Nursery for Missionaries: The Forgotten Legacy of Previous Princeton

I’m all the time intrigued after I learn the writings of missionaries from earlier generations, particularly missionaries of the pioneering type. The place did their preliminary drive come from? How was their sustaining perseverance instilled in them? For sure, they have been, at the start, women and men who didn’t depend their lives as treasured; they solely aimed to complete the work given to them by their God (Acts 20:24). However what of their upbringing, training, friends, lecturers, and mentors? What function did these play of their zeal?

Actually, the dad and mom and mentors of many formed them to worth the decision to go away behind dwelling and household for the glory of the King. John Paton and Amy Carmichael function good examples right here. Others have been influenced by a forerunner in missions, reminiscent of David Brainerd. His biography and writings arrested males like William Carey, Robert Morrison, and Henry Martyn, finally guiding them to faraway lands. However the extra I learn in regards to the historical past of missions, the extra I see the essential function of establishments, and particularly their key leaders, in shaping so many long-term missionaries.

Particularly, a breakout session at a current Radius Convention made me conscious of the novel nature of Princeton Seminary as a missions hotbed.

Nursery of Missions

Two centuries in the past, Princeton was the jewel of theological training within the English-speaking world. It’s no overstatement to say that it was probably the most recognized, trusted, and revered seminary of the nineteenth century.

Luminaries like B.B. Warfield, James Boyce, Jonathan Edwards, J. Gresham Machen, and so many others served as professors or studied as college students at this venerable establishment. And amazingly, in its prime, one out of each three Princeton graduates headed out to be concerned in severe long-term missions (Princeton Seminary, 406).

When Princeton was shaped, one of many acknowledged pillars of the varsity was to be a “nursery for missionaries,” and professors led and taught to that finish (Princeton Seminary, 139). This intentionality fostered student-led teams that met repeatedly to wish that some amongst them can be led to missions. The “Society of Inquiry” handled logistical points in reaching faraway international locations, collected language information, and labored steadily to collect a library of books to help these college students getting down to be missionaries. College students additionally queried energetic missionaries, asking for details about their area of service, the encompassing individuals teams, and methods they may pray for the work on the bottom.

Briefly, the college of Previous Princeton made missions a main matter of dialogue and examine, and college students caught what the professors prioritized, leading to over one-third of graduates shifting to locations the place no church existed. Oh, for God to lift up in our day extra seminaries, Bible colleges, and schools with the Previous Princetonian values!

Schooled by Princeton

Contemplating that the majority who will learn this text is not going to assist to steer a Christian establishment of upper training, what purposes can we take from the mannequin of Previous Princeton for our church buildings and different establishments at this time?

1. Making missions main helps, not hurts, the church.

David Livingstone, the well-known missionary to Africa, is reported to have stated, “The most effective treatment for a sick church is to place it on a missionary weight loss program.” Whereas many would count on a missionary to say as a lot, listening to the identical sentiment from different Christian leaders is uncommon. The spirit that existed at Previous Princeton was alive for Christ-exalting missions, and the college at each stage purchased into it. Archibald Alexander, the seminary’s first president, would comment, “we regard the missionary trigger as the best beneath the solar” (quoted in John C. Lowrie’s 1876 paper, “Princeton Theological Seminary and Overseas Missions,” 11). This spirit grew the seminary numerically, however extra importantly, in zeal.

There exists at this time, as in earlier days, an voiceless concern that if a church or seminary pushes missions too laborious, the constructing initiatives received’t get finished, the giving will decline, and a few who’re wanted on the house entrance shall be despatched to the sector. The issue with this concern is that it views the duty of missions by man-centered eyes. If the duty of taking the gospel to these peoples nonetheless in darkness is merely conjured up by fallen males, then we’re proper to carry again assets, keep away from talking about it from the pulpit, and usually tamp down all the enterprise.

“The astounding legacy of Princeton will be measured by what its graduates gave their lives for.”

But when Christ himself issued the Nice Fee, then the God of all grace has stamped his personal identify on this process, and it stays binding on the church at this time. He should usher in his sheep which have but to listen to his voice (John 10:16). And his voice, his name of the gospel, comes by God’s ambassadors, as if God himself have been making his enchantment by males (2 Corinthians 5:20). Removed from being a man-centered process, the Nice Fee is given by God, is orchestrated by God, and can end in God’s everlasting glory.

The church, the varsity, the seminary that places the fee of the God of heaven and earth above endowments, above constructing plans, above succession plans works in concord with the center of our God. The establishment that makes itself a “nursery for missionaries” is not going to remorse that path. How fantastic for a neighborhood congregation to foster sister congregations around the globe raised up by women and men whom they’ve despatched! On that nice day, the glory accorded to these pastors and congregations shall be one thing to behold.

2. Champion missions from the entrance.

The astounding legacy of Previous Princeton will be measured by what its graduates gave their lives for. However a lot of the graduates didn’t go into the seminary with missions in thoughts; they caught the eagerness of the establishment’s leaders. Males like Archibald Alexander, Charles Hodge, Samuel Miller, and others led from the entrance.

Take heed to what James W. Alexander stated in a chat to the seminary college students about “calling” in missions:

Candidates for the sacred workplace [church pastor] are an excessive amount of accustomed to suppose, “I’ll put together myself to serve God as a preacher in my fatherland, and if I needs to be specifically moved, and loudly referred to as, I’ll turn into a overseas missionary.” Right here there may be altogether an error, and an error so nice, that we’d like not be shocked to search out him who harbors it, as actually unfitted for the ministry at dwelling, as he supposes himself to be for the ministry overseas. (Concerns on Overseas Missions, 125–26)

Did you catch that? In response to Alexander, should you suppose you want a particular name to enter missions, you’re unsuited for ministry in your house nation. That is coming from the management!

No quantity of zeal from an adolescent and no depth of historical past from a missions committee can substitute for a pastor main his flock into long-term missions. If the pastor isn’t “into it,” it probably received’t occur. There would be the proverbial missions weekend or an providing for some abroad trigger, however there shall be scant few who leverage their futures to go to the nations except the church management is genuinely main that approach from the entrance.

I don’t imply each Sunday brings a Matthew 28 or Acts 1 message, however the pastor clearly and repeatedly places the burden of reaching these teams who nonetheless haven’t any entry to the gospel earlier than the congregation. He tailors the church’s e-book studying so missions is within the combine (good biographies to start out with) and ensures that these within the subsequent technology are taken to the proper conferences, uncovered to missions repeatedly, and given an opportunity to see what it is likely to be wish to consecrate their lives to the duty of cross-cultural church planting. What would the world appear like with church leaders who fearlessly lead in “come and die” missions?

Legacy in Overseas Tongues

The teachings from Previous Princeton are too good to not be retold. Right now, Previous Princeton is spoken of most frequently in regard to its theological acumen and well-known graduates who modified the course of the English-speaking world. However when the King does the ultimate accounting of this college sometime, Previous Princeton will probably bear a much more wonderful legacy — one sung in overseas tongues.

Could God elevate up extra like her for his glory to the ends of the earth.