EMQ

This article is an address Rev. Michael E. Haynes gave at the Park Street Church Missionary Conference in Boston on Apr. 28, 1968.

Fewer and fewer students are enrolling in the missons departments of Bible colleges. If the trend continues, some of the departments are going to fold up.

Way out in Timbutktu a missionary confessed to me his greatest frustration: how to tie himself to a time schedule that works when there is no built-in system or supervision of his job. Out of this discussion came a request to share some suggestions at a men’s retreat in the Philippines.

The following article is based on a paper written by Mr. Hull while a student at Princeton Theological Seminary, (Fall, 1967) for a course given by Dr. Richard Shaull, professor of ecumenics.

Within the last fifty years astounding changes have taken place in education. Whereas then only a fraction of the population over sixteen remained in high school, high school graduation is the general norm now for most young people.

Current attitudes to evangelism cluster around two poles: presence” and “proclamation.” “Christian presence” is a term in vogue in ecumenical circles. To date, however, there seems to be little formal exposition of its meaning. What is available must for the most part be gleaned from various periodicals.¹

A study of church and society in Africa most easily focuses on the influence of the institutional church on the emerging societies of that continent. But while there is a social and political aspect to most church actions, so there is a religious dimension in the development of new African socio-political institutions.

Mr. Detzler’s article, based on a survey of current mission policy, shows that North American boards are grappling with a serious problem: how to relate their evangelistic calling to an established church. The Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland is not a state church (though the respondents to Mr. Detzler’s survey, as quoted, call it that).

Man fights to lose his lostness without being saved. The scientific optimist would settle the matter by dismissing God from his universe. The scientist will grant that the human condition has its problems, but they are all solvable.

nstitutions are those ministries whose intrinsic purpose is not considered to be the preaching of the Word or the building of the body of Christ. Some mission authorities speak of them as “services” while others speak of them as “secondary ministries”: medicine, education, agriculture and numerous others.