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
Holding this view, we desire to discover what place each mission station
occupies when we take a wider view and survey the province or country.
Here we shall be able to adjust many apparent inequalities in the
mission stations viewed by themselves. From our previous survey of the
mission stations one by one we may have got the impression that some of
them as mission stations designed for work in a district were very
ill-balanced. The medical work, or institutional work of some kind, may
have seemed to be out of all proportion to the other forms of the work,
and this impression may remain when we view the province. But on the
other hand it may be seriously modified; because when we review the
work of the province as a whole, we may find that the institutional work
of the province as a whole is out of proportion to the evangelistic
work, and in that case we should think the disproportion at the station
more serious. On the other hand we might find the institutional work in
the province inadequate, and in that case the emphasis which seemed
undue in the one place, and may really be improper in that one place,
nevertheless, in view of the situation in the whole province, may be
shown to be reasonable in relation to the whole province. How then can
we gather together the returns from all the stations so as to present a
view of the work in the province? For that is the first thing. We cannot
put the station into its proper place in the province until we have a
view of the work in the province treated as a unity.
In provinces, large cities and towns, which are not reckoned as part of
any mission station district, have to be taken into account. These large
cities, capitals of provinces, countries, or empires, need special
consideration, and must often be surveyed separately. They are centres
in which many societies have their head-quarters, and many missionaries
live, yet the work done in them is not always so impressive or
extensive as the numbers of missionaries might suggest: occasionally the
missionaries are all congregated in one quarter of the city, and large
portions are practically untouched. In them, too, are sometimes large
city congregations, self-supporting indeed and self-governing, but
sucking into themselves all the more vigorous elements of the Christian
community and employing them within a somewhat narrow circle. The
problem of the evangelisation of these cities is a very serious one.
We suggest that these great cities might be treated either as one
district or as several, and that they ought to be surveyed
systematically by a body representative of all the missions in each
city. If a proper survey were made and the facts tabulated, the
statistical tables would be similar to those for the station district,
and we could use them to complete a survey of the work done in the
province treated as a unity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account