3b. The Rise of the Modern Missionary Movement

Question 1

Why didn’t the Reformers get on board with missions?

Answer 1

1. Their attention was Europe, and it had already been Christianized.
2. They were busy trying to make the case for Protestantism.
3. They believed the gospel had already been preached to the whole world, and the world had rejected it, so there was no need to do it again.
4. Predestination. If they were meant to be saved, God would take care of it.

Question 2

Pia Desideria

Answer 2

Jacob Spener.

Question 3

What brought Protestants into missions?

Answer 3

Jacob Spener’s Pia Desideria

Question 4

In Spener’s opinion, what did Christians need?

Answer 4

1. Testimony. A personal conversion story.
2. Holiness.
3. Fellowship.
4. Evangelism.

These four things encouraged Protestants into mission.

Question 5

Along with Spener, who else encouraged missions amongst Protestants?

Answer 5

August Francke. He was a Pietist from Denmark. He sent missionaries to India.

Question 6

Who translated the bible into Bengali in India?

Answer 6

William Carey

Question 7

Why is William Carey important?

Answer 7

He’s seen by some as the father of the modern missions movement. Since the late 1700s, English speaking missionaries have been at the forefront in spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Question 8

What was Britain’s interest in spreading the gospel? And why did it succeed?

Answer 8

1. Global Evangelicalism. They wanted to reach the world.
2. The British Empire itself. They were everywhere.
3. The rise of Capitalism. Rich Evangelicals began funding the missions.
4. Cultural Imperialism. Some argue that they wanted to tear down indigenous cultures.
5. The translation of the bible led to social change in the countries they went to.
6. Pax Britanicca. In the same way the Roman empire and the Greek language helped the early church, Britain’s empire helped the modern missions movement.

Question 9

Name some of the missions agencies that were established during the rise of the modern missions movement.

Answer 9

• London Missionary Society, they went to the south Pacific and India.
• Church Missionary Society (CMS), Anglican. They went to Africa.

Question 10

Why were the British kicked out of China?

Answer 10

They were selling opium. But they fought the Opium War and got Hong Kong in return. Lots of missionaries used it as a staging area for their work.

Question 11

Who was the famous missionary that went to China?

Answer 11

James Hudson Taylor.

Question 12

What missions agency was founded by Hudson Taylor?

Answer 12

China Inland Mission

Question 13

What was the missionary fallout of the First Great Awakening?

Answer 13

None. It was a revival of Christians.

Question 14

Which revival gave America a renewed energy for missions?

Answer 14

The Second Great Awakening (1802-1860). It conquered the frontier, and led to world missions.

Question 15

What was the difference between missions in the U.S. and missions in England?

Answer 15

The American movement was completely voluntary based. In the U.S. people didn’t have a state church, they chose where they wanted to go. So in that sense they volunteered and the state wasn’t paying for it.

Question 16

Mary Webb

Answer 16

Founded the Boston Female Society for Missionary Purposes. Mary led them for 50 years. It became an example for missions agencies.

Question 17

Haystack Revival

Answer 17

Samuel Mills and a few friends got stuck in a thunderstorm and sought refuge near a haystack. They prayed and promised God they would preach the gospel to foreign lands.

Question 18

ABCFM

Answer 18

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, founded in the early 1800s. At first they just sent men, but by the end of the 1800s 60% of their missionaries were women.

Question 19

Adoniram Judson

Answer 19

One of the first missionaries of the ABCFM to Asia.

Question 20

Who was one of the first women sent out by the ABCFM?

Answer 20

Charlotte White. She was a widow in full-time missions.

Question 21

What were some of the influences of the American missions movement?

Answer 21

1. Manifest Destiny. They believe God had given them a special vocation in the world.
2. The British Empire.
3. The 2nd Great Awakening
4. Capitalism

Question 22

Who was sending missionaries to Africa?

Answer 22

Samuel Hopkins. He argued that free blacks could go back and evangelize Africa.

Question 23

Bristol Yama

Answer 23

A slave who was chosen by Samuel to be a missionary. Trained at Princeton.

Question 24

John Quamine

Answer 24

A freedman who was chosen by Samuel Hopkins to be a missionary. Trained at Princeton.

Question 25

Who was missing from the World Missionary Conference?

Answer 25

The Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Latin American (Catholic) and Russia (Orthodox), and Pentecostals. The people who were at the conference are now in the minority. The people who weren’t there are now seeing huge growth in their churches. Irony.

Question 26

comity agreements

Answer 26

Agreements made by participants at the World Missionary Conference of 1910 about what territories belonged to them. The Pentecostals weren’t invited, so now they’re stepping over the boundaries. lol

Question 27

What was good about the World Missionary Conference?

Answer 27

It showed the type of ecumenical partnership that would be needed in the 20th century.

Question 28

Essay Question: 1. Modern Evangelicals frequently view the rise of the modern missionary movement beginning in the late 18th Century and continuing into the early 19th Century as the time in which the Gospel was first carried to the ends of the earth. Based upon your readings and this lecture, tell what is right and what is wrong about this conception, making sure that you include at least one example from your reading.

Answer 28

The Catholic and Orthodox churches had done most missions before the 1700s.

• missions movement that the Spaniards set up from Chile to Sonoma. Can’t ignore that.
• Onote. Who founded San Juan de Cabelleros in New Mexico. They had 80,000 baptisms by 1623, when the Puritans had just gotten to Plymouth Rock.

-The Reformers didn’t care about missions.

Pia Desideria and Jakob Spener changed their minds.

William Carey went to India and translated the bible into Bengali. He is seen as the father of the modern missions movement. Since then, 80% of missionaries have been English speaking.

-British Empire, common language, transportation, capitalism, all helped.

In the U.S. The Second Great Awakening, capitalism, and Manifest Destiny.

Question 29

Essay Question: 2. Based upon our discussion in class and the assigned readings, name at least three reasons the Reformers did not place an emphasis upon the evangelization of the world. Discuss these reasons, and evaluate the legitimacy of each of them.

Answer 29

1. The ends of the earth had already been reached.
2. Predestination.
3. They were busy trying to convince Europe about Protestantism.
4. Their attention was Europe, and Europe was already Christian.

Question 30

Essay Question: 3. Write an essay in which you lay out at least five factors that contributed to the spread of the Gospel from Britain and the United States. Some of these factors may have been shared by both nations, while others were not. Be prepared to show their similarities as well as their differences.

Answer 30

1. British Empire. They were everywhere.
2. Common Language.
3. Capitalism.
4. Second Great Awakening
5. Manifest Destiny
6. Obviously their Protestant connection.

Question 31

Essay Question: 4. The 1910 Missionary Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland was an important move on the part of many American and European churches and missionaries. In an essay that takes into consideration both what you have heard in the lecture and what you have read in your texts, set forth the significance of the Conference for (a) the Protestant Missionary Movement, and (b) the Ecumenical Movement.

Answer 31

A. Paved the way for later missions agencies that governed across denominational lines.

B. It showed that churches from different backgrounds could come together to evangelize the world. But, the Catholic Church, Orthodox, and Pentecostals weren’t there.