The Christian Service Corps

We can wonder why, after 2,000 years of missionary effort by the Christian Church, Christians are still such a small minority in the world. A plain but shocking fact is that the Christian population of the world in relation to the general population drops 10 per cent every forty years.

The many reasons for this could be summarized by the statement that too many Christian people have failed to take seriously the words of Christ, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” If during the last twenty centuries the Church had really obeyed these words as it should have, the world would not be so unbelieving as it is with regard to worshiping God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Although the Church can point to great strides in its Christianizing efforts in the past and even at present, the future appears dim—indeed, dark.

If we look at what two great denominations in America are doing in foreign missions, we shall be able to see more clearly why this is so. The entire Protestant Episcopal Church, which is one of the wealthiest of all per capita and has a membership of over three million, representing in good part the middle and upper classes, has on the field only 270 missionaries. Mr. Clifford P. Morehouse, an Episcopal layman, said, “After more than a century of missionary endeavor, the church has only some 250,000 baptized members outside the United States.” The United Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., whose 3,300,000 members are primarily from the middle class, is a church strong in culture, history, institutions, and doctrine. This church, whose history dates from the formation of the first presbytery in Philadelphia in 1706, had only 1,246 missionaries and fraternal workers on the field at the end of 1962. The number of Presbyterian missionaries abroad has declined 7 per cent over the last four years, and budget restrictions for 1964 will force a decrease from ninety-eight missionaries sent in 1963 to seventy this year, not quite enough to replace losses by retirement, resignation, and death.

How can we be content with our present endeavors when such figures and facts present themselves? Do we really care whether the Gospel gets to all the world? Unless something is done in the next decade or two, the Church will continue to fall behind in its efforts to win men to Christ and his Church. Something must be done to reverse the tide so that the statement in the opening paragraph above will read, “The Christian population of the world in relation to the general population rises 10 per cent every forty years.”

A Suggestion For Action

A Christian Service Corps (CSC) may be the answer. Such an organization would be very similar to our national Peace Corps, but it would be a Christian movement instead of an agency of the United States government and would be evangelistic in nature.

The CSC would be a lay movement that would cooperate closely with the Protestant churches. The term of service would be short, and it is possible that thousands of Christians would join for a two or three-year term. Response to the Peace Corps has been remarkable, and Operation Crossroads Africa has seven times more applicants than it can accept. Many Christian people who have served with such programs as these could use their training and experience with the CSC.

The mission program of the Church might be greatly strengthened by the services and Christian witness of laymen in the CSC. In this way the ministry of the laity could find significant expression. The Church has put emphasis on recruiting lifetime missionaries; it has done very little to prepare and send laymen to represent Christ in all the world. Another benefit of the program would be that it might help laymen to determine whether God was calling them to enter full-time service as missionaries, as ministers, or in some other church vocation.

The Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses are examples of groups that have spread their faith by dedicated laymen. From its beginning Mormonism has strongly urged its members to give one or two years of their lives to the worldwide propagation of their doctrine. A hundred years ago the Mormon church under the leadership of Brigham Young was sending missionaries to Europe. The Jehovah’s Witnesses are well known for their enthusiasm in ringing doorbells and passing out literature. These heretical cults have grown substantially through the ministry of laymen. Surely the Christian Church must recapture the New Testament concept that everyone is an apostle—one called out of the world to be sent back into the world.

The Christian Service Corps program would represent and be supported by as many Protestant churches as possible. It is hoped that denominational churches (including Assemblies of God, Baptist, Christian and Missionary Alliance, Church of Christ, Church of God, Church of the Brethren, Disciples of Christ, Evangelical Covenant, Evangelical United Brethren, Lutheran, Mennonite, Methodist, Nazarene, Pentecostal, Protestant Episcopal, Reformed, Seventh-day Adventist, United Church of Canada, United Church of Christ), independent churches, and mission boards such as the Division of Foreign Missions of the National Council of Churches, the Evangelical Foreign Missions Association, and the Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association, would participate in the CSC.

Corps Qualifications

Applicants for the CSC would need to have a skill usable in the Church’s missionary program in the world. Areas of skills could include medicine, dentistry, public health, social work, engineering, carpentry, construction, agriculture, commercial arts, business administration, printing, journalism, radio and television, education and literacy work, athletics and physical education, and the lay ministry.

Christian Corpsmen would be between the ages of eighteen and seventy. Married couples who could work in the same area would qualify; those with dependents under eighteen would be eligible but would have to finance their dependents. After filling out a detailed questionnaire, applicants would need to pass an entrance examination and physical and psychological examinations before beginning an intensive four to six-month training program.

The training programs would be given in church-related colleges, state colleges, Bible schools, and universities. Each program would be oriented toward a particular country and responsibility. Courses would be in three general areas: the history and culture of the country; the language of the country; the Bible and its use in preaching and teaching. No matter what a Christian Corpsman’s primary skill, he should be able to minister the Word of God. He would therefore need to have a workable knowledge of the Bible and to be willing to subscribe to a Christian statement of faith. Refresher courses in basic skills would be available also.

Examinations in history, culture, language, and Bible would be thorough and intensive. During the whole training period the candidates would be undergoing personal evaluation. At the conclusion of the training period final selection on the basis of skill, maturity, motivation, and Christian character would be made. The highest physical, psychological, and character standards would have to be maintained.

On Location

A Christian Corpsman’s place of service would be determined by his skill, the need, and his preference. The CSC would channel Corpsmen to the mission fields either through the denominational and independent mission boards or directly to the indigenous churches. Mission stations and churches could request persons with certain skills. Workers would be going out, not as missionaries or fraternal workers, but as Christian Corpsmen. They would be under the direct supervision and authority of the person or group in charge of the mission station or work. In other words, the CSC would supplement the work of the Church and existing missions in the world.

The Christian Corpsman would receive a subsistence allowance commensurate with the cost of living in the area in which he was serving. He would raise one-third of the total cost of his training, travel, subsistence, and insurance for his term of service. After a two or three-year term, he would be free to return home. He could also choose to stay on the field an extra year, or even for another full term. Upon returning to this country he would be given a $50 readjustment allowance for every year of his service.

A candidate, trainee, or Christian Corpsman could resign at any time. College students sent to Africa for two to three months under Operation Crossroads have made a significant contribution in human relations; surely a Christian Corpsman could substantially aid the missionary program of the Church in two or three years.

The Christian Service Corps would be organized as a non-profit corporation. The board of directors, which would be made up of thirty prominent and qualified Christian ministers and lay people, would have the responsibility of determining policy and objectives and of appointing executives. Each participating denomination and group would appoint one board member.

An executive secretary, working at the central Christian Service Corps office, would supervise the entire program. Four associate executives would be responsible for recruitment, financing, training, and supervision of personnel on the field. The five executives would be members of the board of directors in addition to the thirty regular members.

Publicity would be handled by the associate executive in charge of recruitment. He would cooperate closely with the personnel directors of the mission boards of the participating denominations and the independent mission boards, both in this country and abroad, as to need, qualifications, and placement of Corpsmen. Christian men and women would be challenged and approached in churches and colleges and by way of radio, television, and literature. In our country of millions of Christians the potential for prospective candidates is well-nigh unlimited.

A Two-Way Appeal

Financing of the CSC would be through the contributions of Christian people, endowments, wills, foundations, and churches. The Church both numerically and financially is in a position to carry out such a program in addition to its regular benevolent giving. Some Christian Corpsmen would be supported by churches or individual Christians who knew them. People are more ready to support enthusiastically someone they know than to support mission work in general. Funds could probably be raised for the program, since it would have a unique appeal not only to possible candidates but also to the givers. For a special organization such as this money might be available that would never be given to the regular mission program of the Church.

The Church has before it a door open to new and almost unlimited service. Asia, Africa, and South America are ripe for laymen to supplement and aid the existing Christian witness. Half the people who live in these three continents are under the age of twenty-one. In an address to members of the Presbyterian U. S. Board of World Missions, Jean-David Mukaba, press secretary to Congo President Joseph Kasavubu, said, “I was asked to bring a request for more missionaries.” Of the 242 million people in Africa, 116 million are animists and 89 million are Muslims. At present, for every convert won to Christianity in Africa three are won to Islam.

From Mexico to the tip of Argentina there are 205 million people. The Church in these areas needs leaders, qualified laymen who are dedicated to spreading the Good News. Many areas in the Far East, Near East, and Southern Asia with their millions are open to evangelism. Dr. Bonar Sidjabat, professor at Djakarta Theological School and secretary of the Study Commission of the Indonesian Council of Churches, recently told me that the church in Indonesia could use 300 more missionaries immediately. As it matures in its mission, the Church throughout the world sees new opportunity for witness and service and thus needs more workers.

What results would such a program have? First, it would decidedly strengthen the missionary program of the Church in evangelizing the non-Christian world. There are areas that are ripe and waiting to hear the Gospel. If the Protestant church does not win certain people within the near future, some non-Christian faith will. In some parts of Africa, Islam is winning more people because it is reaching them before we are.

It is not inconceivable that the CSC, working in a cooperative and united way with the churches, could have 5,000 trained and dedicated laymen on the field within eight years, and the number would increase as the program’s usefulness was proved. The benevolent giving of Christian people would increase as well. Indeed, the CSC might possibly turn the tide in the battle for men’s souls that we are at present losing.

The second result would be an awakening in the local church to the worldwide ministry of the Church. The Christian Corpsman upon completion of his service would bring to the local church the training and experience he had received. His influence would stimulate benevolences. He would be expected to make at least forty speeches to Christian groups within a year of his return and would encourage others to participate in the CSC. There would certainly be opportunities for him to work in this country with migrant workers, in rural areas, in inner-city churches, in mobile ministries, with minority and underprivileged groups, and in hospitals.

A minister whose church is the third or fourth highest in benevolent giving in its denomination remarked to me that this resulted from his trip around the world. He visited churches and missions and saw the physical and spiritual needs of the world’s people. Sharing his experiences with his congregation upon his return, he was able to stimulate interest in mission work.

Through the Christian Service Corps the Church would challenge laymen to serve Christ in this way. Ask what you can give to your country, but first ask what you can give to Christ and his Church.

Preacher In The Red

Having been quite deaf for many years, I learned to read lips reasonably well. While preaching a Thanksgiving Day sermon to a Portland, Oregon, congregation, I read the words of Revelation 19:1: “And … I heard a great voice of much people … saying, Alleuia; Salvation, and glory … unto the Lord.”

In the front row, directly before the pulpit, sat a young couple. They seemed to study me carefully and may have noted something indicative about my last name. Anyway, I saw the young lady lean close to her escort’s ear and say softly—but clearly, to my special lip-reading ability, “Now I know he is an Englishman: he leaves off his h’s”—THE REV. FRED H. WINSOR, Woodburn, Oregon.

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Robert N. Meyers, assistant minister of the Vienna United Presbyterian Church, Vienna, Virginia, holds the degrees of B.S. in Ed. (Wisconsin State College) and B.D. (San Francisco Theological Seminary). He did graduate work at St. Andrews University in Scotland.

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