Chapter 20: After the turn of the century (1900-1910)
What happened after the year 1900_ In January we find Pierson’s pen once again striking a clear chord, "There is no reason why the evangelization of the world should not be attempted and accomplished in our generation" (Missionary Review, January 1900:18). This was Pierson's theme at the New York Conference, in April, and he was supported by John R. Mott and Robert E. Speer--but once again no comprehensive plans to finish the job of world evangelization were developed.
In 1901 Pierson, referring to the men of the successful German Mission, wrote, "Give us two hundred and fifty men of equal consecration, and in twenty-five years the Gospel may be borne at least once to every living soul. Give us twenty-five hundred such workmen, and before the new century is ten years older, every inhabitant of the world may have heard the Gospel!" (Pierson, 1901:139).
The famous German mission strategist, Gustav Warneck, was not quite so optimistic. He wrote, "It is true, in view of the gigantic number of 1,000,000,000 of non-Christians the missionary achievements thus far seem small; but what is thus far done is essentially foundation work, and foundation work goes slow.... The work done yet is the seed of coming harvests. Missionary results are not to be reckoned by years, but by centuries" (Missionary Review, April 1900:260-261).
And perhaps in direct response to Pierson, in a letter to the Ecumenical Council, Warneck warned,
The mission command bids us "go" into all the world, not "fly." The kingdom of God is not like a hothouse, but like a field in which the crop is to be healthily grown at a normal rate. Impatient pressing forward has led to the waste of most patient toil, and more than one old mission field has been unwarrantably neglected in the haste to begin work in a new field. Patience fills a large space in the missionary program, and to patience must be added faithfulness in steadily continuing the great task of building up in the old mission fields. Here are ripening harvests calling for reapers. The non-Christian world is not to be carried by storm. Mission history should also teach us not to specify a time within which the evangelization of the world is to be completed. It is not for us to determine the times or the seasons, but to do in this our time what we can and to do it wisely and discreetly (Missionary Review, June 1900:415).
His words were echoed by John P. Jones, a famous missionary to India: "This enterprise is not only the greatest that the world has ever known; it is also the most difficult of achievement. Let us not fall into the error of thinking that Christianizing the nations and bringing the world to the feet of our Lord is the task of a day or of a generation" (Jones, 1912:251).
During this first decade of the twentieth century the SVM had still not reached the peak of its influence, the Laymen’s Missionary Movement was gathering momentum, and the Missionary Education Movement was enlisting thousands of laymen and students (175,000 in 1908 alone). William T. Ellis, writing in Men and Missions, showed how certain denominations had already set up a sort of comity on how many unevangelized people they would be responsible for.
The Distributed Responsibility
Most of the mission boards of North America have accepted a certain distinct responsibility for a share of the mission field. This has done much to remove the vagueness from missionary presentation. It has been figured out also by the men best informed how much money it will take to meet this responsibility. Consequently, some churches have determined the amount they should raise. The figures in the former case, so far as they are available, are given below.
| Denomination | Accepted responsibility in population |
| CanadianSocieties | 40,000,000 |
| Congregationalists | 75,000,000 |
| Dutch Reformed | 13,000,000 |
| Foreign Christian Missionary Society | 15,000,000 |
| Northern Baptists | 61,000,000 |
| Northern Methodists | 150,000,000 |
| Northern Presbyterians | 100,000,000 |
| Reformed Church in the U. S. | 10,000,000 |
| Southern Methodists | 40,000,000 |
| Southern Presbyterians | 25,000,000 |
| United Brethren | 5,000,000 |
| United Presbyterians | 15,000,000 |
