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Buck Hill Falls mission consultation, after 1957, side 1.
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- speakerThen the Christian religion. We didn't have the men. We didn't have the money.
- speakerWell I don't know whether Toynbee is right or not.
- speakerI've never read all of the book but I have read the redaction twice. And,
- speakerwhen he says that the rhythm is challenge and response
- speakermaybe we broke the rhythm. It is a
- speakerfact that these things are so.
- speakerEntirely.
- speakerAnd the second thing I want to say to you is that this church is the foundation of our
- speakerfuture entirely. I didn't say that this church
- speakeris our future.
- speakerAnd I don't believe for a minute.
- speakerAnd I thank God that there is nobody in this room who believes for one minute
- speakerthat the migrant American missionary is our future.
- speakerHe's not.
- speakerAside from certain factors that we have not faced in this situation. He is not our
- speakerfuture because the future is fast and streamlined and most of us
- speakermissionaries are.
- speakerWell weighted down with impedimenta to say the least. The migrant
- speakerAmerican missionary is not our future. The church is not our future.
- speakerThe church is the foundation of our future. And, one of the
- speakererrors, one of the subtle errors in our thinking in this conference.
- speakerI'm not saying because you are there and I'm here.
- speakerOne of our errors and one of the errors in larger circles that
- speakerdeal with these problems is the subtle error to make the
- speakerchurch our goal. The church is not our goal.
- speakerIt was not called into existence by the Lord Jesus
- speakerChrist as an end in itself. The church is never
- speakerits own goal. The church is the foundation of our future
- speakerfor the fundamental support of the future. The fundamental
- speakersupport of the future which we long for and strive with all
- speakerour might to realize is in the imagery of the New Testament
- speakerthe coming together in an indissoluble unity of the
- speakerliving stones which are the foundation. That's what the church is. It's the foundation
- speakerof the future. We are the living stones. If we are living on
- speakerthat we cannot say we are or we cannot say we are not. It all depends upon our faith.
- speakerOnly God knows who belongs to him. But anyhow we are not the future, that's
- speakerevident.
- speakerAnd the church, as we constitute it organisationally and ecclesiastically, is not
- speakerthe future and it certainly is not the future strategically but it is the
- speakerfoundation of our future.
- speakerThe kingdom of God is the future, and the
- speakerKingdom of God is the goal of the church.
- speakerThe church exists for the purpose of giving glimpses,
- speakerof the kingdom, of revealing the kingdom, of witnessing to the reality of the
- speakerkingdom, of telling men by word and by deed that there is something that is
- speakerreal and of pointing to it.
- speakerThe kingdom is precisely anywhere where Christ reigns as
- speakerLord and that very.
- speakerThe structure of the church,
- speakerthe the visible organizational problem with which we struggle, all of
- speakerthis is not reality it's it's it's it's symbolic of something,
- speakerwhich is deeper and more more meaningful. And, the only thing is
- speakerGod's kingdom where he is king of the human heart.
- speakerThat's the only reality there is.
- speakerAnd the thirst after God cannot be channeled in these programs the
- speakerprogram.
- speakerWell or program. We have many programs but
- speakerbut that isn't it.
- speakerAll other reality is derivative and symbolic.
- speakerAnd therefore because this is true, whether we want to face it or
- speakernot, I can show you one example which I think is cogent
- speakerlogically irrefutable. We think for example not to ourselves here of
- speakercourse. We don't think it, but most people in the United States would say that real
- speakerpower and they mean by that real reality. The thing that actually
- speakeris is.
- speakerBest symbolized by the development of well the hydrogen bomb. We
- speakertalk about it, but that's what we mean. That that's the real article.
- speakerBut that isn't the real article, the real
- speakerarticle that created that symbolism of the diabolical
- speakerhellishness in it,
- speakerIs the misguided sinful rebellious
- speakerpower of the unlimited spirit of man.
- speakerYou see that that's what created it. That's what brought it into being. The real thing is what you
- speakercan't see. The real power is spiritual power.
- speakerAnd that's but that's that's where we are. We, we don't grapple with
- speakerit because it's tougher. Thus we say the mission of the church
- speakeris the only relevant activity because the mission of the church is to point to that power.
- speakerAnd the church is the instrument of God to achieve that power. And,
- speakerto disclose that reality, it follows that the church must be ecumenical now.
- speakerWe we we talked here about the church in the
- speakerworld and we are tempted to get the idea that there are a series of churches across the
- speakerearth as there is a series of links in a chain.
- speakerAnd often times the chain has been severed by some uncourageous
- speakerthoughtlessness which has ruptured the inner
- speakercontinuity which holds the chain together. The chain is not held together
- speakerincidentally by the iron links. The iron links, each in itself is
- speakercompletely independent.
- speakerThey are joined together by an intellectual concept of unity which has fashioned
- speakerthem into a mold which can add here.
- speakerAnd the church must be ecumenical because the mission of the church is to unveil the
- speakeronly reality that is and that is God.
- speakerAnd you cannot have a partial instrument revealing the whole of reality. That's
- speakerthe point. You cannot have a partial instrument giving service to the
- speakertotal. And you cannot have the partiality of the church in America
- speakerrevealing the wholeness of God across this earth. Don't forget that! That's
- speakerthe error of the arrogance that may creep into our thinking as a board that
- speakerwe can give the witness to the world.
- speakerYes.
- speakerAnd the other thing is that we cannot have the partial reality at the other end. The church on the
- speakerfield cannot give the reality, the witness to the reality,
- speakerto the world. And, we are in danger of falling into a false
- speakerantithesis if we believe that the question comes down. We don't care and I don't say that.
- speakerBut we are in danger of being led to a place where we in our
- speakerdifficulties, and they are real. We are going to say that this
- speakerthis witness, through the sharing of our life with that life, is not so
- speakerimportant as the nourishment of that life in order that it may come back to us
- speakerin building the ecumenical church.
- speakerIt is impossible to fashion an ecumenical instrument
- speakerunless there goes out from this church you're
- speakerdedicated fresh life.
- speakerAnd it is impossible to refresh the stagnant water
- speakerin this church here unless we bring to it the gifts and the
- speakergrace of that church there. Oh I know you will say you're just running away, Ryburn! [Ryburn, Horace Wintzer] You're
- speakerjust dreaming! You can't do it all.
- speakerWell God can. We must do it.
- speakerDo we we we we cannot
- speakerthis this is we were instructed in
- speakerthese documents which came to us. I say in all honesty and sincerity
- speakerin some people here questioned it.
- speakerBut I don't care about that. I did read them. I read them carefully I studied them.
- speakerAnd we were told that this re-evaluation was upon us because
- speakerof the times and that's true. And, that it was hastened by the financial situation which
- speakeris so obvious that it hurts. And then we were told
- speakerthat also we must look at it
- speakerbecause of the reality of our faith.
- speakerThat's really it. It's because of our faith
- speakerat that point.
- speakerOur faith in the ecumenical instrument,
- speakerthe ecumenical ties. Our faith in the wholeness of Christ Church
- speakerour faith.
- speakerThis is the foundation of our future and if we build,
- speakerif we built across this world, if we were clever enough with our administrative technique to fashion an
- speakerorganization which would be ecumenical and tightly knit in the fellowship and unity of
- speakerservice pursuing its common mission across the earth. If we built that, if we achieved it over the next
- speakerfive years either through the insight and vision and leadership of this Board [Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Board of Foreign Missions] or because there would be
- speakerspringing up across the church in a number of places spontaneously at the same time the same
- speakerdrives and impulses we still would not achieve our mission.
- speakerLet us not forget that our mission is not the creation of that structure.
- speakerOur mission is to witness
- speakerto the reality of God. And, the instrument is this church. Our
- speakertechnical task is the creation of this organizational pattern so
- speakerthat we may get on with the job.
- speakerWell if this thing be so and I believe on the
- speakerbasis of the New Testament it is so.
- speakerLet's face it. What are we going to
- speakerdo in Thailand? In
- speaker1953 we requested from the Board in
- speakerthe so-called field work appropriations, the class four two 11 a million 400,000
- speaker999 to call say roughly at the current rate of exchange is not exact but
- speakerfigures even seventy thousand dollars US.
- speakerIn 1952 the board gave to us in the
- speakersame classes 55,000 U.S. dollars. In other words this year
- speakerif we receive, as we have already been told we are to receive,
- speakerthe same budget that we received last year. We will receive 25
- speakerpercent less than we asked for. And, then there comes into this group here the
- speakerquestion is the budget then realistic? And that is an
- speakeradministrative problem. The budget that
- speakercomes from the field should be realistic because
- speakerthe man sent out there by the Board should see that it is. It's not
- speakera question. We are frustrated. We cannot we cannot get the money we
- speakerneed.
- speakerBut it is partly because we have a dream concept of an
- speakerunlimited amount if we if we were only free just to ask for more and
- speakermore and more and more and satisfy ourselves by our particular American
- speakerpreoccupation of an endless series of activist programs
- speakerthat continue to grind the treadmill of tradition. Pardon me for using what
- speakerCharlie said.
- speakerWho am I to use his imagery and his verbiage.
- speakerBut anyhow that's exactly the truth.
- speakerWe are not asking for these endless promotional sort of
- speakerdreamland stuff which is blown up like a balloon with nothing more than the verbiage
- speakerwhich comes out here and which is trapped on that gelatinous thread which winds
- speakerround and round and round and round. And, we must more and more finance every
- speakerkind of technological improvement which will somehow capture the spirit and
- speakerimprison him.
- speakerBut anyhow $70,000 is a
- speakermeasurable opportunity.
- speakerAnd whether it goes on the tape or not. I know that Bert Rice, who has been a missionary and
- speakerlived in the Far East, will by the sharp analysis of her mind put that down.
- speakerSeventy thousand dollars there's a measurable opportunity. I'm not asking for the
- speakerworld or the moon. I'm not asking for a great new reorganisation
- speakerof the board. I'm not asking that we bust through the hard Jericho
- speakerwall of the General Council which was erected in order that the church might be
- speakerprotected from the unguided and unpredictable emotionalism of the
- speakerSpirit of God.
- speakerI'm only asking for seventy thousand dollars.
- speakerThat's all. That's all we can spend. If you have seventy-five thousand give the other
- speakerfive thousand to Japan. John Smith [Smith, John Coventry] needs it. It's a measurable
- speakeropportunity. It's a piece of work that can be done. It's there and we ought
- speakerto support it.
- speakerGod Incidentally we said examine it by our faith.
- speakerAll right! Do it! God has not given us yet the opportunity
- speakerto do any more than that seventy thousand dollars will do.
- speakerThat's what I'm trying to say. That's exactly what I'm trying to say. We couldn't spend any
- speakermore than that profitably.
- speakerGod has matched that opportunity to what I believe in our
- speakerfaith is God's estimate of at least
- speakersome of our power to give this year.
- speakerThe Church of Christ in Thailand requested in nineteen hundred and fifty
- speakerthree projected its own budget of sixty thousand dollars US.
- speakerThis is it's estimated 1953 budget and
- speakerit's estimated that of the sixty thousand dollars US its own churches would contribute fifteen
- speakerthousand dollars US and it requested to the mission.
- speakerForty five thousand dollars US in class six.
- speakerAnd when they brought that in to us we of course told them it was impossible because
- speakerwe knew that when it comes to talking about faith that is just a lot of hooey.
- speakerAnd so we said we would put in our request for twenty thousand dollars U.S.,
- speakerwhich is less than half and you say ring the budget's
- speakerout. Well we rung it. Here it is.
- speakerThis isn't the mission budget. This is the budget of the General Council of the
- speakerChurch of Christ in Thailand. It's staffed with their own staff, which is sent to Dan Pattison [Pattison, Daniel M., Treasurer, Board of Foreign Missions] and
- speakerJohn Smith [Smith, John Coventry] there are the columns, the names, the words. There are still more pages that's
- speakeronly three four so on right down to the end. It's all right there for
- speakercogitation, for prayer.
- speakerThey sent it to the Board because the field administrator compelled it in order to get
- speaker$20000. Not on your life.
- speakerThey asked that I would send it because they wanted the church here to know what
- speakerthey were doing. Talk about nationalism, anti-Americanism, the
- speakerdifficulty of getting people in.
- speakerI sympathize with Park Johnson [Johnson, R. Park] with a minority Christian group. That's what we face. Who ever heard
- speakerof Presbyterians wanting to quit because it's tough. I sympathize with John Weir [Weir, John Barr]. He
- speakersays the Hindus don't want us there [india].
- speakerBut in this country they want us just as lousy as we are.
- speakerThey want us.
- speakerThey are inviting us.
- speakerThey are urging us.
- speakerWhy sure, the Church of Christ in Thailand asked Mary [Ryburn, Mary Ethel Turner] and me [Ryburn, Horace Wintzer] to come back. You
- speakerwould say that's natural. Whoever carries the bag always find an open door. I
- speakerknow that. But we've had letters since we came back here from non-Christian
- speakerpeople in our Thai circle in Bangkok.
- speakerEditors of newspapers asking us to come back. They don't.
- speakerIt isn't this. It's the fact that the American is welcome. And, we are
- speakerAmericans. And, we are an American mission and we are a Board
- speakerin America. And if you can't do it in another area. And, if you
- speakercan't do it there, and what are you going to do? Go about
- speakertheologizing about the forces that are crowding in upon us so that we
- speakermust break through them? Well, here's the door, boys. It's wide open. We can go
- speakerin with any amount of consecrated personnel we can corral. And,
- speakerwe can go in with a lot more money than we've got today. And,
- speakerwe can spend it to the glory of God, not by missionaries. The most extravagantq
- speakerpart of our force across this world is the missionary.
- speakerDon't blame! Don't say anything to me!
- speakerI'm a missionary and I'm on the field, but I still say that. Can
- speakerwe give them 400,000? That is $20,000 when they
- speakerask $45,000 in Class Six?
- speakerWell, the way is open. We've got roughly speaking, I don't know exactly,
- speakerthat's one thing I confess to you here I am amazed at the way some field
- speakeradministrators have been able to get up and right down the line.
- speakerThey can pick statistics to the finest shade and variation.
- speakerThey do exactly the type thing that Pete Wysham [Wysham, William Norris] has pressured me to do for three years. And, I've
- speakernever delivered because I can't do it.
- speakerAnd he and John Smith [Smith, John Coventry] have written the reports and dreamed the statistics. It's not for me.
- speakerWe have more or less 60 missionaries, I can't say exactly because some might be on the high seas
- speakercoming home.
- speakerOthers may be away for meditation and reflection and
- speakerso on. But, if we have 60 missionaries, that we've got 30 couples. Some
- speakerof them of course are single women. But if we've got 60 missionaries if we have sixty
- speakermissionaries, figure thirty at five thousand dollars a throw, you've got $150000.
- speakerI think the reality would be near 165 or maybe $70000 in class
- speakerone.
- speakerThat's a lot of money.
- speakerAnd one of the things that distressed me measurably as I came down here
- speakerthis morning and that's one reason why I'm so disorganized in these remarks that I'm making is the fact
- speakerthat there has just come a copy of the minutes of the Executive Committee of the Missions.
- speakerNow let's face it.
- speakerAnd I've tried so desperately to create the idea that
- speakerproperty for example is not the sacred cow of
- speakerperverted Presbyterianism but is simply an instrumentality in the hands of
- speakerthe Christian community to do its job. And now because there has been
- speakertrouble and because of all the confusion that exist in the
- speakerminds of missionaries and even our Thai brethren, the
- speakerHigh Court of the Mission has sat in judgment interpreting the tradition and has come up with the
- speakeridea that since property belongs to the Board,
- speakerit is a solemn responsibility of the mission.
- speakerA hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year maybe more.
- speakerAnd one thing we must do.
- speakerIs to share with these missionaries more fully and completely until there is
- speakerunderstanding concerning our aid. I admit that . Some
- speakerof my colleagues in Thailand don't understand what I'm getting at because I haven't been able
- speakerto make it clear to them. Others do understand it and are working beautifully for it,
- speakerwhich makes me wonder if there is a variation
- speakerin the perspicacity of some of us. But, I wouldn't be unkind about that. I don't
- speakerunderstand some of the things that we're doing here.
- speakerWe have some immediate tasks
- speakerthat must be achieved. The Chinese Christians in Thailand are frustrated for
- speakereducation because the government provides schools, but there aren't of course enough and
- speakernaturally the Chinese cannot get in when there are three Thais standing in front of him.
- speakerNaturally the Thai are taken first. The Chinese cannot get through the fourth grade. And, the
- speakergovernment has now given us the first Chinese school in the whole kingdom, permission to
- speakerorganize a school beyond the fourth grade through high school level. We can do it. They trust
- speakerus because we are Christians. Well but that's not sentimentality.That's
- speakerwhy they trust us. They don't trust us because we're Americans. They trust us because we're Christians.
- speakerAnd that same Chinese community has this past year believe it or not in connection with the
- speakerrestoration grants we gave to remodel some of their property raised out of their own
- speakerresources over six thousand US dollars.
- speakerWe want fifteen thousand dollars from the Board here in order to
- speakerstart that school on land which we already own and have ample. And, they'll
- speakermatch it with another fifteen or twenty thousand dollars to put up the basic structure
- speakeron the land which was consecrated to God by the first printing press ever taken to that
- speakercountry by a missionary. The Board has given us $25000
- speakerto finish a headquarters building for the Church of Christ in Thailand. We have a church but we have no place
- speakerfor them to function as such.
- speakerAnd in the headquarters building campaign Dr Chindossing, a name that
- speakermany of you here know, who does not take a dime from us, but views uncounted hours
- speakerfree in the service of McCormick hospital has already given us we have it in cash in the bank.
- speakerFive hundred dollars toward the building himself. And has promised that just as soon as we starts spading,
- speakerso he can see that we're going to produce. He will give another five hundred dollars. In
- speakerother words what I'm trying to say to you here is although we don't have the building we have collected on the
- speakerfield from Christians in this case. Not in the case of school buildings where
- speakerwe kept the non-Christians but from Christians over ten thousand dollars US. And you say
- speakerwell why don't you do it. Is there no end to what you need. Well I don't know. But, inflation and
- speakercosts are such that we will have to find someplace either here or there three
- speakerthousand five hundred dollars additional to do what we had basically projected.
- speakerThey all contribute part of it but we've got to do it too. And, we have
- speakerfive thousand university students in Bangkok.
- speakerin Chulalongkorn University and Thammasat University.
- speakerThammasat means the University of Maryland political science and the agriculture school pharmaceuticals school the
- speakermedical college. Chulalongkorn University and the medical college of Thammasat. And in
- speakerall of the other institutions there are these five thousand students and there is
- speakerno single university student in the Kingdom of Thailand in any other place
- speakerexcept Bangkok.
- speakerfor there is no university anyplace else. And, it's all right there for
- speakerus. We don't need a large force of one missionary in this university center and another there and another
- speakerthere to spot all over the map a number of student centers in order to reach the students. All we
- speakerneed is what we've got--a magnificent missionary in Ray Downs [Downs, Raymond Cloyd] and his wife [Downs, Elizabeth Holmquist], two of them.
- speakerAnd enough money to bring that hostel to a reality. You say, Oh
- speakeryes.
- speakerWhy do you want the hostel? Well it just comes down to this. We can't have
- speakera Christian university. We projected it five years ago, six years ago, whenever the
- speakerdeputation came back. We could have had it then if we'd acted with boldness and vision. For
- speakerthe first three years after the end of the war, when America was absolutely king pin in the Far East, we could have
- speakerachieved any sort of recognition from the government, but with our hesitation and
- speakerthe rise of nationalism and the second outran, of course, our hesitation the first outran
- speakerthe second and we we we cannot get it now.
- speakerWhen we were ready we could not get it because there was a new day, and I believe it's God's new day.
- speakerBecause in Thailand, I don't think we have the manpower. And, I know from what I
- speakerhear here, the Board hasn't got the money to finance the university, but we can have a hostel for this one
- speakerpurpose to gather the Christian university students, who are taking their training in Bangkok,
- speakerand to let them live in a fellowship in a Christian hostel where Betty and Ray Downs will
- speakerlive and where the pattern has already been approved by the young people and by the
- speakerChurch Committee working on the project, the National Church Committee, that they will live cooperatively.
- speakerAnd they will pray, they will read scripture, they will discuss the
- speakerissues that face them and face their church and face the world and their place
- speakeras witnessing individuals and God's calls. They will
- speakercreate a forum where men coming from this country and from parts of
- speakerEurope when they reach Bangkok will have an adequate platform upon which to present their claims
- speakerfor Jesus Christ in the heart of the all new
- speakerlife.
- speakerBangkok has. They will do this. But after all
- speakeryou can't ask us to do this type of new pioneering thing
- speakerwith resources from the field because we have reserved to our right.
- speakerThe pioneers place.
- speakerWe have said to ourselves that we are the leaders. We are the pioneers. We thrust forward and
- speakerothers follow.
- speakerLet us really walk out and do this or we're both going to fall into the ditch.
- speakerWe must have enough money. It's in your youth
- speakerbudget of course. But we ask for 10 times in youth budget what is in
- speakerthere. And the youth budget isn't raised. I just put this
- speakerdown for your consideration.
- speakerIf we could get which we we did not have last year in the budget incidentally instead of having
- speaker$20000 in Classics last year we had less
- speakerthan we had less than $13000. And, we got the rest of it
- speakerby the shrewed operation of John Smith [Smith, John Coventry] and the
- speakercordial collaboration of Dan Pattison [Pattison, Daniel M.] for which we are eternally grateful.
- speakerIf we had even $20,000 in Classics
- speakerWe would have 15000 constituents, communicants that is, in the Church of
- speakerChrist in Thailand and we would be requesting from classics a
- speakerdollar and 33 and a third cents per year per Christian or a third of a cent per
- speakerChristian per day.
- speakerI know you don't like me to waste your time talking about that, but that's a fact anyhow we have to face it.
- speakerSo I end with only this
- speakerone fact about our financial situation.
- speakerWe need for our Mation school for the Chinese and
- speakerwe need for our church headquarters, and we need to complete
- speakerour hostel project where we have already
- speakera fellowship of fifty Christian students in Ray Downs' house,
- speakerActually, we need at least 28000 and $500.
- speakerand if he was invited today to challenge us
- speakerfor this conference, what wou`ld you think? The strategies that we are seeking for in this conference is to get some strategies that will break through these oppositions and look and be prepared..
- speakerHe's got some really great truly thoughtful vision that we
- speakerprepare.
- speakerAnd the second thing is you and I have talked often, Horace [Ryburn, Horace] concerning this government
- speakerbusiness that's piling down on on Thailand.
- speakerThe government going in there and trying conscientiously perhaps with all of its
- speakereconomic program and agricultural programs. But we are
- speakerso certain there is going to be a reaction against that before very long.
- speakerAnd there's where we are. I only that somewhere here
- speakerisn't what we tried to say I like we do so poor in mind
- speakerparticularly when we said at the beginning that the financial situation that we report
- speakeris the most important thing. You think perhaps that's like a light to your wishful thinking. We said
- speakerwe wrote the most important thing is that how we can so real about in a
- speakerway doesn't mean necessarily we set it on time but we simply look it
- speakerup. Cutting off. A piece of work because it
- speakerhappens to be more important. Or as someone here
- speakersaid because it is producing it maybe that's a place that
- speakerisn't producing is the place that we ought to concentrate.
- speakerTime it's got to be said. I've been waiting for us to get into. This is Tuesday morning.
- speakerAnd, it's not going to be easy maybe
- speakerwe are too much at one. Maybe we're not and we were pretty bringing
- speakerin this. But when we come out here.
- speakerI know one thing I'm sure of that information.
- speakerWhen you get us, when you get the picture
- speakerIn the Near East today and the progress of this bill. Maybe not progress to, which means to presume
- speakerone is better than the other, but the adjustments that you have given are the most encouraging
- speakerthings I've heard.
- speakerAs to trying to meet a situation realistic.
- speakerI don't know where in the world we as Americans are going to go on unilaterally and just count
- speakerthe number of personnel or add up the amount of money that we're spending in any given area. That
- speakerisn't the major problem. The major problem is how we can
- speakermake a witness that is, as somebody around here said. Who was it?--Charles Arubthnot. [Arbuthnot, Charles W., Jr.] T
- speakerhe partial witness is not that we don't. If we have a hundred dollars
- speakernot a thousand dollar. The partial witness we now are making
- speakerthe the whole approach in behalf of the whole church, which isn't America and
- speakerBritain, but which is a total church upon a total world. Now, before
- speakerthis meeting this morning we took up in the Nepal business and we say
- speakerwe sit here and judge whether we should go into the Nepal. That we've
- speakeralready had discussed that in Administrative Council, that it is a global matter
- speakerand the National Missionary Council has called us together and
- speakerRoy gave us a talk about this morning. It's not simply shall Indian missions move in or even
- speakerAmerican missions as a whole move in. But maybe
- speakerit's a time for us to move into Nepal with Filipinos or with
- speakerKoreans or with Japanese or with British and we just do it together.
- speakerAnd that's why we ask for the International Missionary Council to bring us.
- speakerSomewhere. I think we've got to get under.
- speakerThese things that are talked about, the budget, are all important. No
- speakerdoubt about that. But I ask
- speakerWhen are we going to start thinking of how we may do our task in the
- speakerframework of what we call the ecumenical so that we will make a more effective
- speakerwitness and penetrate
- speakerDeeply and for a lasting period
- speakerinto these areas which we are confronting. I know that is only a word, and you can
- speakertake some of it, take none of it. Somewhere
- speakerin committees that we meet now we ought to be thinking not only I said this
- speakernow the end of this not mine just Horace [Ryburn, Horace W.], but he happened to raise
- speakerone or two things that I think crystallize it. In particular, his emphasis upon
- speakerAmericans being popular there and the ambassador's statement, as
- speakersincere as it might have been from the man, is in a framework that I don't think May
- speakerwould have answered that way or Pago.
- speakerThere are many differences of course. Africa has no universal organized religions to contend with. A
- speakermultiplicity of languages and dialects continue to divide and separate the tribal groups.
- speakerThere are old traditions, but no written philosophies and no cultural loyalties.
- speakerIn fact no historical writing at all. But in its emergence to world
- speakercitizenship, it is ever in its ever increasing flow from the stagnant
- speakerwaters of hidden placid inactivity into the rushing flood of world events is much
- speakerthe same. In Africa, one speaks of developing leadership,
- speakeralleviation of suffering among the ignorant masses, and the destruction
- speakeror adaptation of old ideals to Christian life. Reading
- speakerreports of early Christian activity in China, one realizes how similar the two
- speakerareas of missionary activity are. 75 years ago in China,
- speakertoday in Africa. It is logical then to study the successes and
- speakerfailures of Christian missions in China and the emphasis on their type, on
- speakerthis type of evaluation proposed by various Christian organizations is timely and important.
- speakerOne of the dangers however in this kind of study is the tendency to
- speakerconcentrate on the present tragedy in China and its immediate cause, that is to say
- speakercommunism, and to pass over the historical setting leading to the
- speakerabsorption of a huge nation by a foreign ideology.
- speakerWe are asked to take immediate steps to avoid the same catastrophe in Africa
- speakerbecause of the immediate danger of a common foe. "Nationalize" is the
- speakerwatchword so that the insidious incubus of foreign control in church and
- speakermission activity may not prove again to be one of the levers by
- speakerwhich, working on a fulcrum of political unrest, the church and indeed
- speakerChristianity will be dislodged from its control over the lives and thoughts of
- speakerpeople. The solution is not going to be as simple as that.
- speakerThe nationalization of control of all church and mission institutions would be the
- speakersolution if all the individuals concerned were Christ filled competent
- speakermen and women. But, national control by semi Christian,
- speakerincompetent men and women will play right into the hands of the enemy. To say
- speakerthis, immediately arouses the criticism by all liberals
- speakersouls that one is still shackled by a paternalistic blindness that
- speakercannot see the worth of the individual Christian, the product of church and mission. That, it
- speakeris true, is a danger in all situations where foreign agents have been
- speakerthe means of developing a primitive people into a modern society. But
- speakerthere is just as grave a danger of being swept off our feet by popular sentimentalism
- speakerin the heat and urgency of our present emergency. The attacking virus
- speakeris anti-Christian communism. It attacks where there is. It attacks where there is weakness.
- speakerThere is little use in a makeshift patching up of an easily infected area to avoid the plague.
- speakerThe internal sickness that has created this easily infected area
- speakermust be cured to make the whole body impervious to the enemy.
- speakerNationalization is not the complete answer. In fact in some instances it may
- speakernot be the answer at all. Taking a lesson from one of our Board's
- speakerown sore spots. Consider the work in Chile. A Chilean
- speakerpastor, Mr. Nuñez [Nunez,Carlos] , had a memorable meeting of Chile Presbytery in
- speaker1939. Stated with some heat. "You speak of
- speakernationalisation, you speak of creating an indigenous church. You
- speakersay we must not ever remain children depending for our sustenance on
- speakersubsidization from abroad. You say we must learn to walk on
- speakerour own feet. Is how to teach a young child to walk. It is quite
- speakeranother thing to throw him down, breaking his legs in the process, and then expect
- speakerhim to walk." As far back as 1920, a
- speakersystematic withdrawal of financial aid from the Chilean church was inaugurated
- speakerwithout adequate provision or inspiration for the development of competent leadership.
- speakerIt was expected to that the Institute in less and the Escrella Popular would develop
- speakerinspired and competent leadership. They did not. About the
- speakersame time the Pentecostal movement got underway and are rather uneducated but inspired
- speakerleadership and without foreign aid and either personnel or funds, it
- speakerachieved considerable success. One can readily realize that we are
- speakerhere dealing with imponderables. That elusive quality we have
- speakerchosen to call inspired leadership. It is nothing more than the Spirit of
- speakerGod taking hold of individuals. It is not by power, nor by might, but
- speakerby His Spirit that this evasive quality works in the man and through
- speakerthat man makes safe of people against the inroads of the enemy. We are not
- speakerwaging a material warfare. It is spiritual. And, it is a spiritual
- speakerlaw that we must follow. Those apply this principle to the
- speakerthree lines of approach to the Africa problem mentioned above. That is to say
- speakerthe development of leadership, the alleviation of suffering and
- speakerignorance among the masses, and the changing of old beliefs and customs to full
- speakercommitment to Jesus Christ. First, develop into Christian leadership
- speakerin order to nationalize the church and mission institution.
- speakerDr. Leonard M. Outerbridge in his recent book "The Last Churches of China," published by
- speakerWestminster Press states, "The Christian Church must
- speakerrecognize that the church, not Russia, developed the soil in which communism
- speakerwas planted in China.
- speakerTrue the enemy has sown tares in the field but the enemy
- speakerdid not plant the tares until the field was well plowed and harrowed
- speakerby 100 years of missionary work.
- speakerCommunism simply could not have taken root in China 100 years ago because then
- speakerthere was no adequate idea of universal brotherhood." He then goes
- speakeron to quote from George Sokolsky, the columnist, who spent 18 years in China. Quoting
- speakerfrom Sokolsky, "Christianity as a religion or a practice of life
- speakercan only interest me academically. I am a Jew and should therefore abhor
- speakermissions. But I have lived in China during most of my adult life.
- speakerTo the foreigner in China the Christian mission cannot be a mere question of religious
- speakeraffiliation. For the Christian mission is one of the most vital
- speakerrevolutionary forces in that country. It is the role that Christianity has
- speakerplayed in the creating of a distinctive personality that has made missions so
- speakerattractive to me. What does it matter what the number of converts is?
- speakerWhat matters whether there is a large or small number of churches?
- speakerChina will not be saved as a nation by multitudes or by buildings. It should. It requires
- speakerleadership leadership and a Christian mission has done more than its share in the
- speakerreorientation of the Chinese mind from Confucian selfishness,
- speakeras evidenced by the family system, to the social consciousness, as evidenced
- speakerby the effort of an increasingly large number of Chinese men and women to
- speakerserve China in a modern manner." Unquote.
- speakerDoctor Outerbridge continues. Outerbridge continues, "In the Christian
- speakerschools. Missionaries had achieved success in That is in quotes. in
- speakersupplanting Confucius.
- speakerThe task was made easier as graduates of Christian Schools gained ascendancy in the
- speakerNationalist government.
- speakerIt was not unnatural that there were some who hoped that the ground lost by Confucius
- speakerwould be won and occupied by Christianity. Little did they realize that the
- speakerground lost by Confucius would be occupied in large measure by the
- speakerforces of atheism, materialism and communism."
- speakerWhether or not this is an extreme statement That's the end of the quote.
- speakerWhether or not this is an extreme statement or a generalization too sweeping in its condemnation
- speakerwill have to be decided by those better qualified than I to judge. But there must be a
- speakergrain of truth in it.
- speakerSuccess in mission educational institutions has too often been based on the
- speakersize of the school, its ability to attain a large measure of financial
- speakerindependence. It's recognition of non-Christian local governments,
- speakerand the fact that its graduates, although not professing Christianity, have become
- speakersympathetic to Christian missionary activity through their devotion to the alma
- speakermater and individuals on the teaching staff. These hundreds of
- speakergraduates assumed important government positions of authority. And, we were proud
- speakerof their achievements. But when the test came, their loyalty was not to Jesus Christ,
- speakerbut to an institution or to an individual. And, that kind of loyalty loses
- speakersignificance when loyalty becomes a matter of life and death. One will willingly
- speakerlay down his life for a friend, but rarely for an institution.
- speakerThis is not written in condemnation or criticism of the loyal and faithful servants of the cross
- speakerwho gave their lives to in China for Christ.
- speakerIt is simply an attempt to evaluate the situation as it exists now in China
- speakerin order to avoid possible errors in strategy that could take place in Africa. In
- speakerorder to develop Christian leadership in one part of Africa, we have started to cull it. The
- speakernatural tendency is to enlarge its influence, better its equipment,
- speakerenlarge its faculty and enhance its popularity.
- speakerWe desire to make it not only the apex of our Christian educational system in
- speakerCameroon, but the recognized educational institution in that part of
- speakerAfrica as well, offering educational advantages under Christian auspices available
- speakernowhere else in that part of Africa. Why? So that
- speakerits graduates will receive recognition in government, commerce, professional circle.
- speakerIn this way Christian influence, we say, will be brought to bear on all of life.
- speakerIn order to achieve these ends, we again are apt to depend on material aid, excellence of
- speakerservice, and in quantity but that is just where the mistake has been made in other
- speakerChristian institutions. The emphasis must be put, not on the development of
- speakera quasi christian character development, but on a personal vital loyalty
- speakerto Jesus Christ himself.
- speakerExcellent and pedagogical methods. Yes. Providing the best equipment? By all
- speakermeans! But, these do not come first. The ideal must ever be
- speakerkept in mind that in addition in addition to excellence of preparation.
- speakerThere must be developed within every graduate this consuming passion to witness
- speakerto his Christian faith. Our enemy communism will not tolerate half
- speakerloyalties and sympathetic attitudes towards other faiths.
- speakerPeople of this nature with even a tendency to look with favor on other ideologies are
- speakerliquidated. Because this sympathy makes a weak, vulnerable point
- speakerin an otherwise impregnable society. The Christian movement cannot adopt
- speakerthese drastic methods, but it can stop dissipating its resources on the
- speakerdevelopment of men and women who will not stand in the day of testing.
- speakerA selective process, coupled with concentration of effort on the development of
- speakerconsecrated Christian leadership, is essential to repeat Sokolsky's warning.
- speakerWhat matters whether there is a large or small number of churches. Africa will not be
- speakersaved as a people by multitudes or buildings. She requires leadership.
- speakerWe're young enough to fix the pattern of leadership training in Cameroon where we are just
- speakerstarting the process at the higher level. It is going to be costly to be
- speakerselected and intensive but if nationalization of the church
- speakerand its services is the answer to Africa's problem, we shall have to pay for
- speakerit. Indigenous indigenisation does not mean simply the
- speakerhanding over of authority to national leadership. That could be easy.
- speakerIt is rather changing the soul of an African, creating a new man in Christ.
- speakerFrom a political standpoint, there is no more favored an area in the world than French
- speakerCameroon for the following reasons. Cameroon is under the tutelage, a
- speakerward of the trusteeship council of the United Nations. As long as the United
- speakerNations exists, liberty is guaranteed. For
- speakerfar different conditions obtain in contiguous areas of Africa under complete French
- speakercontrol. Cameroon is, as it were, a showplace of the French government for the
- speakerworld to demonstrate the humanitarian and social betterment policies of the
- speakergovernment in France overseas. The rapid and sometimes
- speakerillogical delegation of authority to African leadership in
- speakerCameroon is an indication that France is sensitive to the criticism of the
- speakernations that she is exploiting her African wards.
- speakerConstantly one hears experienced French administrators complain
- speakerabout the inefficiency and incompetence of those they have placed in control of the
- speakerdestinies of the people. But fear of being considered reactionary keeps them from
- speakerpublicly voicing their fear. They're pleading for a leadership with a
- speakermoral consciousness. Whether they be Protestant, Roman Catholic, or Muslim
- speakermeans nothing or very little to them. What they desire is competent honest
- speakermen in key positions. That is one of our opportunities. History
- speakerhas shown that we cannot rely on political parties or government aid.
- speakerDr. Outerbridge in this book these some you you're interested in lost "The Last Churches
- speakerin China," again says the glaring lesson of
- speakerhistory is that Christianity has been cast out of China five times in
- speakerthirteen hundred years. Each exodus of missionaries has resulted
- speakerfrom the repercussions of political entanglements. This is the most serious
- speakercharge of the anti-Christian forces." any
- speakeraffiliation of the church with colonial governments is always disastrous. But
- speakerthat does not mean that leaders and government cannot be made Christian or that a
- speakerstrong Christian Leadership can be provided for government offices whether
- speakerit be in a democratic society or a totalitarian state. A few men
- speakerin high office can and do determine the course of events in the history of a country.
- speakerCan we in the few years that may be allotted to us provide those
- speakerfew necessarily men with a constant faith, strong enough to withstand the
- speakertemptations and pressures of political life. Secondly
- speakerthe mission and its social obligation.
- speakerOne of the most alarming aspects of contemporary Africa is the revolt against the
- speakerforeigner, not necessarily against governmental control by a foreign nation,
- speakerwhich is evident everywhere, but against the foreigners themselves.
- speakerWhen one talks with the African in the village, in a church and market place,he
- speakerSoon realizes that in a large measure it stems from a resentment mixed
- speakerwith jealousy against the possessions and sense of superiority of the
- speakerwhite man.
- speakerBut one must study carefully the contribution that Christian Maisha
- speakermissions should offer for the alleviation of human suffering. Again
- speakerquoting this book by Dr Outerbridge.
- speaker"The second contributing factor to the success of communism in China is
- speakermore particularly the responsibility of Christendom in that Christianity in this
- speakergeneration so often neglected to give priority to the teaching
- speakerof the first and great commandment.
- speakerToo often we have sought popularity and prestige by stressing the material benefits
- speakerthe church had to offer. Christianity was the success religion.
- speakerToo large a proportion of all Protestant missionary energies were thus expended.
- speakerMissionaries who were sent to preach the Gospel were too often the ones most encumbered with the
- speakermultitude of humanitarian responsibilities. China willingly received every
- speakersocial service expression of Christianity.
- speakerSchools, colleges, hospital,s humanitarian aid, famine relief, famine
- speakerprevention projects.
- speakerThrough these agencies Christianity became popularly conceived in China as the
- speakersocial reform religion. While these expressions of the faith of Western
- speakerChristians was praiseworthy, the
- speakerquestion confronts us today as to whether the Protestant churches have not placed
- speakertoo much emphasis upon the social interpretation of the Christian message and too little
- speakeremphasis upon the actual teaching of the message of Jesus. Too often our
- speakersocial gospel has been the only gospel." The first
- speakersection of this report has been a discussion of the formation of the elite.
- speakerEvaluate as the French call it.
- speakerwhich will have so much to do in determining the future of French territories in Africa
- speakerbut it will do little good for the mission to the church to concentrate on the
- speakerelite. If the masses turn violently against the European and against
- speakerall foreign intervention in their local affairs. It is not that the masses in
- speakerAfrica are conscious of suffering, as people suffer in other parts of the world.
- speakerNo one dies of cold in the tropics. Anyone willing to work can eat. There
- speakerare no famines in equatorial Africa except occasional scarcity of food in the more desolate
- speakerareas due to crop failure. Situation that confronts us however is
- speakerprecisely the same thing that developed Hitlerism in Germany. It is a
- speakerconsciousness that they are the have nots and that white man has everything. In the
- speakerearly days of the occupation of Africa by the white man, the intruder was
- speakerregarded with respect, awe and almost reverence. This has
- speakerdisappeared except in some remote areas. In place of this attitude there is a
- speakerfast developing. There is fast developing a cynical mistrust, suspicion
- speakerand almost hate, particularly in large urban centers where the African is brought into
- speakerdaily contact with the European. It is simple to explain. In
- speakertheir primitive state, they did not realize that there was any different way of life. The
- speakerhigh mortality rate among the children was just taken for granted. Their living
- speakerconditions were shared by head man and slave alike. Everyone ate the same kind of
- speakerfood. A frustrating discontent is emerging as the luxuries
- speakerof common place European life are put in juxtaposition to their primitive living
- speakerconditions. If we have their welfare at heart, why do we not share with
- speakerthem? It is true that many of the elite enjoy every
- speakerprivilege of the European. Many of them live much more luxurious, luxuriosly
- speakerthan his average foreign brother in Africa. But the villager
- speakerdoes not look for help from his favorite brother. No one can exploit an
- speakerAfrican quite as much as an African, and he knows it.
- speakerHis venom is vented on the European, who has the wealth, and from whom his fortunate neighbor has
- speakergained his wealth. So far the mission in its thought and act has been so concerned
- speakerin caring for the thousands that are crowded into the churches schools and hospitals that it
- speakersimply has not had the chance or time to see this cloud that is rising on the
- speakerhorizon. Everyone is so busily engaged in these task that these
- speakerconcerns are pushed into the background in order that the limited strength and time can be
- speakerconcentrated on the job at hand. But in recent years more and more concern in the
- speakermission is being voiced on the need to do something drastic to offset this cynical
- speakerpessimism and antipathy evidenced by contemporary Africa. This
- speakermission has made a small beginning at Yaounde, the capital, to meet the social
- speakerneeds of that community. This must be enlarged and developed. Similar
- speakercenters should be started at Ebolowa. That's where Elat and at Edea, where the large
- speakerhydroelectric dam is being erected by 300 imported Italian
- speakerlaborers. But this again ministers to the need of the better
- speakereducated that have come to the cities to make their fortunes. It is at the village level that this
- speakerdanger is beginning to be felt. Experiment a Kumbo, which Miss Grey and Mrs Moser
- speakerattended this past March March indicated the possibilities of
- speakertaking thep mission station services, medical agricultural, educational, and evangelistic,
- speakerhelp for the most recent developments in audio-visual aids to the village. It Demonstrates
- speakerit demonstrated to the people that we do care and are willing and ready to share our blessings
- speakerwith them. Enthusiastic response of this one village demonstrated the value of the approach.
- speakerThe problem for the field to work out is how
- speakermuch this can be expanded over the whole area to reach enough people soon enough where the
- speakertime may come when this type of service will not be welcome, or it may be substituted by some
- speakerother agency, if not anti-Christian, then anti European and anti-white. Christian
- speakercooperative mobile tactical units and other social services must have, that have
- speakerproved to be of value in other countries could well be tried in Africa. The mission stands ready
- speakerand anxious to move out into these services, but it depends on the availability of personnel and funds.
- speakerThese are not forthcoming and probably the only solution will be to work out some scheme of
- speakerrotation. An annual master plan will be determined by mission and church where
- speakerby certain services at several stations will be temporarily suspended in order to
- speakerenable the personnel of the stations to make widespread excursions into the faraway villages
- speakersurrounding the stations. See the religious situation.
- speakerIt has been said over and over again that the African is religious being. His
- speakerwhole life has been ordered by his faith in local and tribal
- speakerdivination fetishism by the local witch doctor. To imagine that this primitive conditions
- speakerstill exist in all Africa is part of the myth that is growing up about Africa in the
- speakerWestern countries. It is true that most of the inhabitants of Bantu Africa are still controlled
- speakerby superstitions and a mixture of Christian and Pagan taboos. But the old time
- speakerallegiance to the witch doctor and his power is gone in many place. The African of
- speakercivilised Africa, if it so can be called, is sensitive about the world's opinion
- speakerof him that he is still a worshipper of voodoo and witchcraft. He likes to throw restraint
- speakerto the wind and prove that he is no longer tied by these inhibitions. This has bred
- speakerlicense and revolt from all spiritual authority, aided by the amoral
- speakerattitude of the average European, who feels that once in Africa he can throw
- speakerold restraints of the homeland to the wind. The African is quick to follow and follow suit.
- speakerBut even a casual acquaintance with young Africa impresses one with a deep-seated yearning of
- speakerhis soul for something to hang his heart to. As they say, in this,`
- speakerobviously the Christian mission has an overpowering interest and concern.
- speakerThe official agent in this service is the Church in Cameroon. For the past 10 years and
- speakermore in Cameroo, this organization has been under national control except for the
- speakerfact that it is still organically related to the Presbyterian Church in the USA. The missionary as such is
- speakera member of presbytery and synod. And in certain instances the
- speakervoices of the missionaries still carry considerable weight in these official courts of the church. But,
- speakerin most instances where there is a difference of opinion expressed on the floor of these meetings,
- speakerthe divisions are not along racial lines or between mission and church. Almost
- speakerinvariably the division is equally distributed between nationals and foreigners. Pressure
- speakeris continuously being brought to bear up on the mission to accelerate the process whereby all
- speakermission institutions, and in particular the church, should become completely independent of all
- speakerforeign entanglements and affiliations. To this end the Constitution of the Synod of
- speakerCameroun was adopted years ago. The one remaining relationship
- speakerbeing that mentioned above. It is still part of the USA church. Plans are under foot to sever this
- speakerrelationship in 1960. Some feel that that is too long a time to wait for the
- speakerconsummation of this ideal. On the other hand the government, and this is the
- speakerFrench government, has repeatedly voiced concern over the establishment of this communal entity
- speakerwithin their territory. It is not connected in any way with their program of
- speakerterritorial development.
- speakerThe church is an outgrowth of growth of an American mission. And, they think of it
- speakeras an American. The Roman Catholic Church has encouraged the use of the
- speakerterm American for Protestants. And, we are all known over Cameroon, not as
- speakerProtestants but as Americans. The danger of this misnomer is clearly
- speakerindicated in one of the findings of the Board study of the missionary obligation of the church. It must
- speakerbe pointed out that, apart from the fact that most of the missionaries of the mission have
- speakerbeen American, and so have become identified with the Protestant development in large areas of
- speakerCameroon. The use of the term seems to have stemmed from a determined
- speakerpolicy on the part of the Roman church to create the impression that the Protestant movement
- speakeris American in design and purpose, thus bringing us under the scrutiny and
- speakerconcern of the government. To offset this and prepare the way for the establishment of a General Assembly
- speakerof the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon by the way that term Presbyterian is
- speakerinsisted upon by the leaders of the church, not by the mission. A committee of synod and
- speakermission has been developing and drawing up a constitution for the church where by it will become the
- speakerlegal entity with power to hold property and appear as a legal personality
- speakerin the courts of the land. Once approved by the Synod of
- speakerCameroon, with the help of the mission, which is the only recognized church body in the land today,
- speakerthis constitution will then be submitted to the government for approval. And, the constitution
- speakeronce approved will appear in Le Journal du Ciel as you know this is the recognized Protestant church in South
- speakerCameroon. It is not going to be easy to work out to the satisfaction of the
- speakergovernment, for they insist that the mission maintain some direct control. We have as
- speakertactfully as possible pointed out that this is against the very nature of our design
- speakerin building up the Church of Christ in Cameroon. That the church must become a part
- speakerof the church universal if it is to be established at all. But the
- speakermajority of French administrators are nonplussed by this division of Protestantism into
- speakersects, as they call them and cannot conceive of any Christian movement that is not under
- speakersome centralized authority that is Rome. The one argument that seems to
- speakerhave borne fruit so far has been the declaration of our intention to become part of
- speakerthe great body of those churches holding to the Reformed system of church government, which has its
- speakerheadquarters in Geneva. This seems to allay
- speakertheir