Editor’s Note: The Congregationalists whose offspring, in part, formed the United Church of Christ lead the United States at one time in their zeal for what was known then as “Foreign Missions”. While our understanding that the “nations” are as likely to be right in our own backyard instead of far away, we may no longer use the term “Foreign” as they did, but we share the same mission - to disciple the nations. In this article Dr. Phil Corr reminds us of the United Church of Christ’s glorious heritage of missionary (or “missional”) faithfulness. The Commissioner’s zeal to combine the proclamation of Christ’s Lordship while ministering to human needs should inspire us to do the same.
By Rev. Dr. Phil Corr (c) 2007
One of the greatest endeavors of Congregational mission history was the establishment and early decades of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (hereinafter the Board or ABCFM). Though a few denominations of the Reformed persuasion participated in the early years, the Board came to be recognized as a uniquely Congregational organization.
Global in scope, the ABCFM came into being in 1810–four years after the Haystack Prayer meeting. In 1812, the Board sent forth its first missionaries. They went by sail boat to the sub continent of India. One of their party–Adoniram Judson–left the American shore as a Congregationalist and arrived in Asia a Baptist (could it have been because he was surrounded by water for so many days?). He turned right, or east, and began mission work in Burma that would be the first effort by American Baptists.
In 1820, the Board sent missionaries to the Sandwich Islands, now known as Hawaii. These intrepid and committed souls have been much maligned over the years–due in part to the choices made by some of their children and grandchildren. They went to these islands to introduce people to the Christian Gospel.
At first they were not very well received. But they would fight for Hawaiian rights against vested business interests. They showed the love of Christ in action through medical care and the establishment of schools. The first printing press west of the
Mississippi would print the first Hawaiian Bible in the 1830’s. In 1838 (approximately 100 years after the Great Awakening in New England and other places) Hawaii experienced its own Great Awakening. Perhaps some day I’ll write in more detail about the above, as well as other matters that I cover in my dissertation: “ ‘The Field is the World’: Proclaiming, Translating, and Serving by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.”
In that dissertation I show that–for the first three decades at least–the Board focused on proclaiming the Gospel: with Bible translation, medicine, education and social concern all subsumed to serving that primary goal.
That focus continued at least through the American Civil War. After that time, the coalition began to fall apart that had begun the Board and carried it through during its early years. The first generation missionaries and leaders were passing on. Liberal theology from Europe was beginning to infiltrate the seminaries from which most of the missionaries came.
A watershed issue was “future probation”–namely, would those who had not heard the Gospel in their life time have an opportunity to become Christians after they died. In 1888 the answer at the Board’s annual meeting was a resounding, “No!” By 1893, the Board had the leading proponent of that doctrine as its main speaker with hardly a word referring to the controversy that leads to the severing of the nerve of the Christian mission endeavor.
Many faithful servants did continue to serve the Board. But it became less and less of a key player in missions as the years and decades passed. After World War Two, such organizations as Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship took up the spiritual mantle of the Board’s founders.
I encourage you to study the early years of the American Board. You will be inspired and challenged by the story of life and after life–both American and indigenous–dedicated to God and used by Him to His glory!
Phil Corr’s work on the web can be seen at: haystack06.org and fccofcc.com
