PAM. 
 Ml SC, 
 
 WORLD RECONSTRUCTION PAPERS 
 
 Second Series—No. 2 
 
 The Christian Ministry 
 Overseas 
 
 By 
 
 Frank W. Bible 
 
 STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT 
 25 Madison Avenue, New York 
 
FRANK W. BIBLE, a former missionary 
 of the Presbyterian Board in China, is 
 now head of the China Survey of the 
 Interchurch World Movement. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY OVERSEAS 
 
 By Frank W. Bible 
 
 The real work of the Christian ministry overseas 
 has often been obscured by the use of the term evan¬ 
 gelistic. At home, the evangelist is engaged in one 
 specialized and, on the whole, rather limited form of 
 work, a form not especially connected with the 
 broader and more regular opportunities of the min¬ 
 istry. It is but natural that students familiar with 
 this use of the term should be inclined to interpret 
 the word in its application to work overseas in the 
 same general way. But, as a matter of fact, the 
 term as used abroad is applied to a ministry broader 
 and more varied than that of the whole work of the 
 ministry in the home land. 
 
 The ministry overseas is in reality the most varied 
 and wide ranged of all the types of work which com¬ 
 bined make the work of foreign missions the broad¬ 
 est and most inclusive presentation of the whole 
 scope of Christianity which the world has ever 
 known. To be an evangelist overseas is to enter upon 
 large tasks and to face big problems,—larger tasks 
 and bigger problems than most men face in any form 
 of Christian work in the homeland. 
 
 3 
 
To begin with, the ministers overseas are the 
 pioneers. To them falls the alluring task of explor¬ 
 ing the unknown fields. Sometimes, as in the case 
 of Livingstone, it is the doctor who leads the way; 
 but it is usually because he has assumed the func¬ 
 tions of the minister in addition to those of a doctor 
 that he becomes the pioneer. I asked a missionary 
 familiar with the history of missionary pioneering 
 in Africa to give me the names of a score of men who 
 had done extensive pioneering work. All but three 
 or four were ministers. Dr. McGilvary, who worked 
 for many years in Siam, is a typical example of this 
 side of the ministry overseas. When he began his 
 work, a large part of Siam was “unoccupied terri- 
 tory” from the missionary point of view. He made 
 long trips of exploration, covering North Siam, East¬ 
 ern Burma, and the present French Lao State—an 
 area equal to that of the states of New York, Penn¬ 
 sylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. In 
 one of his trips he stumbled upon a village whose 
 people spoke a tongue different from that of the 
 Siamese. He learned from what section they had 
 come and, working his way far north into the Lao 
 States, became the pioneer not only of missionary 
 effort but of practically all the good things that our 
 Western civilization has to offer the peoples of the 
 East. 
 
 As a pioneer the minister overseas lays founda- 
 
 4 
 
tions. Dr. Brown speaks of the work of Dr. 
 McGilvary in these terms: 
 
 “In all the marked development of the Lao Mis¬ 
 sion, Dr. McGilvary was a leader—the leader. He 
 laid the foundations of medical work, introducing 
 quinine and vaccination among a people scourged by 
 malaria and smallpox, a work which has now devel¬ 
 oped into five hospitals and a leper asylum. He be¬ 
 gan educational work, which is now represented by 
 eight boarding schools and twenty-two elementary 
 schools, and is fast expanding into a college, a medi¬ 
 cal college, and a theological seminary. He was the 
 evangelist who won the first converts, founded the 
 first church, and had a prominent part in founding 
 twenty other churches, and in developing a Lao 
 Christian Church of four thousand two hundred and 
 five adult communicants. His colleague, the Rev. 
 W. C. Dodd, says that Dr. McGilvary selected the 
 sites for all the present stations of the Mission long 
 before committees formally sanctioned the wisdom 
 of his choice. He led the way into regions beyond, 
 and was the pioneer explorer into the French Lao 
 States, eastern Burma, and even up to China. Go 
 where you will in northern Siam, or in many of the 
 sections of the extra-Siamese Lao States, you will 
 find men and women to whom Dr. McGilvary first 
 brought the Good News. He well deserves the name 
 so frequently given him even in his lifetime,—‘The 
 Apostle to the Lao/ ” 
 
 5 
 
It will perhaps come as a surprise to those who 
 have not been close students of missions to learn that 
 there is still a great demand for just such pioneering 
 work. A survey now being conducted by the Inter¬ 
 church World Movement has revealed the tremen¬ 
 dous extent of territory which is still unoccupied in 
 any definite way by the missionary enterprise. With¬ 
 in the bounds of China proper, there are sections as 
 large as the states of Connecticut and Massachusetts 
 combined in which the whole Christian movement is 
 yet to be launched; and, putting together all these 
 areas within China proper, it has been discovered 
 that they have an extent and contain a population 
 equal to that of the following states combined: 
 
 Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illi¬ 
 nois, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa. 
 
 Then, stretching westward from China, are the 
 great regions of Tibet, Sinkiang (Chinese Turke¬ 
 stan) and Mongolia, with an area greater than that 
 of the United States east of the Missouri River, in 
 which only the beginnig of work has been done. 
 
 In the Sudan of Africa, there is a region where one 
 could travel today in a direct line from the farthest 
 outpost in the east for fifteen hundred miles before 
 he would reach the first station of the line thrown 
 out from the west. In this region, as in North Africa 
 as a whole, there is added to the attraction of pio¬ 
 neering something of the challenge of battle. For 
 
 6 
 
here, perhaps, more than anywhere else in the world, 
 Christianity is face to face with a militant opponent. 
 The Moslem advance has long since swept over North 
 Africa and now creeps steadily down into and almost 
 through Central Africa, while Christianity awaits 
 the men with courage and spirit to go out into the 
 African jungles and hold the line. 
 
 The call for the pioneer comes from nearly all 
 parts of the overseas field. The great interior of 
 Brazil with its millions of Indians, Afghanistan 
 closed still to all white men, and Arabia, which apart 
 from the coast is known little better than Africa was 
 a generation ago—all these are parts of the great 
 unoccupied field, which throws out a challenge to the 
 student of today. 
 
 It must be remembered of course that pioneering 
 is hard work. It may sound romantic, but the ro¬ 
 mance is a small part of the real thing. A man to 
 do this work must be able to stand physical hard¬ 
 ships. He must be able to live much alone; for pio¬ 
 neers do not go in large companies nor carry along 
 the comforts of civilization. But, if the men can be 
 found, there will be more real pioneering done in the 
 next ten or fifteen years than in any past generation; 
 in fact, this may be the last call for pioneering 
 missionaries. 
 
 Most ministers, overseas, however, are not pio¬ 
 neers in this large sense, for the majority go to fields 
 
 7 
 
already opened for Christian work. This means only 
 a more varied life and a wider range of service. The 
 minister has always been closer to the life of the 
 land in which he works than the other workers. He 
 and the doctor come into contact with all classes of 
 people while the educator as a rule meets selected 
 individuals often drawn from limited classes. The 
 minister comes to know all the problems of the peo¬ 
 ple, and, because of this, while sticking to his pri¬ 
 mary task of building up a church which will some¬ 
 time be strong enough to take the whole Christian 
 responsibility on itself, he is driven almost inevitably 
 to a broad conception of the function of the Church 
 and the scope of the Christian movement. He is likely 
 to be a strong supporter of the work of the schools 
 and indeed to have an active part in them. Many of 
 the strongest educational institutions were founded 
 by ministers whose training in the so-called evan¬ 
 gelistic work fitted them for leadership in education. 
 And perforce every minister overseas is a social 
 worker. 
 
 My personal knowledge is confined to China, but 
 conditions are probably not very different on other 
 overseas fields where the work is well organized; 
 and one of the striking facts in China is the marked 
 extent to which this ordinary work of the ministry 
 overseas has proved to be the most effective training 
 for large leadership. There are five mission schools 
 of college grade in the lower Yangtse valley. At 
 
 8 
 
least four of the presidents of these colleges were 
 called to their posts from successful work in the 
 ministry. Shangtung University has throughout its 
 history filled its presidential post in this way. The 
 newly organized Peking University went outside the 
 limits of all the missions organically connected with 
 the school, but chose a man who, in the first in¬ 
 stance, had gotten his touch with China and his 
 knowledge of the Chinese as a minister. The same is 
 true of the chief executive positions of a general or 
 national nature in the missionary enterprise. The 
 China Continuation Committee, a general advisory 
 and consultative body representing the whole mis¬ 
 sionary movement, is headed by a man trained in 
 this way, and the same is true of bodies such as 
 the China Council of the Northern Presbyterian 
 Missions. 
 
 The most important thing about the ministry over¬ 
 seas at the present time is the tremendous nature of 
 the problems which it must face. It must be remem¬ 
 bered that in nearly all of the overseas lands con¬ 
 ditions are changing with a rapidity and to an ex¬ 
 tent which leaves the best informed and watchful 
 almost overwhelmed. All Asia is breaking loose from 
 its old moorings. Not in one land, but in practically 
 all lands, there have been changes in the last two 
 decades so enormous that no one can yet measure 
 their significance. The Chinese Republic does not 
 
 9 
 
excite a large amount of admiration, but not even 
 the failures of the government at Peking can hide the 
 importance of the effort which the Chinese people 
 are making. The rise of nationalism in Asia brings 
 problems before which the most optimistic are sober. 
 The relations between the peoples of the East and the 
 West are more strained than for long periods. The 
 tension between China and Japan, the relation of 
 Korea and Japan,—these are world problems. 
 
 And the minister overseas will of necessity feel 
 and be in touch with each of these problems. He 
 must be a man of fine tact and of more than usual 
 judgment and self-control, for he will come into the 
 most delicate situations. Many of the problems are 
 of a political nature and there are abundant reasons 
 why he should not become involved in politics; but 
 each of these problems will be found to have another 
 side which is not political but more accurately social, 
 and the minister will be in a position to influence, to 
 guide, and to advise without infringing in any way 
 on the proper limitations inherent in his position. 
 
 Each mission land presents a social problem to 
 which one does not wish to apply an adjective lest 
 the superlative degree which must be used appear 
 pure exaggeration. Take Japan as an example. Her 
 economic development is unparalleled in history. A 
 generation ago, she was a self-contained land, whose 
 people tilled their soil and in their homes engaged in 
 
 10 
 
simple home industries. Today, she is one of the 
 great manufacturing lands of the world. In 1900, 
 she had 1,400 factories with 120,000 workers; in 
 1919, she had 30,000 factories with 2,000,000 em¬ 
 ployees. 
 
 Now the minister overseas faces this situation 
 with a clear conviction that it is part of the function 
 of Christianity to plant in Japanese life the forces 
 which will meet and overcome the host of problems 
 which modern industrial life carries in its train. The 
 great problem of the Church overseas is to apply the 
 gospel to the whole range of human life, Christian¬ 
 izing all the activities of men. It is a bigger and 
 harder work than it is at home. 
 
 A much larger part of the responsibility falls upon 
 the Church than is true at home. Here the Church 
 has a hundred aids. In most overseas fields, she still 
 works to a large degree single handed. She must 
 create the public sentiment which will not only add 
 to her own strength but will give rise to social 
 organizations which will aid her in the fight. 
 
 In such a task, the minister overseas must take the 
 lead. It was the minister overseas who led and or¬ 
 ganized the forces in China which overthrew the 
 opium traffic. It was he who was the best aid to the 
 women leaders through whom came the reforms in 
 the practice of foot binding. 
 
 n 
 
The minister overseas must therefore, in our day, 
 be a leader and organizer of social forces. Lands 
 such as China, India, Korea, and Japan have at one 
 and the same time the social and moral problems 
 inherent in their old social status and those which 
 come with the rise of modern economic and political 
 systems. The church overseas must, as a church, 
 launch at once into the great social problems. The 
 Kingdom of God must be established in these over¬ 
 seas lands as truly as men must be brought to life in 
 Christ. It is a larger and a harder task than minis¬ 
 ters have had before, but the two-fold responsibility 
 falls without fail on the present day minister over¬ 
 seas. Mission churches will not retain Western de¬ 
 nominational names or creeds or dividing lines, and 
 cooperation is assured. Organic church unity in no 
 small degree is likely to come in the near future. 
 The minister must be able to fit into such a move¬ 
 ment. The whole Church must command his loyalty 
 more fully than the division to which he belongs. 
 
 But the largest work of the minister overseas is 
 deeper even than this, though most intimately con¬ 
 nected with it. He comes as a moral and social 
 physician. He knows that each of the evils which he 
 fights, each social problem which he meets, must be 
 fought. As the doctor fights an epidemic of disease, 
 the minister overseas fights the evils of society, 
 whether those inherent in the life of the East or those 
 
 12 
 
brought in from the West. But he has, or should 
 have, the scientific spirit. He should recognize the 
 superior importance of prevention as compared with 
 cure. And while he stands and fights the prevailing 
 epidemic, he plans and works for that which will 
 prevent its reoccurrence. He knows that character in 
 men is the surest support of a good social order. He 
 works for men. He is not greatly concerned about 
 building up a denomination which calls itself by the 
 name he has been associated with. He sees the rise 
 in India, in China, in Japan, in South Africa, of 
 Christian churches in which union is a fact, not the 
 effervescent subject of after-dinner speeches and 
 committee meetings, and he regards it as natural and 
 inevitable. But he is concerned if he notes the lack 
 of real power—power which cannot be supplied by 
 any numbers or any form. 
 
 Now it must be clear that the work of the minister 
 overseas is hard. He must have initiative, must be 
 able to adapt himself, his methods, and practices to 
 changing conditions and situations. He is thrown 
 to a tremendous degree on his own resources. One 
 of the problems facing the Christian movement over¬ 
 seas is to supply the ministers needed without lower¬ 
 ing the standard below that required by the situa¬ 
 tion. In the files of the Interchurch Movement, there 
 are now requests for 3,255 ministers, all of whom 
 are needed within the next five years. The present 
 
 13 
 
generation of college men must decide whether the 
 calls are to be met or not. 
 
 We have not spoken specifically in this pamphlet 
 of women in evangelistic or “general missionary” 
 work; but most of what has been said applies direct¬ 
 ly to them. The range of their work is perhaps as 
 broad and it surely is as important and demanding 
 as that done by men in the work of the ministry. It 
 often takes on pioneer aspects; it deals vigorously 
 with social problems, often at their source; it is 
 vitally concerned with laying the foundations of the 
 Church in the Mission field. It reaches multitudes 
 of women whom men workers cannot approach. It 
 penetrates the homes of the non-Christian world 
 with a peculiar influence. And today it is in need 
 of a host of workers, college women of large gifts, 
 thorough training and devoted spirit. 
 
 4