Outreach and Diversity:

Living Theological Heritage of the United Church of Christ - Volume 5

Margaret Lamberts Bendroth, Theodore Trost

• Publisher: Pilgrim Press
• Year: 2000
• ISBN:
  9780829820973
• Topic: Teología y religión
• Subtopic: Denominaciones cristianas

"Outreach and Diversity" examines the social missions and justice-minded actions of Christians in the United States during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Edited by Margaret Lamberts Bendroth, Lawrence N. Jones, and Robert A. Schneider. Series editor Barbara Brown Zikmund.

PART I

Outreach as Mission

Reasons for Reaching Out

1. A GLOBAL CALLING

“A Sermon . . .”

(1812)

LEONARD WOODS

In the minds of many North American Christians, “missions” is shorthand for “foreign missions”: evangelism among non-Christians outside the United States. Congregationalists formed the first organization in the United States devoted to sending missionaries abroad, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and Congregationalists were the first to actually send American missionaries overseas. In 1812 the American Board sent out eight young New England Congregational missionaries.

It all began in June of 1810 when several students at the recently opened theological seminary at Andover asked the Congregational ministers of the General Association of Massachusetts for advice on becoming foreign missionaries. In response the Association formed the American Board. At the beginning the Board was an interdenominational organization—supported by Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and Dutch and German Reformed people. Eventually all but the Congregationalists withdrew to form their separate denominational boards, which left the American Board as the foreign mission agency for the Congregationalists.

Two years after its founding, the American Board was able to secure a legal charter and raise enough funds to send out missionaries. Five men—Adoniram Judson, Samuel Newell, Samuel Nott Jr., Gordon Hall, and Luther Rice—were appointed missionaries, and three wives—Ann Hasseltine Judson, Harriet Atwood Newell, and Rosanna Peck Nott—went with them. Even though the American Board was not a church, it followed the Congregational practice of calling an ecclesiastical council to ordain the men to their new calling. There was precedent in that Congregational churches had ordained missionaries to Native Americans in the eighteenth century. Furthermore, the evangelical activism of the early nineteenth century was producing new forms of ministry that did not always fit into old ecclesiastical molds.

Following their ordination, the missionaries sailed for Calcutta, India—the Newells and Judsons from Salem and the Notts, Hall, and Rice from Philadelphia. It was a venture plagued with problems from the beginning: the British East India Company opposed the missionaries, the Judsons and Luther Rice decided to become Baptists when they became convinced that infant baptism was unscriptural, and Harriet Newell died. After their long voyages across the Indian Ocean, the young Americans finally settled into their work as agents for two foreign mission boards (the American Board and the Baptist Board) and became founders of two famous missions. Rice returned home to promote foreign missions among American Baptists, and in 1814 the General Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination (a precursor of the Northern—now American—and Southern Baptist Conventions, and of the American Baptist Foreign Missionary Union) was formed. The Judsons began a Baptist mission in Burma. The Notts, Gordon Hall, and Samuel Newell founded an American Board–sponsored mission in Bombay.

Leonard Woods (1794–1854), professor of theology at Andover, gave the sermon at the ordination of the five missionaries before they left New England. Woods was a theological moderate, combining progressive Calvinism with classic orthodoxy. His sermon articulated the beliefs of New England Congregationalists who promoted active evangelistic outreach at home and overseas. It marked the birth of an American theology of global mission shared by all evangelical Protestants. Woods promoted a view of mission that extended the familiar religious revival to the whole world, emphasizing the similarities of human beings and downplaying the power of different religious traditions and different cultures. His formal and ornate preaching style was typical, and much of his language—such as the comments on the “horrid” religious practices of the “perishing heathen”—reflected commonly held cultural and religious assumptions. Woods asserted that all true Christians desire the salvation of all humankind, and he gave six reasons why they should actively work for that cause. His sermon summarizes the powerful motives for outreach that created and sustained the American foreign mission movement for the remainder of the century.

PSALM 67.

God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us. THAT THY WAY MAY BE KNOWN UPON EARTH, THY SAVING HEALTH AMONG ALL NATIONS. Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy.—Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. God shall bless us; and ALL THE ENDS OF THE EARTH SHALL FEAR HIM.

Can any real Christian be a stranger to the enlarged views, the benevolent desires, and pleasing anticipations of the pious author of this Psalm? It cannot surely be necessary to inform my audience that every true worshipper of God resembles him in love, and can be satisfied with nothing short of all that infinite love designs. The Christian has a heart to feel for his fellow creatures. He takes into account their temporal comfort, and endeavors to promote it;—their temporal wants and sufferings, and does what in him lies to relieve them. But, when their spiritual interest is before him; when he contemplates the value of their souls, and the prospect which the gospel opens of immortal happiness in the world to come; his bowels of compassion are moved; his tenderest affections kindled; pure and heavenly love pervades and warms his soul. He longs for the eternal felicity of his kindred and friends, of his country and the world. His hearts desire and prayer to God is, that all men may be saved,—that all human beings may forsake their evil ways, and turn to the Lord; that his kingdom may come, and his will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. With this holy affection reigning in his heart, the fervent, devoted Christian presents himself a living sacrifice unto God; and counts it a privilege to do and to suffer any thing for the advancement of his cause. He is ready to “endure all things for the elect’s sake, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.” In this state, no difficulty discourages; no danger alarms. The sacrifice of property and pleasure; stripes, imprisonment, and death, lose their terrors, and become more attractive, than any early good. He is as steady to his purpose, as resolute, active, and patient in pursuit, as the restless miser or the ambitious conqueror. And as their desire of wealth and of conquest is insatiable and unbounded; so is his desire for the diffusion of Christian knowledge and happiness. Every degree of success attending the dispensation of the gospel, even a single instance of conversion among the weakest and meanest of mankind, yields him the purest pleasure. But this pleasure only increases desire. His enjoyment of the good already attained urges him on to the pursuit of more. The progressive enlargement of the kingdom of Christ will constantly enlarge the benevolence of his heart. While there is a nation or tribe under heaven not subdued to Christ; the enlightened, fervent Christian cannot rest. His unalterable object is, that the knowledge of the Lord may fill the earth. His heart beats high for the conversion of the world.

This, my dear brethren, is the true spirit of our holy religion. This is the affection which glows in every new born soul. This is the principle which governs and animates the church of Christ.

I shall not make it my business to prove the existence of an affection so diffusive and generous, in the hearts of Christians. Nor shall I endeavor to entertain you with ingenious speculations on the theory of benevolence, nor with florid declamations on its beauty. These would be as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.—On this new and very interesting occasion, my object is to rouse you to BENEVOLENT EXERTION. I would persuade you to act, decidedly and zealously to act under the influence of Christian love. I would excite you by motives which no follower of Christ can resist, TO MAKE THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL, AND THE CONVERSION OF THE WORLD, THE OBJECT OF YOUR EARNEST AND INCESSANT PURSUIT.

My first motive is THE WORTH OF SOULS. Man, a creature of yesterday, frail as the tender grass, is made for IMMORTALITY. The lamp which the Lord hath lighted up in his breast, will burn forever. The mind will be ever vigorous and active. No labor can exhaust it. No length of ages can waste its vigor. No pressure of guilt or suffering can destroy its activity. Such a mind, destined to exist and act forever, destined to the bliss of heaven, or the pains of hell, lives in every human being, in the savage as well as in the citizen; in the heathen, as well as in the Christian; in the Hindu, the Chinese, and the Hotentot, as well as the polished European or American.—In the name of him who died on Calvary, I call upon you, O Christians, to labor for the salvation of beings that will never die. Of what consideration is their nation, climate, color, language, government, education, manners? Here all distinctions vanish. Learned and ignorant, refined and rude, honorable and base, are all on a level in point of accountableness to God and immortality of soul. Rise then above all the distinctions which misguide our judgments and our hearts, and seek the salvation of this great family of immortals.

In some favored hours of divine illumination, have you not seen, have you not felt the ineffable preciousness of your own souls? Have you not cast away everything as dross for eternal salvation? And has not the grace of God taught you to love your neighbor as yourselves? See the poor, degraded Africans. See the thousands of children sacrificed in the Ganges. See the throngs of miserable pilgrims pressing forward to devote themselves to the impure and sanguinary worship of Moloch. The souls of all these are as precious as your own. The wisdom of God,—the blood of the dying Savior has so declared. Do you love your own souls, then? and will you not love theirs—Change places with them. Put yourselves in their condition and them in yours.—You are then spending your life in a land of darkness, ignorant of God, slaves to the basest superstition and most hateful vices. Moved by pity and love, they send a herald of the cross to preach salvation in your ears. He comes and speaks to you of Jehovah and his law; discloses your guilt, and points you to the judgment day. He preaches to you Jesus, the Savior of sinners. With trembling, bleeding hearts, you go to the Savior, and he gives you rest. How great the salvation! How happy your state! Would you not forever exalt the Redeemer’s name? Would you not love and thank the messenger of his grace, and those who sent him? Now, if salvation would be so great a blessing to you, why not to those who are actually in the condition here supposed? And if you would love and thank those who sought your salvation, why not secure to yourselves the same love and gratitude from heathens saved by your labors?

Imagine the souls of your kindred in pagan darkness, having never heard the name of Immanuel. Imagine your children, parents, brothers, sisters this moment in the midst of India, worshippers of the horrid idol Juggernaut. Would not your hearts leap for joy to see these dear young ministers going to teach them the way of life? Would any thing be too precious to part with in order to animate their zeal, and help them to rescue from ignorance and ruin the objects of your love? But have not the Indians souls as precious as the souls of your kindred?—Nay rather, they are themselves your kindred; allied to you by the ties of a common nature, offspring of the same heavenly Father; children of the same family. In every human being you see a brother or a sister. O forget not the partners of your blood! Send some of your Bibles and preachers to your dear kindred in Asia.

The second motive by which I urge you to seek the conversion of all mankind is THE PLENTEOUSNESS OF THE PROVISION WHICH CHRIST HAS MADE FOR THEIR SALVATION. Were there any thing scanty in this provision,—any deficiency in divine grace,—any thing circumscribed in the evangelic offer; our zeal for propagating the gospel would be suppressed; the tongue and hand of Christian charity would be paralyzed. But my brethren, the word of eternal truth has taught us that Jesus tasted death for every man; that he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world; that a rich feast is prepared, and all things ready; that whosoever will may come and take of the water of life freely. This great atonement is as sufficient for Asiatics and Africans, as for us. This abundant provision is made for them as well as for us. The door of Christ’s kingdom is equally open to them and to us. Unnumbered millions of our race have entered in: and yet there is room. The mercy of God is an ocean absolutely exhaustless; and so far as his benevolence is a pattern of our imitation, and a rule to govern our exertions and prayers, he wills that all men should be saved. Christians, you have, then, full scope for your pious benevolence and zeal. In your labors and prayers for the salvation of men, you cannot go beyond the bounds fixed for you by the Savior himself. You are not straitened in God. You have no occasion to fear that in this cause your zeal and activity will exceed the abundance of grace. You have a warrant from God to strive for the salvation of the whole world. And wherever the preaching of the cross shall stir up them that are lost to seek salvation, there salvation will be found. Persuade the whole empire of Birmah, and China, and all the East to come to the gospel supper, and they will all be supplied;—to enter into the kingdom, and they will all be admitted. Every perishing sinner on earth would find the same welcome with yourselves. In any country or corner of the world, “When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst; I the Lord will hear them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them.” Remember then, Christians, you cannot exhaust the mercy of God. Exert yourselves to the utmost for the salvation of mankind; your exertions will fall far below the height of redeeming love. Its length and breadth will infinitely transcend your largest benevolence.

The third motive I shall present is THE COMMAND OF OUR LORD;—“GO YE INTO ALL THE WORLD, AND PREACH THE GOSPEL TO EVERY CREATURE.” This command is an exact expression of the heart of Jesus; a display of the vastness of his love. It would be very easy to show that the obligation of this command is not to be confined to the twelve apostles. It is limited to no age or nation. The command is binding upon Christians “always even to the end of the world.” The reasons which moved the apostles to preach the gospel to every creature, remain in full force. Nations without the gospel are as wretched now as they were then. Their salvation is as necessary, as important, and as easily accomplished.

Will any say this command is obligatory upon the ambassadors of Christ, and not upon private Christians? It is indeed the duty of ambassadors of Christ to go and preach the gospel to all the world. The Messiah is given to be a light to the Gentiles. The Gentiles must be enlightened in the doctrine of salvation. They must hear the glad tidings. “But how can they hear without a preacher? And how can they preach, except they be sent?” If ministers must go forth, the Christian world must send them. If they must devote their life to the business ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• The Living Theological Heritage of the United Church of Christ
• Outreach and Diversity
• Part I. Outreach as Mission
• Part II. Mission Shaped by Diversity
• Sources
• Index
• Scriptural Index