Westminster Biblical Missions

By Bruce F. Hunt

Preface to the Fourth Edition of John L. Nevius, The Planting and Development of Missionary Churches

In 1890 Dr. John L. Nevius, a Presbyterian missionary working in China, received an invitation to Korea from a group of seven young missionaries who were just beginning their work in that little peninsula off the east coast of Asia, which until then had been closed to missionaries. They asked him to give them two weeks of instructions in the missionary methods which he had first set forth in a series of articles in the Chinese Recorder in 1885.

To those two weeks of meetings and to the application of those principles set forth in that series of articles, later collected in this little booklet of ninety pages, many missionaries in Korea attribute much of the rapid growth of mission work in that country. There were only 100 communicants at the time these principles were adopted, but today there is a full grown, self-propagating, self-supporting and self-governing church of 800,000 members. However, these same missionaries, as well as Dr. Nevius himself, would be the first to insist that to God and to God alone belongs the glory for all that has been wrought in Korea. As both believed the methods were God’s, so they also be lieved that the results were God’s. Dr. Nevius, a seasoned missionary, always criticized existing methods of mission work in the light of God’s Word, and at the same time sought to find in God’s Word the principles which should direct all missionary activity.

The Korea Mission considered Dr. Nevius suggestions so important that they adopted them as mission policy, and in the early days gave all new missionaries a copy of this booklet and required them to pass an examination on it.

In the closing days of the nineteenth and the early days of the twentieth century, when the Student Volunteer Movement was at its height and hundreds of missionaries were leaving our shores, this booklet was used in mission study classes.

There are several books, notably The Korean Church and the Nevius Method and The Nevius Plan for Mission Work, both by C. A. Clark, The History of Protestant Mis sions in Korea by L. George Paik, History of the Korea Mis sion Presbyterian Church, U. S. A. by H. A. Rhodes, Gold in Korea by William N. Blair, and Missions at the Cross roads by T. S. Soltau, which tell the story of how the work grew in Korea and of Dr. Nevius influence on that work. It is because Dr. Nevius own booklet has been out of print for some time that the present edition is being published.

In setting forth his views Dr. Nevius believed that they were and should be biblical. However, he claimed no in fallibility for his statement of what God s Word had to say about missions. His articles breathe a spirit of humility. In reading them, one feels in touch with a man who has tried to use God s Word as the guide in his missionary work, and who has sought to find what God s Word teaches concern ing procedure in missionary work. There are places where Nevius can say, in regard to missionary procedure, I know this is right and that is wrong, because of the clear authority of God s Word. At other points he confesses his ignorance but reminds his readers that the final authority is and must be God s Word, instead of mere practicality. The young missionaries in Korea adopted his principles as policy be cause they believed these principles were founded on the Scriptures. Dr. Nevius had tried them, and found that the biblical methods were also the most practical, and the young missionaries in Korea who adopted them testified to the same thing.

Dr. Nevius preached expansion and wide evangelization without sacrificing either intensive work or indoctrination. He preached self-support without sacrificing the fundamental principle of dependence on God. He preached self-government while providing for the establishment of that government in such a way as to make it scripturally sound. He preached the necessity of using each Christian, whatever his station in life, while also providing for and insisting on a fully trained and equipped leadership. His illustrations are drawn largely from his own work and the mission fields of China, but most could be duplicated in a slightly changed form on the home field or in other lands, and are therefore applicable to other fields. Where the principles have been tested, notably in Korea, by certain missions in Ceylon, Madras, Japan, Uganda, West Africa, and by the Reformed Presbyterians in south China, they have been found to be practical and the results have been envied by many. It is strange that his methods have been adopted by so few.

In the midst of recent trends and world revolutions, Dr. Nevius principles are pertinent, challenging, and timely, rather than old fashioned and out of date, as the time of their writing might indicate.

Dr. Nevius emphasis on the principle that each man remain in the calling wherein he was called, caused him to have an interest in improving the lot of his Christian brothers where they were, so that long before modern social service movements and rural programs were inaugurated, he was helping Chinese farmers to improve their lot with the introduction of fruit trees. Among the early missionaries in Korea, known for their strong evangelistic emphasis, one might name W. L. Swallen, S. A. Moffett and W. B. Hunt, yet it is significant that to those familiar with the Korea of those days the phrases, Swallen’s apples, Moffett’s farm, and Hunt’s dairy have a familiar ring. This is quite understandable, for the principles set forth by Dr. Nevius, which they were seeking to follow, were an attempt to fulfill our Lord’s commission, not only to disciple all nations, but to teach the disciples all things, and to bring the gospel to bear on every phase of life.

Moreover, those who have followed Dr. Nevius scheme of starting from the very beginning to make the work self-propagating, self-supporting, and self-governing have found that the more consistently they followed these principles the freer they have been from the painful period of transition which often comes when the authority and financial bur dens of missionary work, begun in some other way, have had to be shifted from the home agency to the native church. The church, begun Dr. Nevius way, has from the beginning the authority that goes with responsibility, and the joy and freedom that go with sacrificial giving, and the painful period of transition is largely obviated. In recent years some fields find nationalism and an anti-foreign spirit closing doors to missionaries. This spirit as well as Com munism best feed on those very mistakes in missionary methods which Dr. Nevius sought to avoid.

The advantage of having the work, however young, self-propagating, self-supporting, and self-governing from the beginning, has been brought home with particular force within the last two decades when the world situation has twice put Korean Christians nominally in one camp, and western missionaries in the other. As enemies, the Korean Christians and their missionaries were separated from each other through the exigencies of war, but the work had been established in such a way that it carried on in spite of the sudden withdrawal of missionaries. The very fact that the native church was indeed self-propagating, self-supporting, and self-governing deprived the governments hostile to Christianity of an opportunity to charge that the church was an agent of the enemy country, and of the excuse based on that charge for closing the churches.

During and after the close of World War II there was a great upheaval in the missionary enterprise. Practically all missionaries were driven from China. Many such displaced missionaries went to Formosa, Hong Kong, Korea or Japan. In addition to this, the seemingly open doors in Japan, Formosa, and Korea attracted many new missionaries. What an unusual opportunity to evaluate past successes and fail ures, to correct the mistakes and profit from the successes! Yet too often it seems that zeal has gone ahead of knowledge and the old mistakes were not only repeated in new fields but, in the name of Christian love and relief, some of these mistakes are being greatly magnified and much solid work is being sorely handicapped by a philanthropy that pauper izes and makes its converts weak and dependent. Young missionaries, with hearts burning to make Christ known, too often find themselves disillusioned and frustrated. Is it too late to correct these mistakes?

What has been called the Great Commission still stands. Until our Lord returns the work is not done. It has been well said that those living today must hear the gospel from those living today, i.e., their contemporaries. We must use methods which will measure up to the task to be performed, a total task. Dr. Nevius attempted to suggest such methods. A re-study of the so-called Nevius principles and especially of Dr. Nevius own book which, from the vantage point of a seasoned and effective missionary, points us back to the Word of God, should give direction to a mis sionary movement whereby the gospel may be preached to the whole world in this generation.

It is our prayer that the reprinting of this book will contribute to the accomplishment of Christ s commission to the church when He said, Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.

Bruce F. Hunt,
Missionary to Korea, The Orthodox Presbyterian Church
Pusan, Korea, June 1958

Posted on February 20th, 2007 by Rev. Eric Bristley
Filed under: Missions