Section

The preparation of the missionary must be in keeping with the task assigned him. We are compelled, therefore, to define the missionary task from a twofold point of view.

In a previous article in the Evangelical Missions Quarterly (Spring 1965) I attempted to document the nature and extent of cooperation among evangelical missions around the world. That article was concerned exclusively with mission societies, and said nothing of the national churches brought into existence by these missions. What about cooperation among them?

Give a secular newsman the choice of interviewing a pastor, evangelist, theologian, Gospel musician, Christian teacher, church historian, or missionary, and chances are he will pick the missionary.

Missionary bodies working overseas have enjoyed a greater measure of cooperation than exists among church groups at home. The nature and extent of this cooperation, however, is not always fully realized.

Three quarters of a century separate us from the first, brash student volunteers who planned “the evangelization of the world in this generation.” Mott, Donald Fraser, Temple Gairdner and many more—there are still some in the Scottish Church who can remember the great names and the spirit of their times.

In my early childhood my father once told me the story of a man and boy who were traveling through the countryside leading a donkey. As they passed through the first town, they overheard protests: “What a stupid man! At least he ought to put the boy on the burro.” The father heeded their complaints and set the child on the beast.

Back in 1929 Owen D. Young, chairman of the board of the General Electric Company, said what he thought of his responsibilities: “My conception is this: There are three groups of people who are interested in this institution.

What a heart-breaking tragedy to have fine young men wiped out at an advanced post by enemy fire simply through lack of artillery support or ammunition.

Mission agencies and the church face a major question with respect to the national churches that are emerging as a result of missionary evangelism. The question is no longer one of establishing indigenous churches at some future date.

There is much said and written today about the approaching end of world missions. Such views are usually supported by statistics and radically changing conditions in many parts of the world where missionaries have been expelled or excluded, or where normal missionary work is exceedingly difficult.