Who Is Qualified to. Prepare 
 for Foreign Missionary 
 Service? 
 
 By \ 
 FENNELL P. TURNER 
 — 
 
 The need for workers in the foreign 
 mission field was never so gfeat or so 
 urgent as at the present time. 
 
 From missions already established, : 
 there is the pressing, constant demand 
 year after year for men and women to 
 fill the places of those who fall at their 
 posts or are compelled*to retire from 
 active service for reasons beyond their 
 control. The rapid growth of the work 
 has created a demand for the enlarge- 
 ment of the staff of every mission. 
 There is the call for workers from the 
 unoccupied portions of the occupied 
 fields. There is also the appeal of the 
 wholly unoccupied territory where no 
 missions have been established. The 
 
 1 
 
cry for help that comes from all these 
 fields is not that of one man, but of 
 multitudes “having no hope and with- 
 out God in the world.” 
 
 The demand from the foreign mis- 
 sion field is not only for an increase in 
 the number of workers; greater empha- 
 sis than ever before is laid on the better 
 preparation of missionaries. The call 
 for specialists comes from missions 
 which have been established for years. 
 The demand is that the ordained mis- 
 sionary should have more thorough 
 preparation than his predecessors. The 
 doctor should have college training, 
 four years in medical school, and ade- 
 quate hospital training. The teacher 
 who goes to the foreign mission field 
 should take special courses in educa- 
 tion. 
 
 In response to this demand for better 
 preparation, Boards of Missionary 
 Preparation have been established on 
 both sides of the Atlantic. They are 
 attempting to formulate standards of 
 preparation which are necessary for 
 foreign missionaries. Theological sem- 
 inaries, missionary training schools and 
 
 2 
 
colleges are adding professors and are 
 offering additional courses in order to 
 be in a position to supply this special 
 training for missionary candidates, 
 
 All this emphasis on better prepara- 
 tion and on specialization has resulted 
 in some confusion as to the real objec- 
 tive of the missionary’s work. Conse- 
 quently, we find some candidates put- 
 ting the emphasis on the professional 
 qualifications and others on the specific 
 calls which are constantly coming frorr 
 the field rather than on the real purpose 
 of the missionary enterprise. In thei 
 commendable zeal to be professionally 
 . qualified and to do the work for which 
 this professional training fits them, 
 they have sometimes lost sight of the © 
 vocation of the missionary, and not a 
 few young missionaries have become 
 discouraged upon reaching the field be- 
 cause the special work which they 
 thought they had been sent out to do 
 was not open to them. The real ob- 
 jective of foreign missions has been 
 confused with the methods of doing the 
 work; and an undue emphasis has been 
 placed upon the professional aspects 
 
 2 
 
‘ather than upon the aim of the enter- 
 rise. 
 
 Men and women are required for 
 missionary work who know Jesus 
 Christ as personal Saviour and Lord, 
 and are so filled with His Spirit that 
 they go forth as His ambassadors. 
 From personal experience they know 
 that He alone can give life and supply 
 the energy which is necessary if men 
 are to become His disciples and are to | 
 live the life which makes possible their 
 becoming uplifting forces in the com- 
 munities where they work. The funda- 
 mental principle which should be em- 
 »hasized as strongly as possible is this: . 
 mnly men who are moved by the pri- 
 nary purpose which called the whole 
 nissionary enterprise into existence are 
 prepared to do the work of mission- 
 aries, The real purpose of the mission- 
 ary enterprise is to give all people an 
 adequate opportunity to know Jesus 
 Christ as their Saviour and to become 
 His real disciples, and to found and 
 build up His Church so that it may be- 
 come, as soon as possible, self-propa- 
 gating, self-supporting and self-govern- 
 
 4 
 
ing. Dominated by this compelling mo- 
 tive, the professional aspects of one’s 
 work become secondary—not unimpor- 
 tant, but simply the means to the great 
 end. Moved by this conception, the 
 missionary candidate» does not ask 
 whether doctors, preachers, agricultur 
 ists, nurses, teachers, etc., are needed; 
 his position is: I believe it to be God’s 
 will that I take Christ to non-Christian 
 people and build up His Church. What 
 can I do which will facilitate and make 
 most effective my great objective? If 
 I am to become a doctor, I will prepare 
 to be the ibest doctor which it is possi- 
 ble for me to be. If a teacher, I will 
 leave nothing out of my preparation 
 which will increase my efficiency as a 
 teacher. If my purpose can best be ful- 
 filled by showing people how to im- 
 prove their agricultural’ methods or by 
 leading them in their industrial pur- 
 suits, then I will take the preparation 
 which is required foi’ this form of serv- 
 ice. If it is as an evangelistic worker, 
 then I will make the preparation which 
 will fit me best to do the work of an 
 evangelist. 
 
A study of the lives of the mission- 
 aries through whose labors men and 
 women in non-Christian lands have be- 
 come the disciples of Jesus Christ, and 
 churches have been founded and devel- 
 oped, hospitals established, schools or- 
 ganized, and Christian communities 
 have come into existence, shows that 
 they were dominated by the conscious- 
 ness of the mission to make Jesus Christ 
 known to the people as their Saviour, 
 ind to lead them to become His true 
 lisciples. David Livingstone decided 
 irst to become a missionary. He stu- 
 lied medicine because he believed that - 
 through this profession he could most 
 effectually accomplish his purpose. 
 Bishop Alfred Robert Tucker was at 
 the beginning of his career an artist of 
 great promise; one day as he painted a 
 picture of a homeless, lost woman, he 
 cried out: “God help me, why don’t I 
 go to lost people themselves instead of 
 painting pictures of them.” So, moved 
 by the desire to gu, as he expressed it, 
 ‘to that part of the world where men 
 ind women seem to be most lost,” he 
 orepared himself to do the work of an 
 
 6 
 
ordained missionary, went to East Af- 
 rica and preached Christ to the people 
 of Uganda. 
 
 Men of a wide variety of training and 
 talents, impelled by the motive which 
 we have described, have unlimited scope 
 for these talents in their vocation as 
 foreign missionaries. Alexander Mac- 
 kay was trained in Edinburgh Univer- 
 sity as a mechanical engineer. A few 
 years after graduation, he was led to 
 offer himself to a missionary society for 
 service in Africa. No doubt his train- 
 ing as a mechanical engineer was an im- 
 portant factor in the Board’s decision 
 to accept him, but Alexander Mackay 
 did not go to Africa to practise his pro- 
 fession as a mechanical engineer. He 
 went to Africa because of his desire to 
 preach Jesus Christ to the people of 
 Uganda. His training as an engineer 
 was not lost. He made use of it day 
 after day, but it was secondary to the 
 great compelling objective which led 
 him to give years of painful self-sacri- 
 ficing effort to the people among whom 
 he labored. 
 
._ Furthermore, the missionary candi- 
 date who goes to the field actuated by 
 this motive is not disturbed if on ac- 
 count of changes in conditions his own 
 work must be different from that which 
 he expected it would be. Since his vo- 
 cation is that of a missionary, the kind 
 of work which he is to do is of second- 
 ary importance. He is ready not only 
 to “become all things to all men that he 
 may by all means save some,” but he is 
 ready to undertake any kind of service 
 which may be necessary. Arthur Jack- 
 son, a Cambridge man, went to Man- 
 churia to become a professor in a 
 medical school. He had been there only 
 a few weeks when the ravages ofthe 
 Plague called for someone to do inspec- 
 tion duty at a railway station. In the 
 spirit of Christ, Jackson responded to 
 this call. He could have justified a 
 negative response on the ground that 
 he went out to work as a professor in 
 a college, but the motive which domi- 
 nated*Jackson made the work of in- 
 specting the coolies from the plague 
 district as genuinely missionary work 
 
 8 
 
= 
 
 as that of lecturing to students at the 
 college. 
 
 Some years ago a medical graduate 
 applied to his Board for appointment 
 as a medical missionary. The financial 
 position of the Board was such that a 
 medical missionary could not be ap- 
 pointed. The only opening was for a 
 teacher of English in a Government 
 school in a small city in Japan. He 
 might have declined to go to Japan on 
 the ground that he had prepared as a 
 medical missionary. However, his 
 primary motive was to preach Jesus 
 Christ, so he went to Japan and worked 
 as a teacher of English in the Govern- 
 ment school because this work afforded 
 that opportunity. Through his work 
 and influence a smali group of Japan- 
 ese young men accepted Christ, and 
 have since become the leaders of the 
 Church in their Province. The ques- 
 tion may be raised:: Did not this man 
 make a mistake in turning aside from 
 his profession as a medical missionary? 
 So far as he was concerned, there is 
 but one answer. He had dedicated his 
 life to the task of making Jesus Christ 
 
 9 
 
known to non-Christian peoples. The 
 way to go as a medical missionary was 
 closed. The teaching of English in a 
 Government school afforded the oppor- 
 tunity to enter upon his vocation as a 
 missionary, and he took advantage of it. 
 
 The candidate must place the empha- 
 sis where it belongs: on the objective, 
 the end to be accomplished. Then the 
 important question of professional 
 qualifications and training will fall in- 
 to its rightful place. Every form of 
 service is needed and is effective, pro- 
 vided it is rightly related to the primary 
 
 aim. And the missionary candidate 
 must make the preparation which ex- 
 
 perience proves necessary. In _ his 
 eagerness to prepare for his profession, 
 he must not lose sight of his vocation. 
 This objective kept constantly in view 
 will be to the missionary candidate the 
 greatest inspiration to secure the prep- 
 aration which is necessary. God does 
 not approve carelessly prepared work- 
 ers or slipshod workmanship. It will 
 also lead to the best work and the great- 
 est results on the field. Unless men go 
 to the mission field with the right mo- 
 
 10 
 
tive, it is impossible for Jesus Christ to 
 work in and through them, and unless 
 He do this, there can be no results of an 
 abiding character. 
 
 For the majority of those who decide 
 to become foreign missionaries, no 
 change of profession is necessary. If 
 a man has decided to enter the Chris- 
 tian ministry, he will add to his prepar- 
 ation for the ministry the special prep- 
 aration which is necessary for the or- 
 dained foreign missionary. If he ex- 
 pects to become a physician, he will 
 add to the studies required of the 
 doctor in the homeland any additional 
 studies which may be necessary in the 
 preparation of the medical missionary. 
 However, if the missionary candidate 
 finds that the profession for which he 
 is preparing is not such as will enable 
 him most efficiently to follow the vo- 
 cation of a foreign missionary, he will 
 not hesitate to change his course of 
 study. I have known young men look- 
 ing forward to professions such as sci- 
 entific agriculture, engineering in its 
 different branches, architecture, etc., 
 who have turned aside from these use- 
 
 11 
 
ful callings to prepare as ordained 
 evangelistic missionaries, as teachers or 
 as doctors because the training in these 
 professions better fitted them for the 
 vocation of foreign missionaries. When 
 dominated by the motive which ought 
 to cause men to dedicate their lives to 
 foreign. missionary service, they will 
 not hesitate to change their courses 
 whenever such changes will better fit 
 them to do the work which they go out 
 to do. 
 
 Men and women who feel that they 
 should go as missionaries are not 
 excused from their missionary respon- 
 sibility because they distrust their abil- 
 ities or have not had all the ideal 
 training. No matter how humble an 
 opinion they may have of themselves, 
 they should frankly face their mission- 
 ary duty and not regard the question 
 closed until they have conferred with 
 one of the secretaries’ of the Student 
 Volunteer Movement or of a Foreign 
 Mission Board. The desire to become 
 
 * Information may be secured by writing to 
 the General Secretary, Student Volunteer 
 Movement, 25 Madison Avenue, New York. 
 
 12 
 
a missionary creates the obligation to 
 secure the training necessary for effi- 
 cient service on the mission field. 
 
 If circumstances make it impossible 
 for missionary candidates to take addi- 
 tional preparation, they should apply to 
 their foreign mission Boards, and if the 
 Boards find it possible to accept them, 
 go to the mission field with such prep- 
 aration as they have. 
 
 When the owner of the ship on 
 which Robert Morrison had engaged 
 passage learned that his passenger was 
 going to China as a missionary, he said 
 with a sneer: “And so, Mr. Morrison, 
 you really expect that you will make an 
 impression on the idolatry of the great 
 Chinese Empire?’ “No, sir,” replied 
 Morrison, “but I expect God will.’ 
 The men and women who enter upon 
 foreign missionary work to-day must 
 be driven by the same spirit and motive 
 and have the same faith as that which 
 took the pioneer Morrison to China.. In 
 those days to all but the few whose 
 eyes had been opened, the task was ab- 
 solutely impossible and hopeless; it 
 was a fool’s errand. To-day men look 
 
 13 
 
Copies of this pamphlet may be or- 
 dered from the Student Volunteer 
 Movement, 25 Madison Avenue, New 
 
 York City, at 5c. each, 50c. per dozen, 
 $3.00 per hundred, express charges 
 prepaid. 
 
 
 
 Coryricut, 1915, By 
 STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT 
 FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS