The Rise and Fall of SVM

On December 6, 1888, the movement (that had begun in 1886 at a summer conference in Mt. Hermon, Massachusetts, under the direction of D. L. Moody) was officially organized in New York City under the name Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions. A fivefold purpose was developed:

To lead students to a thorough consideration of the claims of foreign missions upon them personally as a lifework; to foster this purpose by guiding students who become volunteers in their study and activity for missions until they come under the immediate direction of the Mission Boards; to unite all volunteers in a common, organized, aggressive movement; to secure a sufficient number of well-qualified volunteers to meet the demands of the various Mission Boards; and to create and maintain an intelligent sympathetic and active interest in foreign missions on the part of students who are to remain at home in order to ensure the strong backing of the missionary enterprise by their advocacy, their gifts and their prayers [John R. Mott, Five Decades and a Forward View, Harper and Brothers, 1939, p. 8].

The slogan “The Evangelization of the World in This Generation” became the great watchword of the SVM. This was misunderstood by some, notably Gustav Warneck, the German historian-theologian of mission, who thought it was an arrogant statement that all the world would be Christianized. It was branded as superficial and naïve. However, W. R. Hogg has correctly placed it in perspective as follows:

The majority of its detractors (most of them Continentals) apparently failed to grasp its true meaning. It did not prophesy nor suggest as possible the conversion of the world in this generation.… The overwhelming majority of students to whom it was meaningful understood by it the responsibility of each generation to make the gospel known to all mankind in that generation. None other can repeat that eternal message to a particular generation. Its own members alone can do that. Understanding this, individual Christians recognized more keenly than ever the bearing of the Great Commission upon their own lives. The watchword, then, in the best sense was a call to obligation—not a prophecy of fact [Ecumenical Foundations, Harper and Brothers, 1952, p. 88].…

Taking a cue from the Princeton Foreign Missionary Society with its “pledge,” the SVM developed a declaration card. The purpose of the card was to face each student with the challenge of “the evangelization of the world in this generation.” The card stated: “It is my purpose, if God permit, to become a foreign missionary.” When a student signed this, it was understood as his response to the call of God. Every student was expected to face the issue and either to respond to it in the affirmative or else show that God was clearly leading him elsewhere.

Growth And Outreach

The growth of the SVM in the following three decades was nothing short of phenomenal. In 1891, the first international student missionary convention sponsored by the SVM was held in Cleveland, Ohio. It was decided that such a convention should be held every four years in order to reach each student generation. Until the 1940’s, this became a pattern, interrupted only by World War I. The first convention at Cleveland was attended by 558 students representing 151 educational institutions, along with 31 foreign missionaries and 32 representatives of missionary societies.

By the time of the Cleveland convention, there were 6,200 Student Volunteers from 352 educational institutions in the United States and Canada. And 321 volunteers had already sailed for overseas service. In addition, 40 colleges and 32 seminaries were involved in financial support of their alumni who had gone overseas as Volunteers. All this had taken place in just five years since the Mt. Hermon conference. The movement had also reached out and planted seeds of similar movements in Great Britain, Scandinavia, and South Africa.

Luther Wishard’s vision of a worldwide alliance of student movements such as the YMCA was bearing fruit in those same years. From 1888 to 1892, he traveled throughout the world “laying foundations for national Student Movements that were later to become members of the World’s Student Christian Federation. Wishard was a Federation trailblazer … John R. Mott, however, did more than any other to found the World’s Student Christian Federation” (Hogg, op. cit., p. 89).

In 1895, at Vadstena Castle, Sweden, the World’s Student Christian Federation was brought into being with John R. Mott as general secretary. While the SVM was only one strand leading to the WSCF, it is notable that some of the leaders of the SVM were also leaders of the worldwide movement among students.

Following the meetings at Vadstena Castle, Mott spent the next two years traveling throughout the world. He visited universities in the Near East, India and Ceylon, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii. Some seventy student associations and four national Student Christian Movements came into being as a result of his tour.

For the next twenty-five years, the story of the SVM is one of constant growth and outreach. An educational program in the schools was initiated and spread rapidly. Mott could later write that “at one time before the war the number in such circles exceeded 40,000 in 2,700 classes in 700 institutions.”

These efforts on the local campuses, the quadrennial conventions, plus literature, speaking tours, and other activities resulted in thousands of students volunteering for overseas service. “By 1945, at the most conservative estimate, 20,500 students from so-called Christian lands who had signed the declaration, reached the field, for the most part under the missionary societies and boards of the Churches” (R. Rouse and S. C. Neill, A History of the Ecumenical Movement, 1517–1948, Westminster, 1967, p. 328).

World War I caused a temporary slowdown of these activities, but there was an immediate postwar burst of missionary zeal. “The Convention held in Des Moines in 1920 marked the peak of the Movement’s development. It was attended by 6,890 people from 949 schools and was followed by a peak year of newly enrolled Volunteers—2,783” (W. H. Beahm, “Factors in the Development of the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1941, p. 13).

The growth had been rapid and impressive. But the SVM was now to experience the pressures of other forces that were building up in the aftermath of World War I. The “Roaring Twenties,” the depression of the thirties, and other currents did not leave the SVM unscathed.

Confusion And Decline

Statistics can never give a full picture of any movement, any more than a thermometer can diagnose the disease of a patient. But just as a thermometer can give a reading on general health or decline, so statistics can often give readings of underlying symptoms of vigor or weakness. From the high point of 1920, the SVM experienced a rapid decline. Thirty-eight Volunteers sailed for the field in 1934 (as compared with 637 in 1921). Twenty-five Volunteers enrolled in the SVM in 1938 (as compared with 2,783 in 1920). In 1940, 465 delegates attended the quadrennial convention in Toronto (as compared with the 6,890 at Des Moines in 1920).…

What had happened to precipitate, or to allow, such a drastic decline?

Dr. W. H. Beahm has highlighted the following factors [in the dissertation previously mentioned] …:

1. Many changes of leadership broke the continuity of its life and left the subtle impression of a sinking ship from which they were fleeing.

2. There was increasing difficulty in financing its program. This was closely related to the depression and the loss of Mott’s leadership.

3. The program tended to become top-heavy. In 1920 the executive committee was expanded from six to thirty members.

4. Its emphasis upon foreign missions seemed to overlook the glaring needs in America, and so the movement appeared to be specialized rather than comprehensive.

5. When the interest of students veered away from missions, it left the movement in a dilemma as to which interest to follow—student or missionary.

6. There was a great decline in missionary education. One reason for this was the assumption that discussion of world problems by students was an improvement over the former types of informative procedure. The conventions came to have this discussional character.

7. Their emphasis shifted away from Bible study, evangelism, lifework decision, and foreign-mission obligation, on which the SVM had originally built. Instead they now emphasized new issues such as race relations, economic injustice, and imperialism.

8. The rise of indigenous leaders reduced the need for Western personnel.

9. The rise of the social gospel blotted out the sharp distinction between Christian America and the “unevangelized portions of the world.”

10. Revivalism had given way to basic uncertainty as to the validity of the Christian faith, especially of its claim to exclusive supremacy. Accordingly the watchword fell into disuse and the argument for foreign missions lost its force.

The development of these trends is highlighted by the evaluations of the quadrennial conventions:

Des Moines, 1920

The convention at Des Moines in 1920 was a revolt against older leadership. The 5,000 students who gathered there were not dominated by any great missionary purpose. Many were not even professing Christians. They were more interested in peace relations, economic improvement, and international peace than in world evangelization as such [“Students and Missions at Buffalo,” The Missionary Review of the World, February, 1932, p. 67].

That convention was large in number but the delegates were lacking in missionary vision and purpose and were only convinced that a change of ideals and of leadership was needed. They rightly believed that selfishness and foolishness had involved the world in terrible war and bloodshed and they expressed their intention to take control of Church and State in an effort to bring about better social conditions. The problems of international peace, social justice, racial equality and economic betterment obscured the Christian foundations and ideals of spiritual service. Many students were determined to work for reforms—either with or without the help of God [“Student Volunteers at Indianapolis,” The Missionary Review of the World, February, 1936, p. 68].

Indianapolis, 1924

The youth were in the saddle and turned attention from world evangelism to the solution of social and economic problems. But while earnest and energetic, they were uninformed and inexperienced. They failed to make much impression or to reach any practical conclusions. The SMV seemed doomed [ibid.].

Detroit, 1928

This convention seemed to offer a brief respite from the turbulence and upheavals of the two most recent ones. There was more of a quiet search for truth. Yet the uncertainty of belief on the part of many seemed to be evident.

The platform addresses were free from the impassioned oratory of the earlier Conventions; they were essentially a sharing of facts gleaned through experiences and observation.… Characteristic of the testimonies of foreigners who spoke … was Hashim Hussein’s on “A Moslem Meets Christ”.… He referred to the numerous students at the conference whom he had observed were “talking in terms of comparative religion, of syncretism, and again students who [are] doubting one theological doctrine or another”.… Beyond the Convention the mood of foreign missionary depression continued [W. A. Omulogoli, “The Student Volunteer Movement: Its History and Constitution,” M.A. thesis, Wheaton College, 1967, pp. 114–16].

Buffalo, 1932

The Buffalo Student Volunteer Convention was not exclusively a foreign missionary convention. The watchword of the movement—the Evangelization of the World in this Generation—was conspicuous by its absence [“Students and Missions at Buffalo,” p. 67].

Indianapolis, 1936

The mass of the delegates had little or no knowledge of the Bible and spiritual things. They had evidently not studied the Bible in their homes, in churches or in colleges and universities. They lacked the background and foundations for the appreciation of missionary themes.… The audience was the mission field rather than the missionary force [“Student Volunteers at Indianapolis,” p. 68].

In its fiftieth year of history, the character of the Movement had been so altered of late that it could not in all honesty claim to be contending for its originally outlined objectives. One clear indication of this fact is the place that was given the Movement’s founder, Robert P. Wilder, in the programme of this Convention.… While many of the speakers held to philosophical and theological presuppositions that were not in accord with the Movement, Wilder was accorded no substantial role on the programme [Omulogoli, op. cit., p. 121].

Termination Of Svm

As early as 1940, Dr. Beahm could write that the SVM “has almost ceased to be a decisive factor in the promotion of the missionary program of the churches.” After 1940, its activities appear to be almost nonexistent.

In 1959, the SVM merged with the United Student Christian Council and the Interseminary Movement to form the National Student Christian Federation (NSCF). This in turn was allied with the Roman Catholic National Newman Student Federation and other groups in 1966 to form the University Christian Movement (UCM). The purpose of the UCM at its inception was threefold: “to provide an ecumenical instrument for allowing the church and university world to speak to each other, to encourage Christian response on campuses to human issues, and to act as agent through which sponsors could provide resources and services to campus life.” It is obvious that these purposes, while legitimate in themselves, show little relationship to the original objectives of the SVM as spelled out at Mt. Hermon and in subsequent developments.

On March 1, 1969, the General Committee of the University Christian Movement at its meeting in Washington, D. C., took action in the form of an affirmative vote (23 for, 1 against, 1 abstention) on the following resolution: “We, the General Committee of the UCM, declare that as of June 30, 1969, the UCM ceases to exist as a national organization.…”

Thus, the final vestiges of the greatest student missionary movement in the history of the Church were quietly laid to rest eighty-three years after the Spirit of God had moved so unmistakably upon students at Mt. Hermon.

No human movement is perfect, nor can it be expected to endure indefinitely. But the great heritage left by the SVM can still speak to our generation. The reasons for its decline can serve as warning signals. Its principal emphases can redirect our attention to the basic issues of today: emphasis on personal commitment to Jesus Christ on a lifelong basis; acceptance of the authority of the Word of God and emphasis on personal Bible study; sense of responsibility to give the Gospel of Christ to the entire world in our generation; reliance on the Holy Spirit; emphasis on student initiative and leadership to carry out these objectives.

David M. Howard is director of the Missions Department of Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship. This essay is taken from his new book, “Student Power in World Evangelism” (© 1970, Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship).

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