No Solitary Effort

Neel Roberts

Description

No Solitary Effort describes how members of the China Inland Mission engaged the tribes of Southwest China as part of their comprehensive plan to evangelize all of China from 1865 to 1951. That endeavor required the combined lifelong efforts of numerous missionaries, spanned several generations, and was invariably affected by events and decisions that occurred thousands of miles from where the actual ministry was taking place. The task was incomplete when the missionaries were forced to leave, but the foundations for the Church which were laid have stood. This book addresses the great challenges to cooperation that faced the missionaries. It also reveals the rich rewards that were obtained by the united efforts of committed Christians who had no timetable for withdrawal, but only an unwavering commitment to work together until the task was accomplished.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Philosophie et théologie
• OMF
• OMF International
• Growth
• Christian Church

Informations

• Publié par: William Carey Publishing
• Date de parution: 22 mars 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781645081104
• Langue: English

Extrait

No Solitary Effort: How the CIM Worked to Reach the Tribes of Southwest China Copyright 2013 Neel Roberts
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise-without prior written permission of the publisher, except brief quotations used in connection with reviews in magazines or newspapers.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version , NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.
Published by William Carey Library 1605 E. Elizabeth Street Pasadena, CA 91104 | www.missionbooks.org
Melissa Hicks, editor Brad Koenig, copyeditor Amanda Valloza, graphic design Rose Lee-Norman, indexer
William Carey Library is a ministry of the U.S. Center for World Mission Pasadena, CA | www.uscwm.org
Printed in the United States of America
17 16 15 14 13 5 4 3 2 1BP600
Cover photo is from North Thailand: Tribal background Christians harvesting rice at the J.O. Fraser Bible Training Center.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Roberts, Neel.
No Solitary Effort / by Neel Roberts.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-87808-624-5
1. China Inland Mission-History. 2. Missions-Southeast Asia-History. I. Title.
BV3298.R63 2013
266.00951-dc23
2012050040
Many books have been written on the successful stories of the China Inland Mission in the past. However, this book weaves together stories of successes and failures, struggles and triumphs of the China Inland Mission.
I appreciate the fact that much attention has been given to the post-Hudson Taylor period. The work among the tribal peoples, in particular the Miao and Lisu, has been carefully researched and analyzed. Two other key areas are explored in this book. Firstly, how modernity and liberal theology challenged the work and how the China Inland Mission responded to such challenge. Secondly, work has been devoted to a subject that remains extremely relevant in today s world, namely, the issue of indigenous principle, or indigenization.
The CIM, through different eras of leadership, from Hudson Taylor to Dixon Hoste and Bishop Houghton, strongly believed in the indigenous principle and emphasized working alongside the Chinese Church. According to Roberts, the missionaries evolved through stages, from being the primary evangelists, to becoming the motivators and finally the partners with the Chinese and tribal Christians.
There is much food for thought in this book for those who are grappling with critical issues in modern day missions. History informs us to critique our current practice and make wise decisions.
Rev. Dr. Patrick Fung
general director, OMF International
No Solitary Effort deserves a wider audience than just Christians interested in unreached people groups in China or SEAsia today. Suburban pastors engaged in global missions, short-term workers, Christians from tribal backgrounds, and others can all benefit. As an OMF missionary to tribes in SEAsia for over twenty-five years, Neel Roberts speaks with a wise, passionate voice as he describes the ups and downs of church planting among the Miao, Lisu, Nosu, and other tribes between 1865-1951. Christians today who partner with Majority World believers can see how a large mission organization like China Inland Mission/OMF needed to adapt from pioneer evangelism and leadership training to true partnerships between Western, Chinese, and tribal believers. Jesus said he would build his church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it (Matt 16:18). Roberts provides a historical perspective to show how many of the joint efforts produced biblical foundations that over sixty years of communism have failed to destroy. May God alone get the glory!
Julian D. Linnell, PhD
executive director, Anglican Frontier Missions
In a day and age where much is considered when discussing effective strategies in Christian mission and many churches have developed their own programs for putting those into practice, it is refreshing to read Neel Roberts pages on No Solitary Effort . Capturing seventy-five years of CIM history in a short book like this, and not simply touching the surface but pointing out significant details, is what this manuscript has accomplished. With his God-given ability to tell a story well in conjunction with his scholarly interest and knowledge of history, Neel Roberts has produced a piece of writing that is well worth reading for anybody interested in cross-cultural mission or responsible for anything that has to do with the mission enterprise. While the research done stays clear of promoting certain methods as the only right approach, it shows that looking at and reflecting on what others have done in the past can render helpful insights. Some might see aspects of the work in the past in a new light. Moreover, features, possibly not even noticed before, might be recognized as what they really are: critical for eventually seeing the mission accomplished.
It is unique in the sense that I know of no other manuscript that has made a similar effort to combine the many lessons that can be learned from CIM s work, particularly in the upper Mekong region, in such a short and comprehensive way. It is the kind of book a new generation involved in missions should read!
Sam Wunderli
field director, OMF Mekong
Contents
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1-Foundations: How the CIM Got to the Upper Mekong Region
Chapter 2-First Period: 1865-1895
Chapter 3-The Upper Mekong Region at Last
Chapter 4-J. O. Fraser, the Lisu, and the CIM
Chapter 5-The 1940s and the Houghton Era
Chapter 6-In Summary
Appendix
Bibliography
Index
Preface
On occasion I have been invited by Christian missionaries in Southeast Asia to present lectures on the history of the China Inland Mission (CIM) and its successor, the Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF), in the Upper Mekong Region of Southeast Asia. Out of these lectures proceeded a request to put the material into written form. After reviewing the wealth of information available from primary sources, I first considered creating a compendium of stories written by the missionaries themselves with brief explanatory notes inserted as necessary. As I delved deeper into the topic, I realized that I was not in a position to make such explanatory comments. There were too many questions that I could not answer myself. Most of these questions related to how the Mission functioned as a corporate entity. Until these questions were adequately answered, the work of individual missionaries could at best be only partially understood or at worst be completely misunderstood. Therefore I decided that my focus must be on the work of the China Inland Mission and the Overseas Missionary Fellowship 1 among the peoples of the Upper Mekong Region from 1875 to 1975. After months of research and writing I discovered that I had bitten off much more than I could chew. Due to time and size constraints I have narrowed my sights for this book to the work of the CIM in Southwest China and bordering regions. This brings this story neatly to a close around 1951.
The title of this book came to me from a quote written by Robert Morrison (1782-1834) who was at one time the solitary representative of the Protestant missions in China.
It is true, that, since health is uncertain, and life is short, the efforts of an individual being soon intermitted, produce but little effect, and therefore it becomes desirable in our plans of usefulness to unite many persons who shall assist each other, and gradually attach more friends to succeed them, when they shall be required, by the great Sovereign of the universe, to remove to other worlds. 2
I take it as axiomatic that the work of the individual missionary is of account to the degree that it builds on the labors of others and leads to the building up of a new generation of believers who will carry the work on to perfection. Therefore I seek to set the activities of individuals within the frame of the Mission s corporate efforts to evangelize the peoples of the Upper Mekong Region. Relationships with other mission agencies and with native believers are also considered. Furthermore I aim to show how the Mission interacted with the evangelical Christian communities that supported missions as well as the various governments, both Western and Asian, which for the most part barely tolerated, and in some cases actively opposed, the work.
As farmers in the Mekong Region long ago learned to work together in times of planting and reaping in order to obtain the greatest harvest so it should one day become obvious that Christians must join in cooperative efforts to reach the ends of the earth with the gospel. At the same time, I do not wish to hide in any way the reality of how hard it can actually be to labor together effectively on the mission field. It is essential to record the issues that mission leaders wrestled with in their attempts to accomplish a seemingly impossible task. Often times their greatest challenges revolved around the missionaries themselves, and not the emerging churches or the non-Christian populations they were seeking to evangelize. This reality must be acknowledged and properly dealt with if we hope to see the work, begun so long ago, brought to a successful conclusion.
While this book includes numerous historical facts, it is perhaps more of a historical study of the development of applied missiology than a history of missions. More attention will be given to why certain things were done than to comprehensively recording all that was d