mcgavran_thebridges

Chapter 50 323

The Bridges of God appeared in 1954, and it has since becomeknown 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 Approach,” 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 newpattern is at hand, which, while new, is as old as the Church itself.”

The Crucial Question in Christian Missions

Much study has been devoted to world evangelization. Weknow the answers to many questions about the propagationof the Gospel. But what is perhaps the most important ques-tion of all still awaits an answer. That question is: How dopeoples become Christian?

This article asks how clans, tribes, castes, in short howpeoples become Christian. Every nation is made up of variouslayers of strata of society. In many nations each stratum isclearly separated from every other. The individuals in eachstratum intermarry chiefly, if not solely, with each other. Theirintimate life is therefore limited to their own society, that is, totheir own people. They may work with others, they may buyfrom and sell to the individuals of other societies, but their in-timate life is wrapped up with the individuals of their ownpeople. Individuals of another stratum, possibly close neigh-bors, may become Christians or Communists without the firststratum being much concerned. But when individuals of theirown kind start becoming Christians, that touches their verylives. How do chain reactions in these strata of society begin?How do peoples become Christian?

Here is a question to which not speculation but knowl-edge must urgently be applied. The question is how, in amanner true to the Bible, can a Christian movement be estab-lished in some class, caste, tribe or other segment of societywhich will, over a period of years, so bring groups of its re-lated families to Christian faith that the whole people isChristianized in a few decades? It is of the utmost impor-tance that the Church should understand how peoples, andnot merely individuals, become Christian.

The Bridges of GodDonald 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 TheBridges 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 the

Church 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 peoples become Chris-tian. The missionary movement is largelystaffed by persons from the West or by nation-als trained in their ideas, and while evangeliza-tion has been carried on with correct enoughviews on how individuals have become Chris-tian, there have been hazy or even erroneousviews on how peoples become Christian.

Western individualism obscuresgroup processes

In the West, Christianization is an ex-tremely individualistic process. This is due tovarious 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 becomeChristian and live as a Christian without beingostracized by the rest of the family. Further-more, Christianity is regarded as true, even bymany who do not profess it. It is considered agood thing to join the Church. A person is ad-mired for taking a stand for Christ. There havebeen no serious rivals to the Church. Thus in-dividuals are able to make decisions as indi-viduals without severing social bonds.

Again, with the disruption of clan andfamily life following upon the industrialrevolution, Westerners became accustomedto do what appealed to them as individuals.As larger family groupings were broken upthrough migration, the movement of ruralfolk to the cities, and repeated shifts ofhomes, people came to act for themselveswithout consulting their neighbors or fami-lies. A habit of independent decision was es-tablished. In the Christian churches this habitwas further strengthened by the practice ofrevival meetings appealing for individual de-cisions to the accompaniment of great emo-tion. Indeed, the theological presuppositionwas not merely that salvation depended onan individual act of faith in Christ (which isunquestioned), but also that this act wassomehow of a higher order if it were doneagainst family opinion (which is dubious).Separate individual accessions to the Churchwere held by some to be not only a better, butthe only valid, way of becoming a Christian.

Had the question arisen as to how peoplesbecame Christian, the answer would havebeen given that it was by individual after in-dividual becoming soundly converted.

Of the social organism which is a people,or of the desirability of preserving the cultureand community life, indeed, of enhancingthem through the process of conversion,there tended to be little recognition. Peopleswere thought of as aggregates of individualswhose conversion was achieved one by one.The social factor in the conversion of peoplespassed unnoticed because peoples were notidentified as separate entities.

However, a people is not an aggregation ofindividuals. In a true people intermarriageand the intimate details of social intercoursetake place within the society. In a true peopleindividuals are bound together not merely bycommon social practices and religious beliefsbut by common blood. A true people is a so-cial organism which, by virtue of the fact thatits members intermarry very largely within itsown confines, becomes a separate race in theirminds. Since the human family, except in theindividualistic West, is largely made up ofsuch castes, clans and peoples, the Christian-ization of each nation involves the prior Chris-tianization of its various peoples as peoples.

Because of the intense battle against raceprejudice, the concept of separate races ofmen is discredited in many circles. Missionar-ies often carry this antipathy to race into theirwork in tribes and castes who believe them-selves to be separate races, marry within theirpeople and have an intense racial conscious-ness. But to ignore the significance of racehinders Christianization. It makes an enemyof race consciousness, instead of an ally. Itdoes no good to say that tribal peoples oughtnot to have race prejudice. They do have itand are proud of it. It can be understood andshould be made an aid to Christianization.

What to do and what not to doTo Christianize a whole people, the first

thing not to do is snatch individuals out of itinto a different society. Peoples becomeChristians where a Christward movementoccurs within that society. Bishop J. W. Pickett,in his important study Christ’s Way to India’sHeart, says:

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DONALD A. McGAVRAN 325

The process of extracting individuals fromtheir setting in Hindu or Moslem commu-nities does not build a Church. On the con-trary it rouses antagonism against Chris-tianity and builds barriers against thespread of the Gospel. Moreover, that pro-cess has produced many unfortunate, andnot a few tragic results in the lives of thosemost deeply concerned. It has deprived theconverts of the values represented by theirfamilies and friends and made them depen-dent for social support to the good life andrestraint on evil impulses upon men andwomen, their colleagues in the Christianfaith, with whom they have found it diffi-cult to develop fellowship and a completesense of community. It has sacrificed muchof the convert’s evangelistic potentialitiesby separating him from his People. It hasproduced anaemic Churches that know notrue leadership and are held togetherchiefly by common dependence on the mis-sion or the missionary.

Equally obviously the Christianization of apeople requires reborn men and women. Amere change of name accomplishes nothing.While the new convert must remain within hispeople, he must also experience the new birth.“If ye then be risen with Christ, set your affec-tion on things above, not on things on theearth.” The power of any People Movement toChrist depends in great measure on the num-ber of truly converted persons in it. We wishto make this quite clear. The Christianizationof peoples is not assisted by slighting or for-getting real personal conversion. There is nosubstitute for justification by faith in JesusChrist or for the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Thus a Christward movement within apeople can be defeated either by extractingthe new Christians from their society (i.e. byallowing them to be squeezed out by theirnon-Christian relatives) or by the non-Chris-tians so dominating the Christians that theirnew life in Christ is not apparent. An incipi-ent Christward movement can be destroyedby either danger.

The group mind and group decisionTo understand the psychology of the innu-

merable subsocieties which make up non-Christian nations, it is essential that the leadersof the Churches and missions strive to see lifefrom the point of view of a people, to whom

individual action is treachery. Among thosewho think corporately only a rebel wouldstrike out alone, without consultation andwithout companions. The individual does notthink of himself as a self-sufficient unit, but aspart of the group. His business affairs, hischildren’s marriages,his personal prob-lems, or the difficul-ties he has with hiswife are properlysettled by groupthinking. Peoples be-come Christian as thisgroup-mind isbrought into alifegiving relationshipto Jesus as Lord.

It is important tonote that the groupdecision is not thesum of separate indi-vidual decisions. Theleader makes surethat his followers willfollow. The followers make sure that they arenot ahead of each other. Husbands sound outwives. Sons pledge their fathers. “Will we as agroup move if so-and-so does not come?” is afrequent question. As the group considers be-coming Christian, tension mounts and excite-ment rises. Indeed, a prolonged informal vote-taking is under way. A change of religioninvolves a community change. Only as itsmembers move together, does change becomehealthy and constructive.

Groups are usually fissured internally. Thishas a definite bearing on group decision. If insome town or village there are 76 families of agiven people, they may be split into severalsub-groups. Often such divisions are formedby rivalries between prominent men. Oftenthey are geographical: the lower section of thevillage as against the upper section. Often theyare economic: the landed as opposed to thelandless. Often they depend on education,marriage relationships, or attitudes towardcustoms. Group thinking usually occurs at itsbest within these sub-groups. A sub-groupwill often come to decision before the whole.Indeed, a sub-group often furnishes enoughsocial 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 wave of de-cision for Christ sweeps through the groupmind, involving many individual decisionsbut being far more than merely their sum. Thismay be called a chain reaction. Each decisionsets off others and the sum total powerfully af-fects every individual. When conditions areright, not merely each sub-group, but the en-tire group concerned decides together.

Terms definedWe call this process a “People Movement.”

“People” is a more universal word than “tribe”,“caste” or “clan.” It is more exact than “group.”It fits everywhere. Therefore in this article weshall speak of People Movements to Christ.

The Characteristic Pattern of theGreat CenturyDr. Latourette has given the name “the GreatCentury” to the time between 1800 and 1914.He says: “When consideration is given to thedifficulties which faced it, in the nineteenthcentury, Christianity made amazing progressall around the world. It came to the end ofthe period on a rapidly ascending curve. Itsinfluence on culture was out of all propor-tions to its numerical strength. It had an out-standing role as a pioneer in new types ofeducation, in movements of the relief andprevention of human suffering and in dis-seminating ideas.”

How did Christianization proceed dur-ing the Great Century? This is a most im-portant question because most of ourpresent thinking is coloured by the mission-ary effort of that century. When we think ofmissions today, we think of those withwhich we are familiar, and which prevailedin China, Africa, India and other countriesduring the Great Century. Since this centuryproduced a radically new and different ap-proach, the older kind of missions whichexisted for 1,800 years have tended to beforgotten. The missionary and the Churchestend to think that the only kind of missionsand the only kind of Christian-ization pos-sible is that used with greater or lesser ef-fect during the past 150 years. The GreatCentury created a new method to meet anew situation. Both situation and methodare worthy of our closest study.

The new situation described:the gulf of separation

Missions were carried on from the ruling,wealthy, literate, modern countries, whichwere experiencing all the benefits of politicaland religious freedom, an expanding produc-tion, and universal education. In the year 1500,European visitors to India and China de-scribed countries which compared favourablywith their own. But by the nineteenth centurythe West had progressed while the East hadstood still, so that there was a great gap be-tween them. Western missionaries went topoor, illiterate, medieval and agriculturalcountries. The gap widened with the passageof the years, for the progress 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 the people, they werenever able to rid themselves of the inevitableseparateness which the great progress of theirhome lands had imposed upon them.

This gulf became very clear in the living ar-rangements which European and Americanmissionaries found necessary. Their standardof living at home was many times higher thanthat of the average citizen on the missionfields, though it could not compare with thatof the few wealthy Chinese, Japanese and In-dians. Modern medicine was unknown.Health demanded big bungalows on largesites. Servants were cheap and saved muchdomestic labour. The people of the land gener-ally walked, but the missionary was accus-tomed to a conveyance and so he used one.The colour of his skin also set him apart. Hecould not melt into the generality of the inhab-itants of the land as Paul could. He was awhite man, a member of the ruling race. Tothis day in the rural sections of India, sevenyears after independence, the white mission-ary is frequently addressed as Sarkar (Govern-ment). The missionary was an easy victim notonly to malaria but to intestinal diseases. Hehad to be careful about what he ate. The West-ern style of cooking agreed with him, whereasthe Eastern style did not. So in matters of foodalso there came to be a great gulf between himand the people of the land.

There were practically no bridges acrossthis gulf. There was nothing even remotelysimilar to the Jewish bridge over which


Christianity marched into the Gentile world.Staggering numbers of people lived on thefertile plains of Asia, but not one of them hadany Christian relatives! Even in the port citiesthere were none. Més alliances between whitesoldiery, rulers or commercial people and thewomen of the various lands were so resentedon the one hand and despised on the otherthat they served as barriers rather thanbridges. The normal flow of the Christian re-ligion simply could not take place. Separatedby colour, standard of living, prestige, lit-eracy, mode of travel, place of residence, andmany other factors, the missionary was, in-deed, isolated from those to whom hebrought the message of salvation.

The missionaries did learn the languagesof the country and learned them well. Theyserved the people with love, taught their chil-dren, visited in their homes, went with themthrough famines and epidemics, ate withthem, bought from them and sold to them,and, more than any other group of white menin the tropics, were at one with them. Thus, itwill be said, this emphasis on the separate-ness of the missionary is exaggerated. To thestudent of the growth and spread of reli-gions, however, it is apparent that these ca-sual contacts described above are just that—casual contacts. They are not the livingcontacts, the contacts of tribe and race andblood, which enable the non-Christian to say,as he hears a Christian speak: “This messen-ger of the Christian religion is one of my ownfamily, my own People, one of us.” Casualcontacts may win a few individuals to a newfaith, but unless these individuals are able tostart a living movement within their own so-ciety, it does not start at all.

The separateness we describe seemedlikely to last a long time. It existed in an un-changing world, where the dominance ofthe West and the dependence of the Eastseemed to be permanent. Missionariesthought, “There will be centuries before us,and, in a 400-year relationship like that ofRome to her dependent peoples, we shallgradually bring these peoples also into theChristian faith.”

This grave separateness faced Christianmissions during the Great Century. When thechurches and their missionaries have no rela-

tions, no contacts and no bridges over inter-racial gulfs, what do they do? How do theycarry out the command of their Lord? Whenthere is no living approach, how do they goabout the Christianization of peoples?

The new method evolved: the exploratorymission-station approach

If there is any aspect that is typical ofmodern missions, it is the mission stationwith its gathered colony. Missionaries facingthe gulf of separation built mission stationsand gathered colonies of Christians.

They acquired a piece of land, often withgreat difficulty. They built residences suitablefor white men. Then they added churches,schools, quarters in which to house helpers,hospitals, leprosy homes, orphanages andprinting establishments. The mission stationwas usually at some center of communica-tion. From it extensive tours were made intothe surrounding country-side. It was home tothe missionary staff and all the activities ofthe mission took place around the station.

Together with building the station, themissionaries gathered converts. It was ex-ceedingly difficult for those hearing the GoodNews for the first time, knowing nothing ofChristians, or of Christianity save that it wasthe religion of the invading white men, to ac-cept the Christian religion. Those who did sowere usually forced out of their own homesby fierce ostracism. They came to live at themission colony, where they were usually em-ployed. Orphans were sheltered. Slaves werebought and freed. Women were rescued.Some healed patients became Christian.Many of these usually came to live at the mis-sion station. They were taught various meansof earning a livelihood and directed into vari-ous forms of service. They formed the gath-ered colony.

This kind of mission approach took shapeout of the individualistic background typicalof much Protestantism in the eighteenth andnineteenth centuries. To be a Christian was tocome out and be separate. For converts toleave father and mother invested their deci-sions with a particular validity. To gather acompound full of Christians out of a non-Christian population seemed a good way toproceed. Frequently it was also 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 tradition would consider possible.

sible way. The universal suspicion and oftenthe violent hostility with which Christianitywas regarded would have forced into thegathered colony pattern even those who con-sciously sought integration.

This, then, was the pattern which wascharacteristic of most beginnings in the GreatCentury. We call it the exploratory mission

station approach, but from the point of viewof the resulting churches, it was the explor-atory gathered colony approach.

It was excellent strategy in its day. It was aprobe to ascertain which peoples were readyto become Christian. Christianity must beseen to be stable before it will be accepted asa way of salvation. Peoples are not going tocommit their destinies to a faith which is heretoday and gone tomorrow. Men must seeover a period of years what the Christian lifemeans and what Christ does to persons andto groups. While the Good News is first be-ing presented and the Christian life demon-strated the mission station and the gatheredcolony are essential. As we look back over thelast hundred years it seems both necessaryand desirable for there to have been this ap-proach. With all its limitations, it was the beststrategy for the era. This approach has beenno mistake. It fitted the age which producedit. It was inevitable.

The road branches according to responseThis beginning, adopted by practically all

missions, may be considered as a road run-ning along a flat and somewhat desolate plainand then dividing, one branch to continuealong the plain, the other to climb the greenfertile hills. Whether missions continued onthe flat accustomed road (of the gatheredchurch approach) or ascended the high roadby means of the People Movement Approachdepended on the response given to the Chris-tian message by the population and on themissionaries’ understanding of that response.

Where the number of conversions re-mained small decade after decade, there themission remained the dominant partner andthe Mission Station Approach continued and,indeed, was strengthened. It was strength-ened because the gathered colony furnishedChristian workers so that the mission couldexpand mission healing, mission teaching

and missionpreaching. Wherethe number of con-versions mountedsteadily with everypassing decade,there the churchbecame the domi-

nant partner and the mission turned up thehill road. It started using the People Move-ment Approach. Scores of thousands becameChristians.

These two roads, these two ways of carry-ing on mission work, are distinct and differ-ent. Clear thinking about missions mustmake a sharp differentiation between them.Each must be described separately. ThePeople Movements, the hill road, will be de-scribed in the next section. The remainder ofthis section will be devoted to describing thewidening road on the plain, the way in whichthe exploratory phase gradually turned intothe permanent Mission Station Approach orgathered colony approach.

Small response was not expected by theearly missionaries. The exploratory MissionStation Approach was not launched as an ac-commodation to a hardhearted andirresponsive population. It was regarded as afirst stage after which great ingathering would oc-cur. Even after the Basel Mission had lost eightof its first ten missionaries in nine years, theheroic Andreas Riis wrote back from the GoldCoast in Africa, “Let us press on. All Africamust be won for Christ. Though a thousandmissionaries die, send more.” The exploratorygathered colony approach was adopted withthe expectation that the Christian faith wouldsweep non-Christian lands bringing them un-told blessings.

But these expectations were often frus-trated by meager response. In the light ofthe event Professor Latourette can now se-renely write:


The advanced cultures and faiths of Asiaand North Africa did not yield so readily asdid those of the primitive folk, either toWestern civilization or to Christianity. Thiswas to be expected. It has usually been char-acteristic of advanced cultures and their re-ligions that they have been much slower todisintegrate before an invading civilization.But the meager response was not expected

by the early messengers of the Church. It wasdisappointing.

A factor in the small response, whose im-portance cannot be overestimated, is that,partly because of the individualistic bias of themissionaries and partly because of the resis-tance of the hearers, conversions were mainlyout of the nation. Converts felt that they werejoining not merely a new religion, but an en-tirely foreign way of living—proclaimed byforeigners, led by foreigners and ruled by for-eigners. Converts came alone. Often even theirwives refused to come with them. Naturallyconversions were few. A vicious circle was es-tablished: the few becoming Christian one byone set such a pattern that it was difficult for aChristward movement to be started, and bythe lack of a movement converts continued tocome one by one and in very small numbers.In many parts of the field it was psychologi-cally difficult for a person to become a Chris-tian as it would be for a white man in SouthAfrica to join a Negro church knowing that hischildren would intermarry with the black chil-dren. The person not only became a Christian,but he was generally believed to have “joinedanother race.” When, among peoples whichintermarry only amongst themselves, a manbecomes a Christian, his old mother is likely toreproach him, saying, “Now whom will yoursons marry? They cannot get wives fromamongst us any more.”

The exploratory approach becomespermanent: terms defined

Where meager response continued, theregathered colony missions gradually accom-modated themselves to carrying on missionwork among populations which would notobey the call of God. Once this occurred wemay say that the mission, which had startedits road-building on the plain, with the inten-tion of reaching high fertile land as soon aspossible, settled down to road-building on

the barren plain as its God-given duty. Itfound plenty of good work to do. It never ad-mitted, even to itself, that it had really givenup hope of reaching the hills; but that is whathad actually happened.

The churches born of the mission stationapproach

The first aim of missions is the establish-ment of churches. So, as we start to examinethe results of the Mission Station Approachwe turn to an inspection of the kind ofchurches which mission stations have fa-thered. These we shall call Mission Stationchurches or gathered colony churches.

They have some favorable characteristics.They are composed of greatly transformed in-dividuals. The membership is literate. Theycome to church with hymn books. They canread their Bibles. Many among them are spe-cially trained beyond the ordinary school. Insome stations there are many high school andcollege graduates on the church rolls. Themembership contains a goodly proportion ofday laborers and artisans, household helps andcasual labourers, as well as teachers, preachers,medical workers, clerks, and other white-collarworkers. In some places factory and railwayemployees form a considerable part of themembership. On the whole the Mission StationChurches are made up of people who aresoundly Christian. There is not much supersti-tion among them and not much temptation torevert to the old non-Christian faiths. Themembership is proud of being Christian, andfeels that it has gained tremendously by be-longing to the Christian fellowship. There are,of course, many nominal Christians and somewhose conduct brings shame on the church.But even these are likely to send their childrento Sunday School and church!

They are organized into strong congrega-tions. They have good permanent churchbuildings on land indubitably theirs. Thepastors and ministers are usually qualifiedpeople. The services or worship are heldregularly. The elders, deacons and otherelected members form church councils andgovern the church. The giving would prob-ably compare favorably in regard to percent-age of income with that in the Westernchurches, though often most of it is provided


by those in mission employ. In some churchesthe giving is exemplary and there are manytithers. All told, the impression is that ofsmall, tight, well-knit communities, but-tressed by intermarriage and consideringthemselves to be a part of world Christianity.

On the debit side, these mission stationchurches are lacking in the qualities neededfor growth and multiplication. They are, intruth, gathered churches, made up of indi-vidual converts, or “brands snatched fromthe burning,” or famine orphans, or a mix-ture of all three. The individual converts andrescued persons have usually been disownedby their non-Christian relatives. The famineorphans have no close connection with lov-ing brothers and sisters and uncles and aunts.Furthermore, the lives of these Christianshave been so changed, and they find suchsatisfaction in the fellowship of their ownsort (i.e. other mission station Christians) thatthey feel immeasurably superior to their ownunconverted relatives.This is particularly truewhen they come from the oppressed classes.The second generation of Christians is evenfarther removed from their non-Christianrelatives than the first, while in the third gen-eration, in the very land where they live, thegathered church members know as a rule nonon-Christian relatives at all. The preciouslinkages which each original member had ashe came from non-Christian society andwhich are so needed for reproduction are allgone. A new people has been establishedwhich intermarries only within itself andthinks of itself as a separate community.

The Christians of the gathered colony ap-proach have a vivid realization of the powerof education. It has been education, they feel,that has lifted them out of the depths. Theyare keen for their children to receive as mucheducation as possible. They skimp and scrapethat their boys and girls may go on to schooland proceed as far as possible on the road to aB.A. or an M.A. But they do not always have avivid experience of the power of God. Manywould grant that it was Christian educationwhich had lifted them—an education given tothem in the name of Jesus Christ. But on suchexperiences as the power of the Spirit, the for-giveness of sins and the blessedness of faith,many mission station Christians are likely to

have a weak witness. “Become Christians andeducate your children,” they are likely to say.“It won’t do you much good but it will bewonderful for your sons and daughters.”

Gathered colony churches usually have avivid consciousness of the mission as theirparent. The churches tend to feel that it is thebusiness of the missionary to head up awealthy social service agency, designed toserve the Christian community. It sometimeshappens that the members of a mission stationchurch, sensing the obvious fact that there isonly limited employment in a mission station,look on new converts as a labor union wouldon immigrants. They draw the easy conclu-sion that if more people become Christians,the resources of the mission will be spreadthinner and there will be less for each of theexisting Christians. Cases have occurredwhere they have actually discouraged possibleconverts from becoming Christian.

Gathered colony churches are often over-staffed. They are too richly served by foreignmissions. Their members acquire a vested in-terest in the status quo. In one typical missionstation church of 700 souls we find a mission-ary in charge of two primary schools and onemiddle school for day pupils, another incharge of a middle boarding school for girls, amissionary doctor and his nurse wife whorun a hospital, and an evangelistic missionarywho gives half his time to the Christian com-munity. Then there is a national minister whois a high school graduate with theologicaltraining, five high school graduates whoteach the older boys and seven high schoolgraduates who teach the older girls, fourevangelists, five Bible women and a primaryschool staff of six. Missionaries, who, withless than half these resources, are shepherdinglarge numbers of Christians who have cometo Christ in some People Movement, maygasp with unbelief that such heavy occupa-tion could occur. Yet both the national and themissionary leaders of such mission stationchurches consider that they really are manag-ing with a minimum degree of foreign aid!

But—the era is drawing to a closeHowever, as Latourette points out, the era

is passing. The days in which the mission sta-tions can exert a major influence on the af-


fairs of Eastern nations are drawing to aclose. The sleeping nations are now awake.At the headquarters of the provincial and na-tional governments are whole departments,amply provided with millions of moneyraised by taxes, whose chief duty it is to planfor the future of the nations. The tens of thou-sands of students who journey to the Westfor education, the flood of publications in allthe major languages of the land, the adventof the movie, the loudspeaker and programsof social education, the sensitiveness to for-eign criticism, the intense desire to provetheir own nation the equal of any on earth,and the resentment felt at foreign leader-ship—all these presage the end of an era inwhich mission stations in the urban centersexerted an influence out of all proportion totheir numbers.

Mission schools in Asia and North Africano longer have the influence which they oncehad. In the beginning they were the onlyschools. But now they form a small percentageof the total, and are being crowded into thebackground. It is still true that there are a fewoutstanding Christian schools in most coun-tries, mission schools, convent schools, whichare known as the best in the land. Even so,they do not get one percent of the students.There was a day when they had 50 percent ofthe sons of the leading families. Mission edu-cationists cannot dodge the plain fact that mis-sion schools cannot expect to wield the influ-ence which they did in the days when Westerncultures were first arriving in Asia and Africa.

What is true of schools is also true of mis-sion station hospitals. Up till 1945 the CentralProvinces of India had not produced a singlequalified doctor. Its university had no stan-dard medical school. The only fully qualifieddoctors were a few immigrants from otherprovinces and missionary doctors fromabroad. But today there are four hundred stu-dents in the medical college of its university.As this flood of physicians flows out over thecities and towns and eventually the villagesof this province, the present near monopolyof the Christian hospitals is likely to be de-stroyed. The same sort of thing is takingplace in one awakened nation after another.

Non-Christian nations are impatient withforeign tutelage. They believe it is demean-

ing to their national pride to admit to theneed for guidance from any Western nation.The East, particularly India, honestly be-lieves that, except for mechanization and in-dustrialization, the West has little to give tothe “spiritual East.” The excoriations heapedupon Western nations by their own proph-ets, crying out against race prejudice, eco-nomic injustice and recurrent wars, aretaken at their face value by the nations ofthe East. The West comes to be looked uponas soul-less, materialistic, unjust, money-mad, and moved by none but ulterior mo-tives. The temper of these days in the East isnot that of humbly sitting at the feet of mis-sionary tutors.

It would be giving a distorted impressionif the last few paragraphs were to imply thatChristian missions have no more usefulnessas cultural “hands across the sea.” In thedays ahead when nations are forced intocloser and closer co-operation, all friendly ef-forts to interpret nations to each other will beof value. The continued residence of Western-ers in the East will doubtless do good. Butthe days of great secular influence of foreignmission stations apart from great nationalChurches are probably about over.

They should be over for a further reason:there is now a use for mission resourceswhich will do more for nation building, morefor international peace, and more for theChurch than the further penetration of non-Christian faiths and cultures from the van-tage point of a mission station.

Salute and farewellSo has run the characteristic pattern of the

Great Century. An age of tremendous mis-sion expansion in terms of geography and in-fluence; an age of heroism and devotion andself-sacrifice; an age of the meeting of twocultures separated by a wide gulf which,through the mission stations, outposts ofgoodwill and faith, has slowly drawn closerto the point where one world is in sight; anage when there is hardly a race or nation inwhich there is not found the Church.

So has run its pattern. But that age is nowover. A new age is upon us. A new pattern isdemanded. A new pattern is at hand, which,while new, is as old as the Church itself. It is a


God-designed pattern by which not ones butthousands will acknowledge Christ as Lord,and grow into full discipleship as people afterpeople, clan after clan, tribe after tribe andcommunity after community are claimed forand nurtured 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 toChrist have resulted. These have not as a rulebeen sought by missionaries—though inOceania, Indonesia and Africa there have beensome exceptions. The movements are the out-come of the mysterious movement of theSpirit of God. Their pattern of growth is verydifferent from that described in the last chap-ter. They have provided over 90 percent of thegrowth of the newer churches throughout theworld. The great bulk of the membership andof the congregations of the younger churchesconsist of converts and the descendants ofconverts won in People Movements.

In spite of this, we maintain that PeopleMovements were the exception and that thetypical approach of the last century was theMission Station Approach. The number ofmission stations from which Christian move-ments have started is small compared withthe number serving static churches. Missionenterprises are, for the most part, thosewhich serve non-Christians and gatheredcolony churches. The leadership of manyconferences on missions comes largely fromthose who know and are immersed in theMission Station Approach. And, as Dr.Hendrik Kraemer writes: “Missionary think-ing and planning in this revolutionary periodare still overwhelmingly influenced by theMission Station Approach.” The Mission Sta-tion Approach must then be taken as thetypical outcome of the past years, and thePeople Movements as the exceptions.

In dividing mission work into these twovarieties—that operating through the MissionStation Approach and that operating throughthe People Movements—it is recognized thatsome mission work cannot be classified undereither head. For example, the translation andprinting of the Scriptures. We are not attempt-ing an exhaustive classification, but a practical

one into which more than 90 per cent of mis-sionary activity can be placed.

Some people movements describedAdoniram Judson went to Burma as a mis-

sionary to the cultured Buddhist Burmese.But he took under his wing a rough character,by name Ko Tha Byu, a Karen by race. TheKarens were among the backward tribes ofBurma. They were animistic peasants andwere supposed by the Burmese to be stupidinferior people. “You can teach a buffalo, butnot a Karen,” was the common verdict.Judson spent six months trying to teach thisformer criminal, now his servant, the mean-ing of the redemptive death of our Lord JesusChrist, and made such little progress that hewas inclined to take the common verdict astrue. However, he persisted, and a fewmonths later Ko Tha Byu became a con-vinced, if not a highly illuminated, Christian.

As Judson toured Burma, speaking to theBurmese of that land, Ko Tha Byu, the campfollower, spoke to the humble Karen in eachvicinity. The Karens started becoming Chris-tian. Here a band of ten families, there one ortwo, and yonder a jungle settlement of fivefamilies accepted the Lordship of Christ. Wedo not have the data to prove that those whocame were interrelated, but it is highly prob-able that connected families were coming in. Achain reaction was occurring. We can reason-ably assume that among his close relativesalone, to say nothing of cousins and secondcousins, Ko Tha Byu had a host of excellentliving contacts. The early converts doubtlesscame from among these, and their relatives.

Judson, translating the Bible into Burmese,was concerned with more important mattersthan a Christian movement among a back-ward tribe. For years he considered the Karenconverts a side issue. However, the next gen-eration of missionaries included some whowere veritable Pauls, expanding the move-ment as far along the paths and across therice paddies as possible. Today there is amighty Christian Movement among theKarens and their related tribes in Burma,numbering hundreds and thousands of souls.The Christian Karens are the educatedKarens and will provide the leadership forthe mixed population of Karens, Kachins and


There is so much that is mysterious

and beyond anything we can ask or

think, and so much evident working of

divine Power, that we must confess that

People Movements are gifts of God.

other tribes which predominate in parts ofBurma. The Christward Movement amongthe Karens may well be the source of achurch numbering millions, and exercising adecisive influence upon the history of allSouth-East Asia.

By contrast, the Mission Station Approachto the Buddhist Burmese has yielded its ordi-nary quota of small, static mission stationchurches with a membership of perhaps20,000 souls for all Burma.

The Karen Christians are good Christians.In a hundred sections of Burma there arecommunities of Christian Karens with theirown church building, their own pastor, theirown tradition of regular worship, their ownSunday school, and a Christian tribal lifewhich augurs well for the permanence of theChristian Churches of Burma. The Karens,discipled through a People Movement, andnow in the process of perfecting, are not un-der the delusion that a nominal Christianityis worth anything to God. The thousands ofchurches scattered across the country containa normal proportion of earnest Spirit-filledChristians. They are “reborn Baptists” whowill compare favorably with the reborn Bap-tists of any land.

We stress this because it is a mistake to as-sume that People Movement Christians,merely because they have come to the Chris-tian faith in chains of families, must inevita-

bly be nominal Christians. Such an assump-tion is usually based on prejudice, not fact.All Churches face the problem of how toavoid creating nominal Christians. EvenWestern Churches, made up of only those in-dividual converts who testify to regeneration,soon come to have a second and third gen-eration who easily grow up to be nominalChristians. The policies of the churches varyin their ability to produce Christians vividly

conscious of their own salvation. PeopleMovements in themselves do not encouragethe production of nominal Christians.

Up in the north of Pakistan there was alowly people called Churas. They were the ag-ricultural laborers in a mixed Muslim andHindu civilization. They formed about 7 percent of the total population, and were Un-touchables. They were oppressed. Theyskinned dead cattle, cured the skins, collectedthe bones and sold them. They had beenlargely overlooked by the missionaries preach-ing Christ to the respectable members of theHindu and Muslim communities, and organiz-ing their few hard-won converts into missionstation churches. Then a man named Ditt fromamong the Churas turned to Christ, continuedto live among his people, despite their at-tempts at ostracism, and gradually brought hisrelatives to the Christian faith. The missionar-ies were at first dubious about admitting to theChristian fellowship these lowest of the low,lest the upper castes and the Muslims take of-fense and come to think of the Christian enter-prise as an “untouchable” affair. But those whobecame Christians were pastored and taughtand organized into churches. Because the con-verts came as groups without social dislocationthe efforts of the pastors and the missionariescould be given largely to teaching and preach-ing. Attention did not have to be diverted toproviding jobs and wives, houses and land for

individual converts. The Mission towhom God had entrusted this Move-ment was made up of devout men andwomen and they gave themselves to thetask. The outcome was at the end ofabout eighty years there are no moreChuras in that section of India. They haveall become Christians.

Whereas the Church in mission sta-tion areas often numbers no more than

one-tenth of 1 per cent of the total popula-tion, in the Chura area the Church numbers 7per cent of the population. There are congrega-tions in many of the villages and a Christianwitness is maintained, not by foreign mis-sionaries, but by the citizens of Pakistan.

In Indonesia there is a large mission work.In addition to static gathered colonies therehave been also a comparatively large numberof God-given People Movements. In the


north of Sumatra there is a flourishing BatakPeople Movement, numbering hundreds ofthousands. In 1937, on the island of Nias, offthe north-west coast of Sumatra, there were102,000 Christians: in 1916 there were none.In the northern parts of the Celebes theMinahasa tribes were by 1940 fairly solidlyChristian and in the center the growth ofPeople Movements was rapid. There weretribal movements toward Christ in theMoluccas, the Sangi and the Talaud Islands.Around the year 1930 between eight and tenthousand a year were being baptized inDutch New Guinea. By 1936 the number ofProtestant Christians was reported to be1,610,533. The Roman Church also has in-creased by numerous People Movements. In1937 there were 570,974 members of the Ro-man Catholic Church. After 1950 new largePeople Movements in Sumatra and after 1960in Irian and Kalimantan have taken place.

The only instance in the entire world of ahundred thousand Muslims being won toChrist occurs in Indonesia, in the midst ofthese numerous People Movements. It is alsointeresting that in Indonesia there is appar-ently a bridge between the natives and theChinese immigrants, a bridge over whichChristianity can cross. If this were strength-ened it might well happen that more Chinesewould become Christian indirectly via thePeople Movements of Indonesia than havebeen won in China itself.

In Africa there have been a large numberof People Movements. The day is not far offwhen most of Africa south of the Sahara willhave been discipled.

There is an instructive case of PeopleMovements in the Gold Coast. These havegrown into a great Presbyterian Church.For 19 years (1828-47) the Basel Mission ofSwitzerland battled to establish a footholdin the Gold Coast. Of the 16 missionariessent out ten died shortly after arrival. Thedaring expedient had to be adopted ofbringing in eight West Indian families todemonstrate that black men could read thewhite man’s Book, and to provide mission-aries less susceptible to the ravages of theclimate. During this time there had notbeen a single baptism. The first four bap-tisms were in 1847 among the Akim

Abuakwa tribe. The following table showshow the Church grew.

Num

ber

of C

hurc

h M

embe

rs

1847 to 1953

137,0001953

57,0001932

24,000191812,000

18949,00018904

1847

3651858

1,5811868

Till about 1870 the records show evidenceof the exploratory Mission Station Approach.Slaves were purchased, freed, and employedat the mission stations for instruction. Run-away slaves were given shelter. Laborers onmission buildings were settled on missionland. In 1868 there was one missionary foreach thirty Christians. The Basel Mission hada gathered colony at each of its nine missionstations. But in the decade 1870 to 1880 outly-ing chains of families started becomingChristian, and several stations among theTsui-speaking tribes began to be surroundedby small Christian groups in scattered vil-lages. Schools were established in each andthe groups gradually became churches. Animportant feature of this movement, likemany other African People Movements, wasthat pagan parents frequently sent their chil-dren to Christian schools, desiring them tobecome Christians. The school thus had enor-mous influence.

Early growth was tribe-wise. Teacher-preachers, the slightly educated first genera-tion Christian workers on whom so much ofthe discipling of the tribes of Africa has de-pended, were usually recruited from eachtribe in which a Christian movement started.They were then trained and sent back to thattribe to teach others, shepherd the Christiansand win others to Christ. Later, as Christianmovements arose in practically all the tribes,


they became a uniting factor in the life of thenation, and workers were appointed more orless regardless of tribal relationships.

The churches born of people movementsThe most obvious result of Christian mis-

sions which have been fathering and further-ing Christward movements is a tremendoushost of Christian churches. It has been calcu-lated that there are well over a hundred thou-sand congregations of Christians brought to aknowledge of God through recent ChristianPeople Movements. These exist in most of thenon-Christian countries.

Let us consider the unexpectedly largenumber of People Movements. The islands ofthe Pacific have been largely discipled byPeople Movements. India has its extensivelist of movements from the Malas andMadigas, the Nagas and Garas, the Maharsand Bhils, and many others. Indonesia andBurma total well over a score of PeopleMovements of some power. Africa has nu-merous tribes in which the churches aregrowing in tribe-wise fashion. Two newPeople Movements are being reported in1980: One in Mindanao and one in Mexico.Our list might be made much larger. Each ofthese hundreds of People Movements is mul-tiplying Christian congregations as it grows.

These scores of thousands of congregationshave many features in common. Many mem-bers of the churches are illiterate. In somelands the percentage of illiteracy in the PeopleMovement churches is over 80. The pastors ofthe churches are usually men with aboutseven years of schooling plus some seminarytraining. The church buildings are often tem-porary adobe or wattle buildings, thoughthere are many well-built churches among theolder congregations. In new People Move-ments, the missionary usually plays an impor-tant role—starting, funding, and developingthem. The pastoring of the congregations is al-most entirely in the hands of the nationalshowever. In older, larger People Movementsto-day national ministers head the Church,while missionaries work as assistants directedby the church council. The services to Chris-tians, so marked in the Mission Station Ap-proach, are very much curtailed. The numbersof children are so great that, aside from small

unsatisfactory primary schools, few childrenget a chance at education. In the mission sta-tion churches it is common practice for everychild to be sent, largely at mission expense,through school as far as his intelligence will al-low him to go. But in the People Movementchurches the bulk of the Christian populationhas available to it only such educational ad-vantages as the average non-Christian shares.This makes for an illiterate and ignorantchurch membership.

In some African countries, the school pic-ture is totally different. Government does itseducation through missions. In such landsthe children of the People Movements haveexcellent educational opportunities and themembership of the churches is growing uplargely literate.

Scattered as the congregations are it is diffi-cult to reach them with medical aid. Choleraand small-pox epidemics, sudden death fromcerebral malaria, infant maladies which carryoff children like flies, and health conditionswhich are a scandal to the human race, arecharacteristic of these myriad rural churches.

Yet People Movement Churches are re-markably stable. There are reversions, spe-cially in the early days, but on the whole,once a people has become Christian, it staysChristian even in the face of vigorous perse-cution. In addition to the faith of each indi-vidual and the courage which comes fromworld-wide fellowship, the very bonds of re-lationship and social cohesion keep weak in-dividuals from denying the faith.

Unvalued pearlsOne of the curious facts about People

Movements is that they have seldom beensought or desired. Pickett records, in ChristianMass Movements in India, that most PeopleMovements have actually been resisted by theleaders of the church and mission where theystarted. These leaders often had grave doubtswhether it was right to take in groups of indi-viduals, many of whom seemed to have littleascertainable personal faith. Nevertheless, de-spite a certain degree of repression, move-ments did occur. One wonders what wouldhave happened had missions from the begin-ning of the “Great Century” been activelysearching and praying for the coming of


Christward marches by the various peoplesmaking up the population of the world.

Those People Movements which did oc-cur were seldom really understood. Theway of corporate decision was obscured bythe Western preference for individual deci-sion. The processes of perfecting thechurches were confused with the processby which a people turns from idols to servethe living God. Even where there has beengreat growth, as in parts of Africa, faultyunderstanding of People Movements hasresulted in much less than maximumgrowth and has caused needless damage totribal life.

Christward movements of peoples arethe supreme goal of missionary effort.Many who read this book will not agreewith this, and, indeed, it has never beengenerally accepted. Yet we not only affirmit, but go further and claim that the vaststirrings of the Spirit which occur in PeopleMovements are God-given. We dare notthink of People Movements to Christ asmerely social phenomena. True, we can ac-count for some of the contributing factorswhich have brought them about; but thereis so much that is mysterious and beyondanything we can ask or think, so much thatis a product of religious faith, and so muchevident working of divine Power, that wemust confess that People Movements aregifts of God. It is as if in the fullness of timeGod gives to His servants the priceless be-ginning of a People Movement. If that suc-ceeds, the church is firmly planted. If itfails, the missionary forces are back to thepreliminary stages of exploration. Yet theessential recognition that the People Move-ments to Christ is the supreme goal is notoften made by Christian leaders. Gifts ofGod come and go unrecognized; whileman-directed mission work is carried faith-fully, doggedly forward.

It is time to recognize that when revival re-ally begins in China, Japan, Africa, the Mus-lim world, and India, it will probably appearin the form of People Movements to Christ.This is the way in which Evangelical Chris-tianity spread in Roman Catholic Europe atthe time of the Reformation. It is the best wayfor it to spread in any land.

Five Great AdvantagesPeople Movements have five considerable ad-vantages. First, they have provided the Christianmovement with permanent churches rooted in thesoil of hundreds of thousands of villages. For theircontinued economic life they are quite inde-pendent of Western missions. They are accus-tomed (unfortunately too accustomed) to alow degree of education. Yet their devotionhas frequently been tested in the fires of perse-cution and found to be pure gold. They arehere to stay. They are permanent comrades onthe pilgrim way.

They have the advantage of being naturallyindigenous. In the Mission Station Approachthe convert is brought in as an individual to apattern dominated by the foreigner. Theforeigner has set the pace and the style, oftento his own dismay. But such denationalizationis a very minor affair in true PeopleMovements. In them the new Christiansseldom see the missionary. They are immersedin their own cultures. Their style of clothing, ofeating and of speaking continues almostunchanged. Their churches are necessarilybuilt like their houses—and are as indigenousas anyone could wish. They cannot sing orlearn foreign tunes readily, so local tunes areoften used. Thus an indigenous quality, highlysought and rarely found by leaders of theMission Station Approach churches, isobtained without effort by the PeopleMovement churches. Church headquarters,however, need to make special efforts to keepthoroughly indigenous their training of PeopleMovement youth and leadership.

People Movements have a third major advan-tage. With them “the spontaneous expansion ofthe Church” is natural. The phrase “spontane-ous expansion” sums up the valuable contri-bution to missionary thinking made byRoland Allen and World Dominion. It re-quires that new converts be formed intochurches which from the beginning are fullyequipped with all spiritual authority to mul-tiply themselves without any necessary refer-ence to the foreign missionaries. These mightbe helpful as advisers or assistants butshould never be necessary to the complete-ness of the Church or to its power of unlim-ited expansion. Spontaneous expansion 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 that the ecclesiastical traditions ofthe older churches are not necessarily usefulto the younger churches arising out of themissions from the West. New groups of con-verts are expected to multiply themselves inthe same way as did the new groups of con-

verts who were theearly churches. Advo-cates of spontaneousexpansion point outthat foreign directedmovements will in theend lead to sterilityand antagonism totheir sponsors, andthat therefore themethods now beingpursued, here calledthe Mission StationApproach, will neverbring us within mea-surable distance ofthe evangelization ofthe world.

Desirable as spon-taneous expansion is,it is a difficult idealfor the Mission Sta-tion Approachchurches to achieve.They might be freedfrom all bonds to theWestern churches,they might be con-

vinced that they had all the spiritual author-ity needed to multiply themselves, theymight be filled with the Holy Spirit andabound in desire to win others to Christ, andyet—just because they form a separatepeople and have no organic linkages withany other neighboring people—they wouldfind it extremely difficult to form newchurches. In People Movement churches, onthe contrary, spontaneous expansion is natu-ral. Both the desire to win their “own fold”and the opportunity to bear witness in unaf-fected intimate conversation are present to ahigh degree. There is abundant contactthrough which conviction can transmit itself.True, in People Movements this naturalgrowth can be and, alas, sometimes has been,slowed down by the atmosphere and tech-

niques of the all-pervading gathered colonyapproach. But once these are recognized andrenounced by the leaders of the PeopleMovement churches, it becomes compara-tively easy for spontaneous expansion to oc-cur. Missions can then, like Paul, deliberatelyattempt to use the relatively unplanned ex-pansion of a Christward People Movement toachieve still greater and more significant en-largement. Thus we come to the mostmarked advantage of these movements.

These movements have enormous possibilitiesof growth. That these possibilities are to-daylargely ignored and unrecognized even bythe leader of the churches does not diminisheither the truth or the importance of this fact.

The group movements are fringed withexterior growing points among their ownpeoples. As Paul discovered, the Palestinianmovement had growing points in manyplaces outside that country. Just so, everyChristward movement has many possibilitiesof growth on its fringes. For example, theMadigas have become Christians in largenumbers. They are the laborers of South In-dia. They have migrated to many places inIndia and even abroad. One cannot helpwondering whether a fervent proclamationby a modern Madiga St. Paul carrying thenews that “We Madigas are becoming Chris-tian by tens of thousands each year: we havefound the Savior and have as a people comeinto possession of the unsearchable riches ofChrist,” might not start Madiga Movementsin many parts of the world.

People Movements also have internalgrowing points; that is, the unconvertedpockets left by any such sweeping move-ment. Here the leaders of the Christian forcesmust 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 theChristian religion. Until the discipling of theentire people, there will be both internal andexternal growing points. Both will yield largereturns if cultivated.

Of rarer occurrence are the bridges to othercommunities, such as that over which St. Paullaunched his Gentile movements. In order tobe called a bridge, the connection must belarge enough to provide 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 individuals, but for the baptism ofenough groups in a short enough time and asmall enough area to create a People Move-ment in the other community. More of thesebridges would be found if they were assidu-ously sought. More would be used for the ex-pansion of the Christian faith if leaders couldbe led to understand them and become skilledin their use.

The possibilities for growth in PeopleMovements are not by any means confined todeveloping new movements. Leaders ofPeople Movement churches find that after thechurch has attained power and size the nor-mal process of growth, including the baptismof individual seekers on the fringes of thecongregations, often produce more quietregular in-gatherings year after year thanwas the case during the period of the greatestexuberance of the movement. One might con-clude that once a People Movement churchhas gained a hundred thousand converts,and has become indigenous to the land andforms a noticeable proportion of the popula-tion, it is likely to keep on growing. A moder-ate amount of missionary assistance, atplaces where the churches feel their need,produces results far beyond that which thoseaccustomed to the mission station traditionwould consider possible.

The fifth advantage is that these movementsprovide a sound pattern of becoming Christian. Be-ing a Christian is seen to mean not change instandard of living made possible by foreignfunds, but change in inner character made possibleby the power of God. In well-nurtured PeopleMovement churches, it is seen to mean theregular worship of God, the regular hearing ofthe Bible, the giving to the church, the disci-pline of the congregation, the spiritual care ex-ercised by the pastor, habits of prayer and per-sonal devotion and the eradication ofun-Christian types of behavior. This life, cen-tering in the village church, often built by theChristians themselves, is seen to be the mainfeature of the Christian religion. There are noimpressive institutions to divert attentionfrom the central fact. Christians become“people with churches, who worship God”rather than “people with hospitals who knowmedicine,” or “people with schools who getgood jobs.” The health of the Christian move-ment requires that the normal pattern be wellknown, not merely to the non-Christianpeoples, but to the leaders of church and mis-sion and to the rank and file of members. ThePeople Movement supplies the pattern whichcan be indefinitely reproduced. It is the pat-tern which with minor variations has obtainedthroughout history.

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