Bridges of God

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Chapter 50 323

The Bridges of God appeared in 1954, and it has since become

known as the classic summons for missionaries to utilize the “bridges”

of family and kinship ties within each people group thereby prompt-

ing “people movements” to Christ. This is contrasted with the “Mis-

sion Station A pproach,” dominant in missionary strategy of the nine-

teenth century, whereby individual converts are gathered into

“colonies” or compounds isolated from the social mainstream.

McGavran claims that whereas the latter approach was necessaryand useful in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, “a new

pattern is at hand, which, while new, is as old as the Church itself.”

The Crucial Question in Christian Missions

Much stud y has been devoted to world evan gelization. We

know the answers to m any qu estions about the p ropagation

of the Gospel. But w hat is perhaps the most importan t ques-

tion of all still aw aits an an swer. That qu estion is: How do

peoples become Christian?

This article asks how clans, tribes, castes, in short how

peoples become Christian. Every nation is made up of various

layers of strata of society. In m any nations each stratu m is

clearly separated from every other. The ind ividuals in each

stratu m intermarry chiefly, if not solely, with each other. Their

intimate life is therefore limited to their ow n society, that is, to

their own people. They may work w ith others, they may buy

from and sell to the ind ividuals of other societies, but their in-

timate life is wrapped up with the individu als of their own

people. Individu als of another stratum , possibly close neigh-bors, may become Christians or Comm unists without the first

stratum being much concerned. But when ind ividuals of their

own kind start becoming Christians, that touches their very

lives. How do chain reactions in these strata of society begin?

How do peoples become Christian?

Here is a question to which not speculation bu t know l-

edge must u rgently be app lied. The question is how, in a

man ner tru e to the Bible, can a Christian movem ent be estab-

lished in some class, caste, tribe or other segment of society

wh ich w ill, over a period of years, so bring grou ps of its re-

lated families to Christian faith that the w hole peop le is

Christianized in a few d ecades? It is of the utm ost impor-

tance that the Church should un derstand h ow p eoples, and

not m erely individ uals, become Christian.

The Bridges of God Donald A. McGavran

Known worldwide as perhaps the

foremost missiologist, Donald A.

McGavran was born in India of

missionary parents and returned

there as a third-generation mission-

ary himself in 1923, serving as a

director of religious education and

translating the Gospels in the

Chhattisgarhi dialect of Hindi . He

founded the School of World Mis-sion at Fuller Theological Seminary.

McGavran died in 1990 at the age

of 93. McGavran authored several

influential books, including The

Bridges of God , and Understand-

ing Church Growth .

From The Bridges of God (Re-

vised Edition) by Donald Anderson

McGavran. Published in the

United Kingdom by World Domin-

ion Press, 1955. Revised edition

1981. Distributed in the United

States by Friendship Press, New

York. Used by permission.

It is

of the

utmost

impor-

tance that theChurch understand

how peoples, not

merely individuals,

become Christian.



Chapter 50 THE BRIDGES OF GOD324

The Unfamiliar in PeopleMovementsIndividualistic Westerners cannot without spe-

cial effort grasp how peop les become Chris-

tian. The missionary movement is largely

staffed by persons from the West or by nation-

als trained in their ideas, and wh ile evangeliza-

tion has been carried on w ith correct enough

views on how individuals have become Chris-

tian, there have been hazy or even erroneous

views on how peoples become Christian.

Western individualism obscures

group processes

In the West, Christianization is an ex-

tremely individualistic process. This is due to

various causes. For one thing, in Western na-tions there are few exclusive subsocieties.

Then too, because freedom of conscience ex-

ists, one member of a family can become

Christian and live as a Christian w ithout being

ostracized by the rest of the family. Further-

more, Christianity is regarded as true, even by

many who d o not p rofess it. It is considered a

good th ing to join the Church. A person is ad-

mired for taking a stand for Christ. There have

been no serious rivals to the Church. Thus in-

dividu als are able to make d ecisions as indi-

viduals without severing social bond s.

Again, with the d isruption of clan and

family life following u pon the ind ustrial

revolution, Westerners became accustomed

to do w hat app ealed to them as individuals.

As larger family groupings w ere broken u p

through migration, the movem ent of rural

folk to the cities, and rep eated shifts of

homes, people came to act for themselves

withou t consulting their neighbors or fami-lies. A habit of independent d ecision was es-

tablished . In th e Christian churches this habit

was further strengthened by the p ractice of

revival meetings app ealing for individu al de-

cisions to the accompaniment of great emo-

tion. Ind eed, the theological presupp osition

was n ot merely that salvation d epended on

an ind ividual act of faith in Christ (which is

unquestioned), but also that this act was

somehow of a higher order if it were done

against family opinion (which is du bious).

Separate individu al accessions to the Church

were held by some to be n ot only a better, but

the only valid, way of becoming a Christian.

Had the question arisen as to how peoples

became Christian, the answer would have

been given that it was by ind ividual after in-

dividual becoming soundly converted.

Of the social organism w hich is a peop le,

or of the desirability of preserving the cultu re

and commu nity life, ind eed, of enhancing

them th rough th e process of conversion,

there tended to be little recognition. Peoples

were thou ght of as aggregates of ind ividu als

wh ose conversion was achieved one by one.

The social factor in the conversion of peop les

passed u nnoticed because peop les were not

identified as separate en tities.

How ever, a people is not an aggregation of

individu als. In a true people intermarriage

and the intimate details of social intercoursetake p lace within the society. In a true p eople

individuals are bound together not merely by

common social practices and religious beliefs

but by common blood. A true p eople is a so-

cial organism w hich, by virtue of the fact that

its members intermarry very largely within its

own confines, becomes a separate race in their

mind s. Since the human family, except in the

individu alistic West, is largely m ade up of

such castes, clans and peop les, the Christian-

ization of each nation involves the p rior Chris-

tianization of its various p eoples as peop les.

Because of the intense battle against race

prejud ice, the concept of separate races of

men is discred ited in man y circles. Missionar-

ies often carry this ant ipathy to race into their

work in tribes and castes wh o believe them-

selves to be separate races, marry w ithin their

peop le and h ave an intense racial conscious-

ness. But to ign ore the significance of race

hind ers Christianization. It makes an enem yof race consciousness, instead of an a lly. It

does no good to say that tribal peoples ought

not to have race prejudice. They do h ave it

and are proud of it. It can be und erstood an d

should be mad e an aid to Christianization.

What to do and what not to do

To Christianize a wh ole peop le, the first

thing not to d o is snatch ind ividuals out of it

into a d ifferent society. Peoples become

Christians w here a Christward m ovement

occurs within that society. Bishop J. W. Pickett,

in his imp ortant study Christ’s Way to India’s

Heart , says:



DONALD A. McGAVRAN 325

The process of extracting individ uals from

their setting in H indu or Moslem commu -

nities does not build a Chu rch. On th e con-

trary it rouses antagonism against Chris-

t ianity and builds barr iers against the

spread of the Gospel. Moreover, that pro-

cess has produ ced many unfortunate, and

not a few tragic results in th e lives of those

most deeply concerned. It has dep rived the

converts of the values represented by their

families and friends and mad e them depen-

den t for social supp ort to the good life and

restraint on evil impulses upon men and

women, their colleagues in the Christian

faith, with whom they have found it diffi-

cult to develop fellowship and a complete

sense of commu nity. It has sacrificed much

of the convert’s evangelistic potentialities

by separating him from his People. It has

produ ced anaemic Churches that know no

true leadership and are held together

chiefly by common dep endence on the m is-

sion or th e missionary.

Equally obviously the Christianization of a

people requires reborn men and women. A

mere change of name accomplishes nothing.

While the new convert must remain w ithin his

peop le, he mu st also experience the new birth.

“If ye then be risen with Christ, set your affec-

tion on things above, not on things on the

earth.” The pow er of any People Movement to

Christ depend s in great measure on the nu m-

ber of truly converted persons in it. We wish

to make this quite clear. The Christianization

of peoples is not assisted by slighting or for-

getting real personal conversion. There is no

substitute for justification by faith in Jesus

Christ or for the gift of the H oly Spirit.

Thus a Christward movement w ithin a

peop le can be defeated either by extractingthe new Christians from their society (i.e. by

allowing them to be squeezed out by their

non-Christian relatives) or by the n on-Chris-

tians so dominating the Christians that their

new life in Christ is not app arent. An incipi-

ent Christward movement can be destroyed

by either dan ger.

The group mind and group decision

To un derstand the psychology of the innu -

merable subsocieties which make up non-

Christian na tions, it is essential that the leaders

of the Chu rches and missions strive to see life

from the point of view of a peop le, to wh om

ind ividual action is treachery. Amon g those

wh o think corporately only a rebel would

strike out alone, without consultation and

withou t comp anions. The ind ividu al does not

think of himself as a self-sufficient u nit, bu t as

par t of the group . His business affairs, his

children’s m arriages,

his personal prob-

lems, or the difficul-

ties he has w ith his

wife are prop erly

settled by group

thinking. Peoples be-

come Christian as this

group-mind is

brought into a

lifegiving relationshipto Jesus as Lord.

It is importan t to

note that the group

decision is not the

sum of separate indi-

vidu al decisions. The

leader makes sure

that his followers will

follow. The followers make sure that they are

not ahead of each other. Husband s sound out

wives. Sons pledge their fathers. “Will we as a

group move if so-and -so does not come?” is a

frequen t question. As the group considers be-

coming Christian, tension mounts and excite-

ment rises. Ind eed, a prolonged informal vote-

taking is under way. A change of religion

involves a comm unity change. Only as its

mem bers move together, does change become

healthy and constructive.

Groups are u sually fissured internally. This

has a definite bearing on group decision. If insome town or v illage there are 76 families of a

given peop le, they may be split into several

sub-groups. Often such divisions are formed

by rivalries between p rominent m en. Often

they are geograph ical: the lower section of the

village as against the up per section. Often they

are economic: the landed as opposed to the

landless. Often they depend on education,

marriage relationships, or attitudes toward

customs. Group th inking usually occurs at its

best within these sub-groups. A sub-group

will often come to d ecision before the whole.

Indeed, a sub-group often furnishes enough

social life for it to act alone.

A change of

religion

involves a

community

change. Only

as its members

move together,

does change

become

healthy and

constructive.




Peoples become Christian as a w ave of de-

cision for Christ sweeps throu gh the group

mind, involving many individual decisions

but being far more than merely their sum . This

may be called a chain reaction. Each decision

sets off others and the sum total powerfully af-

fects every individual. When conditions are

right, not merely each sub-group, but the en-

tire group concerned decides together.

Terms defined

We call this process a “People Movement.”

“People” is a more un iversal word than “tribe”,

“caste” or “clan.” It is more exact than “group .”

It fits everyw here. Therefore in th is article we

shall speak of People Movements to Christ.

The Characteristic Pattern of theGreat CenturyDr. Latourette has given the nam e “the Great

Centu ry” to the time between 1800 and 1914.

He says: “When consideration is given to the

difficulties which faced it, in the nineteenth

centu ry, Christianity made am azing p rogress

all around the world. It came to the end of

the period on a rap idly ascend ing curve. Its

influence on culture was out of all propor-

tions to its numerical strength. It had an ou t-

stand ing role as a pioneer in new types of

edu cation, in movements of the relief and

prevention of hu man su ffering and in d is-

seminating ideas.”

How did Christianization proceed du r-

ing the Great Centu ry? This is a most im-

portan t question because most of our

present thinking is coloured by the m ission-

ary effort of that centu ry. When w e think of

missions tod ay, we think of those withwh ich we are familiar, and wh ich prevailed

in China, Africa, India and other coun tries

du ring th e Great Century. Since this centu ry

prod uced a radically new and different ap-

proach, the older kind of missions wh ich

existed for 1,800 years have ten ded to be

forgotten. The m issionary and the Chu rches

tend to th ink that the only kind of missions

and the only kind of Christian-ization p os-

sible is that u sed w ith greater or lesser ef-

fect d ur ing th e past 150 years. The Great

Century created a new method to meet a

new situation. Both situation and method

are worth y of our closest stud y.

The new sit uation described:

the gulf of separat ion

Missions were carried on from the ruling,

wealthy, literate, modern countries, which

were experiencing all the benefits of political

and religious freedom, an expanding produc-

tion, and un iversal education. In the year 1500,

European visitors to India and China de-

scribed countries which comp ared favourably

with their own. But by the nineteenth century

the West had p rogressed w hile the East had

stood still, so that there was a great gap be-

tween them. Western missionaries went to

poor, illiterate, medieval and agricultural

countries. The gap widened with the p assage

of the years, for the p rogress of the West con-

tinued to be greater than that of the East.While it is true that missionaries tried to iden-

tify themselves with th e people, they w ere

never able to rid themselves of the inevitable

separateness which the great progress of their

home lands had imposed upon them.

This gulf became very clear in the living ar-

rangements w hich European and American

missionaries found necessary. Their standard

of living at home was many times higher than

that of the average citizen on the mission

fields, though it could not comp are with that

of the few w ealthy Chinese, Japan ese and In-

dians. Modern medicine was unknow n.

Health demand ed big bungalows on large

sites. Servants were cheap and saved m uch

dom estic labour. The people of the land gener-

ally walked, but the missionary w as accus-

tomed to a conveyance and so he used one.

The colour of his skin also set him apart. He

could not m elt into the generality of the inhab-

itants of the land as Paul could. He was awh ite man, a m ember of the ru ling race. To

this day in the ru ral sections of Ind ia, seven

years after indep endence, the white mission-

ary is frequently addressed as Sarkar (Govern-

ment). The missionary w as an easy victim not

only to malaria but to intestinal diseases. He

had to be careful abou t what he ate. The West-

ern style of cooking agreed with him, wh ereas

the Eastern style d id not. So in m atters of food

also there came to be a great gu lf between him

and the people of the land.

There were p ractically no bridges across

this gulf. There was nothing even remotely

similar to th e Jewish bridge over w hich




Christianity marched into the Gentile world.

Staggering nu mbers of people lived on the

fertile p lains of Asia, but not one of them had

any Christian relatives! Even in the p ort cities

there were none. Més alliances between white

soldiery, rulers or commercial peop le and the

wom en of the various lands were so resented

on the one hand and despised on the other

that they served as barriers rather than

bridges. The normal flow of the Christian re-

ligion simply could n ot take p lace. Separated

by colour, standard of living, prestige, lit-

eracy, mod e of travel, place of residence, and

man y other factors, the missionary was, in-

deed , isolated from those to whom he

brought the m essage of salvation.

The missionaries did learn the languagesof the country an d learned them w ell. They

served the p eople with love, taugh t their chil-

dren, visited in their homes, went w ith them

through famines and ep idemics, ate with

them, bought from them and sold to them,

and, more than any other group of white men

in the tropics, were at one with th em. Thus, it

will be said, this emphasis on the separate-

ness of the missionary is exaggerated . To the

stud ent of the growth and spread of reli-

gions, however, it is app arent that these ca-

sual contacts described above are just th at—

casual contacts. They are not the living

contacts, the contacts of tribe and race and

blood, wh ich en able the non -Christian to say,

as he hears a Christian speak: “This messen-

ger of the Christian religion is one of my ow n

family, my own People, one of us.” Casual

contacts may w in a few ind ividu als to a new

faith, but u nless these ind ividu als are able to

start a living movem ent within their own so-ciety, it does not start at all.

The separateness w e d escribe seemed

likely to last a long time. It existed in an un -

changing world, wh ere the dom inance of

the West and the d epend ence of the East

seemed to be p ermanen t. Missionaries

thou ght, “There will be centuries before us,

and , in a 400-year relationship like that of

Rome to her dep end ent peoples, we shall

gradu ally bring these peop les also into the

Christian faith.”

This grave separateness faced Christian

missions during the Great Century. When the

churches and their missionaries have n o rela-

tions, no contacts and no bridges over inter-

racial gulfs, wh at do they d o? How d o they

carry out the command of their Lord? When

there is no living app roach, how do th ey go

about the Chr istianization of peoples?

The new method ev olv ed: the explorat ory mission-stat ion approach

If there is any aspect that is typical of

mod ern m issions, it is the mission station

with its gathered colony. Missionaries facing

the gu lf of separation bu ilt mission stations

and gathered colonies of Christians.

They acquired a p iece of land, often with

great d ifficulty. They built residences su itable

for wh ite men. Then they ad ded churches,

schools, quarters in w hich to house h elpers,hospitals, leprosy hom es, orphanages and

printing establishments. The m ission station

was usu ally at some center of commu nica-

tion. From it extensive tours were made into

the surround ing coun try-side. It was home to

the missionary staff and all the activities of

the mission took place around th e station.

Together w ith building th e station, the

missionaries gathered converts. It was ex-

ceedingly d ifficult for those hearing th e Good

New s for the first time, knowing noth ing of

Christians, or of Christianity save that it w as

the religion of the invading w hite men, to ac-

cept the Christian religion. Those who did so

were usually forced ou t of their own homes

by fierce ostracism. They came to live at the

mission colony, where they were usually em-

ployed. Orp hans were sheltered. Slaves were

bough t and freed. Women w ere rescued .

Some h ealed patients became Ch ristian.

Many of these usu ally came to live at the mis-sion station. They w ere taught various means

of earning a livelihood and directed into vari-

ous forms of service. They formed the gath -

ered colony.

This kind of mission ap proach took shap e

out of the ind ividualistic background typical

of much Protestantism in the eighteenth and

nineteenth centu ries. To be a Christian was to

come out and be separate. For converts to

leave father and m other invested their deci-

sions with a particular validity. To gather a

compou nd full of Christians out of a non-

Christian p opulation seemed a good way to

proceed. Frequently it was a lso the only pos-




A moderate amount of missionary assistance, at places

where the churches feel their need, produces results

far beyond that which those accustomed to the

mission station t radition would consider possible.

sible way. The universal suspicion and often

the violent hostility w ith w hich Christianity

was regarded would have forced into the

gathered colony pattern even those wh o con-

sciously sough t integration.

This, then, was the pattern w hich was

characteristic of most beginnings in the Great

Centu ry. We call it the exploratory m ission

station app roach, but from th e point of viewof the resulting churches, it was the explor-

atory gathered colony ap proach.

It was excellent strategy in its day. It was a

probe to ascertain w hich peoples were ready

to become Christian. Christianity mu st be

seen to be stable before it will be accepted as

a w ay of salvation. Peoples are not going to

commit their d estinies to a faith which is here

today and gone tomorrow. Men mu st see

over a period of years what the Chr istian life

means and what Christ does to persons and

to group s. While the Good New s is first be-

ing presented an d the Christian life demon -

strated the mission station and th e gathered

colony are essential. As we look back over the

last hund red years it seems both necessary

and desirable for there to have been this ap-

proach. With all its limitations, it was the best

strategy for the era. This approach has been

no m istake. It fitted the age w hich produced

it. It was inevitable.

The road branches according to response

This beginning, ad opted by practically all

missions, may be considered as a road run-

ning along a flat and somew hat desolate plain

and then d ividing, one branch to continue

along the p lain, the other to climb the green

fertile hills. Whether missions continued on

the flat accustomed road (of the gathered

church app roach) or ascend ed the high road

by means of the People Movement App roach

depend ed on the response given to the Chris-

tian message by the popu lation and on the

missionaries’ understanding of that response.

Where the num ber of conversions re-

mained small decade after decade, there the

mission remained the dom inant partner and

the Mission Station App roach continued and ,

indeed , was strengthened. It was strength-

ened because the gath ered colony furnished

Christian workers so that the m ission could

expand mission healing, mission teaching

and mission

preaching. Where

the nu mber of con-

versions mounted

steadily with every

passing decade,

there the church

became the domi-

nant partner and the mission turned u p thehill road. It started u sing the People Move-

ment Ap proach. Scores of thousand s became

Christians.

These two roads, these two ways of carry-

ing on mission work, are d istinct and differ-

ent. Clear thinking about m issions mu st

make a sharp differentiation between them.

Each mu st be described separately. The

People Movements, the h ill road, will be de-

scribed in the next section. The remainder of

this section will be devoted to describing th e

wid ening road on the plain, the way in which

the exploratory phase grad ually turned into

the perm anent Mission Station Approach or

gathered colony app roach.

Small response was not expected by the

early missionaries. The exploratory Mission

Station Approach was not launched as an ac-

commodation to a hardhearted and

irresponsive popu lation. It was regarded as a

first stage after which great ingathering would oc-cur. Even after the Basel Mission had lost eight

of its first ten missionaries in nine years, the

heroic Andreas Riis wrote back from the Gold

Coast in Africa, “Let us press on. All Africa

mu st be won for Christ. Though a thousand

missionaries die, send m ore.” The exploratory

gathered colony app roach w as adopted with

the expectation that the Christian faith w ould

sweep non-Christian lands bringing them un-

told blessings.

But these expectations w ere often frus-

trated by meager response. In th e light of

the event Professor Latourette can now se-

renely write:




The advanced cultures and faiths of Asia

and North Africa did not yield so readily as

did those of the primitive folk, either to

Western civilization or to Chr istianity. This

was to be expected. It has usua lly been char-

acteristic of advanced cultures an d their re-

ligions that they have been mu ch slower to

d isintegrate before an invad ing civilization.

But th e meager response was n ot expected

by the early messengers of the Chu rch. It was

disappointing.

A factor in the small response, whose im-

portance cannot be overestimated , is that,

partly because of the individu alistic bias of the

missionaries and partly because of the resis-

tance of the hearers, conversions w ere mainly

out of the nation. Converts felt that they w ere

joining not m erely a new religion, but an en-tirely foreign way of living—proclaimed by

foreigners, led by foreigners and ruled by for-

eigners. Converts came alone. Often even their

wives refused to come with them. Natu rally

conversions were few. A vicious circle was es-

tablished: the few becoming Christian one by

one set such a pattern that it w as difficult for a

Christward movement to be started, and by

the lack of a movem ent converts continued to

come one by one and in very small numbers.

In many parts of the field it was psychologi-

cally d ifficult for a person to become a Chris-

tian as it would be for a white man in South

Africa to join a Negro church know ing that h is

children wou ld intermarry with the black chil-

dren. The person not only became a Christian,

but he was generally believed to have “joined

another race.” When, among peoples wh ich

intermarry only amongst themselves, a man

becomes a Christian, his old mother is likely to

reproach h im, saying, “Now whom w ill yoursons marry? They cannot get wives from

amongst us any more.”

The explorat ory approach becomes

permanent: t erms defined

Where meager response continu ed, there

gathered colony missions gradu ally accom-

mod ated themselves to carrying on mission

work among p opulations which would not

obey the call of God. Once this occurred we

may say tha t the mission, which had started

its road-building on th e plain, with the inten-

tion of reaching h igh fertile land as soon as

possible, settled dow n to road -building on

the barren plain as its God-given d uty. It

found plenty of good w ork to do. It never ad-

mitted , even to itself, that it had really given

up hope of reaching the h ills; but th at is what

had actually happ ened.

The churches born of the mission stat ion approach

The first aim of missions is the establish-

ment of chu rches. So, as we start to examine

the resu lts of the Mission Station App roach

we tu rn to an inspection of the kind of

churches wh ich m ission stations have fa-

thered . These w e shall call Mission Station

churches or gathered colony chu rches.

They have some favorable characteristics.

They are comp osed of greatly transformed in-dividuals. The membership is literate. They

come to chu rch with hymn books. They can

read their Bibles. Many am ong them are spe-

cially trained beyond the ord inary school. In

some stations there are man y high school and

college gradu ates on the church rolls. The

membership contains a goodly proportion of

day laborers and artisans, household helps and

casual labourers, as well as teachers, preachers,

med ical workers, clerks, and oth er white-collar

workers. In some p laces factory and railway

emp loyees form a considerable part of the

mem bership. On the whole the Mission Station

Churches are made u p of people who are

sound ly Christian. There is not mu ch supersti-

tion among them and not mu ch temptation to

revert to the old non -Christian faiths. The

membership is prou d of being Christian, and

feels that it has gained tremendously by be-

longing to th e Christian fellowship . There are,

of course, many n ominal Christians and somewh ose condu ct brings shame on th e church.

But even these are likely to send their children

to Sun day School and church!

They are organized into strong congrega-

tions. They have good perm anent church

buildings on land indu bitably theirs. The

pastors an d ministers are usually qua lified

peop le. The services or worship are held

regularly. The elders, deacons and other

elected members form chu rch councils and

govern the church. The giving would prob-

ably comp are favorably in regard to percent-

age of income w ith that in the Western

churches, though often most of it is provided




by those in mission employ. In som e churches

the giving is exemp lary and th ere are man y

tithers. All told, the imp ression is th at of

small, tight, well-knit communities, but-

tressed by intermarriage and considering

themselves to be a p art of world Christianity.

On the d ebit side, these m ission station

churches are lacking in the qualities need ed

for grow th and mu ltiplication. They a re, in

truth, gathered churches, made up of ind i-

vidu al converts, or “brand s snatched from

the burn ing,” or famine orphans, or a mix-

ture of all three. The individu al converts an d

rescued persons have usu ally been disown ed

by their non-Christian relatives. The famine

orphans have no close connection with lov-

ing brothers and sisters and uncles and aunts.Furthermore, the lives of these Ch ristians

have been so changed, and they find such

satisfaction in the fellowship of their own

sort (i.e. other mission station Ch ristians) that

they feel imm easurably sup erior to their own

unconverted relatives.This is particularly tru e

wh en they come from th e oppressed classes.

The second generation of Christians is even

farther removed from their non-Christian

relatives than the first, while in the th ird gen-

eration, in the very land wh ere they live, the

gathered church members know as a rule no

non-Christian relatives at all. The precious

linkages w hich each original member had as

he came from non-Christian society and

wh ich are so needed for reprodu ction are all

gone. A new people has been established

wh ich interm arries only within itself and

thinks of itself as a separate comm un ity.

The Christians of the gathered colony ap-

proach have a vivid realization of the pow erof education. It has been edu cation, they feel,

that has lifted them out of the depths. They

are keen for their children to receive as mu ch

edu cation as possible. They skimp and scrape

that their boys and girls may go on to school

and proceed as far as possible on the road to a

B.A. or an M.A. But th ey do not always have a

vivid experience of the power of God. Many

would grant that it was Christian education

which had lifted them—an edu cation given to

them in the name of Jesus Chr ist. But on such

experiences as the pow er of the Spirit, the for-

giveness of sins and the blessedness of faith,

many mission station Christians are likely to

have a w eak witness. “Become Chr istians and

edu cate your children,” they are likely to say.

“It won’t do you mu ch good but it will be

wond erful for your sons and dau ghters.”

Gathered colony churches usually have a

vivid consciousness of the mission as their

parent. The churches tend to feel that it is the

business of the missionary to head up a

wealthy social service agency, designed to

serve the Christian comm unity. It sometimes

hap pens that the members of a mission station

church, sensing the obvious fact that there is

only limited employment in a mission station,

look on new converts as a labor union would

on immigrants. They d raw the easy conclu-

sion that if more peop le become Christians,

the resources of the mission w ill be spreadthinner and there will be less for each of the

existing Christians. Cases have occurred

wh ere they have actually discouraged possible

converts from becoming Christian.

Gathered colony churches are often over-

staffed. They are too richly served by foreign

missions. Their mem bers acquire a vested in-

terest in the status quo. In one typical mission

station church of 700 souls w e find a mission-

ary in charge of two p rimary schools and one

midd le school for d ay pup ils, another in

charge of a midd le boarding school for girls, a

missionary doctor and his nurse wife who

run a hospital, and an evangelistic missionary

who gives half his time to the Christian com-

mu nity. Then there is a national minister who

is a high school graduate with theological

training, five high school gradu ates wh o

teach the older boys and seven high school

gradu ates who teach the older girls, four

evangelists, five Bible wom en and a primaryschool staff of six. Missionaries, who, with

less than half these resources, are shepherd ing

large numbers of Christians who have come

to Christ in some People Movement, may

gasp w ith unbelief that such heavy occup a-

tion could occur. Yet both the national and the

missionary leaders of such m ission station

churches consider that they really are m anag-

ing with a minimum d egree of foreign aid!

But—the era is draw ing to a close

How ever, as Latourette points ou t, the era

is passing. The d ays in w hich the mission sta-

tions can exert a major influence on the af-




fairs of Eastern na tions are draw ing to a

close. The sleeping na tions are now awake.

At the headquarters of the provincial and na-

tional governments are whole departments,

amp ly provided w ith millions of money

raised by taxes, whose chief du ty it is to plan

for the future of the nations. The tens of thou -

sand s of stud ents wh o journ ey to the West

for education, the flood of pu blications in all

the major langu ages of the land, the advent

of the movie, the loudsp eaker and p rograms

of social education, the sensitiveness to for-

eign criticism, the intense desire to prove

their own nation the equal of any on earth ,

and the resentment felt at foreign leader-

ship—all these presage the end of an era in

wh ich mission stations in the urban centersexerted an influence out of all proportion to

their n um bers.

Mission schools in Asia and North Africa

no longer have the influence which they once

had . In the beginning they were the only

schools. But n ow they form a small percentage

of the total, and are being crowded into the

background . It is still true that there are a few

outstanding Christian schools in most coun-

tries, mission schools, convent schools, which

are known as the best in the land. Even so,

they do not get one percent of the stud ents.

There was a d ay when they had 50 percent of

the sons of the leading families. Mission edu-

cationists cannot dod ge the plain fact that mis-

sion schools cannot expect to w ield the influ-

ence wh ich they did in the days when Western

cultures were first arriving in Asia and Africa.

What is true of schools is also true of mis-

sion station h ospitals. Up t ill 1945 the Central

Provinces of India had not p rodu ced a singlequalified d octor. Its un iversity had no stan-

dard med ical school. The only fully qualified

doctors were a few immigran ts from other

provinces and missionary doctors from

abroad. But tod ay there are four hun dred stu-

dents in th e med ical college of its un iversity.

As this flood of physicians flows out over the

cities and tow ns and eventually the villages

of this province, the present near monopoly

of the Christian hospitals is likely to be de-

stroyed. The sam e sort of thing is taking

place in one aw akened n ation after another.

Non -Christian nations are imp atient with

foreign tu telage. They believe it is dem ean-

ing to their national pride to ad mit to the

need for gu idance from an y Western nation.

The East, par ticularly Ind ia, honestly be-

lieves that, except for mechanization and in-

dust rialization, the West has little to give to

the “sp iritual East.” The excoriations heaped

up on Western nations by their own p roph-

ets, crying ou t against race prejud ice, eco-

nom ic injustice and recurrent wars, are

taken at th eir face value by the na tions of

the East. The West comes to be looked u pon

as sou l-less, materialistic, un just, m oney-

mad , and moved by none but ulterior mo-

tives. The tem per of these d ays in the East is

not tha t of hum bly sitting at the feet of mis-

sionary tutors.

It would be giving a d istorted impressionif the last few p aragrap hs were to imply that

Christian missions have no more usefulness

as cultural “han ds across the sea.” In the

days ahead w hen nations are forced into

closer and closer co-operation , all friendly ef-

forts to interpret nations to each other will be

of value. The continu ed resid ence of Western-

ers in the East will dou btless do good. But

the d ays of great secular influence of foreign

mission stations ap art from great national

Churches are probably about over.

They should be over for a furth er reason:

there is now a u se for m ission resources

wh ich w ill do more for nation bu ilding, more

for international peace, and m ore for the

Church than the furth er penetration of non-

Christian faiths and cultures from the van -

tage point of a mission station.

Salute and farew ell

So has run the characteristic pattern of theGreat Century. An age of tremend ous m is-

sion expan sion in terms of geography and in-

fluence; an age of heroism an d devotion an d

self-sacrifice; an age of the meeting of tw o

cultures separated by a w ide gulf which,

through the mission stations, outposts of

goodw ill and faith, has slowly d rawn closer

to the point w here one world is in sight; an

age wh en there is hardly a race or nation in

wh ich there is not found th e Church.

So has ru n its pattern . But that age is now

over. A new age is up on us. A new p attern is

deman ded . A new pattern is at hand, which,

while new, is as old as the Ch urch itself. It is a




God-designed p attern by which not ones but

thousand s will acknowledge Christ as Lord,

and grow into full discipleship as p eople after

people, clan after clan, tribe after tribe and

commu nity after commu nity are claimed for

and nurtu red in the Christian faith.

The God-given People MovementsWhile the typical pattern of missionary activ-

ity has been that of the Mission Station Ap-

proach, occasionally People Movements to

Christ have resulted. These have not as a ru le

been sought by missionaries—though in

Oceania, Ind onesia and Africa there have been

some exceptions. The movements are the out-

come of the mysterious m ovement of the

Spirit of God. Their pattern of growth is verydifferent from that d escribed in the last chap -

ter. They have p rovided over 90 percent of the

growth of the newer churches throughou t the

world . The great bulk of the membership an d

of the congregations of the younger churches

consist of converts and the descendants of

converts won in People Movements.

In spite of this, we maintain that People

Movements were the exception and that the

typical app roach of the last centu ry was the

Mission Station App roach. The nu mber of

mission stations from which Christian m ove-

ments have started is small compared w ith

the num ber serving static churches. Mission

enterprises are, for the m ost part, those

wh ich serve non-Christians and gathered

colony chu rches. The leadersh ip of many

conferences on missions comes largely from

those who know an d are immersed in the

Mission Station Approach. And , as Dr.

Hendrik Kraemer w rites: “Missionary th ink-ing and plann ing in this revolutionary period

are still overwhelmingly influenced by the

Mission Station Ap proach.” The Mission Sta-

tion Approach mu st then be taken as the

typical outcome of the past years, and th e

People Movements as the exceptions.

In dividing mission work into these two

varieties—that op erating through the Mission

Station App roach and that operating through

the People Movements—it is recognized th at

some mission w ork cannot be classified un der

either head. For examp le, the translation and

printing of the Scriptu res. We are not attemp t-

ing an exhaustive classification, but a practical

one into which more than 90 per cent of mis-

sionary activity can be p laced.

Some people mov ements described

Adoniram Jud son went to Burm a as a mis-

sionary to the cultured Bud dh ist Burm ese.

But h e took und er his wing a rough character,

by name Ko Tha Byu , a Karen by r ace. The

Karens w ere among the backward tribes of

Burm a. They w ere animistic peasants an d

were sup posed by the Burm ese to be stupid

inferior peop le. “You can teach a buffalo, but

not a Karen,” was the common verdict.

Jud son spent six months trying to teach this

former criminal, now h is servant, the mean-

ing of the redem ptive death of our Lord Jesus

Christ, and mad e such little progress that hewas inclined to take the common verdict as

true. How ever, he persisted, and a few

months later Ko Tha Byu became a con-

vinced, if not a h ighly illuminated , Christian.

As Jud son toured Burma, speaking to the

Burm ese of that land , Ko Tha Byu, the camp

follower, spoke to the hum ble Karen in each

vicinity. The Karens started becoming Chris-

tian. Here a band of ten families, there one or

two, and yond er a jungle settlement of five

families accepted the Lordship of Christ. We

do not have the data to prove that those who

came were interrelated, bu t it is highly prob-

able that connected families were coming in. A

chain reaction w as occurring. We can reason-

ably assume that among his close relatives

alone, to say nothing of cousins and second

cousins, Ko Tha Byu had a host of excellent

living contacts. The early converts d oubtless

came from among these, and their relatives.

Jud son, translating the Bible into Burmese,was concerned with m ore imp ortant matters

than a Christian movemen t among a back-

ward tribe. For years he considered th e Karen

converts a side issue. How ever, the next gen-

eration of missionaries includ ed some wh o

were veritable Pauls, expan ding th e move-

ment as far along the paths and across the

rice pad dies as possible. Today there is a

mighty Christian Movement among the

Karens and their related tr ibes in Burma,

num bering hun dreds and thousands of souls.

The Christian Karens are the edu cated

Karens and will provide the leadership for

the m ixed pop ulation of Karens, Kachins and






north of Sumatra there is a flourishing Batak

People Movement, numbering hund reds of

thou sand s. In 1937, on the island of Nias, off

the north -west coast of Sum atra, there were

102,000 Christians: in 1916 there were none.

In the northern parts of the Celebes the

Minahasa tr ibes were by 1940 fairly solidly

Christian and in the center the growth of

People Movements was rap id. There were

tribal movem ents toward Christ in the

Moluccas, the Sangi and the Talaud Islands.

Around the year 1930 between eight and ten

thousand a year w ere being baptized in

Dutch N ew Gu inea. By 1936 the nu mber of

Protestant Christians w as reported to be

1,610,533. The Roman Chu rch also h as in-

creased by num erous People Movements. In1937 there w ere 570,974 members of the Ro-

man Cath olic Chu rch. After 1950 new large

People Movements in Sum atra an d after 1960

in Irian and Kalimantan h ave taken p lace.

The only instance in th e entire world of a

hun dred thousand Muslims being won to

Christ occurs in Indonesia, in the midst of

these numerous People Movements. It is also

interesting that in Ind onesia there is appar-

ently a bridge between the natives and the

Chinese imm igrants, a bridge over w hich

Christianity can cross. If this were strength -

ened it might well hap pen that more Chinese

wou ld become Chr istian ind irectly via th e

People Movements of Indonesia than have

been w on in Ch ina itself.

In Africa there have been a large num ber

of People Movements. The day is not far off

wh en m ost of Africa south of the Sahara will

have been d iscipled.

There is an in stru ctive case of Peop leMovem ents in the Gold Coast. These have

grow n into a great Presbyterian Church.

For 19 year s (1828-47) the Basel Mission of

Switzerland battled to establish a foothold

in th e Gold Coast. Of the 16 missionaries

sent out ten d ied shortly after arrival. The

daring expedient had to be adop ted of

bringing in eight West Ind ian families to

dem onstrate that black men could read the

wh ite man’s Book, and to prov ide m ission-

aries less susceptible to the r avages of th e

climate. During this time there had n ot

been a single baptism. The first four bap -

tisms w ere in 1847 amon g th e Akim

Abu akw a tribe. The follow ing table show s

how the Church grew.

N u m b e r o f C h u r c h M e

m b e r s

1847 to 1953

137,000

1953

57,000

1932

24,000

1918 12,000

1894 9,000

1890 4

1847

365

1858

1,581

1868

Till abou t 1870 the records show eviden ce

of the exploratory Mission Station App roach.

Slaves were pu rchased, freed, and emp loyed

at the mission stations for instruction. Run-

aw ay slaves were given shelter. Laborers on

mission buildings were settled on mission

land . In 1868 there was one missionary for

each thirty Christians. The Basel Mission had

a gathered colony at each of its nine mission

stations. But in the d ecade 1870 to 1880 out ly-

ing chains of families started becoming

Christian, and several stations amon g the

Tsui-speaking tribes began to be su rround ed

by small Christian group s in scattered vil-

lages. Schools were established in each and

the group s gradu ally became chu rches. An

importan t feature of this movement, like

man y other African People Movements, wasthat p agan p arents frequently sent their chil-

dren to Christian schools, desiring them to

become Ch ristians. The school thu s had enor-

mou s influence.

Early growth was tribe-wise. Teacher-

preachers, the slightly edu cated first genera-

tion Christian workers on whom so much of

the d iscipling of the tribes of Africa has d e-

pend ed, were usu ally recruited from each

tribe in which a Christian m ovement started .

They were then trained and sent back to that

tribe to teach others, shepherd the Christians

and win others to Chr ist. Later, as Christian

movements arose in practically all the tribes,




they became a un iting factor in the life of the

nation, and workers were app ointed m ore or

less regardless of tribal relationships.

The churches born of people mov ements

The most obvious resu lt of Christian mis-

sions which have been fathering and further-

ing Christward movements is a tremendous

host of Christian chu rches. It has been calcu-

lated that there are well over a hun dred thou-

sand congregations of Christians brought to a

know ledge of God th rough recent Christian

People Movements. These exist in m ost of the

non-Christian countries.

Let us consider the u nexpectedly large

nu mber of People Movements. The islands of

the Pacific have been largely d iscipled byPeople Movements. Ind ia has its extensive

list of movements from the Malas and

Madigas, the Nagas and Garas, the Mahars

and Bhils, and man y others. Ind onesia and

Burma total well over a score of People

Movements of some pow er. Africa has nu -

merous tribes in which the chu rches are

growing in tribe-wise fashion. Two new

People Movements are being reported in

1980: One in Mind anao and one in Mexico.

Our list might be m ade m uch larger. Each of

these hundred s of People Movements is mul-

tiplying Christian congregations as it grows.

These scores of thousands of congregations

have many features in common. Many mem-

bers of the churches are illiterate. In some

lands the p ercentage of illiteracy in the Peop le

Movement churches is over 80. The p astors of

the churches are usually men with about

seven years of schooling plus some seminary

training. The church bu ildings are often tem-porary ad obe or wattle buildings, though

there are many w ell-built churches among the

older congregations. In new Peop le Move-

ments, the missionary usually plays an impor-

tant role—starting, funding, and developing

them. The p astoring of the congregations is al-

most entirely in the hand s of the nationals

however. In older, larger People Movem ents

to-day national ministers head the Church,

while missionaries work as assistants d irected

by the church council. The services to Chris-

tians, so marked in the Mission Station Ap-

proach, are very much curtailed. The nu mbers

of children are so great that, aside from small

unsatisfactory primary schools, few children

get a chance at education. In the mission sta-

tion churches it is common practice for every

child to be sent, largely at mission expense,

through school as far as his intelligence will al-

low him to go. But in the People Movement

churches the bulk of the Christian population

has available to it only such educational ad-

vantages as the average non-Christian shares.

This makes for an illiterate and ignorant

church membership.

In some African countries, the school p ic-

ture is totally different. Government does its

edu cation through missions. In such lands

the children of the People Movements have

excellent edu cational opp ortun ities and the

mem bership of the chu rches is growing u plargely literate.

Scattered as the congregations are it is diffi-

cult to reach them w ith med ical aid. Cholera

and small-pox epidemics, sudden death from

cerebral malaria, infant m aladies wh ich carry

off children like flies, and health conditions

wh ich are a scandal to the human race, are

characteristic of these myriad rural churches.

Yet People Movem ent Churches are re-

markably stable. There are reversions, spe-

cially in the early d ays, but on the w hole,

once a people has become Ch ristian, it stays

Christian even in th e face of vigorous p erse-

cution. In ad dition to the faith of each ind i-

vidu al and the courage w hich comes from

world -wide fellowship, the very bon ds of re-

lationship and social cohesion keep w eak in-

dividu als from denying the faith.

Unvalued pearls

One of the curious facts about PeopleMovements is that they have seldom been

sought or d esired. Pickett records, in Christian

Mass Movements in India, that most People

Movements have actually been resisted by the

leaders of the church and mission where they

started. These leaders often had grave dou bts

wh ether it was right to take in groups of indi-

vidu als, man y of wh om seemed to have little

ascertainable personal faith. N evertheless, de-

spite a certain d egree of repression, move-

ments d id occur. One wonders what w ould

have happened had missions from the begin-

ning of the “Great Centu ry” been actively

searching and p raying for the coming of




Christward marches by the various peoples

making up the popu lation of the world.

Those Peop le Movem ents wh ich d id oc-

cur were seldom really un derstood. The

way of corporate d ecision w as obscu red by

the Western preference for ind ividu al d eci-

sion. The p rocesses of perfecting the

churches were confused with th e process

by w hich a people turn s from idols to serve

the living God. Even wh ere there has been

great grow th, as in par ts of Africa, faulty

un derstand ing of People Movements has

resulted in m uch less than m aximu m

growth and has caused needless dam age to

tribal life.

Christward movem ents of peop les are

the supreme goal of missionary effort.Many w ho read th is book will not agree

with th is, and , ind eed, it has never been

genera lly accepted. Yet w e no t on ly affirm

it, but g o further an d claim that th e vast

stirrings of the Sp irit wh ich occur in Peop le

Movements are God -given. We d are not

think of People Movements to Chr ist as

merely social ph enom ena. Tru e, we can ac-

coun t for some of the contributing factors

wh ich have brough t them about; but there

is so mu ch that is mysterious and beyond

anyth ing we can ask or think, so mu ch that

is a prod uct of religious faith, and so m uch

evident w orking of divine Power, that we

mu st confess that People Movements are

gifts of God. It is as if in the fu llness of time

God gives to H is servants the p riceless be-

ginning of a People Movement. If that su c-

ceeds, the chu rch is firmly p lanted . If it

fails, the missionary forces are back to th e

prelimin ary stages of exploration . Yet theessential recognition that the Peop le Move-

ments to Ch rist is the sup reme goal is not

often mad e by Christian leaders. Gifts of

God come and go un recognized; while

man -directed mission w ork is carried faith-

fully, dogg edly forw ard.

It is time to recognize that w hen revival re-

ally begins in China , Japan, Africa, the Mu s-

lim w orld, and India, it will probably app ear

in the form of People Movements to Christ.

This is the way in which Evangelical Chris-

tianity spread in Roman Catholic Europe at

the time of the Reformation. It is the best way

for it to spread in any land .

Five Great AdvantagesPeople Movements have five considerable ad-

vantages. First, they have provided the Christian

movement with permanent churches rooted in the

soil of hundreds of thousands of villages. For their

continued economic life they are qu ite ind e-

pendent of Western missions. They are accus-

tomed (unfortunately too accustom ed) to a

low degree of education. Yet their devotion

has frequently been tested in the fires of perse-

cution and found to be pure gold. They are

here to stay. They are perm anent comrades on

the p ilgrim w ay.

They have the advantage of being naturally

indigenous. In the Mission Station Approach

the convert is brought in as an individu al to a

pattern dom inated by the foreigner. Theforeigner h as set the pace and th e style, often

to his own dismay. But su ch denat ionalization

is a very minor a ffair in true People

Movements. In them the new Chr istians

seldom see the missionary. They are immersed

in their own cultures. Their style of clothing, of

eating and of speaking continues almost

un changed . Their churches are necessarily

built like their hou ses—and are as indigenous

as anyone could wish. They cannot sing or

learn foreign tunes read ily, so local tun es are

often used. Thus an indigenous quality, highly

sought and rarely found by leaders of the

Mission Station Approach churches, is

obtained w ithout effort by the People

Movement churches. Church headquarters,

how ever, need to make special efforts to keep

thoroughly indigenous their training of People

Movement youth and leadership.

People Movements have a third major advan-

tage. With them “the spontaneous expansion of the Church” is natural. The p hrase “spontane-

ous expansion” sum s up the valuable contri-

bution to missionary thinking made by

Roland Allen an d World Dom inion. It re-

quires that new converts be formed into

churches wh ich from th e beginning are fully

equipp ed with all spiritual authority to mu l-

tiply themselves without an y necessary refer-

ence to the foreign m issionaries. These might

be helpful as advisers or assistants bu t

should never be necessary to the comp lete-

ness of the Chu rch or to its pow er of unlim-

ited expansion. Spon taneous expan sion in-

volves a full trust in the Holy Spirit and a




In order to be

called a bridge,

a connection

must be large

enough to

provide for

the baptism

of enough

groups in a

short enough

time and a

small enough

area to create

a People

Movement in

the other

community.

recognition tha t the ecclesiastical trad itions of

the older churches are not necessarily u seful

to the youn ger churches arising out of the

missions from th e West. New group s of con-

verts are expected to multiply themselves in

the same way as d id the new groups of con-

verts who w ere the

early churches. Advo-

cates of spontaneou s

expansion point out

that foreign directed

movem ents will in the

end lead to sterility

and antagonism to

their sponsors, and

that th erefore the

methods now beingpu rsued , here called

the Mission Station

App roach, will never

bring u s within mea-

surable d istance of

the evangelization of

the world.

Desirable as spon-

taneous expan sion is,

it is a d ifficult ideal

for the Mission Sta-

tion Approach

churches to achieve.

They might be freed

from all bonds to the

Western churches,

they might be con-

vinced th at they had all the spiritual author-

ity needed to mu ltiply themselves, they

might be filled w ith the H oly Spirit and

abound in d esire to win others to Christ, andyet—just because th ey form a separate

peop le and have no organic linkages with

any other neighboring peop le—they wou ld

find it extremely d ifficult to form new

churches. In People Movement churches, on

the contrary, spontaneous expansion is natu-

ral. Both the d esire to win their “own fold”

and the opportun ity to bear witness in u naf-

fected intimate conversation are present to a

high d egree. There is abun dan t contact

through wh ich conviction can tran smit itself.

True, in People Movements this na tural

growth can be and , alas, sometimes has been,

slowed d own by the atmosph ere and tech-

niques of the all-pervad ing gathered colony

app roach. But once these are recognized and

renoun ced by the leaders of the People

Movement churches, it becomes comp ara-

tively easy for spon taneous expansion to oc-

cur. Missions can th en, like Paul, deliberately

attemp t to use the relatively unp lanned ex-

pan sion of a Christward People Movement to

achieve still greater and m ore significant en-

largement. Thus we come to the m ost

marked advantage of these movements.

These movements have enormous possibilities

of growth. That these p ossibilities are to-day

largely ignored and un recognized even by

the leader of the chu rches does not d iminish

either the truth or the imp ortance of this fact.

The group movem ents are fringed w ithexterior growing points among their own

peop les. As Paul d iscovered, the Palestinian

movement had growing points in many

places outside that country. Just so, every

Christward m ovement has many p ossibilities

of growth on its fringes. For example, the

Madigas have become Christians in large

nu mbers. They are the laborers of South In-

dia. They have migrated to m any p laces in

India and even abroad . One cannot help

won dering whether a fervent proclamation

by a modern Madiga St. Paul carrying the

news that “We Madigas are becoming Ch ris-

tian by tens of thousand s each year: we have

found the Savior and h ave as a people come

into possession of the u nsearchable riches of

Christ,” might not start Mad iga Movements

in many p arts of the world.

People Movements also have internal

growing p oints; that is, the unconverted

pockets left by any su ch sweeping m ove-ment. Here the leaders of the Christian forces

mu st be alert to see to it that strategic door-

ways are entered while they are open. Door-

ways remain open for about one generation.

Then they close to the ready flow of the

Chr istian religion. Until the discipling of the

entire people, there will be both internal and

external growing points. Both will yield large

returns if cultivated.

Of rarer occurrence are the bridges to other

commu nities, such as that over w hich St. Paul

launched his Gentile movements. In order to

be called a bridge, the connection mu st be

large enough to p rovide not merely for the




Study Questions1. Briefly define the term “the bridges of God” and explain the significance of these bridges for mis-

sion strategy.

2. Are group decisions valid? Why or why not? Explain the strategic importance of encouraging

“multi-individual” decisions.

3. At the time McGavran wrote The Bridges of God , the term “unreached people group” had not yetbeen used. What is the significance of the idea of “people movements” for the ministry among

“unreached peoples?”

baptism of individu als, but for the baptism of

enough groups in a short enough time and a

small enough area to create a People Move-

ment in the other commu nity. More of these

bridges w ould be found if they were assidu -

ously sought. More would be used for the ex-

pansion of the Christian faith if leaders could

be led to und erstand them and become skilled

in their use.

The possibilities for grow th in Peop le

Movements are not by any m eans confined to

developing new movem ents. Leaders of

People Movement churches find th at after the

church has attained p ower and size the nor-

mal p rocess of growth , including th e baptism

of ind ividu al seekers on the fringes of the

congregations, often p rodu ce more quietregular in-gatherings year after year than

was the case du ring the period of the greatest

exuberance of the movem ent. One might con-

clud e that once a People Movement church

has gained a hu ndred thou sand converts,

and has become indigenous to the land and

forms a noticeable proportion of the pop ula-

tion, it is likely to keep on grow ing. A moder-

ate amou nt of missionary assistance, at

places where the churches feel their need,

prod uces results far beyond that w hich those

accustomed to the mission station trad ition

wou ld consider possible.

The fifth advantage is that these movements

provide a sound pattern of becoming Christian. Be-

ing a Christian is seen to mean not change in

stand ard of living mad e possible by foreign

funds, but change in inner character made possible

by the power of God. In well-nurtured People

Movement churches, it is seen to mean th e

regular worship of God, the regular hearing of

the Bible, the giving to the church, the disci-

pline of the congregation, the spiritual care ex-

ercised by the p astor, habits of prayer and per-

sonal devotion and the eradication of

un-Christian types of behavior. This life, cen-

tering in the village church, often built by the

Christians themselves, is seen to be the main

feature of the Christian religion. There are no

impressive institutions to d ivert attentionfrom the central fact. Christians become

“people with churches, who w orship God”

rather than “p eople with hospitals who know

med icine,” or “people with schools wh o get

good jobs.” The health of the Christian m ove-

ment requires that the normal pattern be well

know n, not merely to the non-Christian

peop les, but to the leaders of church and mis-

sion and to the rank and file of members. The

People Movement supplies the pattern which

can be indefinitely reprod uced. It is the pat-

tern which with minor variations has obtained

throughout history.

Documents

Bridges of God