THE MISSIONARYCHURCH:
FROM RADICAL OUTCASTS TO THE WILD CHILD OFANABAPTISM
It would seem that the Missionary Church, which began her existence rathertenuously as a radical outcast, has remained on the frontier of church planting as an evangelical/
Anabaptist influence, focused on leading people to a radical relationship inChrist.
Making sense of the Missionary Church has never been an easy task foroutsiders. Perhaps it is our diverse roots. We are a group who partnered with many to advancethe gospel on the American frontier. We connected with many, you can name the group,and someone who knows us well will probably find a link. Our focus was toremain deliberately Bible centered. WE worked with frontier groups whose names appeare abit odd now: groups like, the River Brethren, and the “German branch” of theChristian Alliance, Amish, and Mennonite. Perhaps it is the generational shifts inexperiential emphasis and doctrinal allegiance: from Anabaptism, to Pietism, to the Keswickianand Wesleyan-Holiness movements, to Evangelicalism, with minorities from eachgeneration
flirting with elements of Pentecostalism and Calvinism (both officiallyverboten).
Perhaps it was their drive to be pragmatic and innovative. They included thecutting edge practice of four part harmonies in worship, and demanded that the churchuse English instead of catering to the old school traditional Europeans. Theyincluded hundreds of women ministers to spread the gospel, (now largely forgotten andnearly forbidden in the evangelical church); they spent resources, sendingoverseas missionaries; launching inner city ministries and aggressive churchplanting.
Missionaries introduced changes to foreign cultures, but their cross-culturalexperiences changed them just as profoundly, and ultimately transformed their sending churchesas
well. The urgent missionary impulse has led in astonishingdirections,
The drive to evangelize and start new churches meant there would always be asteady stream of new converts who lacked a heritage of Anabaptist (Baptist) roots. Thatwas not a problem, because these new converts were the foundation that themovement
would be builtupon.
Then there was the writings of Bishop Alma White’s Pillar of Fire, she was asan educator and was one of two principal Keswickian holiness groups. Theuniversal
trademark of the small, Anabaptist bands was discipleship. Many pursuedthe discipleship method of John Wesley which was called discipleship by Methodist, itdid not matter what the brand was, they were about making disciples. Thismovement ultimately coalesced into what is now the Missionary Church. This radical newbirth prompted emotional expressions and activist lifestyles which their homecongregations soon found too threatening to tolerate. Two very different understandings of whatit
meant to become a Christian led to repeated confrontations of thesort.
These new believers, insisted everyone must personally experience the secondbirth, includingolder,well-establishedchurchmembers,wereexpelledfromtheimmigrantchurches of society’s marginal outcasts (to paraphrase H. Richard Niebuhr), andthus became outcast outcasts, doubly alienated from the world they knew. Withina generation, sometimes sooner, sanctification and healing became additionalexperiential pillars, and these proved no less divisive for some groups, causing further splits aswell asprecipitatingnewalliances.Finally,thesebodieswerenearlyallfascinatedbyprophecy and driven by the notion that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ waslinked to the urgent task of the Great Commission (see Mt. 24:14 & Mk. 13:10): hencethe
Missionary Church identity.
At first believers within [forerunners to] the Missionary Church thought of themselvesas more genuinely Anabaptist than the Mennonite which had thrown them out oftheir fellowship. They languished in prison during WWI, and they later helped lead theway
in appealing for government recognition for conscientiousobjectors.
To this day the basic thrust of the Missionary Church Constitution makes nosense apartfromsuchtraditionalAnabaptistemphasesasbeliever’sbaptism,rigorousdiscipleship marked by holy lifestyles purified and empowered by the Holy Spirit,radical biblicism, a strong sense of Christian community, sacrificial missionary outreach,an
abhorrence of war, and the separation of church andstate.
But bitter memories of expulsion from Mennonite bodies or the sense ofbetrayal fostered by growing up in church without truly hearing calls for conversion, thegospel,
rapidly led to relations with very different churchgroups.
Nevertheless, there were always some within the Missionary Church whoremembered
their original roots and who were so bold as to believe Ron Sider’s twin theses: first,that consistent Anabaptists should be Evangelicals and that consistent Evangelicalsshould be Anabaptists; and second, that failing agreement over the first thesis, it is still truethat
Anabaptists need Evangelicals and Evangelicals needAnabaptists.
Critical steps toward developing historical awareness of Anabaptist roots were takenin 1979 with the founding of the Missionary Church Historical Society under theleadership
of Dr. Wayne Gerber, longtime academic dean at Bethel College, Mishawaka,IN.
In 1997 the Missionary Church in India, which had always carefully maintainedits connections, ever since the merger of the Missionary Church Association andthe United Missionary Church in 1969. Missionary Church members have served withthe Mennonite Central Committee, and various mission agencies and have cooperated ina number of ways with our World Partners missionaries, sometimes working togethervery closely. Many leaders from other peace church traditions continue to makecrucial
contributions to the Missionary Church and BethelCollege.
It would seem that the Missionary Church, which began her existence rathertenuously as a radical outcast, has remained on the frontier of church planting as an evangelical/ Anabaptist influence, focused on leading people to a radical relationship in Christ.They have stumbled onto the stage as a major influencer, after having grown up, atleast from the Mennonite perspective, as the wild child of Anabaptism, in a wildernessof other church traditions, far from the nurturing, peaceful communities where shewas born. She no longer speaks the language of her forebears, but utters savage criesfor
Kingdomexpansion.
EUSEBIUS HERSHEY: First ForeignMissionary
To Eusebius Hershey of the former Pennsylvania Conference of the MennoniteBrethren in Christ Church (MBC), as a segment of the Missionary Church(U.S.) andEvangelical Missionary Church (Canada) were known at that time, belongs the honor of beingour pioneer missionary. He was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, on August14, 1823, the youngest and only boy among nine children. At age eighteen he becamequite ill, and thinking himself near death, he turned his attention toward his spiritualcondition
and was soundlyconverted.
There was widespread interest in missions during the early part of thenineteenth century,andHersheywasnotuntouchedbyconcernsforforeignevangelization.Heexpressed a sense of missionary call during his early twenties, but he had neitherthe means nor the opportunity to go abroad. So strong was his call that, when he marriedat age twenty-seven, he secured an agreement from his bride that he could follow Godto
Africa when the opportunityarose.
Initially, he was a somewhat reluctant evangelist, believing his limited formaleducation did not prepare him for public speaking. However, his early evangelisticcampaigns were quite fruitful, and he began receiving invitations to other parts of the UnitedStates
andCanada.
TravelingEvangelist
Most travel was on horseback across uncharted countryside. He crossed theAllegheny mountains and ranges of the Upper Appalachians many times as he journeyed fromhis home in southeastern Pennsylvania to Ohio and Ontario. At sixty-two years of agehe reported to the annual conference that he had been in Ontario eleven timesand traveled to the western U.S. once. He would yet make two more trips to Canadato conduct evangelisticmeetings.
Travelinthosedays,especiallyforalonerider,wasfraughtwithdifficulty.Heoccasionally walked when no horse was available, wading unbridged streams. Hewas robbed at least once and cursed at and spit upon frequently. He was the pioneeropen- air preacher of the church, proclaiming the gospel anytime he had a hearing, onthe
street or in the town square to upwards of 1,000 people at a time. He preachedin churches of all denominations (a more common practice in that day),schoolhouses, public meeting halls, stores, homes, prisons, and homes for the indigent. Hecould
preach fluently in both English andGerman.
HistoricalPerspective
Lizzie Hilty wrote from Wohu, Central China, in March of1906:
"We left Seattle, Washington, December 8th and did not arrive in Shanghaiuntil January 12th and at Wuhu four days later. We certainly had a long andstormy voyage, but His presence was with us, and we were kept by His powerthrough dangers seen and unseen. We had two heavy storms while out on thedeep, which indeed to the natural was not very pleasant. But our eyes were untoHim, Who neither slumbers nor sleeps and does not forget to keep His own(Psa.
121:4,5)."
The Missionary Worker, Vol. 11, No. 17, May 1, 1906, p.268.
In 1882 Eusebius Hershey, then sixty years old, announced the new movementwould soon have its first missionary. However, perhaps because much energy wentinto
organizing the new movement, there was no official endorsement of hisannouncement.
PioneerMissionary
The General Conference of 1885 adopted a resolution "that each annual conferenceput forth earnest efforts to raise means for Mission Work," and ministers were askedto preach at least once each year on the topic. Hence only two years after its birth,the young movement officially committed itself to the GreatCommission.
Muchtothesurpriseofall,fiveyearslater,HersheyannouncedhewouldsoonbeleavingforAfrica.OnNovember1,1890,hesetsailforLiberia,WestAfrica.Hewenton his own, uncommissioned by any conference, since he was considered too old forsuch a task. The voyage took thirty-eight days to reach Sierra Leone and another five daysto Monrovia, Liberia. He remained in the capital city for a month and a half, then movedto the interior town of Vaunwah where the people followed the Islamic religion. Hestarted
a school, using basic grammars which he had brought from America. Hepreached
many times each Sunday in his own and surroundingvillages.
His wife stayed behind in Pennsylvania when he sailed for Africa. During his firstthree months he received word of the death of seven other missionaries in his vicinity,and another month later found himself tiring easily and needing frequent rest. Twomonths later on May 24, 1891, after a short illness of seven days, he died of malaria.Thus ended the short but effective missionary career of Eusebius Hershey. He led toChrist the first convert from Islam in Liberia. He influenced others, among themWilliam Shantz, the first "officially sponsored" missionary of the movement went to Chinain
1895.
Hershey loved to write poetry and published a book of verse in 1878 entitled TheLiving
Poem. A report written for the Gospel Banner in 1885 contains the followingstanza:
In all my Lord's appointedways, I'll follow Him in my shortdays, North or South or East orWest,
As God will lead, that is thebest.
These following paragraphs are some reflections on the essayquestions. They are not intended to be used as your answer. They are only providedto
give you some reflections on thetopic.
The Impact of the 19th century Holiness movement on the developmentof
the MissionaryChurch.
The Missionary Church was fully engaged with the move of God thathas been categorized by the holiness movement. The Holiness movementshaped the early practices and mission on the fledgling MissionaryChurch movement. The early activity of the missionary church included meetingsthat had heartfelt worship. These gatherings lasted into the night much like theold time Methodists. There was a focus on healing andprophecy.
The women once bore uniforms and entered the cities preaching atthe inner city missions and storming saloons with the Bible in one hand andthe message of the gospel on their lips. The impact of women in thedevelopment
of the Missionary Church can’t be overlooked. Some categorize this eraas the temperance movement. God was awakening a sleeping giantthat included women Christ followers in America (andEngland).
The emergence of a holiness theology in the Mennonite Brethren inChrist (Missionary Church) emerged from the early days of the secondgreat awakening. These gatherings were shaped by the stirrings of God inthe setting of the camp meeting (holiness camps), popularized by theholiness movement. This group allowed the influence of Wesleyan theology ofholiness to gradually impact them and shape their early praxis anddoctrine.
During the late 1800’s, a trend emerged that was slanted towarda Wesleyan view of sanctification. This theology was a strong influencewithout becoming a dogma that would define the movement, as it redefined itsself- moving into a series of newdecades.
The 20th century Pentecostal movement and the impact on theMissionary Church
The post revival period was the background from which thePentecostal movement emerged. The Missionary Church predecessors were pursuingthe environment of the “deeper life” movement, camp meetings, and worshipthat was engaging and powerful (four part harmonies). The major areasof emphasis for the Missionary Church predecessors were: the return ofChrist, evangelism and the deeper life. Many Adventist groups were springing upout of the soil of the revival period, as the turn of the century approached.There was a rich atmosphere of prayer and conversions, whichproduced conversations about immersion. AB Simpson led out in the season ofthe Pentecostal movement and determined the position should be, “seeknot, forbid not”. This was a position that distanced its self from thePentecostal theology, which was of concern. The leaders were cautious not to resistthe work of God in their midst. At the time of the 1908 Azusa Streetrevivals, much attention was being given to Pentecostalism. The MissionaryChurch predecessors chose not to embrace the “third work of grace” theology,which was emerging out of the American Pentecostal movement. TheMissionary Church changed somewhat over the 75 years between thePentecostal Movement and the Charismatic Renewalmovement?
The 20th century Fundamentalist Movement and the impact onthe MissionaryChurch
The influence of 20th century fundamentalist movement mustbe understood in the context of contemporary Evangelicalism. Thiswidespread emergence of Biblical Christianity emerged out of Fundamentalism inthe mid-20th century. The spread of secularism in Europe influenced the moveof believers toward a more evangelical point of view. Protestants ingeneral, including the leaders of the Missionary Church, focused on salvation byfaith
through God's grace. This was a response to a liberal trend that wasfocusing on salvation byworks.
The initial impact of the 20th century Pentecostal Movement (AzusaStreet Revival) made an impact on the development of the Missionary Church.The primary response of the Missionary Church was to distance itself fromthe Azusa Street revival and the subsequent Pentecostal movement.This represented a split in ranks. There were many who followed the leaningsof the Holiness Movement. Many of those followers believed in the giftof tongues as a “third work of grace” and the primary evidence of the infillingof the Holy Spirit. They continued to move toward the teaching of theearly Pentecostal churches. The Missionary Church believed in the power ofthe Holy Spirit, and placed a great emphasis on the leading of the HolySpirit, they rejected the theological position of the Pentecostalmovement.