ReformationUCC.org

(c) 2008 Dr. Phil Corr

According to historical material, he manner of preaching by American Board Congregational missionaries had to do with both broad strategy and detailed information on how preaching was carried out on any given Sunday in locations in a number of countries around the world.

Understanding the context of various belief systems in the Middle East, Parsons and Fisk “began their work in a mild and innocuous manner to prevent opposition from developing against their teachings.”

Winslow indicated how he would spend a typical Sunday. “The manner of spending the Sabbath, as to preaching etc., is as follows. Sabbath school from seven to nine o’clock,–then preaching until half past ten,’’ after which a second service, or a kind of conference , in our verandah, until twelve. Preaching in the neighboring school bungalows in the afternoon, and attending to the Sabbath and other Christian lessons of the boys and servants through the evening.”

Missionaries from the Middle East shared how they conducted missions among people with a Christian background, what C. Peter Wagner might call E-0 evangelism. Eli Smith related the character and aim of his preaching to people in a city north of the Holy Land– “My own way has always been to exhibit the truth in the plainest, strongest, most direct manner that I know how, in order to insure the conversation of those who heard me. I have aimed as directly at the conscience as I could, proceeding upon the principle of charging upon them just those sins which they could most easily be made to feel. There has been no mincing the matter. And then I have led them to Christ as their only Savior.”

In Hawaii, Hiram Bingham responded to questions about the kind of preaching “the Hawaiian people require, and what method of presenting truth do the missionaries find the best adapted to their minds?”

The Hawaiians, Bingham wrote, needed to hear the same doctrines and duties as do “sinners in any part of the world.” In the early years of preaching on the Sandwich Islands “great plainness and simplicity in presenting divine truths were required.”

By the time of the 1838 Great Awakening in Hawaii, “the same style of sermons… which proves effectual in promoting revivals of religion, conversion, or growth in grace among the plain people in the United States, was undoubtedly adapted to be useful at the Sandwich Islands.” The missionaries found that all of the following styles of preaching were useful: “the hammering, insinuating, winning, pouring, reiterating, leading” and inductive methods.

Bingham would later note in his autobiography that the longer missionaries were “on the ground, [they] became more and more convinced that the inductive method of reasoning, familiarly conducted in the conversational style, with simple and apt illustration is the surest way of access to [non Christian] minds.” I would add that the inductive or story telling or relational method reaches people of all cultures.

Missionaries used milestones in their own families as opportunities for preaching. When Poor’s daughter was about to leave for an education in America, he preached from and applied the text, “’I will not drink henceforth of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.’” Lorenzo Pease’s first sermon written in Greek was delivered on the subject of baptism on the occasion of baptizing his two children and the Daniel Ladds’s infant “in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”

Contextualization of sermons occurred in every place with every group. “Our method of conducting these meetings is various, according to the circumstances of the hearers.” Hall would hold three or four meetings on successive nights because it is “more conformable to the custom of [Hindu people], who meet to hear their own books read and expounded.” Poor compared the character of the Noah of the Bible with Taivaswata of the Hindus. I am sure he led them from what the Hindu writings said–as through a vision darkly–to the clear and truthful teachings of the Bible.

Board missionaries shared the Gospel with Ceylonese Hindus, among other types of people. On the Indian subcontinent itself, Bombay was then, as it is today, a place of intersection of peoples. “Our hearers are of various sects….” Hall wrote of having a particular desire to address the Jews in Bombay. “I addressed them directly on the subject of the Messiah’s advent, in a very summary manner, following, in general, the argument of Owen.”

Hall may have been referring to Owen’s The Glory of Christ, which is currently found in volume 1 of The Works of John Owen, edited by William H. Goold (London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1987).

In my next article I hope to share concerning the use of dialogue in preaching by Congregational missionaries.