Student Volunteer Movement
From Missiopedia
“It may well be that the future historian will count the Student Volunteer Movement as one of the most remarkable and significant movements in the history of the Church of God and that in coming generations multitudes of visitors from distant lands may seek Mount Hermon as the place where this historic Movement was born.” (Smalley 1980)
In the twenty years since, the Movement has been indeed often cited and often lauded. The SVM, as most students of missions know, was the American mission mobilization movement of the early 1900s, tied inextricably with the campaign “to evangelize the world in this generation.” Born in 1886 and lasting nearly a century, the first third of its existence saw its remarkable growth until its peak at about 1920.
In the post-World War I era it was caught up in the “the cynicism and confusion of a new era” (Smalley). Although it tried to adapt to its new situation, it failed and wandered uncertainly for a generation before the world collided in World War II. Afterward it tried to find some stability—but not in its original mission. It underwent multiple identity changes and finally ceased to exist in the mid 1960s.
[edit] History
[edit] Deep Background: The Revolutionary Period (1704-1794)
1789 is the date marked as the beginning of the ‘Modern Era’ by the Encyclopedia of World History. This date—toward the end of the American crisis—represents a “phase transition” in the wider world as well: the beginning of the French revolution and the introduction of industrialization.
Population growth had doubled every 25 years from 1704-1773, then tapered off slowly. It grew from 2.1 million in 1770 to 2.7 million in 1780 (an increase of 600,000); but by 1790 it grew to 3.9 million (an increase of 1.2 million).
Intermarriage between people of different countries was causing a loss of ethnic identity and forging the identity of ‘American’ (US Census department). Although immigration was by no means the major form of growth, still the tide of immigrants was steadily increasing, primarily through the port of Philadelphia: there, Presbyterians and Baptists now outnumbered the original Quaker founders (McCullough 2001).
Americans were over 90% rural, living on the eastern seaboard in a strip stretching from Maine to Spanish Florida (the rest of the country, to the Mississippi River, being largely wilderness). Although the coastal cities were vulnerable, the small rural settlements could not be occupied by the invading armies of the day and thus they were able to endure. These small rural settlements and states were very independent from each other, and each had vastly different ideas about what independence from Britain would look like. There was a significant social distinction from the fishermen of the far north, the poorer, frugal Puritan/Pietistic holders of small landplots in New England, the urbanites of New York and Philadelphia, and the wealthy aristocratic landholders in the southern states who held both large amounts of debt and slaves. Militias in each area defended the individual states from attack, and little was done in a unified way. Each colony had its own form of currency, and exchange rates were uneven. The idea of a standing army was anathema to many, but abruptly made necessary.
America’s relationship with Britain had unraveled and the explosive War for Independence shattered the ties. With the war won in 1781 and formalized in 1783, the nation remained to be formed. During the critical period of 1783-84 the country went through a deep economic crisis, army mutinies and rebellions. The Constitutional Convention of 1787 firmly established a stable government. ‘America’ was born as a united nation: but while the states considered themselves siblings they still had to learn how to play together nicely.
Disease was rampant: for every soldier killed in the war, 17 died of disease and for certain months out of each year the seat of American government virtually ceased to function as people fled epidemics in the cities.
Although after the French & Indian Wars many in America had disliked and even hated the French, during the course of this period Americans came to look upon the French as the ones most likely to save the American Revolution from failing. ‘French Fever’ developed and significantly colored American culture (McCullough 2001).
Over 760,000 Africans (slaves and free) made up roughly 20% of the American population, with several thousand fighting in the Wars. Some, like Abigail Adams, wondered how a nation could fight for freedom while not freeing its slaves (McCullough 2001). By 1784, all slavery in the New England states was prohibited (or in the process of being prohibited). By 1804, slavery in the Middle colonies likewise was prohibited.
Several “mini-revivals” broke out between 1781 and 1785 on college campuses: Dartmouth, Princeton, Yale, Williams and Hampden-Sydney were all precursors of the revivals of the early 1800s. Over half of the population (55%, adjusted for children) belonged to mainline denominations (Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians) in 1776; this share began to decline so that by 1850, mainline denominations accounted for just 19%. Methodists and Baptists meanwhile rose from 19% to 55% by 1850 (essentially, in roughly 75 years the situation had reversed). This happened while the population was rising dramatically and the number of Christians affiliated with churches rose by 20% (Finke and Stark 2005).
Events in England would eventually affect America’s mission movement. In 1785, the Protestant denominations of England cooperated for the first time since the Reformation to create the Sunday School Society, in order to extend Sunday Schools throughout the empire (Barrett et al. 2001). The Sunday School would become the primary mechanism for giving the young a heart for missions. English Baptist minister Andrew Fuller was publishing dozens of pamphlets urging obedience to the Great Commission. A concept called “Concerts of Prayer,” initially envisioned by Great Awakening preacher Jonathan Edwards, had made its way from England to America and was becoming widespread. The colonies were still far too isolated and separated culturally to consider something like missionary sending societies, but the spark of the American missionary movement was set off in 1792: in England, William Carey published the widely read Enquiry into the obligations of Christians to use means for the conversion of the heathens, and the next year sailed for India.
[edit] The Civil War Era (1794-1865)
[edit] Global Context
The Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and Ottoman empires were in decline (Langer and Searns 2001). France was convulsing (with the Reign of Terror in 1793 ending with the empire of Napoleon in 1804). After France’s decline through revolution and war, the British empire became the most powerful force in the world. The 19th century was a time of invention (including a smallpox vaccine 1796, the electric battery 1800, the coining of ‘biology’ 1802, discovery of morphine 1806, and the first glider 1809). The railroad was a major new transportation mechanism that would open up the American continent. The world was urbanizing, population growth was taking off, new lands (mostly Pacific islands) and old cities (like Pompeii) were being discovered. New artistic classics were being created (Sir Walter Scott, Jane Austen, the Grimm brothers, and Mary Shelley). Slavery was being reduced, and would eventually be banned by the British throughout their domains. Most of the Latin American colonies freed themselves toward the end of this period.
[edit] Demographics
In America, the population exploded: up until the 1790s immigration averaged less than 10,000 people per year. European immigration was limited from 1790 to 1820 due to the wars. It picked up after 1820, however, making a significant impact on the culture of America. The Louisiana Purchase added nearly 2 million people who occupied the nine new states and three new territories—most of them French speakers who remained culturally isolated. Over 2 million Irish came to America fleeing famine. Joining them were 1 million German immigrants as well as 750,000 from Canada and the United Kingdom (Langer and Searns 2001). The foreign born population in America was just 1.6% in 1830, but it rose to 9.7% by 1850 (US Census Department).
[edit] Cultural Trends
America solidified during this time, and although there were many dark moments at the beginning of the period, the peaceful transfer of power from one president to another was achieved, validating the governmental system. Political parties were formed and events became politically charged, with mud-slinging in newspapers having no limits on libel.
Washington served two terms as President. During his administration, the French Revolt occurred. France sent ‘Citizen’ Genet to America to rouse support for France and spread the principles of the French Revolution. When Washington insisted on neutrality, Genet decided he had to foment insurrection in America and facilitated the launch Jacobin clubs—pro-French democratic societies that were secret political clubs verging on vigilante groups seemingly bent on gaining French control over American politics (McCullough 2001). During the Whiskey Rebellion, mock guillotines were to be found and rebels shot up portraits of Washington (Winik 2007).
In 1793 this ‘French Fever’ hit its peak and began to reverse when the Revolution became the Reign of Terror, with thousands executed. While some (like Jefferson) still glorified the French Revolution, other voices (like Adams) were raised in alarm. The nation became violently anti-France particularly after the XYZ Affair became public, and most were itching for war.
The presidency of John Adams got caught in the midst of this trend. At that time, the President and Vice President could be from two separate parties (as was the case with Adams and Jefferson), and Vice-President Jefferson gave little to no support to Adams. Acts such as the Alien and Sedition act (which would have made it possible to expel all French-speakers, and which made a crime of printing provable lies in order to clamp down on newspaper-based slander), answered by the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions (which said states could nullify acts of Congress within their borders) set the stage for later battles over states’ rights. Although Adams managed to keep America out of war with France, the politicking cost him a second term (McCullough 2001).
The tie in the election of 1800 led to the Twelfth Amendment (1804) which separated voting for President and Vice-president. Party wrangling continued until the administration of James Monroe, when an ‘era of good feeling’ set in and party strife seemed to disappear—for a time (Langer and Searns 2001).
The northern economy began industrializing, creating a surge toward urbanization and new social classes (Langer and Searns 2001). This was particularly hard on rural dwellers who saw the value of their work decline. In the south, the emergence of “King Cotton” increased the migration west of slaveholders and over 835,000 slaves from the southeast to the southwest. In the rural areas, technological advances such as the wheat reapers and steel plows made increased agricultural possible. The Panic of 1837, an economic crash, came about because of a wave of speculation and reckless expansion; there was a period of declining employment and rising prices. Annexations of several new territories (the Lousiana Purchase, Texas and the American Northwest) led to the idea of Manifest Destiny and a mad rush West, yet also complicated arguments about slavery. The California Gold Rush of 1849 resulted in significant immigration as well as a mass western migration, so that California gained statehood in 1850 with a population of 90,000 (US Census Department).
Tensions between the North and South over the issue of slavery, states’ rights, and the fear of southern domination by an industrialized north grew toward the inevitable conclusion of conflict. Rhetorically violent arguments were held both in Congress and through the press. The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 was the sharp beginning of the Crisis.
[edit] Christianity
Through the period of the Revolutionary War and its aftermath, morals and fidelity to the Gospel had significantly declined.
- “Family worship was neglected, and little attention was paid to the training of youth… The Indian wars having terminated, an immense tide of immigration poured into the older settlements. The protracted wars with the Indians had exerted a demoralizing influence to a wide extent. The introduction and manufacture of alcoholic liquors… and their use in almost every family… was frightfully destructive.” (Christian 1922).
Even with the popular surge against the French and the general desire for war, much pro-French and pro-Enlightenment sentiment still remained. The publication of Thomas Paine’s Age of Reason brought about widespread atheism that penetrated much of society.
- “It was the general opinion among intelligent Christians, toward the close of the century, a majority of the population were either avowedly infidels or skeptically inclined. There were but few men in the profession of law and physics who would avow their belief in Christianity. Amongst the less informed classes the ‘Age of Reason’ was a most popular book, and obtained extensive circulation, while Bibles were obtained with difficulty, and found a place only in religious families” (Peck 1852)
Colleges such as Yale were
- in a most ungodly state. The college church was almost extinct. Most of the students were skeptical, and rowdies were plenty. Wine and liquors were kept in many rooms; intemperance, profanity, gambling, and licentiousness were common. I hardly know how I escaped .... Boys that dressed flax in the barn, as I used to do, read Tom Paine and believed him; I read and fought him all the way. I never had any propensity to infidelity. But most of the class before me were infidels, and called each other Voltaire, D’Alembert, &c. (Christian 1922).
Meanwhile many of the new western territories became famous for “vicious practices.”
- Logan county, when my father moved into it, was called “Rogues’ Harbor.” Here many refugees from all parts of the Union fled to escape punishment or justice; for although there was law, yet it could not be executed, and it was a desperate state of society. Murderers, horse thieves, highway robbers, and counterfeiters fled there, until they combined and actually formed a majority. Those who favored a better state of morals were called “Regulators.” But they encountered fierce opposition from the “Rogues,” and a battle was fought with guns, pistols, dirks, knives and clubs, in which the “Regulators” were defeated (Christian 1922).
In this degrading moral situation, small revivals sparking now exploded into a Second Great Awakening (1797-1801). Emphasizing piety over theological education, it led to massive grass-roots church growth, while its stress on human will and the ability of people to change catalyzed numerous reform movements (Langer and Searns 2001). Among others these included prison reform, temperance, women’s suffrage and the crusade to abolish slavery. Congregationalists set up home mission societies to evangelize the new Western states. New denominations were being created. Many new utopian and millennialist sects were being formed.
[edit] Missions
Along with the imperial expansion worldwide, Christians were spreading out too. The early part of the period saw numerous European (mostly English) missionary societies launched: London Missionary Society, Edinburgh Missionary Society, Scottish Missionary Society, Glasgow Missionary Society, Netherlands Missionary Society and the Church Missionary Society. At the same time, Bible societies like the British & Foreign Bible Society were being founded too. By 1800, Protestant missionaries worldwide numbered about 100 (Barrett et al. 2001).
It is no surprise that, in the midst of its expansionistic high, in the throes of the Great Awakening, and inspired by European missionaries, Americans began forming missionary societies to engage the world. The earliest were formed in 1802: the Massachusetts Baptist Mission Society (by Hezekiah Smith, 1737-1805) as well as the early Bible Societies (Philadelphia Bible Society, Massachusetts Bible Society, New York Bible Society).
Samuel Mills grew up during this period. Born in 1783, his father was a Congregational minister and his mother had a passion for missions, reportedly saying “I have consecrated this child to the service of God as a missionary.” He was converted at 17, in 1800, when the Great Awakening touched his father’s church, although this was likely more a confirmation or dedication than a conversion such as Luther Rice’s. He entered Williams College in 1806, selecting it for the spiritual fervor that was at work in the college. The well known Haystack Prayer Meeting occurred in 1806 when, deeply influenced by the writings and work of William Carey, Mills, Rice and three others were discussing missions in the course of a prayer meeting and dedicated themselves to the missionary cause.
Luther Rice was born in the same year as Mills, the ninth child and youngest of the boys. He lived in Northborough and was part of the Congregationalist church. His father never seemed to express any love, affection or appreciation toward him; indeed, his father was apparently an alcoholic who often took out his rage on Rice. The church they attended was more liberal; through the Halfway Covenant it allowed people who were unsaved to join the church and take communion. Despite the less-than-interested believers around him, Rice finally came to Christ through three years of personal searching. He went to Leicester for two years of higher education, and then on to Williams College where he met Mills and others.
Mills, Rice and three others formed a secret missionary society. Some documentation intimates they kept it secret because they thought the church might be intimidated; a more likely reason is that they kept it secret to avoid persecution by non-Christian classmates. Mills and Rice both transferred to Andover, where they met and were led by Adoniram Judson. In 1810, they petitioned the General Association of Massachusetts to send them as missionaries, but the association was reluctant to do so given the financial expense involved. Nonetheless their addresses eventually resulted in the formation of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
Although others were sent out (including, temporarily, Mills’ friend Luther Rice), Mills himself remained in America as a home missionary and mobilize. In 1816 he helped to found the American Bible Society, and facilitated the establishment of schools for Africans who wished to be preachers and teachers. He was chosen by the American Colonization Society to go to Africa for 2 months to select an eligible site for settlement (in connection to the Liberia project) but died at sea on his homeward voyage.
Rice went with Adoniram Judson and others to Asia, and on the way along with the Judsons he changed to a Baptist line of thought. He returned to the United States to petition the Baptists to support their work. There, he became a passionate advocate for mission work, beginning to galvanize and organize the Baptists. Between 1813 and 1814 he helped to form 17 missionary societies stretching from Boston to Georgia. He envisioned a great national organization for missions despite Baptists’ firm adherence to the autonomy of the local church. He ended up having many struggles with Baptists yet was very instrumental in the launching of much of the modern Baptist missionary program.
Mills and Rice both envisioned a great awakening for missions. Unfortunately, this vision was perhaps too early. However, it helped to lay the groundwork for the future. The home missionary societies they helped to start catalyzed the Third Great Awakening which surged up in the 1850s, only briefly interrupted by the American Civil War. Methodists and Baptists made enormous gains during this period, and the Presbyterians made smaller but notable gains as well. Some camp meetings attracted as many as 20,000 people.
Moreover, this foundation would lead through at least one direct path to the Student Volunteer Movement. The ABCFM that Mills, Rice, Judson and others helped to catalyze began busily sending out missionaries to India, Sri Lanka, Hawaii, China, Singapore, Thailand, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Syria, Israel, Iran, West Africa and Southern Africa. Of the 372 members of the Society at Andover seminary, 217 entered the foreign mission field. One of them was Royal Wilder.
[edit] The Great Power Era (1870s-1910s)
[edit] Demographics
Nearly 10% of the total American population was mobilized as soldiers (2.2 million for the Union and 1.0 million for the Confederates), which actually represented something like 20% of the men. By the end of the war, over 620,000 soldiers were dead or wounded, along with an uncounted number of civilians. The Civil War produced more American deaths than any other war in history (World War II saw by comparison 400,000 dead).
Women in both the north and the south had filled clerical jobs that men had left in order to go to war. After the war, women continued to be employed in offices. The introduction of the typewriter in the 1880s led to more office jobs for women (women's hands were considered to be better suited to typing than men's, being smaller and more nimble). By 1880, 40% of the stenographers and typists were women, and by 1900, the percentage had risen to 75%. The federal bureaucracy found more jobs for women as it grew; by 1900, women occupied one-third of all government jobs. The infant telephone industry decided women were natural switchboard operators as soon as it discovered that men tended to talk back to the customers. Women also made inroads into library work (Collins 2007). More than just employment was to be had, too. The male population in a wide span of ages was so severely reduced that the women were forced to take over businesses, banks and found their own colleges.
[edit] The 1870s: rebuilding the missions movement
Formative thinking
There was a noticeable uptick in expansionistic missions thinking. Joseph Hassell of England published From pole to pole: a handbook of Christian missions for the use of ministers, teachers and others, optimistically believing world evangelization was possible. Dr. Joseph Angus preached a sermon entitled “Apostolic Missions: or, the Gospel for every creature” before the Baptist Missionary Society. His suggestion that 50,000 preachers supported by $50 to $75 million yearly could evangelize the world in a decade sparked the thinking of Rev. A. T. Pierson. Simeon Calhoun, missionary to Syria, wrote that “if the Church of Christ were what she ought to be, twenty years would not pass till the story of the cross should be uttered in the ears of every living man.” F. F. Ellinwood published The Great Conquest saying, “The generation now living is our stewardship.” In 1877, 120 missionaries representing most of the denominations working in China met in Shanghai to discuss the evangelization of that land, and produced an appeal that the church could evangelize the world (Johnson 1988).
Women in missions
Action followed talk. Women, who were becoming so active in all realms of life (largely taking up tasks which there were too few men to take up) began taking up the task of missions too. In 1860 women began forming autonomous women’s boards to send out women as missionaries (Edwards and Gifford 2003). One example: Mrs. Sarah Doremus founded the Women’s Union Missionary Society of America for Heathen Lands as a vehicle to send single women as missionaries to women in closed societies where the women were unreachable by male missionaries. Baptist women were contemplating organizing for missions beyond just the local church level: “The Baltimore women who circularized the South with calls for women to give their mites for missions also advocated organizing Southern Baptist women into local societies and state committees for the purpose of greater efficiency.” (Women’s Missionary Union).In 1876, a small youth group called the “Mizpah Circle” was formed at Williston Congregational Church, led by Harriet Clark. It was a missionary circle for young people, and it would go on to become the massive worldwide organization Christian Endeavor (www.willistonwest.org).
Student movements
The intersection of the lives of three men would catalyze a movement that would last through World War II. First, the YMCA formally organized a college division and appointed its first campus staff member, Luther Wishard, to direct its work in the higher education institutions of the United States. From 1877 to 1884, Wishard grew the student movement with an emphasis on prayer, Bible study, and evangelism. After hearing the story of Samuel Mills, he made a pilgrimage to Williams College in 1878 where he knelt and prayed in the snow at the Haystack Monument, and began seeking a greater emphasis on the Great Commission in the YMCA.
In a prayer meeting at a Presbyterian church in Detroit, A. T. Pierson for the first time voiced his conviction that the world could be completely evangelized in the present generation (Johnson 1988). Pierson would go on to become one of the most consistent leading voices for world evangelization by 1900.
Then there was Robert Wilder. Born in Kolhapur, India in 1863 to Royal Wilder, Robert lived for the first fourteen years of his life in India as an MK of a pioneering missionary family. After thirty years of serving in India, Royal Wilder, who suffered from ill health, was forced to return home. The family lived in Princeton, but the mission field remained in their hearts. Royal Wilder founded and edited The Missionary Review of the World, which would become a very influential missionary publication advocating world evangelization. His daughter Grace went to Mount Holyoke, the first women’s seminary, located in Massachusetts. Robert Wilder began studies in Princeton.
[edit] The 1880s: asking the question
In 1881, A. T. Pierson published his catalytic “Can the world be evangelized in twenty years?” in The Missionary Review. It would be thought about and argued with for three years, but eventually in part spark the Student Volunteer Movement. Numerous articles and letters would debate the meaning of the term 'evangelize' and the scope of what was necessary.
Throughout the 1880s, the Southern Baptist women who wanted a centralized regional denomination were debating with conservatives who wanted Baptist power to remain in the hands of local churches and state convictions. The conflict also reflected a progressive-vs-conservatives view, for the conservatives saw in the women's work the potential for “things unwomanly,” notably speaking before “mixed assemblies” (Women's Missionary Union).
In February 1881, Christian Endeavor was formed by Francis & Harriet Clark (she, active in the women's missionary society movements) as a gathering of young people for a mission focus.
[edit] 1883: praying for a fire
At Princeton, Robert Wilder studied hard but felt a missionary calling. He met with other students to regularly study the Bible and pray for missions, and at the beginning of his junior year attended a conference of the “Interseminary Alliance.” There he challenged fellow students to pray for revival at Princeton and consider missions. In 1883, he helped form the Princeton Foreign Mission Society, with the covenant “We, the undersigned, declare ourselves willing and desirous, God permitting, to go to the unevangelized portions of the world” (Pierce).
His sister Grace Wilder had started a girl's student group at Mt. Holyoke with a similar declaration, and 34 girls signed their names. The Princeton group met on Sundays at the Wilder home; while they met in one room, Grace prayed for them in another (since girls at that time were not permitted to join the meetings). During Robert’s senior year, he and Grace regularly prayed for a widespread missionary movement in the colleges of America from which a thousand missionaries would be sent out.
[edit] 1885: sparks a fly
In 1885, an event brought a spark to this growing missions fuel: seven young Cambridge graduates determined that they would go to China as missionaries. Among them was C. T. Studd, the famous cricket player, who would go out with CIM and eventually found WEC International. Huge crowds came to hear their testimony. “No other event of the century, in my judgment, has had so powerful an influence in quickening the missionary spirit,” said Dr. Eugene Stock (LMS) in an address on “A Century of Mission Work” given at Carnegie Hall (Stock 1900).
That summer, J. E. K. Studd, the older brother of C. T. Studd, “took the fervor of the Cambridge Seven with him to America.” Studd was respected by D. L. Moody, the Billy Graham of his day, who invited Studd to his annual month-long summer Bible Camp (which would come to be known as Northfield 1885). At this, the third such annual conference, Moody's friend A. T. Pierson was asked to speak on the theme of missions at the evening meeting. His impassioned call for world evangelization by 1900 “so impelled Moody” that he formed a committee of six on the spot, who produced “An Appeal to Disciples Everywhere.” The committee among others included Pierson, Studd, and Miss E. Dryer of Chicago Avenue Church. Studd was then commissioned from the conference to stump US colleges for missionary candidates; he was responsible for recruiting John R. Mott from Cornell and bringing him back to Northfield 1886.
During 1885 and 1886 the Southern Baptist women finally temporarily settled the question of a women's organization by deciding that each state convention would appoint a central committee of women to oversee the women's work (mainly missions mobilization) in that state. States that opposed women's organizations (like Virginia) didn't appoint the committee--but most did, and the work of organizing women for the cause of missions began immeidately and in earnest: “[Between 1885 and 1886], the state central committees were being appointed, the women's societies were being grouped by states under the leadership of the central committees, and a corporate consciousness was being developed. The Heathen Helper, edited by Miss Agnes Osborn, Louisville, furnished a medium of communication among the societies throughout the South, and served as a voice to express the developing consciousness.” (Women’s Missionary Union)
[edit] 1886: the bonfire catches
In 1886, the social/religious context was favorable in nearly all ways for the birth and growth of the SVM. It was a time of dominance and prestige for Western civilization. Imperialistic expansion was condoned as an altruistic response to increased knowledge of the non-Western world. The rising nationalism of the era provided important motivation for the foreign missionary enterprise, for the success of American civilization was attributed to its Christian basis. Protestant foreign missionaries were heroes and heroines for the American public (Smalley 1980). Yet, “though they strove as Christians to keep the priority on spiritual religion and to be aware of the difference between faith and culture, it was not difficult in the spirit of those times to lose the distinction and to see Christian civilization as a main outcome of faith, if not its chief outcome” (Handy 1971).
Perhaps the greatest impact of the SVM was through its example. In his 1900 address, Dr. Stock (LMS) said, “The student volunteer movement we owe to America. In America every one of the leaders, one after the other, has gone to the mission field. They have said not, ‘You ought to go!’ but ‘Follow us!’”
A. T. Pierson published his first book, The Crisis of Missions, which contained the “Appeal to Disciples Everywhere” as well as a call for an ecumenical council which would divide up the unevangelized world between the various agencies (Johnson 1988). Robert Arthington, a leader with the Church Missionary Society, likewise put forth a resolution at a CMS meeting to hold a meeting to map out the world. Upon hearing this, Pierson urged that it be done by 1892, choosing that date because it was the 100th anniversary of Cary's Baptist Missionary Society. Arthington agreed that no time should be lost (Johnson 1988).
In the fateful summer of 1886, this great brew led almost inevitably to a flashpoint. D. L. Moody had been persuaded to host a summer Bible conference at Mount Hermon, Massachusetts, near Northfield. It became known in missions lore as Northfield 1886. The event was to last 26 days. It was attended by 250 men from 96 colleges, including among them John R. Mott and Robert Wilder. Before Robert left for the conference, his sister Grace prophesied that there would be 100 student volunteers for the foreign mission field enlisted there (Pierce).
Wishard's influence led to several significant missionary events, including speeches by A. T. Pierson. Wilder took the initiative to create an interest circle for foreign missions. He and other organizers persuaded Moody to have a world mission night when ten students would share about foreign missions. Wilder found ten students (including himself), some of whom were foreigners and some of whom were missionary kids. The “Meeting of Ten Nations” had an incredible impact that led to the pledging of 100 students for foreign missions. Yet the long-term result of the meeting would be far more significant.
On the last day of the conference the volunteers held a meeting and agreed that the missionary spirit “should be communicated in some degree to thousands of students throughout the country.”
Prior to this time, few missionary meetings were held in any college in America; missionary libraries were virtually non-existent, missionary contributions almost unknown, and mission-study classes nearly “unthinkable.” In England a group of seven Cambridge men had been visiting the colleges seeking recruits for the foreign field. This idea was at once adopted by the American movement. Together or separately, Forman and Wilder visited during the next year 167 institutions of learning, and 2,200 volunteers, men and women, enrolled. (Erb 1916)
A deputation of 4 students was selected to represent the Mt. Hermon Conference and visit during a year as many American colleges as possible, but of the four selected, only one was able to undertake the mission: Robert Wilder. Robert was willing to go, but his father was dying and needed his help to edit The Missionary Review. After two days of silence, the elder Wilder called his son and said, “Son, let the dead bury their dead. Go thou and preach the kingdom” (Pierce)
John Forman, who worked with Wilder to form the Princeton Foreign Missions Society, was “induced to join” him on the tour (Erb 1916). A businessman, D. W. McWilliams, defrayed their expenses. During the year, they visited 167 institutions, touching nearly all of the leading colleges in the US and Canada. By the close of the year, 2,200 students (including 500 women) had taken the volunteer pledge. Among them were Samuel Zwemer, Samuel Moffett, and Robert Speer. Their approach was occasionally criticized by many who said their appeals were highly and perhaps overly emotional. Some evidence of this is seen by the large number of people who pledged to go but then never deployed.
[edit] 1887: regrouping to shore up
The story of the Cambridge Seven and a copy of the “Appeal to Disciples Everywhere” was published by B. Broomhall in a book titled The evangelization of the world. In London, a new Missionary Intelligence and Registration Office was set up to keep track of occupied mission fields in order to better ascertain where new efforts were needed; Royal Wilder called for such an office to also be set up in the United States. In October, Royal Wilder died, after passing on editorship of the Missionary Review to A. T. Pierson and James Sherwood.
No national tours were made by the Student Volunteer Movement. Robert Wilder was exhausted; his father had passed away during the year. Yet, with little leadership or oversight over 600 new volunteers were added during the college year of 1887-88, largely the result of the personal work of the old volunteers in small ad hoc committees at various places.
Numerous youth movements were being founded during this period: the Epworth league, the Young People’s Methodist Alliance, the Young People’s Christian League, the Methodist Young People’s Union. But while there were perhaps 1,000 of these and similar small societies, Christian Endeavor alone had over 2,000 societies.
[edit] 1888: much light, little heat
“The year opened with much enthusiasm about what could be done” (Johnson Crisis). Fifty volunteers came together at Northfield 1888 to pray and plan, and identified challenges to the movement. These included:
- a tendency for the movement to lose its unity: all sorts of student missionary societies and bands with different purposes, methods, pledges and constitutions were springing up.
- a tendency to a decline in some colleges. Not properly guarded and developed, some bands of volunteers were growing cold.
- a tendency to conflict with existing agencies appeared in a very few places.
- desire to extend the movement, inability to touch more than 20% of the higher educational institutions of America. Mr. Wilder was urged to spend another year among the colleges he had previously visited, and thoroughly organize the missionary volunteers.
The volunteers decided they need to confine themselves to students and establish formal leadership for the SVM. Since virtually all of the volunteers were members of one of the student organizations, they created an executive committee of three members, one from each of the three student organizations (YMCA, YWCA, Inter-Seminary Missionary alliance). The student orgs agreed to this, and they appointed John R. Mott (YMCA), Miss Nettie Dunn (YWCA), and Mr. Wilder (Inter-Seminary Missionary Alliance). Wilder became the Traveling Secretary and Mott became the chairman. In addition, they established an Advisory Committee of seven people: five from leading evangelical denominations, one from YMCA and one from YWCA. “The Executive Committee was to confer with the Advisory Committee about every new step taken so nothing would be done to justify unfavorable criticism. The movement was designed to help the church boards in every way possible and in no sense to encroach upon their territory or conflict with their work.” Finally, they created a Corresponding Member in every State and Province who would be the agent of the Executive Committee and carry out their policy to “conserve and extend the movement in the State.” The traveling secretary would then touch only the leading colleges in each state. In some states there might be a corresponding committee.
- In each [educational] institution, the Volunteers formed the Volunteer Band, which frequently constituted the missionary committee of the college Association. The fourfold purpose of this organization is, (i) To awaken and maintain among all Christian students of the United States and Canada, intelligent and active interest in foreign missions; (2) to enrol a sufficient number of properly qualified Student Volunteers to meet the successive demands of the various missionary boards; (3) to help all such intending missionaries to prepare for their lifework, and to enlist their co-operation in developing the missionary life of the home church; (4) to lay an equal burden of responsibility on all students who are to remain as ministers and lay workers at home, that they may actively promote the missionary enterprise by their intelligent advocacy, by their gifts and by their prayers. The Volunteer Movement is in no sense a missionary board.' It is rather a recruiting agency for all the Boards. (Erb 1916)
Meanwhile, an ecumenical conference was finally held in London. Unfortunately, “mission leaders congratulated each other on what had been done but never got around, as planned, to dividing up the remaining task.” Pierson delivered several addresses in which he warned that world evangelization could not be achieved at the present rate of progress, yet “because it was hastily organized and because so many speakers were on the platform, there was no opportunity for genuine strategic planning.” (Johnson 1988). “Huge, popular meetings that did not allow mission leaders to plan together” (Winter 1989b) The conference closed by suggesting that the event pave the way for a still greater conference “to organize more completely.”
The women meeting in Richmond, again in conjunction with the men's Convention meeting, they voted to organize a central committee, the name of which in 1890 became the “Woman's Missionary Union (WMU), Auxiliary to the Southern Baptist Convention.” The preamble to their Constitution, submitted to an anxious men's meeting a few blocks away, read as follows: “We, the women of the churches connected with the Southern Baptist Convention, desirous of stimulating the missionary spirit and the grace of giving, among the women and children of the churches, and aiding in collecting funds for missionary purposes, to be disbursed by the Boards of the Southern Baptist Convention, and disclaiming all intention of independent action, organize and adopt [this Constitution].” There was still some conflict: rural Baptists, many of whom would never affiliate with the Convention, believed the local church to be the highest form of religious organization, and they had little interest in domestic or world missions. Leaders of the state conventions did engage in missions work, but they were suspicious of a regional denomination that might exercise too much control over local and state missions activities or over matters of theology. (Women’s Missionary Union). The WMU began its labor by working closely with the Home Mission Board and the Sunday School Board, contributing to their publications, supporting the work of the Mountain Mission Schools in the Southern highlands, sponsoring a Convention-wide “Missionary Day” to promote missions giving in Sunday schools South-wide, and perhaps most importantly, organizing a graded program of missions education classes (beginning with the preschool-age “Sunbeams”) for Southern Baptist children and youth.
During the late 1880s, the first international convention was held after the Canadian delegation was admitted to Christian Endeavor. 1889 was the year that Christian Endeavor gained wide recognition. In that year, John Willis Baer, a gifted administrator, became general secretary, a post he would hold until 1902. The first city-wide unions of Christian Endeavor societies came into existence.
[edit] 1890s:
The reality is that, by 1891, there was simply too little effort to achieve the goal by 1900. Given the time it took for someone to raise their support, get to their destination, settle in, and learn the local language, the 50,000 volunteers thought to be required would already have to have been in place. It wasn't until much later that Pierson would give up hope of 1900--and even then he simply “reset” his generational clock.
In 1895 the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions had 572 missionaries and “a force of native laborers… more than five times that number,” and were “in communication with or responsible for the evangelization of not less than 100,000,000 souls” (New York Times, 10/17/1895). It was a respectable number but much smaller than was needed.
Pierson published The greatest work in the world: the evangelization of all peoples in the present century, his most concise statement of what could be done by the year 1900. Unfortunately much of what was published in the 1890s appears to have been criticisms, debates, and disagreements rather than substantive progress reports of plans being acted upon. One such scorching criticism of A. T. Pierson and the Missionary Review was sent: “…believes the sole duty of missionaries is to preach, without any reference to conversion or the establishment of the churches… He is opposed to missions having anything to do with education, the development of literature…” Pierson defended himself against the charge, saying that all forms of witness were equally to be used. In 1894, Pierson began to emphasize “in this generation” rather than “by 1900” (Johnson 1988). He saw the “writing on the wall.” In 1896, he wrote, “We are compelled to abandon hope.”
The first SVM convention was held in 1891 in Cleveland, Ohio. Pierson addressed the conference on (no surprise here) the subject of “The evangelization of the world in this generation.”
In its 1894 report to the Second International Convention of the Student Volunteer Movement, the Executive Committee pointed to five “problems” and five “perils.” The most serious of these was the “wall of separation” between the student volunteers and other students on campuses: student volunteers often pulled away from other students and kept themselves isolated (SVM History). This report suggests the SVM was far too informal and far too grass-roots to mobilize the kind of numbers that were needed. They seem to have had no consistent standard, curriculum, and the pledge was controversial.
In 1895, John R. Mott and Karl Fries (of Sweden) were busy broadening out. They organized the World’s Student Christian Federation; Mott as its general secretary began a two-year world tour to organize national student movements in numerous countries.
[edit] 1900s:
This was the point when Pierson had hoped to see the world evangelized. Instead, just 15% of the missionary force was at work among the least evangelized (Gary and Johnson 1999). While much ground had been gained, there was still a terrible reminder from Dr. Eugene Stock:
- All statistics are fatally defective in that they do not count at all the real results. They never count the dead. Tens of thousands have been garnered, and it is in heaven, not here, that we should look for the triumphs. The student volunteers have given us a noble watchword, ‘The evangelization of the world in this generation!’ But if any hesitate to accept it, let them take it thus: ‘The evangelization of this generation,’ and they will see at once that every man and woman, however bad, however good, has a right to hear of Jesus.
Stock further presciently recognized that Western culture would be deficient in, by itself, finishing the task:
- One thing is quite certain—the civilization of America and Europe will not do the work. Africans must save the Africans, Asiatics the Asiatics. ‘The White Man’s Burden’ is to influence the native Christians. The nearest way to the heart of a Chinaman and the heart of a Hindu is around by the throne of God.
The terrible fact of World War I caused much suffering, and impacted the world's view of Christianity. If Europe, widely perceived as Christian, could have such a horrific war, what did that say for Christian civilization? During World War I, the YMCA offered its services and John R. Mott became general secretary of the National War Work Council, receiving a Distinguished Service Medal for his work.
In addition, it was widely recognized that parachurch organizations contributed to church unity. This would become their Achilles’ heel during the 20th century. There was an inevitable split to come between liberals and conservatives, and organizations that attempted to unite the two would be in danger of being torn asunder.
[edit] 1910s: Cooling Ardor
The percentage of the missionary force working among the least evangelized peaked shortly after 1910, then began to decline (Gary and Johnson 1999). American women had a significant presence on the field: in 1910, 55 of 100 missionaries were women; by 1925, 4,824 single American women and 4,661 married American women were on the mission field (Edwards and Gifford 2003).
Samuel Zwemer published The unoccupied mission fields of Africa and Asia, which mapped out the unfinished task in great detail. In 1914, the Edinburgh 1910 Continuing Committee launched the International Review of Missions.
The notable World Missionary Conference was held in Edinburgh (later referred to as Edinburgh 1910). Out of this conference came a Continuing Committee which would sponsor many of the functions of the later International Missionary Council (created in 1921).
However, after World War I, there was a growing consciousness of social needs around the world. Mott toured the Far East, holding 21 regional missionary conferences in India, China, Japan and Korea resulting in the famous “Twenty Two” councils catalyzed in missionary-receiving countries; unfortunately, as these became dominated by local churches, a debate over the nature of missions and particularly the need for missionaries began to be held, and the passion for missions began to cool.
By 1916, the Movement had resulted in 5,569 volunteers from America and 1,696 volunteers from the United Kingdom. “More volunteers were ready and acceptable than could be sent” (Erb 1916). It issued text books for mission-study classes, and established mission-classes with enrollment of 36,580 in 1912. It held quadrennial conventions and annual summer college conferences. It employed “traveling secretaries”—essentially, mission speakers. “It prepared the way for the foreign mission work of the YMCA.”
In 1919, at the SVM Quadrennial Convention at Des Moines, the registration was limited to 6,890 only by the size of the facilities available. Yet these were the peak years for the SVM.
The growing difficulty was a widening rift between conservatives and liberals rooted on the premillenialism of the movement; the optimism had been shattered with the turn of the millennium and World War I. Sherwood Eddy wrote, “I believe that the demand of the progressive students at Des Moines voiced the new sentiment in the colleges for a more socialized and broader presentation and conduct of our whole movement . . . . The next Convention might well spend several days in making indelibly clear the Pagan racial practice both at home and abroad, the Pagan industrial situation here and in other lands, Pagan nationalism at home and abroad, and against such a background make clear the vital need for Christ's teachings and for Christ's power if the world is to be Christianized. (Smalley 1980)
[edit] 1920s: Trying Comity
The SVM was falling into serious trouble. John L. Childs questioned the value of the Movement, pointing to ways in which the missionary situation had evolved past it. He suggested elimination of the declaration card on the grounds that “modern missionary activity has become so complex that merely to decide to become a foreign missionary is a step of doubtful value in determining what one shall do with his life. (Childs 1923)
By 1924, in addition to the modernist problem, several minor but equally compelling issues were rising: (1) complaints of the restraining hand of the “Big Four” (Speer, Mott, Eddy and Wilder) which insisted that the new numerical majority of students in committees meant little because the adults still had the power. (T.T. Brumbaugh, “Convention Mistakes”, SVM Archives, Series V, Fifth Council, 1924); (2) the relationship of the Student Volunteer Movement with the YMCA and YWCA; and (3) the role of “colored” students in the SVM. An underlying strain beneath all these problems and issues was the fact of decreasing financial support even before the onslaught of the Depression (Smalley 1980). Paul W. Harrison suggests that Movement activities were “hindered by a most unsuitable mass of administrative machinery” (Harrison 1924).
Robert Handy’s “American religious depression” from 1925-35 articulates a moment when American Protestantism could no longer identify itself with American culture and civilization. “The liberal drift of the Student Volunteer Movement was accentuated by the gradual withdrawal of conservative elements from the Movement. By 1925, at least three local Volunteer Bands had disassociated themselves from the national Movement, groups which E. Fay Campbell dismissed as uncooperative 'controversial fundamentalists.'“ (SVM Archives, Series III, Campbell to Wilder, December 2, 1925.)
In 1928, Moody Bible institute withdrew its support for the Movement. By then even non-fundamentalists like E. Fay Campbell were concerned: “We need their point of view decidedly; in fact it would be nothing short of a major tragedy if they were to pull out of the Movement now and take with them some of our more conservative groups.” (SVM Archives, Series III, Campbell to Wilson, January 31, 1928.)
SVM leader Jesse Wilson reported a revival of interest in missions on the campuses he had visited. The total number of outgoing missionaries for 1929 was a twenty-four percent increase over the total number sailing in 1928 and a forty-eight percent increase over the number sailing in 1927. In 1928, there were 252 new student volunteers, while in 1929 there were 609 new volunteers. So if missions seemed to be on the decline in the view of popular culture—or at least, in relation to the SVM—what was happening?
While in the early years the vast majority of volunteers had sailed under appointment to mainline denominational boards, after the 1920s an increasing number sailed under faith mission boards. These mission boards, generally theologically conservative, had participated enthusiastically in the early years of the Student Volunteer Movement, though their programs were not nearly as large.
A growing proportion of missionaries were supported by the faith mission boards because “Liberalism has never been noted for its missionary zeal. The inroads of scientist, behaviorism, and humanism may well have been the consequence of an uncertain theological note which carried no impelling conviction of the Gospel imperative for those without Christ.” (Harr 1962) The theology of the faith missions, on the other hand, had a compelling motivation for missions: they said firmly that no person can be saved from eternal damnation except through hearing and believing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Their theology, however, also meant they were not inclined to ecumenical cooperation and increasingly drew away from the perceived-liberal SVM, thereby drawing off financial support and potential volunteers.
As the missiological gap between conservative and liberals opened and grew in the years after World War I, the Volunteer Movement found itself increasingly unable to cater simultaneously to the interests of the faith mission boards and the more liberal denominational boards. Yet, in spite of the fact that the ‘plausible promise’ of the SVM was all about mission mobilization, the SVM did not ‘go’ where most missionaries were going. Instead, it more and more threw in its lot with mainline groups. Wilson thought the SVM could survive and thrive by falling in with the growing conservative missions revival, but the majority of the Movement leadership was reluctant to see the Movement go in that direction. They were appalled by the fact that the Movement's membership was increasingly conservative. A leadership battle in the SVM was beginning. The Great Depression of 1929 would make it worse.
[edit] 1930s: Coping with Crisis
After the Black Tuesday crash, American culture entered into a dark mood—a Crisis. “After a three-year economic free fall, the Great Depression triggered the New Deal revolution, a vast expansion of government, and hopes for a renewal of national community. After Pearl Harbor, America planned, mobilized, and produced for war on a scale that made possible the massive D-Day invasion (in 1944). Two years later, the crisis mood eased with America’s surprisingly trouble-free demobilization.” (Strauss and Howe 1997)
The 1932 report Rethinking Missions, the Laymen's Commission of Appraisal (a Rockefeller-funded body led by Harvard professor William E. Hocking established to review the work of the American Protestant missionary enterprise) concludes missionaries should not stress the distinct claims of Christianity over against non-Christian religions but rather aim to cooperate for social improvement. (Smalley 1980) This was a significant stone in the missions pond, and reflective of the liberal/conservative challenge.
SVM General Secretary Jesse Wilson was facing serious challenges. “Because of financial conditions, we are so puzzled now about our whole program that it is difficult for us to commit ourselves to anything” (SVM Archives, Series III, Wilson to D.R. Porter, May 23, 1932). The dire economic straits had not lessened by the end of the decade, and it became increasingly evident that the SVM had to regroup and redefine itself or else cease to exist. The ongoing struggle with conservatives abandoning the SVM had not lessened. In 1934, Wilson wrote “Many friends, rightly or wrongly, have questioned the soundness, from an evangelical point of view, of the Movement's present position and have preferred to make their contributions to organizations concerning which no such questions have arisen.” (SVM Archives, Series V.) A direct rival to the Student Volunteer Movement's work was growing in the conservative wings during this period, although not emerging officially in the United States until 1940 as the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship.
E. Fay Campbell, writing to Jesse Wilson, suggests the extent to which the Movement was wracked by conservative/liberal dissension: “Your years as SVM secretary have been terribly hard due to the spirit of the times, R.P. Wilder's ineffective leadership and the situation in the General YMCA-YWCA. It was inevitable that your name and the name of the SVM should be identified with outworn ideas. I know it wasn't true that you didn't believe in social religion, but I also know that the fight for missions has antagonized certain People. You know I have talked on this point many times in YMCA group when you were accused of being only a personal gospel person.” (SVM Archives, Series III -Campbell to Wilson, May 1935.)
It appears there was a generational leadership gap: below the top level leadership, there was a liberal group in the “middle management” of the SVM which included educational secretaries and traveling secretaries as well as the most articulate and active portion of the actual student volunteers. This explains why many of the publications and convention themes of the period were rather far to the liberal side of the theological and missiological spectrum despite the SVM's leaders' conservative reputation.
Finally, in 1935, unable to change the situation, General Secretary Jesse Wilson and Vice Chairman of the Administrative Committee C. Darby Fulton resigned, essentially because of the increasingly liberal drift of the Student Volunteer Movement. In 1936, the SVM entered years of profound questioning without any stable leadership. In the decade following Wilson's resignation, four different men served as an acting or permanent General Secretary for the Movement. The General Council, an “experiment in democracy” begun after the Des Moine convention, was replaced by a smaller General Committee in 1936, which in turn was replaced by a different organizational arrangement in 1941.
Amidst all this confusion, the Movement struggled to figure out what it would be. How would the Movement relate to other general student movements (such as the YMCA, denominational student work, and union movements), conservative student movements (such as the Inter-varsity Christian Fellowship), mainline denominational missionary programs, and changing missiology of the period?
Complicating this was that the more liberal minority within the SVM had given it a reputation that wasn't upheld either by Wilson's leadership or by the vast majority of the student constituency, who continued to be of a more conservative cast. Reporting on a tour of American campuses, SVM secretary Wilmina Rowland wrote: “Some students confess that they have gotten wrong impressions of the missionary enterprise through the Student Volunteers on their campus, who in such cases enlist a pious group of the more dependent-minded students....In summary, it seems to me that the SVM across the country is quite definitely conservative.” (SVM Archives, Series V, Appendix A of the Administrative Committee minutes of May 8,1936. Information related to the local Student Volunteer groups is also available in Series VI, Field Work.)
While the Student Volunteer Movement had a role in its early years, the need for the Movement was increasingly uncertain in the post-WW1, pre-WW2 period.
“The influence of the SVM across the country is not heartening. Many persons who believe strongly in missions feel that its days of usefulness are over. A number of foreign mission board secretaries say that if the Movement went out of existence, it would not affect their candidate work. Many, even among the conservative leaders, think that the Movement should revamp its functions and expand its membership if it is to continue its existence.” (SVM Archives, Series V. Appendix A of the Administrative Committee minutes of May 8, 1936.)
The Movement had once been a powerful force on prestigious campuses, but now the majority of SVM groups existed only at small rural colleges, propelled by local tradition rather than following closely the lead of the national Movement (Smalley 1980).
In 1938, the first organizational meeting of the World Council of Churches was held. In the same year, several denominations (Presbyterians, American Baptists, others within the ecumenical movement) formed their own youth movements to compete with Christian Endeavor, shifting the focus from evangelical emphases to social causes (Winter 1989a). Christian Endeavor, however, remained staunchly evangelical and maintained its grassroots strength.
The argument over the future of the SVM was entering its final stages. Methodist leader H.D. Bollinger wrote “The SVM is a thing of the past and those who are charged with the responsibility of perpetuating it should realize this fact” (SVM Archives, Series III, Bollinger to Campbell, November 29, 1939).
The SVM still didn't see it that way. A North American Student Conference on the World Mission of Christianity, sponsored by the NICC, the Council of Church Boards of Education, and the SVM, was held in Toronto in December 1939. It voted to:
recommend the continuance of the Student Volunteer Movement as the cooperative agency of the general Student Christian Movements for carrying forward their Christian World Mission emphasis in education and recruiting; and that, in addition, the Movement specialize in the following areas: 1) Establishment of standards of personnel for overseas service, and 2) Recruitment of personnel for missionary areas at home. (SVM Archives, Series V, General Committee, January, 1940.)
The SVM didn't want to give up its independence at this point in the development of student Christian work in the United States. It saw itself as a more ecumenical force than the NICC or the denominational movements.
Its influence, however, was steadily eroding. A January 1940 meeting of denominational leaders noted the SVM had done very little recruiting for the major boards in recent years, and did not seem likely to do much in the future. The boards decided to set up their own cooperative recruiting system. “'If the students want the SVM or its equivalent to continue, let them run it and finance it.” (SVM Archives, Series V, Personnel Committee, January 27, 1940.
[edit] The American High
The period from 1946 to 1964 is sometimes referred to as “The American High.” It: “witnessed America’s ascendancy as a global superpower. Social movements stalled. The middle class grew and prospered. Churches buttressed government. Huge peacetime defense budgets were uncontroversial. Mass tastes thrived atop a collectivist infrastructure of suburbs, interstates, and regulated communication. Declaring 'an end to ideology,' respected authorities presided over a bland, modernist, and spirit-dead culture.” (Strauss and Howe 1997)
[edit] 1940s: post World War II
In 1944, the United Student Christian Council was formed as a national federation of the YMCA, YWCA, and denominational student movements. The federation was ecumenical on the national level, but did not have regional or local representation. While remaining autonomous in policy, administration, and finance, the Student Volunteer Movement agreed to serve as the Missionary Committee of the United Student Christian Council. However, since the USCC had no regional structures for the Movement to work through, it was restricted to the national level: planning the quadrennial student mission conventions and producing educational material.
The SVM was intended to be a grassroots recruitment force. Without that, it would lose much of its identity. The SVM was able to do some campus itineration through the sponsorship of campus mission programs, and from 1945 to 1947 it tried to keep contacts at the grassroots level through a system of campus representatives--but it failed. In 1947 a Special Commission on the Future of the Student Volunteer Movement recommended that SVM campus missionary fellowship groups be reestablished as informal interest groups rather than official organizations: students interested in missions were calling for missionary fellowship groups because their special needs were not being met by the general student movements. The “peril of separatism” (articulated by Mott back in 1894), which had caused the local Volunteer Bands to be eliminated, was now less a peril than losing the support of the volunteers.
[edit] 1950s: as the Missionary Department of the United Student Christian Council
The end was nigh. In 1953, the USCC asked the SVM to become its Missionary Department, as the next step toward a fully ecumenical student movement in America. Under the leadership of Dr. R. H. Edwin Espy, the Movement agreed, and it was formalized in 1954--but this arrangement did not affect its administrative autonomy or its financial independence. It also did not increase the SVM's influence: in 1956, the SVM policy committee was concerned that USCC members such as the Presbyterians and Methodists relied more on their own student departments than on SVM for missionary education.
[edit] 1960s: as the Commission on World Mission
Finally, in 1959, the USCC, SVM, and the Interseminary Committee merged and formed the National Student Christian Federation, with the SVM as the Commission on World Mission. It was tasked with promoting missionary education, fellowship and enlistment and continued to hold conferences. Its 19th Ecumenical Student Conference in Athens, Ohio in 1964 had 3,000 students attend. In 1966, however, the Federation was recreated as the University Christian Movement.At that time, the SVM--now the Commission on World Mission--”was among the first to act on the formation of a movement fully representative of the churches, and agreed that the sense of mission was sufficiently embodied in the student movement for the Commission to cease a separate existence.” (Neill, Anderson, and Goodwin 1971)
[edit] Bibliography
Barrett, David B., Todd M. Johnson, Christopher R. Guidry, and Peter F. Crossing
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Childs, John L.
1923 "Should the policies of the Student Volunteer Movement be modified?" The Intercollegian.
Christian, John T.
1922 A history of the Baptists, together with some account of their principles and practices, vol. 2. Nashville, T: Broadman Press.
Collins, Gail 2007 America's Women: 400 years of dolls, drudges, helpmates and heroines. New York: Harper Perennial.
Edwards, Wendy J. Deichmann, and Carolyn De Swarte Gifford 2003 Gender and the social gospel. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press.
Erb, Frank Otis 1916 "The development of the young people's movement." The Biblical World, 48.
Finke, Roger, and Rodney Stark 2005 The churching of America, 1776-2005 : winners and losers in our religious economy. 2nd ed. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press.
Gary, Jay, and Todd Johnson 1999 "The watchword in world missions." International Journal of Frontier Missions, 16.
Handy, Robert T. 1971 A Christian America: Protestant Hopes and Historical Realities. new York: Oxford University Press.
Harr, Wilber Christian 1962 Frontiers of the Christian world mission since 1938; essays in honor of Kenneth Scott Latourette. [1st ed. New York,: Harper.
Harrison, Paul W. 1924 "The future of the Student Volunteer Movement." The Intercollegian, 24.
Heck, Fannie 1913 In Royal Service: The Mission Work of Southern Baptist Women Richmond: Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board.
Hill, Patricia 1985 The World Their Household: The American Woman's Foreign Mission Movement and Cultural Transformation, 1870-1920. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Johnson, Todd 1988 Countdown to 1900: world evangelization at the end of the 19th century. Birmingham, AL: New Hope.
Langer, William L., and Peter N Searns 2001 The Encyclopedia of world history: ancient, medieval, and modern, chronologically arranged. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
McCullough, David 2001 John Adams. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Neill, Stephen, Gerald H. Anderson, and John Goodwin 1971 Concise dictionary of the Christian world mission. Nashville,: Abingdon Press.
Peck, J. M. 1852 "Baptists in Mississippi Valley." The Christian Review, 17, 500.
Pierce, Dan "The SVM and Robert Wilder."
Robert, Dana Lee 1997 American women in mission: a social history of their thought and practice. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press.
Smalley, Martha Lund 1980 "Guide to the archives of the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, Record Group No. 42." Yale University Library.
Stock, Dr. Eugene 1900 "A century of mission work." In New York Times.
Strauss, William, and Neil Howe 1997 The fourth turning : an American prophecy. 1st ed. New York: Broadway Books.
Winik, Jay 2007 The great upheaval: America and the birth of the modern world, 1788-1800. New York: HarperCollins.
Winter, Ralph 1989a "Christian Endeavor." Mission Frontiers.
Winter, Ralph 1989b "Seeing the big picture." Mission Frontiers.
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