Missionary Survey As An Aid To Intelligent Co-Operation In Foreign MissionsAllen, Roland
Religion
Missionary Survey As An Aid To Intelligent Co-Operation In Foreign Missions
Allen, Roland
Missions
We thrust in here an inquiry concerning a form of work upon which many
missions lay great stress. It is exceedingly difficult to classify. It
is not certainly evangelistic work, though it is commonly organised by
evangelistic workers; it is not educational in the sense that
educational missionaries accept it as a definitely recognised part of
their work, though educational methods are employed and it often has a
distinctly educational purpose. It is sometimes a form of Sunday service
almost akin to a Church service. It is often a form of children's school
where the religious teaching given, or neglected, during the week in the
day school is supplemented: it is sometimes a form of elementary school
for adults, Christian, or inquirers: it is a form of Bible school for
adult Christian workers. It is a method of propaganda for the conversion
of heathen children or adults. It is a form of work where untrained
Christian voluntary workers find opportunity for expressing their
religious zeal; it is a form of work in which experts in certain types
of elementary religious teaching revel. It is educational work carried
on by those who are not technically educationalists: it is evangelistic
work carried on by those who are not technically evangelists.
What sort of information then are we to seek concerning it? It is so
important that it cannot be omitted; it is so widespread that it almost
demands special consideration; it is so protean that tables designed to
reveal all its aspects and values would be with difficulty designed, and
tediously minute. From the point of view of this survey it would be
futile to ask, as most of the societies ask, simply for the number of
Sunday schools, the number of teachers, and the number of scholars. From
those bare numbers we can gain no information which really enlightens
us. We want to know what the Sunday schools exist for, and whether they
are accomplishing the object of their existence. But we cannot define,
nor even enumerate all the objects. We therefore arbitrarily select
three which are directly related to the establishment of a native
Church, and make one table serve. We inquire: (1) How they are related
to the Christian constituency; from this we hope to learn the extent to
which Sunday schools are a part of the Church life. (2) How the teachers
are related to the communicants (or full members); from this we hope to
learn the extent to which the voluntary effort of the communicants finds
expression in this work. (3) How the scholars are related to baptisms
and confirmations (or admission as full members); from this we hope to
learn to what extent the Sunday-schools are a recruiting ground for the
Church.
The table then is as follows:--
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