, but a 50% loss in 20 years in
personal involvement in world mission is not something for us
mainliners to boast about. [insert "Honoljilu ^ ^
The second piece of bad news is that most Christian
mission boards, whether losing or gaining in missionary personnel,
are not reaching out to the really unreached, the frontier. A
chart in a recent issue of the International Bulletin of Missionary
Research highlights the alarming fact that 9 out of ten of all
foreign missionaries are working not among the 23% of the world's
population that has never heard the gospel, but among the 77% who
have already been told about Christ. We who live in the Christian
world spend 99% of our income on ourselves, (IBMR, 1991, p. 72)
But let me turn to some better news.
The second comparison I want to make between 19th and
20th century missions asks a different question, not about
missionaries but about Christian numerical growth. If the 19th
ktit^ VsA\/-i
I 4
&
'T
(i>
The bad news is that none of this dramatic explosion in
contemporary Morth /American missions overseas can be credited to our
mainline Protestant churches. The increase is outside the
ecclesiastical establishmert. The figures are ominous. WCC-related
ecumenically denominational mission agencies overall lost 50% of their
missionary personnel in just the last 20 years; independent agencies
like the Southern Baptists, Pentecostals, and Wycliff Translators gained
50%; while the old-line faith and evangelical denominational agencies
r I
also gained, but only 10%. Numbers is not everything, as they say, but
a 50% loss in 20 years in personal involvement in world mission is not
something to boast about. A om
Rut let me turn to some better news. * * *
2. The 19th century was a century of great numerical and
geographical expansion. How about the 20th? It has been a century of
even greater, unprecedented expansion. In numbers and extent the growth
of the Christian church in the 20th century outstripped even the "great
century", the 19th, Stephen Neil, in his History of Christian Fissions
(Penguin, 1964) which is the best one-volume history of missions now
available, puts it this way:
"It is only rarely that it is possible in the history of the
Church or in the history of the world, to speak of anything
as beinga unmistakably new. But in the 20th century one
phenomenon has come into view which is incontestably new--
for the first time there is in the world a universal religion,
and that [is] the Christian religion" (p. 559)
It is Neill's thesis, which he argues well, that only three religions
"have been always and essentially missionary--Buddhism, Christianity and
Islam" (ibid). Buddhism, he says, is declining despite sporadic
revivals and its effective influence does not extend beyond East Asia.
Islam reached its peak five centuries ago, and not even the financial
bonanza of its oil discoveries has yet revived its spiritual and
religious power much beyond its base in the Middle East. Christian
missions alone, he says are worldwide and still expanding.
century was a century of great numerical and geographical
1 expansion, how about kthe 20th? The answer is that our 20th
f century has been a century of even greater, unprecedwented
expansion. In numbers and extent the growth of the Christian
church in the 20th century outstripped even the "great century",
the 19th. Stephen Neill, in his History of Christian Missions
(Penguin, 1964, p. 559), which is the best one-volume history of
missions now available, puts it this way:
"It is only rarely that it is possible in the history of the
world, to speak of anything as being unmistakably new. But
in the 20th century one phenomenon has come into view which
is incontestably new--for the first time there is in the world
a universal religion, and that [is] the Christian religion."
It is Neill's thesis, which he oargues well, that only
three religions "have been always and essentially missionary —
Buddhism, Christianity and Islam"^^ Buddhism, he says is declining
' despite sporadic revivals and its effective influence does not
extend beyond East Asia. Islam reached its peak five centuries
ago, and not even the financial bonanza of its oil discoveries has
yet revived its spiritual and religious power much beyond its base
in the Middle East. Christian missiona alone, he says, are
worldwide and still expanding.
His statement needs revision. Islam is also expanding,
in recent years and in some areas even faster than Christianity.
But it is quite true that Islam's base and its influence is still
far smaller and its influence more localized than that of
Christianity .
At any rate, whereas the number of Christians at the end
of the 19th century had almost tripled in the one hundred years
from 1800 to 1900 (200m. to 558m.), the 20th century will almost
quadruple the number of Christians in our 100 years from 1900 to
2000 (from 558 m. to 2,130 m. (IBMR, Jan. 1991, p. 73). Even if
we stick to what we know, that is the 20th c. to 1991 the numerican
increase has been enormous:
— number of Christians: from 558 m. 1,800 m.
— more than half are R.C.: from 266 m. to 980 m. (48% to 55%
of the world's population.
— about one-third are Protestant: from 141 m. to 535 m. (25%
to 30% of world population.
^ sU; Wf ^ yr e^. j: CA. M I
He told me of the embarrassment of the churchesMn Hawaii at the welcome
they had planned to speed the missionaries on their way. All the
arrangements had been carefully made by the Honolulu Council of
Churches. Episcopalians would take care of Episcopalian missionaries
during their one-day stop-over in the islands, Methodists of Methodist
missionaries, Congregationalists of Congregationalists, and so on. So
the ship docked as the good church people gathered under signs
proclaiming themselves as Presbyterians, Methodists etc., so that the
missionaries would recognize their hosts. But the best laid plans of
mice and men gang aft agley. The denominations missionaries came off
the ship and trooped decorously to their signs all right, but behind
them milling uncertainly about in great numbers were the hosts of the
unwashed--Adventists, Pentecostal ists , independent gospellers, the
sects--advancing to their mission in far greater numbers and zeal, if
not^with greater unity and judgmer^^ lik^o thir^^
The Honolulu Council of Churcnes^lndthe whole Conciliar
movement is still trying to recover from that shock, and its aftermath
guakes. For forty years mainline missions as a visible, vigorous
presence have been retreating into the shadows, and I think this raises ^
serious questions we don't need to argue about, but should at least face
up to to and not sweep under the rug.
u (■ Wfl^f ; f
But let me turn to some better news. ^ aavm i’s:..
Kq kiL ^ P" ’ '
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2. The 19th century was a century of great numerical and ^
geographical expansion. How about the 20th? It has been a century of
even Greater, unprecedented expansion. In numbers and extent the grov/th
of the Christian church in the 20th century outstripped even the "great
century", the 19th. Stephen Neil, in his History of Christian Missions
(Penguin, 1964) which is the best one-volume history of missions now
available, puts it this way:
"It is only rarely that it is possible in the history of the
Church or in the' history of the world, to speak of anything
as being unmistakably new. But in the 20th century one
phenomenon has come into view which is incontestably new--
fnr the first time there is in the world a universal religion,
and that [is] the Christian religion" (p. 559).
It is Neill's thesis, which he argues v/ell , that only three religions
"have been always and essentially missionary--Buddhism, Christianity and
the percentage of non-Christians in the world increased by the same
amount, from under 66% to just over 67%,
To the 20th century Christian mission that mean? that there
are 2 billion 300 million more non-Christians in the world today, than .
there were when the century began S7 years ago. The evangelistic
urgency of world missions is greater at the end of the century than at
its heainning. The day of the njissionary is not over^ WT cUAu
« V* - Wrtl, >«?
OvAJt .
4. This leads me to postpone consideration of the third
comparison, from "heroes and heroines" to "partners", and skip to the
fourth: The 19th century was evangelistic; its theology simple and
direct. Is that true of the 20th? Not quite. Fvangelism is still with
us in missions, and theology, but somewhere along the line we shattered
and lost the 19th century's great concensus on the why and how of
missions. Great sections of the 20th century church lost the simplicity
of its missionary motives, and the clarity of its theology of mission.
Some years ago I described it like this:
i]> -have increased almasjt— num&ewil ly»— tot^ot
4^:cipm^ettcTrrate 1 y
I
P\ 5'^ •
To the 20th century Christian mission that means that there
are 2 billion 300 million more non-Christians in the world today than
there were when the century began ^ years ago. The evangelistic
urgency at the end of the century than at
its beginning. ^ the day of the missionary is not over. Ij
'"4. This leads me to postpone consideration of the third -
-C
Civ- U
. V/Ava
comparison, the highly significant change in missions from "missionary
pioneers" to "missionary partners". I will instead jump ahead to the
^urth difference between 19th and 20th century missions. The 19th
century was evangelistic; its theology simple and direct. Is that true
i of the 20th? |_Nc^ ouite. Evangelism is still with us in missions, and
so also is theology, but somewhere along the line we shattered and lost
The 1 9th century ' s great consensus on the why and hew of missions.
Great sections of the 20th century church lost the simplicity of its
missionary motives, and the clarity of its theology of mission. Some
years ago I described it like this:
There was a time, back in the 19th century, when Christians didn't
feel the need to re-examine the Christian Mission. They didn't
need to ask why they had missionaries and whet missionaries were
supposed to do. It was almost axiomatic. It was simple, and
dangerous, and overwhelmingly urgent. It was as simple as the
command of Christ and as urgent as life and death. For millions
upon millions were dying without Christ. Every second saw more
souls slipping into a Christless eternity. No one had ever given
them a chance. No one had ever told that they could live forever
in Christ. Faced with a challenge as simple as that the church
exploded into the modern missionary movement, a race against time
and against the devil for the greatest of all prizes, the eternal
salvation of the human soul.
If you are expecting me to ridicule that challenge I am going to
disappoint you. It has never seemed ridiculous to me. As a matter
of fact it was that challenge, understood in its full Biblical
context, which sent me to the mission field in the 20th century.
But you know as well as I that there came a day of the shaking
of the foundations. The old urgencies were denied, or at least
ignored. No one seemed sure of anything eternal any more.
So the challenge changed. The Jerusalem Conference of the Inter-
national Missionary Council in 1928 said, "Our fathers were
impressed with horror that people should die without Christ; we
are equally impressed with horror that they should live without
Christ." It was a shift of balance, really, more than a denial.
It was strategic withdrawal to what in the 20th century was
considered to be firmer ground for missions. Millions upon
millions are living in misery and in filth. No one can deny
that. No one has ever given them a chance. No one has ever
helped them to the life abundant that Jesus came to give them.
This was a missionary challenge to a future ijn history— a future
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without hunger and without hate, without sickness and without
tears, where all men are brothers and sisters and the nations
shall study war no more. So the church went forth to build the
Kingdom. . , .
I do not intend to ridicule this view either. It has never
ridiculous to me to feed the hungry and heal the sick and to
work for peace. These have been the two familiar symbols of
the missionary in the 20th century: the saver of souls and the
builder of the Kingdom. The problem of our time is that
neither model is quite able to cally all Christendom with it
into mission. We have polarized the church between soul
savers, and Kingdom builders. We have forgotten our theology.
The missionaryVan neither save souls’'or build the Kingdom.
Souls are saved by the Holy Spirit, and God builds his own
Kingdom. The mission is simply to go where God ^lls us to go, .
and do what God tells us to ^o; ^ '
'' current ambiguities about definition of mission and of
;ives is a symptom of a deeper ill: a ^op^^ping ofjSO^^
ilogical convictions. As Dr. McCord,! former president of
Our
missionary moti
essential theol
Princeton Seminary often warns us,' "Our churches are suffering from
theological amnesia." If so, what have we forgotten in our theology
that affects our mission?
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iw
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John Stott, an Anglican, at the World Council of Churches
Assembly in Nairobi ,, a^sked the same question, and suggested some,^
answers : -fu. YH'.
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iu T»U <9. ^ lAW ifjSrS +3*^ . ' "> — rr^r •rr-u'’ '
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wyi*..e,.clw-r^ik.rJw«. . U + ^»c/ (£)n
jj.. Now^t me move bacK^and pick up' the third comparison.
7 was the age of heroes and heroines. Those were the
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UA(e-^i 'I ^ ' r'-‘
!' T!. ^ ^he 19th centur -
pvyk^ days of the pioneers, the romantic era. The 20th century is more
. prosaic, but perhaps even more Biblically based as far as Christian
relationships are concerned. The ?0th century is the age of missionary
^ TT partnership. Missionaries are never called to be heroes, though some
become such; they are called to be servarts.
To put it another way, the 19th century was the age of the
western church in mission. The ?0th century is the age of the rise of
the younger churches, the churches of the third world.
I am not at all sure that we of the so-called older churches
quite yet grasp the history-bending significance of the emergenq^ to
maturity of the so-called "younger" churches, some of which, like the
Thomas Christians of India are centuries older than any of our American
mainline denominations. Sometimes we romantically overstate what this
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rise of the third-world churches rreens in world mission, and say that
now that there is a church in every land, it is the business of that
church to evangelize its cwn people and that therefore the day of the
western missionary is over. "Missionary go heme!" On the other hand,
sometimes we underestimate it, and go serenely on our missionary way as
if these great new churches do not exist, and as if we are still running
the show. Neither of those two positions tolerable.
We can no longer send out missionaries in droves who willfully
)u? ignore the presence and prerogatives of the third-world churches. But
^ uUvi how many of you here know much about those churches. For example, how
'f many of you could name the five largest churches in Asia, Africa and
^ ' Latin America? If you guessed the Korean Presbyterian Church because
you've discovered that I seem to have a strong bias in favor of anything
Korean, you are wrong. No Korean Presbyterian denomination is in the
top ten precisely because mission-minded Korean Presbyterianism, while
zealous in evangelism, forgot that the unity of the church is as
precious in the sight of the Lord as its fervour for reaching the
unreached. The result has been great growth, but also great and tragic
divisions.
Had the Korean Presbyterian Church of Korea not torn itself
apart by schism, it would be at the head of the foUov/ing list of the
five largest denominations in the third world, but it's not. In order
of numbers of adherents (not communicants), the largest are;
1. The Church of Christ in Zaire. 4,750,000 adherents; 1,500,000
adults. This may not be the best model for Christian unity,
because its unified organization was forced upon it by the
government, but as a fellowship of churches under one fairly
loose organizational structure it has some advantages.
2. The Assemblies of God in Brazil. 4,000,000 adherents; 2,750,000
adults. This is a striking example of the world-wide missionary
growth of the evangelistic, but non-ecumenical sects.
3. The Philippine Independent Church. 3,500,000 adherents; 1,900,000
adults. This is a unique example of the power of mainline
Christianity still has to attract and influence the sects. This
"Aglipay" church started out as Unitarian in theology but cultic
in its ecclesiology . Now it is related loosely to the /Anglican
Simon Kimbangu (1889-195 1), founder of the largest independent denomination in Africa, Eglise
de Jism-Christ sur la Terre par le Proph^te Simon Kimbangu (EJCSK, The Church of Jesus
Christ on Earth Through the Prophet Simon Kimbangu). Kimbangu was bom on September 24,
1889 in Nkamba, a small village located southwest of Kinshasa, the capital of Zaire (formerly
Belgian Congo). He was educated at a Baptist Missionary Society school near his home. A
Baptist catechist, he taught briefly at a mission school and served as an evangelist.
On April 6, 1921 Kimbangu healed a sick woman. Within two months, thousands had
left their jobs and were flocking to him, many considering him an African Messiah. He denied
this and exhorted his followers to stay in the mission churches, which were soon filled. The
Belgian authorities, alarmed at the explosive growth of his popularity and fearing insurrection,
arrested Kimbangu. He was tried in a military tribunal and sentenced to death on October 6,
1921. The Belgian procurator, together with some of the missionaries, protested the injustice of
the sentence and King Albert commuted it to life imprisonment. Kimbangu died in prison on
October 12, 1951 after thirty years in prison for six months of ministry.
The EJCSK, organized underground by Kimbangu’s children and other followers, was
outlawed until Zaire’s independence in 1960. It was the first African-initiated church to be
accepted into the WCC (1969); by 1984 its membership had been estimated at five million.
Though official church doctrine has an evangelical appearance, Molyneux’s analysis ("African
Christian Theology", Ph.D., University of London) indicates that many Kimbanguists elevate their
founder’s role to that of the Holy Spirit (e.g., his name replaces the Spirit in Trinitarian formulas
found in several Kimbanguist hymns). Kimbangu himself denied any elevated status, however,
and deserves recognition as a humble Christian who in only six months of mimstry left a greater
spiritual impact on Zaire than the Beglians did in fifty-two years of colonial rule.
3^
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r-
communion.
4, The Church of Christ on Earth through the Prophet Simon Kimbangu.
3,500,000 adherents; 2,000,000 adults. Don't underestimate the
power of the fiercely independent African Independent churches,
nor the ability of our mainline Christianity to establish
positive relationships with them, if we try. This strangely
named, and still rather cultic movement, has become a respectable
member of the World Council of Churches.
5. The Anglican Church of Nigeria. 3,500,000 adherents; 2,000,000
adults. At last a 100% mainline church. We're not dead yet!
Vv^ ^ ft W JW t ^
But the significance of these new churches lies not so much in
their numbers, nor even in their unity or lack of it--whether they are w«* ■
ecumenical or sectarian. Actually, most of the larger churches in the Tum.--
third world, apart from these largest five, are the result of mainline
missions. There may not be as many western missionaries now from the .t
major denominations precisely because these ecumenical denominations
were so successful in planting churches. So like St. Paul, their
missionaries give way to the leadership of the younger churches.
To leave it at that, however, could be dangerously misleading.
The hope of the future in missions is not, as is sometimes stated, that
these churches have replaced us in mission, but that they are now our
new partners in mission. And partners have to work together; neither
one dictating to the other who or how or where each is to fulfill its
missionary obligation. Mission at lest has become a two-way process, as
is dramatically demonstrated by the fact that the Korean churches in
America are now the fastest growing segment of American Presbyterianism.
About t^ V^ars aqo it was estimated that the thi^d-world churcfies had
' V \'J
some 3,000 missionaries deploye^ out across the world. ^Today's update
lists seven times as many, ove-r'-^OrOOG.
There is a chart in the World Christian Encyclopedia (p.3)
that lists the percentage of Christians in the world by color (which is
is not, of course, a scientific way to describe racial differences, but
is still the most widely used). In 30 AD, according to the cha^t, only
5% of the Christians in the world were white; 95% were "tan". By 1900
/
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V
But sometime in 1982, for the first time in more than 1200
11/
years, the dominant color of the Christian wh4te be^me no longer white, W
but a spectrum of colors darker than white. In fact, the fastest
declining color in the Christian church these days is white, and the
fastest rising color is black, with yellow and brown not far behind.
Think for a moment what this means for the world
Christian mission in our time. First, it means that the old power base
(spiritually and materially) of Christianity is eroding. From the time
of the Reformation down to our own time Christianity was exactly what
the third-world sometimes still calls it, a "white man's religion". Put
it is the white man's religion no longer.
Second, this means that the base for missions may well shift
to the peoples who are turning in greater numbers to find Jesus Christ
as Lord and Saviour--to the third world.
And third, in any planning therefore that concerns the future
of the Christian mission in the whole world, it is absolutely imperative
that the churches of the third world be taken not only into
consideration but into missionary partnership. And this makes for a
whole new world in missions.
What form that partnership will take is not the subject of
this paper. It belongs to the next century. Our 20th century is only
now beginning to work seriously at with that issue. Perhaps it will
take on the interdenominational, international task-force shape of the
United Mission to Nepal. Perhaps it will look like a Protestant
equivalent of Roman Catholic missionary orders, each working with but
not subject to the local hierarchy, the diocesan bishops. Perhaps our
mainline, cenralized church missions, and those prickly independent
parachurch organizations which are taking over so much of the Protestant
missionary outreach of our day, will simply have to learn to be more
ecumenical and get along with each other. Whatever the solution, we can
no longer be content with anything but some form of worldwide
partnership in mission. The task is too great, and still undone.
Twtf^i»iy4s of the world's people go to bed hungry every night.
Bread for the world is a Christian mission. And in America we feed our
dogs better than half the world's people can feed themselves.
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