Second Era of Missions:Seeds of the Gospel Begin to

Take Root

From the Coastline establishment to the interior

penetration (1865-1945)

1

Three Eras of Mission Activities

• First Era: to the coastlands —William Carey (1800—1860) (Pre-Civil War)

• Second Era: to the inland areas—Hudson Taylor (1860—1945)• Mobilized by Student Volunteer Movement• Many “Faith” Missions planted churches in

every geographical area by 1940. • Third Era: to the “unreached people” —

Cameron Townsend and Donald McGavran – (1945—Present) – next lecture.

2

Three Major Impacts on Missionsin the Second Era (Civil War till WWII)

1. Founding of a Faith Mission Organization

• Hudson Taylor, China Inland Mission (1865)

• Soon 40 missions formed with similar focus

2. Bible Institute Movement3. Student Volunteer Movement

3

Faith Mission Concept

1. Nondenominational(1800) – 2. Denominational (1820) – 3. Independent “Faith” Missions(1860)

• Designed to meet an unmet needs • “Para-church” because “called alongside”

of churches to help fulfill their purpose• “Faith” because of commitment to

individual non-solicitation of personal support

4

1. Pioneer “Faith Mission”

• Hudson Taylor: CIM in 1865• From Christian family, but saved reading a pamphlet• Committed to being a missionary: began studying Mandarin, Greek,

Hebrew and Latin – moved to poor neighborhood to prepare for a life of faith and service

• To reach the interior Taylor returned to England to found CIM raising funds and recruiting missionaries

• Team conflicts, health problems, robberies/fires and death of wife and children, yet he kept coming back

• Became an itinerating missionary every 2 years in England• Boxer Rebellion, 1900, brought end to missionary work (135

missionaries and 35 MKs were killed as a rebellion against foreigners trying to take over China

• 1905 with months to live he returned to China to visit the churches and died.

• By 1934 CIM had almost 1400 missionaries in China until 1950 5

Slow start in Other Areas• South America: considered “Christian” –

became major focus in ’56 with martyrdom • Muslim World: minimum investment until

focus on 10/40 window and 9/11• Central America: overlooked until C.I.

Scofield promoted it as our Samaria (Acts 1:8)

• Asia: laws became favorable to foreigners• 1890 John Nevius taught the “indigenous

principle” (“3-selfs”) as the key to church growth

6

2. The Bible Institute Movement• A. B. Simpson, founder of C&MA and Nyack

Bible Institute to train missionaries (1882)• D.L. Moody founded Moody Bible Institute

(1886) to train missionaries (50,000+)• Hundreds of Bible Institutes from in the US

and thousands around the world just to train church leaders and missionaries.

• Some Bible Institutes have expanded into Bible Colleges and Universities sending thousands into the ministry around the world

• With the current growth of the Church, this focus is continually needed, esp. utilizing technology. 7

A.B.Simpson

D. L. Moody

3. Student Volunteer Movement

• Great leaders in US challenged students to give their lives to reaching the world for Christ. In 45 years from 1890-1935 more than 20,000 went to the foreign field.

• Liberalism in universities from 1930-1960 quenched much of this movement.• Main shift was to social problems, not spiritual

• Student Mission Fellowship picked up the banner, organizing Urbana every 3 years

• Christian colleges need to encourage student involvement in missions 8

4 Stages of Mission Expansion on any one field

• Pioneer stage – First contact with a people group

• Paternal stage – Expatriates train national leadership

• Partnership stage – National leaders work as equals with expatriates

• Participation stage – Expatriates are no longer equal partners, but participate only by invitation

9

Colonialism• In the early 1800’s Trade companies made treaties with

countries for exploitation, esp. India, China, Burma and much of Africa.

• European militaries later invaded mostly to protect these business interests.

• British government officials in these countries gave missionaries favorable status, that they did not have before.

• Colonialism gave citizens access to their colonial countries, helped develop these countries (economics, health and education), and brought law and order.

• Negative side of Colonialism: commercial exploitation, opium dealing in Europe and China from India, and oppressive means to secure a profit brought resentment.

• Missionaries were inevitably associated with bad side of Colonialism and Independence would bring reprisals against them

10

The Global Extent of Colonialism

11

People Movements• The process by which whole people groups

decide together to become Christians. • Such movements must be led into clarity of

faith and discipleship lest it result in nominalism or syncretism.

• The First era of missions saw few people movements

• The Second era of mission saw some, but much more in the Third era of missions (See slide #2)

• Some People Movements have led into Church Planting Movements (CPM).

12

What Percentage of People Groups have not heard the Gospel?

13

Ecumenism and Global Missionary Conference

• Overseas denominational differences often meant less– Missionaries wanted a united front to win the world to Christ.

• Carey dreamed of such a world conference of missionaries• 1872 All-India Conference was the beginning.• “Comity” was an agreement for missions not to compete, but

to divide geographically, because there were so few laborers• Mission leaders met to work out conflicts: 1848 The

Evangelical Alliance – which sponsored the London Conference in 1854 and later in New York

• In 1888 London Conference Gustav Warneck presented a paper: “bring about gradually, by such fraternal alliances, a certain amount of unity in Protestant missionary labours.”

• The next international conference was the Ecumenical Missionary Conference in New York 1900. (162 mission boards w/ 175,000 attendees)

14

“Ecumenical” Movement• Original sense was “worldwide”, but quickly took on new and

negative meaning• In the intermediary meetings between major conferences, the

idea of bringing all Christianity into one super church, gave birth to World Council of Churches

• The Edinburgh Conference 1910 organized a Continuation Committee, which became the International Missionary Council in 1921.

• In the 1948 Amsterdam Conference the World Council of Churches was the motivating factor in the unity of Christendom• Evangelical doctrine, evangelism and missions are minimized• In The New Delhi Conference the IMC was absorbed into the WCC

• The Evangelical groups have long sense separated due to infiltration of radical and liberal theologians and social gospel

• Less than 5% of Protestant missionaries are associated with WCC 15

Liberal Theology• Charles Darwin, Origin of the Species made

Rationalism and Naturalism graphic• Graf, Wellhausen proposed the Documentary

Theory to explain how the Bible was written by men years after the fact, theorizing the fall of man and the unique person and work of Christ.

• Nothing supernatural was acceptable• The “social gospel” was substituted to save

societies from their poverty, injustice and disease.

• The humanized God, deified man, and rejected the supernatural gospel of Christ. 16

Evangelical/Fundamentalists• Denominations and Missions were all effected by

Liberalism.• By 1932 the Laymen’s Missionary Inquiry only wanted liberal

missionaries to be sent because of their social focus• Evangelicals were cornered then ostracized • In 1917 the IFMA was formed (“faith” missions:

Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association) • Now: CrossGlobal Link

• In 1945 the EFMA was formed (evangelical denominations) –Evangelical Fellowship of Mission Agencies now called Mission Exchange

• In 1969 a more separatist Fellowship of Missions• In 1985 charismatic missions formed AIMS (Association

of International Missions Services)• It should be noted that 30% of NA missionaries do not

belong to any of the above associations17

Two World Wars and Depression

• Colonialism disintegrated after the wars as a price of their cooperation

• Liberal organizations began to grow and influence Nationals after WWI

• Following WWII a new surge of missionaries went overseas with a heart to conquer the world with the love of Christ• They rejected all forms of colonialism• They utilized new technologies• They created new approaches to world evangelism

• Thus the Third Era of Missions followed18

What Percent are Evangelical Christians?

19

To Finish the Task: E-ScaleE-0 Evangelism of people who are part of Christian

families and peoples—basically discipleship and renewal—no cultural barriers crossed

E-1 Evangelism of people outside church, but within one’s culture— “most powerful” since it is understood and passed on

E-2 Evangelism of different but similar cultures – two barriers crossed: church and culture requiring separate church fellowships

E-3 Evangelism of people of radically different cultures, often hostile, requiring a different church concept, language barrier and major lifestyle barrier

20

Worlds: A, B and C versus E-ScaleWorld C: All individuals who

would identify themselves as Christian

World B: All non-Christians who live within a society where they have heard or likely to hear the gospel in their lifetime

World A: All non-Christians who are “unevangelized” (not exposed to the gospel) and are likely to remain so without a pioneering effort by Christians to bring the gospel to them.

E-0 Evangelism of those who would call themselves Christian or who have participated in a local church but are not yet true believers

E-1 Evangelism of non-Christians within the same culture as evangelist

E-2 Evangelism of non-Christians within cultures that are similar to the culture of the missionary

E-3 Evangelism of non-Christians within cultures that are very different to the culture of the missionary

22