From this we should learn briefly, and as a starting-point, the proportion of the self-supporting churches, and that might help us to understand the progress made towards self-support as it is understood in the district, and enable us to compare it with that of other districts. But this by itself would not be of any great value in assisting us to understand what progress had been made towards the establishment of a Church which could stand alone, if the station with its foreign staff were withdrawn. No Church which does not advance can stand, and the mere attainment of this arbitrary standard does not necessarily prove capacity to advance or to stand. The effort to attain it sometimes leads the converts to concentrate their attention upon themselves. They set self-support before their eyes as an end to be attained for their own sake. It has consequently sometimes happened that native churches, established on this self-supporting basis, have become self-absorbed, self-seeking. They have so looked on their own things that they have tended to lose sight of the things of others. They have become, like many little Christian communities at home, so entangled in the effort to maintain their own dignity, their own services, their own progress in outward prosperity, that they have forgotten the real purpose of their existence, and, instead of becoming centres of light and attraction and active zeal for the spread of the gospel, have degenerated into self-contained units indulging a self-satisfied pride in the glorious position to which they have attained as self-supporting churches. The history of some churches on the West Coast of Africa and in South India suggests the need for such a warning, and urges us to pursue the inquiry further.
We should inquire, then, what number of inquirers, adherents, hearers, catechumens, etc., are seeking entrance into the Church in connection with the self-supporting churches as compared with the total number of such inquirers, adherents, etc., in the district and compared with the number of communicants in connection with those churches.
————————————————————————————-|——-| In District (excluding Self-supporting Churches). | ————————————————————————————-|——-| Communicants. | | ————————————————————————————-|——-| Inquirers and Adherents. | | ————————————————————————————-|——-| Proportion of Inquirers to Communicants. | | ————————————————————————————-|——-| In Self-supporting Churches. | ————————————————————————————-|——-| Communicants. | | ————————————————————————————-|——-| Inquirers and Adherents. | | ————————————————————————————-|——-| Proportion of Inquirers to Communicants. | | ————————————————————————————-|——-| Remarks and Conclusions. | | ————————————————————————————-|——-|
Such a table should, we think, prove illuminating as revealing the influence and zeal of the members of the self-supporting churches.
A further light on this subject might be gained by comparing the number of unpaid workers connected with the self-supporting churches with the number of such workers in the whole district, excluding the self-supporting churches.
————————————————————————————-|——-| In District (excluding Self-supporting Churches). | ————————————————————————————-|——-| Communicants. | | ————————————————————————————-|——-| Unpaid Workers. | | ————————————————————————————-|——-| Proportion of Unpaid Workers to Communicants. | | ————————————————————————————-|——-| In Self-supporting Churches. | ————————————————————————————-|——-| Communicants. | | ————————————————————————————-|——-| Unpaid Workers. | | ————————————————————————————-|——-| Proportion of Unpaid Workers to Communicants. | | ————————————————————————————-|——-| Remarks and Conclusions. | | ————————————————————————————-|——-|
This would supplement the previous table and tend to correct any mistakes to which it might give rise.
Thus far of the missions which recognise self-supporting churches. As for the mission districts in which no such distinctions have been made, all that I think we need to do is to recall the tables which we made when considering the native force (p. 54 sqq.), and to supplement them with tables designed to reveal (1) the power of the Christians to conduct their own religious services independently of the foreigner; (2) their power to direct their own Church government; (3) their power to supply the material needs of their organisation according to the ideas which they have received and hold.
With regard to the first question, all that we need to know is what proportion of the Christians are in a position to carry on their own religious life independently of foreign help. In the Anglican Communion that involves the presence of a duly ordained priest: in some societies which deny the necessity of ordination, yet give a position not unlike that of the priest to their ordained men, it would involve the presence of a pastor. Others deny the necessity or advantage of any ordained ministers. Under these circumstances we cannot use accepted ecclesiastical terms; but by capacity for conducting their own religious services we must certainly at least mean capacity to perform all necessary religious rites, and that, for Anglicans at any rate, must include Baptism and Holy Communion. Suppose then that we accepted the "organised churches" as a basis and inquired what proportion of these organised churches could, and did, perform all necessary religious rites, we should indeed omit the floating and isolated members of the unorganised Christian community which in some districts might be very large, but we should nevertheless, we hope, get a definite and common basis which would really give us some light on this difficult but important problem, and if we added a question as to the proportion of the Christian constituency connected with these organised churches we should have some check upon a serious misunderstanding.
————————————————————————————-|——-| Number of Organised Churches. | | ————————————————————————————-|——-| Proportion of Christian Constituency | | Connected with these. | | ————————————————————————————-|——-| Number of Churches Capable of Performing all | | Necessary Religious Rites without External Assistance. | | ————————————————————————————-|——-| Proportion of these to Number of Organised Churches. | | ————————————————————————————-|——-| Remarks and Conclusions. | | ————————————————————————————-|——-|