p. 12 | Mission Policy and Methods by J. C. Rogers

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 23, 1915

Mission Policy and Methods

By J. C. Rogers

J. C. ROGERS

PREACHING, teaching, and healing are the three prominent things to be done by the missionary. In two records of our Lord's commission, preaching is spoken of first. In the two records which mention healing, it follows preaching and teaching.

From the example of Christ and the apostles we learn that every legitimate means is to be used in the execution of the mighty commission. An attempt at classifying some of the methods of reaching the heathen with the gospel message will be useful, I think. We shall place first of all,—

Preaching the Word

None will question, I presume, the paramount importance of this means so fully employed in the early church. The convincing certainty of the simple gospel can be depended upon in season and out of season. It reaches the heart. It converts. It saves. No man can deny nor escape its power. No man will soon forget its convicting appeals brought home to his needy heart by the Spirit's power.

“The testimony of living men has advantages, many and great, over that of the written or printed word. The printed book certainly brings a sure and authoritative knowledge, but it lacks the support of a trustworthy witness, staking his life on the truth of his message. Among uncivilized peoples a personal offer of the gospel is the necessary thing. The written or printed word is ineffective for the most part, at least, in purely heathen regions.”—“Living Forces of the Gospel,” by Warneck.

Publishing the word finds its place close beside preaching, and embraces every means of printing and circulating the Bible itself and all profitable literature growing out of it. Publishing introduces the manual or industrial feature which might be classed under the educational department of missionary effort.

Teaching

Here the education of converts, as well as of the unconverted, and the training of the former for gospel service and Christian living, claim our attention. In the mission field, teaching often appears more prominent than preaching. But preaching to the missionary means living, working, and dying among his people. That is, it means far more than to stand in the pulpit and preach in that particular way.

“The preacher must, at all times, be ready to lay down his life for what he preaches. . . . He has, by the purity of his life, shown himself to be trustworthy, and has led the heathen to put faith in his words.”—Ib.

First in education comes book training. Often this begins with the making of simple charts on wrapping paper or on a box cover, or printing words on the sand. This latter method is largely used on the Tanganyika plateau, where native teachers hold their schools in an open space near a village. The bare ground is the schoolroom, with no seats, except perhaps a pole resting on two forked stakes, for the teacher. The classes stand before the teacher's seat while reciting, and sit on the ground while studying. I often see boys and girls doing sums and writing lessons in this way on the sand.

Next in education comes work training. When the village lads are able to read in their vernacular and write a little, they must go to the mission, or station school, for further teaching. The moment these lads reach the station, the real problem of native education begins. In the village they have had one or two hours' teaching each day, often irregularly, with frequent breaks for going visiting, for work, or for this, that, or the other. An hour or two daily, and no more, is the rule. The remainder of the day has been spent in play or work, usually the former. They cannot be kept in the schoolroom all day, nor even half a day profitably. Three hours are about as much as can be spent to advantage by these beginners. What shall be done with the other nine?

The missionary is trying to teach regular habits of study and work, of which his pupils know nothing whatever. It would be folly to leave them to themselves for a large part of the day. They must be cared for. Thus the imperative necessity of some kind of manual work connected with the mission,—an industry. It should be suited to the people requiring it. In China it may be one thing, in Australia or Africa another. India may require something different still. But among missionaries there is a very general agreement as to the necessity of some kind of manual work.

In our mission work it has always been our policy to encourage manual work as an essential part of educational training. For the most part, other missionaries have followed the same policy. And I believe it has worked well. If this policy were to be abandoned, what better could be found to replace it? How shall the student's time out of school hours be employed, especially in sparsely populated places where there are no cities, and no opportunity for students to find employment except on the station?

It may cost a little more in some cases to produce a thing on a mission, or in a school, than to buy it. But the educational value of the work is worth more to the native than the amount saved would be to the mission. I know of such a situation in one of our large African missions. It costs a trifle more to hoe the ground, to plant and cultivate and harvest the food supplies for the two or three hundred natives living on the station, than to buy of the surrounding villagers. But to buy this large supply of food would have a bad effect on the

villagers themselves. It would give them the idea that those who go to the mission are rising above work; that lazy boys can find a refuge there and learn to get on without working. And the effect upon the student is worse still. These unlearned people are inclined to avoid work as they would the plague.

For these and other reasons, the missionary holds to the policy of work for his students. I believe we should, at least, use the students' time to produce the food required on the station when possible; and if the conditions are favorable to some industry that will bring in funds to buy what cannot be produced in the way of food and clothing, can there be any proper objection to such an industry?

The missionary's time should be free for his great work of preaching and teaching the gospel, as well as ministering to the sick and suffering. He should not be under the necessity of exhausting his energies in manual labor, nor in carrying the heavy responsibilities of industrial enterprises. He should be assisted by others qualified for that part of the work. I think we are in a time requiring careful and wise plans of operation, as well as policies and methods. It is not wise to abandon suddenly what has proved useful and successful.

Mporokoso, Northern Rhodesia.