MAY I give some impressions of how the work of the churches at home appears to the missionary as he returns to this country?

      These impressions have been gathered over a fairly long period and in several States. Particularly they were formed in a year d uring which two States had honoured overseas missionaries by making me President of their Conference.

      To understand the reactions of the missionary back home it is necessary to get some of the background of his life overseas.

      There, the subject of evangelism fills all his thoughts and activities. It is his very life, and his great desire is to see the Church of Christ grow--a desire which engrosses him in leisure as well as in recognised working hours.

      The longer he is overseas the more does he desire to see the indigenous church develop so that it may be self-governing. Naturally, the missionary has to take charge of all the work at first, but he is disappointed if he has to remain in charge, for his desire is to see growth in the church. He feels that stability will only come when the church can be self-governing and can conduct its own social services.

      The missionary trains most of the men and women of the church to be able to talk to others concerning the truth of the gospel. He tries to ensure that at least some of them shall be able to take over the children's homes, the schools, the organised evangelistic work, and the medical work, all of which have taken so much time and energy to establish. In passing all these types of work to the indigenous church, the missionary is willing to take big risks. He knows that not until they can take over the work can he contemplate with equanimity the time to come when he may not be allowed to return to the work overseas.

      The overseas missionary is accustomed to a somewhat penurious living, for he is given what is considered to be a living allowance only, in cash, and has no absolute guarantee that even this will be regular.

      As the allowance is only sufficient for living expenses, special allowances are arranged, as needed--for example, for the education of his children, which cannot take place on the mission stations--and for other legitimate expenses.

      Mission boards know of these conditions and try to help as well as they can; but the missionary constantly is being told that there is not money available for many things he wishes to do.

      Frequently he tries to make use of some special opportunity which has developed for evangelistic work, but has to desist because there is nothing with which to finance it.

      Frequently the missionaries club together, temporarily foregoing some things considered necessities of life, in order to finance some special work which the Mission Board cannot undertake.

      This makes him very realistic concerning income and expenditure. Income for both the mission work and his own personal living, is limited, and he has to restrict his expenditure accordingly.

An Enforced Realism.

      This realism forces him, at times, to close up some mission station in order to be able to concentrate time and money on some other district so promising that he feels that he must develop it.

      He gets accustomed to examining minutely the work in every part of his field. He must question whether the expenditure on the work in any particular place is warranted in view of the fact that there seems to be a better opportunity In some other district.

      He hates to close up a mission station but he does it for the reason that finance is limited.

      Therefore, he develops a sense of stewardship which makes him very critical of his work.

      He has learned to look for places where there seems to be a weakening of resistance to the gospel, and tries to press on in those places, even if he has to close other ordinarily promising places in order to do so. He grows to hate waste either of money or effort and does not let sentiment interfere with his sense of stewardship.

      He writes to the Home Board of some special opportunity which he sees, but gets used to the reply that the Board would very much like to press on with the new work, but alas!--finance is short.

      This lack of money is reflected in the buildings which he erects for his work. They are the simplest possible for the work needed.

      The most expensive building's are those for schools, children's homes, and medical work. These must be built strongly to suit the purpose for which they are to be used, and so cost considerably more than our chapels and houses.

      Feeling that the church at home is in earnest about going into all the world to preach the gospel, the missionary is both willing and anxious to go. He is thrilled as he becomes one of those chosen to fulfil the desire of Christ and the Church.

When at Home.

      When he returns to Australia after a few years he feels out of place, and this is accentuated the longer he has been overseas.

      Australia seems a foreign country to him. The people he knew have changed. He also has changed.

      Conditions in the Australian churches, have altered, the prevailing outlook is different, and he feels quite out of touch with his brethren, whose leaders are new to him. He is delighted to be able to use his own language as he worships God in public, after being long restricted to using a language not his own.

      But he wonders what has happened. He remembers that when he went out as a missionary, the church leaders promised on behalf of the brotherhood that they would support the work overseas even if it meant sacrifice, and that the missionaries would be constantly remembered at the throne of grace.

      He finds, however, that very few Church members would be able to name the missionaries for whom they are supposed to be praying, and that many have no idea of where the individual missionaries have been working nor in what type of work they have been engaged.

      This is rather a shock, but as he does not want to seem ungrateful to the few who do know these things, he says nothing and tries to hide his disappointment.

Prodigal Expense.

      When he begins to travel round Australia, visiting the churches systematically, he finds what seems to him to be wastage of time, effort and money. He finds waste lamentable, for it does not show any sense of stewardship such as he has been forced to adopt.

      He finds that money is available for purposes which seem to him to be worth neither the time, effort, or money they consume.

      Finance is available without limit in the home churches for buildings and church organisation, because church members, in the goodness of their hearts, and exuberance of their faith, are willing to run wildly into debt.

      In a number of church centres he finds that the work has dwindled so that very few members are left to bear the burden of the expensive upkeep of large buildings with a capacity far greater than their use.

      He finds, too, that groups of people investing in expensive church buildings each insist on having a separate preacher. When appeals come for overseas work, it is quite impossible for these churches to give in any way proportionate to the importance of the work.

      He sees so-called gospel meetings being held Sunday night after Sunday night with a very slight chance of any non-Christian being present, and to him it appears that there is a definite lack of a sense of responsible stewardship.

      He sees money and effort being poured into unproductive fields and when other fields such as work among the New Australians are suggested, he is told that we have neither the men nor the money even to begin to do the work needed.

Sentiment or Sense?

      To him it appears that the Church is being bogged down in a morass of sentiment, as some members tell him they have such a love for some particular church building that they will not look at the work as a whole realistically.

      They cheerfully continue to pour money and effort into some comparatively unproductive work instead of channelling it in some more productive way.

      He sees several small churches in one district, each trying to keep up a building and a separate preacher. It appears to him that if there were a sense of stewardship, in these days of shortage of preachers, as well as of money for overseas work, these churches would unite in one strong church with a strong preacher-leader, and possibly several Bible schools in various places.

      If this were done, it appears to him there would not be so much wastage, and even though no more money were given in the church, more money would be available for overseas work which, after all, is as important as the work at home.

      That we need strong churches at home, if we are to do the overseas work adequately, the missionary fully realises. But he feels that the multiplicity of weak churches, each valiantly trying to finance its own little work separately, does not result in the formation of the strong home churches which we so badly need.

      From this viewpoint of stewardship alone he is led to think that many of these churches should be merged into each other, so that running expenses would be less, results greater.

Disproportion.

      I took the trouble to get a questionnaire circulated among our churches (and received answers from two-thirds of them) asking for figures showing the value of the properties they own.

      The answers showed that the church buildings and manses we possess in Victoria and Tasmania have an approximate value of £1,196,000.

      Figures in the Conference report showed that during 1953 the money raised for their local work by our 141 churches was just on £108,000. For other than local use, £27,349' was raised.

      With all this expenditure that year, our net increase in membership was 233.

      Our numbers have actually decreased in the last twenty years.

      The returned missionary wonders why it is that while £108,000 is raised for local work, the same people give one-fifteenth of that sum, £7,600, for overseas work.

      I think he can justly say that while there is no command in the scriptures to erect elaborate buildings for the worship of God, no matter how expedient they may be, there is a definite and important command for Christ's disciples to go into all the world with the gospel message.

      We realise that places of worship are necessary, and are prepared to commend those churches which have expended much money on their plant, even up to £35,000 as some of our Melbourne churches have done, so long as they are really active and are meeting their overseas obligations loyally.

      On the other hand we do wonder how such an expenditure can be justified when the church is not using the building to the full and gives but a pittance to the work overseas.

      All our buildings together in India and the New Hebrides are not worth more than £35,000 today, and certainly did not cost anything like this amount, even including children's homes, schools, hospitals and bungalows--and they represent the mission interest of the 30,000 members throughout Australia.

      We question whether this is realistic stewardship when two or three hundred members use the same amount of money merely for their own local work.

      Church giving that measures up to our Great Commission is not an impracticable ideal. May I cite an example?

      In 1953 the members at Kaniva, Victoria, raised £1,136 for their local work, but more than twice that amount, £2,552, for other purposes. This was realistic stewardship.

One Man Ministry?

      Coming from overseas, where we have perforce to be realistic, we also wonder why so many preachers in the home churches must exercise all the leadership in their churches.

      Here, too, we feel that there is not a real sense of stewardship. If there were, members of the church would provide the leadership for the many societies, clubs, study groups, etc., and leave the preacher free to do his real work, the organising of the activities of all the members and training them to be able to tell others the gospel message.

      We feel, as we come from the overseas fields, that poor stewardship is being shown when the immense potential inherent in the membership of the churches, is not used to the full. We are all glad to see the movement for visitation evangelism develop, and sincerely hope that it will be continued.

      In our overseas work we are accustomed to the fact that we cannot expect non-Christian people to come to our meetings to be converted. Naturally, we organise to reach them in many ways, and are somewhat surprised to see the home church still continuing to expect non-Christian people to come to us, instead of training our members to go out to the people.

      We feel that this unproductive effort should be re-channelled so that the full membership of the church may be used to reach non-Christian people.

The Waste of Division.

      A thing which appals us as we come back to Australia is the wastage of effort on the part of the various denominations. We see, on our itineraries, many country towns where there are eight or ten church buildings--and eight of ten ministers--when the total number attending church would not be more than would fill one of the buildings. It seems to us to be thoughtless wastage of money and effort.

      The missionaries have tried to prevent comparable wastage in the foreign countries, by having a system of "comity" whereby the different missions agree not to go into territory already occupied by another mission.

      We realise that the problem is a very real one and not easy to overcome, when members of some denomination insist on having, separate meetings; but we feel that we are not facing it in a realistic manner when we think of the tremendous shortage of both men and money for world evangelisation.

      Allied to this wastage is a cleavage of thought. Some brethren make their definition of Christianity too wide and others would make all bow to an exceedingly narrow creed.

      We ought to be realistic enough to be able to find an appreciation of each other as believers in Christ, and by conferring, each modify his views and come to that fellowship through which the Spirit of God truly manifests Himself. We should realise that the majority of us would not be extreme in either direction.

      In the lands overseas, we can see the difference between the men and women who believe in the Lordship of the Christ, and those who do not so believe, long before we make inquiry as to the exact details of what they believe, and why. Surrounded by millions of non-Christians we have learned to welcome a fellow Christian before we have probed his mind to find if there are deficiencies in him.

The Point of Difference.

      As a result of some time spent during a year as president of a Conference in trying to find a solution to a threatened cleavage among ourselves, I believe the crucial point of difference is concerning viewpoints in the matter of the inspiration of the Scriptures.

      I believe that absolutely frank discussions with each other would reveal an allowable difference of interpretation as to just what inspiration means, and how far it applies to any translation of the Scriptures. Condemnations of each other's views without such frank discussions do not appear to exhibit the Christian love which is the natural result of the indwelling of the Spirit of God.

Appreciation.

      Missionaries as they come back to Australia feel that our movement is a great one and that we have a great plea. We rejoice at the evidences of devotion which we constantly see in the churches, and the spirit of sacrifice which so many of our brethren exhibit.

      We feel that we can rejoice because we have some great leaders and preachers. We rejoice that social service is beginning to be a real thing in the life of the church for we have grown accustomed to feel it is a very vital part of the gospel message. We rejoice to see the self-sacrifice of so many who form the various committees of the Conferences.

      It is a difficult thing for many men and women to find time for all the meetings and we can be proud of the many business men and preachers who find time to help in this way.

      I would especially say a word in praise of the work of the Properties Corporation. Overseas we have come to realise that the mission business should be done in a business-like way. Our buildings must be registered properly or otherwise they might pass into the hands of those who have no desire to use them in the Lord's work.

      There are many buildings in India which have fallen into the hands of non-Christians because the trustees died and their heirs claimed the properties. Proper holding and insurance of church properties is an important business which we, overseas, have had to learn sometimes by bitter experience. We are glad to see businessmen here ready to give their skill and their time to this somewhat unrecognised and unglamorous work.

      As we remain in the home land we renew some of our friendships and lose some of that loneliness which at first appals us. We realise that it is not for us to criticise our brethren who have not had the same experience that we have had.

      These reflections are not given in the spirit of criticism. They are prepared with the thought that if it really is good for us to see ourselves as others see us, the brethren will welcome them as constructive, even though they may be provocative.

      Our views as missionaries may be distorted, and coloured too much by our conditions of living overseas. But I believe that we each, at home or abroad, are anxious to see the church without spot, wrinkle or blemish, save the wounds which identify the body as that of Christ.

      As we work and pray for the supremacy of the Christ, we long to see that rightly balanced, Spirit-governed, power-filled Church having that global vision which must have been behind the definite and clear marching orders of our Lord. He told his disciples to teach, preach and heal, beginning where they were and reaching out to the uttermost parts of the earth.

FOR DISCUSSION . . . . . .

      1. Are there sufficient opportunities to train for service in our churches?

      2. Could your church be criticised by Dr. Oldfield's "standard of realism"?

      3. How many of our missionaries could you name, with the countries in which they serve?

      4. What is a fair proportion of your offerings to give to

      a. Your local church?

      b. Brotherhood work?

      'What think ye?' 'How readest thou'? were frequent challenges to our Lord. His religion makes demands upon the mind. Christianity in its most vital eras, has stirred thought, provoked interest, and produced literature. There was the ferment of its early days out of which came the New Testament. The Reformation supplied the newly-invented printing press with abundant material. Our own Movement was launched on a flood of publication.

      A sign of renewal among us today would be a great increase of eager readers, diligent thinking and provocative and enlightening discussion.

      The Pamphlet Club has been launched with this aim. It can help members to think together on vital issues. Various groups, men's and women's fellowships, and youth study circles can use the pamphlets as the basis for discussion. (See questions in this pamphlet.)

      The Club provides a ready channel for distributing important statements widely among the Brotherhood.

      We need 2,000 subscribers to assure the success of the venture. Extra copies of the first few pamphlets will be printed for use to build up interest. One church has used the first pamphlet at a week-end convention. We recommend this example. We cannot, however, continue to print large numbers of the pamphlets without the assurance of their being purchased and read.

      Will you help recruit new subscribers? Speedy despatch of subscriptions to C. L. Smith, Boronia Rd., Boronia, will greatly encourage the Committee.