The State of Missiology Today

Global Innovations in Christian Witness

Charles E. Van Engen, Charles E. Van Engen

• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780830893492
• Topic: Teología y religión
• Subtopic: Ministerio cristiano

Mission is constantly innovating.As contexts change, so too does the work of the church. Today, in the face of a rapidly changing world and a growing global church, the task of mission must continue to innovate in unexpected ways.The State of Missiology Today explores the developments and transformations in the study and practice of mission. Looking both backwards—especially over the first half-century of Fuller Theological Seminary's School of Intercultural Studies—and forwards, the contributors to this volume chart the current shape of mission studies and its prospects in the twenty-first century.This Missiological Engagements volume features contributions by- J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu- John Azumah- Pascal Bazzell- Stephen Bevans- Jayakumar Christian- Pablo A. Deiros- Sarita D. Gallagher- Anne-Marie Kool- Moonjang Lee- Wonsuk Ma- Gary L. McIntosh- Mary Motte, FMM- Terry Muck- Shawn B. Redford- Scott W. SunquistMissiological Engagements charts interdisciplinary and innovative trajectories in the history, theology, and practice of Christian mission, featuring contributions by leading thinkers from both the Euro-American West and the majority world whose missiological scholarship bridges church, academy, and society.

PART 1

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The Diffusion of Innovation

Looking Backward to Look Ahead

1

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Donald A. McGavran

Life, Influence and Legacy in Mission

Gary L. McIntosh

Introduction

It was Sunday, September 16, 1923. Donald and Mary McGavran rose early to make final preparations for their trip to India. Beyond the sounds of packing, a crying baby and emotional goodbyes lay a future that was unimaginable at the time—the tragedy of a child’s death, the pain of rejected leadership resulting in a demotion, the struggle to evangelize a low-caste tribe and the loss of a dream to train leaders in how to achieve greater growth in the church. Yet, as God would script it, the ministry of Donald McGavran was destined to be one of the twentieth century’s glittering triumphs. The pains and losses of his life were mixed with the joys of discovering new insights for reaching lost people with the ageless gospel, of winning over one thousand precious souls to Christ, of planting fifteen churches, of writing groundbreaking books, of starting a worldwide movement, of establishing a profoundly influential school of missiology and of changing the entire face of mission. No one could have foretold that Donald McGavran would eventually become the premier missiologist of the twentieth century, but that is just what happened.1

Early Life

Donald Anderson McGavran was born in Damoh, India, on December 15, 1897. His parents, John and Helen McGavran, were living in Damoh because of a famine that had hit central India. Their primary job was to care for approximately four hundred orphaned boys, as well as to alleviate the suffering of those in need as far as resources allowed. The famine slowly ended in the year following Donald’s birth, and John was assigned to the work of evangelism. He focused on the task of winning men and women to Christ until 1910, when the McGavran family returned to the United States.

Except for a few short months of formal education, Donald was homeschooled, learning primarily through unsupervised reading. He described his early education as follows: “There was nothing else to do, so we picked up all kinds of books and at first laboriously and later effortlessly read through them. We thus accumulated a lot of information and an excellent ability to read.”2 After entering the United States, Donald enrolled in the seventh grade and made a good adjustment to American life in general and to school life in particular. His previous homeschooling having proved sufficient, he was able to adjust quickly to normal classrooms.

When their furlough came to an end, John and Helen faced a serious decision about the future. Their hearts were in India, but their children would soon be in need of better schools than were available in the Central Provinces of India. In the end, after several months of prayer and anguished discussions, they determined to take a leave from missionary service and stay in the United States. John became the pastor of the First Christian Church of Tulsa, Oklahoma, but his reputation and experience, particularly with the Hindi language and culture, made him the choice for professor of Indian subjects at the newly formed College of Missions in Indianapolis, Indiana. The family moved to Indianapolis in 1913, and Donald started attending Shortridge High School, where he graduated in 1915. That fall he entered Butler College, where he became active on the debating team, in the Philokurian Literary Society and in the YMCA.

In April 1917 the United States declared war against Germany, and he enlisted on April 28 in Troop B of the First Indiana Cavalry, a National Guard unit. However, his unit did not arrive in France until November 10, 1918. After marching for nearly a day, he could hear the guns of battle, but on November 11 armistice was declared. Donald never saw action and soon returned to the United States for his discharge.

Profoundly glad to be back at Butler College, Donald promptly enrolled in spring classes for 1919. He rejoined the Butler College YMCA, where he chaired the religious committee and, later, the membership committee. During June 13-22, 1919, he attended a YMCA camp at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, which changed the entire direction of his life. Until that time, Donald had seen himself as a reasonably good Christian but was determined that his career would be in some field other than missions or ministry. “My family has done enough for the Lord,” was his attitude. “I will make money.” He was attracted to law, geology and forestry as possible fields of study. Day by day, those at the camp were challenged to completely surrender their lives to Christ. They were told to let God decide everything in their lives, including making money and choosing one’s life work. For several days, Donald resisted. Finally he yielded and said, “Very well, Lord. It is clear to me; either I give up all claim[s] to being a Christian, or I go all the way. Since that is the situation, I choose to go all the way.”3 Donald did not tell anyone about his decision, but from then on he was sure that if God called him to the mission field, he would go.

In October 1919, the senior class elected Donald as their president. During his senior year two key events occurred that were major turning points for his life. That year Donald met and got acquainted with a sophomore from the Christian church in Muncie, Indiana, Mary Elizabeth Howard. Soon after Christmas, Donald and Mary attended the Eighth International Convention of the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions in Des Moines, Iowa, from December 31, 1919, to January 4, 1920.4 The spiritual dynamic at the meetings touched many lives, and Donald and Mary made commitments to give their lives to missionary service. Looking back on that conference, McGavran remembered:

There it became clear to me that God was calling me to be a missionary, that he was commanding me to carry out the Great Commission. Doing just that has ever since been the ruling purpose of my life. True, I have from time to time swerved from that purpose but never for long. That decision lies at the root of the church-growth movement.5

Shortly after arriving back at Butler, they were engaged in the spring of 1920, and Donald graduated on June 17.

That summer he decided to attend Yale Divinity School for two years of theological training, leading to a BD (bachelor of divinity) degree. Specializing in Christian education, he did well at Yale, winning the annual senior sermon contest, and he graduated in June 1922. Mary Howard graduated from Butler College on June 12, 1922, and that summer they were married on August 29.

A year later he graduated with an MA degree in June 1923 from the College of Missions and was asked to be a faculty member during the summer for twelve youth conferences being held throughout the United States. Donald accepted; the opportunity allowed him to do for others what the Lake Geneva YMCA conference had done for him in the summer of 1919. A report on his summer activities prophetically evaluated his abilities: “With his clear-cut thinking and ability of expression, he is always able to make a strong and convincing address.”6

A Missionary in India

When Donald arrived in India in 1923 as a missionary with the United Christian Missionary Society (UCMS), he brought training that no colleague before him had—he was a specialist in religious education. The main tasks before him were to improve the training of teachers, revamp the curriculum and reemphasize the purpose of Christian schools, which he understood to mean “to give their pupils a thoroughly good education; to bring the non-Christian students to a knowledge of Jesus Christ and into discipleship to him; and with the Christian pupils, to look ahead twenty years, see the church of that day, and mold for it a fit, useful and consecrated membership.”7 After inspecting the schools and the teaching staff, he turned his attention to improving the quality of instruction. To meet this challenge, he organized a teachers’ institute to inspire new teaching ideals and methods. The training greatly improved the teaching, curriculum and overall rating of the schools, which led to his election as director of religious education for the Indian Mission of the Disciples of Christ in 1927. This role effectively placed him in a position to bring about a uniformity of instruction and courses across all the mission schools.

Early in 1930, as Donald and Mary prepared to leave in June for their first furlough, tragedy struck when Mary Theodora, their oldest daughter, died of appendicitis on March 1. Mary Theodora’s death caused Donald and Mary great suffering. Yet, the pain served to turn Donald’s life in two new directions. His spiritual life deepened, and he became more concerned for evangelism. Mary Theodora’s death made him aware of the shortness of life and thus the importance of reaching as many people as possible with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

After visiting family in Indianapolis during the summer of 1930, the McGavrans relocated to New York, where Donald began studies for a PhD in religious education. His course work was completed during the 1930–1931 school year, and in the fall of 1931 he finished his preliminary research and experimentation project for his final dissertation and passed his examination for the doctor of philosophy degree. Final copies of his dissertation, “Education and the Beliefs of Popular Hinduism,” were deposited with Columbia University in 1935, and the degree was awarded officially on August 7.

Upon his arrival for a second term in India, Donald was elected secretary-­treasurer of the India Mission during the annual convention held in Jubbulpore November 17-23, 1932. Many challenges lay ahead for the young mission secretary, and holding the mission together during financial depression was a primary one. Funding from home was reduced by 50 percent, and sometimes only 25 percent was received. It took calm nerves, strong management and lots of faith to lead the mission during the early 1930s. It was during this time that Donald began seriously thinking about the church’s growth.

While there were several forerunners who contributed to developing his insights, such as William Carey, Roland Allen, Kenneth Scott Latourette and his own father, the most direct influence that started Donald thinking about church growth was Methodist missionary J. Waskom Pickett, about whom McGavran would later say, “I lit my candle at Pickett’s fire.”8

In 1928, Pickett was asked by the National Christian Council of India, Burma and Ceylon to make an extensive study of Christian mass movements in India. For nearly one hundred and fifty years, missionaries in India had struggled to win Christian converts one by one in the face of Hindu and Islamic resistance. Then, suddenly, religious revivals began, and people started coming to Christ in masses. Such movements caught most missionaries by surprise, and they struggled to ascertain the meaning of it. Pickett’s study sought to determine how effective mass movements really were at winning and nurturing new Christian believers. The results of Pickett’s study were published in Christian Mass Movements in India (1933).9 McGavran read Pickett’s book and was thrilled with the results Pickett found. McGavran wrote, “There came a book sent by God and its name was Christian Mass Movements in India.”10 Pickett’s intense study concluded that mass movements, or group movements as some preferred to call them, were valid and legitimate in God’s plan for India’s redemption.

During this same time period, McGavran was quietly changing his view of mission and theology. In his formative childhood years, mission was understood to be carrying out the Great Commission, winning the world for Christ and saving lost humanity. At Yale Divinity School, however, he was introduced to the teachings of theologian H. Richard Niebuhr. According to McGavran, Niebuhr “used to say that mission was everything the church does outside its four walls. It was philanthropy, education, medicine, famine relief, evangelism, and world friendship.”11 McGavran espoused this view...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction: Innovating Mission: Retrospect and Prospect in the Field of Missiology
• Part 1: The Diffusion of Innovation: Looking Backward to Look Ahead
• Part 2: The Implications of Innovation: Back to the Future (Looking Forward)
• Conclusion: A Historian’s Hunches: Eight Future Trends in Mission
• Notes
• Contributors
• Index
• Missiological Engagements
• Praise for The State of Missiology Today
• About the Author
• More Titles from InterVarsity Press
• Copyright