Missionary Survey As An Aid To Intelligent Co-Operation In Foreign Missions

by Roland Allen; Thomas Cochrane

CHAPTER X.

SURVEY OF THE WORK IN A PROVINCE.

In few parts of the world is a mission station really an isolated unit. In most of the countries to which we go there are many stations of many different missions, all aiming more or less definitely at the establishment of a native Church, whatever their conception of the Church may be. In the vast majority of cases these stations have some relationship to one another. The definition of districts for the mission stations is commonly recognised, and in planning new work directors of missions frequently allow themselves to be influenced, in some way and in some degree, by the position of existing mission stations. There are also in some parts of the world bodies composed of leading members of many of the missions that work in the country, who meet to consider the progress of the Christian faith in the province or the country as a whole, and deliberately plan their work with some consideration of the position and character of the work done by the others. Now in all this there is a manifest approach to the idea that mission work in the country or province is a common work, and that the various missions engaged in it are not antagonists, but allies. It is certainly true that we are far from having reached the stage of a common direction and a real unification of work Rivalry and antagonism are still rampant, but the recognition of the fact that we must consider the position and character of other missions in directing our own is a most important advance; and it implies that we ought, in some measure at least, to be able to express the work of any mission station in relation to all the mission work done in the province or country, and to understand, at any rate in some degree, what place it takes in the mission work in the province viewed as a whole. It is true that a great many missionaries would refuse to admit that the recognition of other stations in the planting of our own is an acknowledgment of the unity of our work; but whether they acknowledge it, or whether they do not, it is so, and we for our part recognise it with thankfulness and look forward to a day when missions will not only recognise others by avoiding them, but by planning missions deliberately to assist each other. For that seems to us the necessary conclusion. The moment we recognise a station as a Christian mission station which we must not disturb, we have gone a long way towards recognising it as a mission station which our own must not only not disturb, but must complement; and when we know that one mission must complement another we are really not far removed from establishing our missions with common consultation each to supply what is lacking to the other.

Holding this view, we desire to discover what place each mission station occupies when we take a wider view and survey the province or country. Here we shall be able to adjust many apparent inequalities in the mission stations viewed by themselves. From our previous survey of the mission stations one by one we may have got the impression that some of them as mission stations designed for work in a district were very ill-balanced. The medical work, or institutional work of some kind, may have seemed to be out of all proportion to the other forms of the work, and this impression may remain when we view the province. But on the other hand it may be seriously modified; because when we review the work of the province as a whole, we may find that the institutional work of the province as a whole is out of proportion to the evangelistic work, and in that case we should think the disproportion at the station more serious. On the other hand we might find the institutional work in the province inadequate, and in that case the emphasis which seemed undue in the one place, and may really be improper in that one place, nevertheless, in view of the situation in the whole province, may be shown to be reasonable in relation to the whole province. How then can we gather together the returns from all the stations so as to present a view of the work in the province? For that is the first thing. We cannot put the station into its proper place in the province until we have a view of the work in the province treated as a unity.

In provinces, large cities and towns, which are not reckoned as part of any mission station district, have to be taken into account. These large cities, capitals of provinces, countries, or empires, need special consideration, and must often be surveyed separately. They are centres in which many societies have their head-quarters, and many missionaries live, yet the work done in them is not always so impressive or extensive as the numbers of missionaries might suggest: occasionally the missionaries are all congregated in one quarter of the city, and large portions are practically untouched. In them, too, are sometimes large city congregations, self-supporting indeed and self-governing, but sucking into themselves all the more vigorous elements of the Christian community and employing them within a somewhat narrow circle. The problem of the evangelisation of these cities is a very serious one.

We suggest that these great cities might be treated either as one district or as several, and that they ought to be surveyed systematically by a body representative of all the missions in each city. If a proper survey were made and the facts tabulated, the statistical tables would be similar to those for the station district, and we could use them to complete a survey of the work done in the province treated as a unity.

But to view the work in the province as a unity we do not need all the detail of the station districts, indeed we should only find the multiplication of detail confusing. To gain a general view of work in a large area such as a province or a small country we must first of all select those features which are common to all the parts and vitally important. We venture to suggest that the important features to be represented are five. (1) The work to be done in the whole area. (2) The strength of the whole force at work in relation to the work to be done. (3) The extent to which emphasis is laid on various forms of work. (4) The extent to which different classes, races, and religions in the area are reached. (5) The extent to which the Church has attained to self-support.

1. If the mission stations and their allotted districts covered the whole country, we should need to do no more than add together the returns obtained from the station statistics which we have already drawn up. But in most countries there are large unoccupied areas of the size and population of which we are more or less ignorant. What we have is, either a census return for the whole province, or an estimate of its area and population. In dealing with the whole province then we must treat the station returns of towns and villages occupied and of the numbers of the Christian constituency as work done; and then we must find out the relation of these to the whole area and population. This would have to be done probably first on a large scale map which would show the density of the population in different parts of the area, and would show the stations and the strength of the Christian constituency in relation to the area and population. These facts could then be expressed in a table, and we should gain at once an idea of the extent to which the missions were in a position to reach the population. The table would be exceedingly simple and give us no more than the barest idea of the work to be done in its vaguest expression.

————————————————————————————————— | | | Christian Con- | Non-Christian Province. | Area. | Population. | stituency. | Population. ————————————————————————————————— | | | | __________|________|______________|________________|____________

If, in addition to this, there was either a census return or a credible estimate of the cities, towns, and villages, in the area, a table could be drawn of the cities, towns, and villages occupied, in the sense that there were Christians resident in them, and the work could be expressed in that form also, which would greatly assist the understanding of the other.