VOL. LIU. >BER 13, 1932. NO. 40. SHALL CHRISTIAN CHURCHES IN THE MIS SIONARY FIELD BE SUBSMZED BY HOMECHURCHES New York, October, 1932. Albert L. Scott, Chairman of the Laymen’s Foreign Mis sions Inquiry, authorizes the following: Today is made public an in stalment of the Report of the Appraisal Commission appoint ed by the Laymen’s Foreign Missions Inquiry to examine and recommend concerning the future plan and scope of for eign missions effort in the Far East. The Laymen’s Inquiry represents seven of the leading Protestant demoniflations, and the Report, which will be pub lished late this fall, embodies a two years’ study of the sub ject by experts. Tne Appraisal commission, consisting of fifteen prominent churchmen, has recently re turned from a nine months’ ex amination of missions effort on the ground in China, Japan, In dia and Burma. The seven denominations re presented in the Inquiry sup port some 10,000 missionaries in the four countries visited, and annually contribute ap proximately $15,000,000 for foreign missions effort. In the firjst instalment issued the Commission was quoted as say ing that the effecting of chang es in foreign missions effort should be “the condition of eve ry further enlargement of the enterprise.” The instalments being released through the press indicate the nature of the cuatiges recommended. This single thing has brought weak ness in life and morale to the missionary church to the same extent that the pay ment of foreign subsidies has done. It has introduced an element of commercialism into the very inner courts of the church. It has tended to produce parasites, it has cut the nerve of forward-moving ad venture on the part of those who should have been the lead ers of the indigenous church, and it has often given an undue influence to the missionaries who dispensed it. “There are naturally solitary cases where subsidies have been a blessing and where they have not had such serious consequences. But no church in any land will be robust and virile until it supports itself out of its own resources through its own endeavors. All new churches should, so fair as is humanly possible, be indigenous and self supporting from the start. “Only about one-imra ui me local churches in China and Ja pan are at the present time entirely self-supporting finan cially. The percentage of self supportinjg churtehes is still smaller in India, though there are sections of the country where the proportion of self supporting churches has great ly increased in recent years. In Burma the percentage of self supporting1 churches is lajrger than in any other part of. the Orient. It is believed that eighy per cent of the Baptist churches in Burma, and fifty per cent 'of the Methodist churches are self-supporting. Proportion Keceivirtg Subsidies “About thirty per 'cent of the churches founded by Amer ican missionaries are at present receiving subsidies directly from America, though a small proportion of them could sup port thiemselves if they weref thrown upon their own resourc es and made to feel a sense of responsibility for their contin ued existence. There is an ex tensive leakage from the mem bership of many of the church es, due not so much to expul sions firom membership or to the application of church dis cipline a® to the loss of interest waning of ^seal and genera drift 4nto the currents of secu lar life. “The problem *of crjeajting a wholly independent indigenous church ig peculiarly difficult ir India in parts of the country where there is a preponderance of depressed class people form ing th membership of ' the church. So long as a church is composed of members of thai class it is extremely difficult tc induce members o$ higher castes to join it, and there is, too, the further difficulty that the depressed class member* themselves do not welcome ad ditions to their membership from the castes. “No quick and hurried solu tion of the problem can be made. The mission must go as far as it can go in wisdom to ward meeting the aspiration of the members of the church for independent control, and it should in eve# possible way, prepare the church members for the leadership which they desire, rerioa or iNuriure ixeeaea “The new Christian groups will, of course, need an early period of nurture by leaders from neftlfby churches and they must have visits from the of ficials or laymen who live withir reach of their area, but when community groups begin life a* organized churches they should expect to stand On their own feet. ^ ,' the Christian religion in the future to permeate the personal life of the individual and the fabric of human society witfc creative ideals and energies which will renew and revitalize both the single units and the group rather than to build a church as an institution to stand out as an entity in itself apart from the larger whole of society. “The organization of church es and the zeal to proselyte in to them members who could be counted in statistics and report ed to boards at home have in many cases defeated the central business of missionary pur pose. The convert has been prematurely hurried into a church as though it were a ter minus and an end in itself, *svhem what he rather needed was an enlarged view and out look of life and friendly help and guidance to take the slow steps which would lead on into a more robust moral and spir itual life. Should Be Indigenous “More and more in the future the church in missionary lands will become indigenous in the proper sense of the word, as it certainly should be, and that will mean that it will not be fi nanced with foreign money, or conducted by foreign workers, or projected and patterned on a foreign-made etecltesjastical system. It must become a living organism rather than the copy cf a structural pattern. “It must express in its own life-forms the free functioning of the Christian spirit. That means that it must not be afraid to change its |empo(ral form or to outgrow the pecu liar features stamped upon it by the dominant personalities who nurtured it. *‘It should become in the tru est sense the living expression of the ideals and principles of Christ, and these ideals and principles should control its en tire life.” The Inquiry was sponsored and financed by laymen of sev en Protestant denominations as follows: Presbyterian, Dutch Reformed, United Presbyteri an, Methodist Episcopal, Con gregational, Protestant Episco pal and Northern Baptist. The Appraisal Commission consists of the following: Dr. William Ernest Hocking, Alford Professor of Philosophy al Harvard University, Chairman Dr. Clarence A. Barbour, President of Brown University; °f Troy, N. vJ'nri0 4; ?rown’ President Madison, N.-J.,* Dr. Charles Phillips Emerson, - Professor of Medi cine and Dean of the Medical School of the University of In diana; Mrs. William E. Hock ing, Cambridge, Mass.; Doctor £ ^oufiThton, Dean of the Medical College of the Uhi ve^ity of Iowa; Dr. Rufus Mi Joabs, Professor of Philosophy at Haverford College; Dr. Wil liam Pierson Merrill, pastor of the Brick church in New York; Albert L. Scott, of New York City; Mr. and Mrs. Harper Sib ley, of Rochester, N. Y. ; Doctor Henry C. Taylor, Specialist in Agricultural Problems, of Bun iington, Vermont; Df. Frederic C. Woodward, Vice-President of the University of Chicago, and Miss Ruth F. Woodsmall, of Indianapolis, Ind. REV. T. B. HARGRAVE CONDUCTS SUCCUSS.HJ1 REVIVAL IN REEVE’S ME MOK1AL CHURCH, t*H!LA. 1 Our beloved and efficient pastor, the Rev. George P. Ellir son, announced a few Sundays ago that the session had voted to have a fall series of evangel istic services, and that he had been successful in securing the Rev. T. B. Hargrave to conduct this drive. Rev. Hargrave was remem bered by many for his work here three or four years ago i and we were delighted to have him return. Each night the meeting grew in fervor and the attendance was larger than in any previous meeting. Our Junior choir as sisted in rendering evangelist is music and our new pipe organ was heavenly. Mrs. Hargrave assisted on several occasions with the music and her services were highly appreciated. Al though the weather was cold and raining most of the week, the members and friends came each night. On Sunday a mul 4itude visited our four services and there was a harvest in souls. Thirty came forward and confessed Christ. This is the secret of our pas tor’s success: he forever keeps the Spirit of Evangelism alive in our church. - Rev. Hargrave stressed personal evangelism, tnat every soui De a sow-saver. The Junior Evangelistic ser vice is one of the best move ments in the church. Children should be made to feel that they are a part of the church. It is interesting to see the children who already belong to the church go to their friends who are not professing Christians and win them. We can see why even the old and hard-hearted are often won. Our meeting closed Sunday night, Oct. *16, and our prayers go with thfe Evangelist and his family. Last week Revs. Ellison and Hargrave and Mrs. Hargrave and Mrs. Johnson, her mother, motored to Lincoln University and Oxford. The Evangelist and Mrs. Hargrave were in a party with Dr. C. T. C. Nurse and friends who visited Chaney State College and witnessed a foot ball game and a beautiful program celebrating Chaney day. Many friends of the city helped to make their stay a pleasant one. I hope you have been going on your way singing pome more notes of the “new song,” tun ing your hearts for the Hale lujah Chorus at the coming of .he Lord with all His saints— A Bonar. Dice wl »i one admire deep; youthfu] full dress and wmte .. r_„ be knocking tender ly at your front door. or be In -looking through the pag “ m