“The field is the world”
Today there are GBM missionaries serving on four continents, but during the Mission’s first one hundred years the work was concentrated solely in India. Yet, as Paul Brunning writes, our forerunners in the Mission were by no means unconcerned with the wider world.
As we began to plan for our 2025 Family Camp at Athelington, I came across a report from the Strict Baptist Mission (as GBM was then called) camp in 1924. The camp one hundred years ago was held at Heston Farm, Hounslow—today a council estate just 4 km east of Heathrow Airport. The camp leader was David Morling, SBM missionary to India from 1903 to 1942. On the first evening of the camp—Saturday, 2 August—Mr Morling chaired the first of their six ‘study circles’ to discuss topics of interest for the Mission. The following extract comes from a report in the September 1924 issue of Herald:
The first study circle was held at 7 p.m., the topic being, “A Worldwide Survey of the Great Harvest Field.” “The field is the world” (Matt. xiii. 38); “The whole world lieth in wickedness” (1 John v. 19).
In this study India was excluded from consideration, the questions being intended to direct attention to the needs of the continents of the world. Our thoughts were first turned to Africa, and after inquiring into the prevailing religions, we were asked, “Why is Central Africa more plastic and impressionable than many other parts of the world?” After some discussion, we concluded that the real cause must be traced to the fact that the proportion of truth in the prevalent religion (animism), is very small, the strength and solidity of religion lying in the proportion of truth it possesses. The greatest foe to the progress of Christianity in Africa was shown to be Mohammedanism. In the early centuries of the Christian era the northern shores of Africa were peopled by Christians, but now that wide expanse of territory has come under the sway of Islam. The reason is that those Christians failed “To give the more earnest heed to those things which they had heard, lest at any time they let them slip.” They were Bibleless Christians, and could not “wield the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” The greatest progress of the Gospel has been in Central Africa, and it is a fact that the greater proportion of missionary candidates today are destined for Africa. Many interesting and thrilling biographies of missionaries in Africa are to be bought, and it was suggested that time spent in reading fiction might be more profitably spent in the perusal of such biographies.
Praise God that the gospel has grown rapidly across much of Africa over the last one hundred years, to the extent that more than thirteen percent of Africa’s population is now considered to be evangelical. GBM’s direct involvement in Africa began in 1984. This has included church planting, but has largely been directed towards training pastors and strengthening local churches—in Nairobi, Kisumu and elsewhere in Kenya, and Kitwe in Zambia. Other missionaries have devoted themselves to Bible translation projects in West Africa and Uganda, along with Bible teaching and training to help the local believers make good use of the newly translated Scriptures.
GBM Radio has made a significant contribution to the strengthening of African believers and churches. Espérance Aujourd’hui reaches eleven French-speaking African countries, and Serving Today (and the older programme Sound Words) are heard across large parts of Southern, Central and West Africa. GBM Radio booklets are widely used, not only in their original French and English, but also the translated versions in Lobiri and Dioula (Burkina Faso), Malagasy (Madagascar), Congolese Kiswahili (DRC) and Chichewa (Malawi and Zambia). Some of our Radio team have had opportunities to preach and teach across the continent—not quite from A to Z, but alphabetically from Benin to Zimbabwe, and geographically from Ivory Coast to South Africa. The lasting impact of GBM Radio in Africa will only be known in eternity.
The 1924 camp report continued:
Turning to Asia, and discussing the respective homes of the various religions, we discovered that Buddhism took its rise in India, but that subsequently, the Brahmins astutely included Buddha among the various incarnations of the Creator of all things, and so were able to say that all that Buddhism taught was also taught by Hinduism. Mission work is much more difficult in Asia than in Africa… Nevertheless, the Gospel has advanced. The greatest visible success has been in Korea, where in some quarters no one is admitted to Church fellowship until he or she has been used in leading another soul to Christ. The least success has been in the areas where Mahommedanism thrives, i.e., in South-West Asia, and in those nations where, as a rule, no foreigner is permitted to enter, as in Afghanistan. It is interesting to note, however, that British engineers have entered that country in recent years.
The urgency of the missionary situation is one which, to say the least, calls for our serious consideration. Until forty years ago Japan was a deeply religious country, but now, since the influx of Western teaching, it has discarded the religion of its fathers and is now rapidly becoming materialistic. China is now endeavouring to learn the secrets of British naval, military and commercial power; and, remembering the vast population of China, we tremble at the prospect of that nation becoming aggressive.
Among the striking remarks in this report is the recognition that Islam (‘Mohammedanism’ / ‘Mahommedanism’—both spellings were used in the original report) presented the greatest hindrance to gospel progress. GBM missionaries have worked, and still do, in countries where serious opposition and persecution are real risks. Sometimes this has come from authoritarian governments, gangs and criminal networks, or from Orthodox or other forms of Christianity, but the threat from Islamists and hardline Muslim authorities still means that some missionaries need to work ‘under the radar’. The ongoing spiritual needs of the Arab and Muslim world were highlighted in the September 2024 Herald—that vast swathe of the world remains ‘the gap in our map’ as far as evangelism and church planting is concerned. Yet, in God’s sovereignty and wisdom, the ‘migration crisis’ that the UK and the Western world is facing today is bringing many people from lands largely closed to the gospel, and into places where they can freely hear the gospel. Could it be that as some of these are converted (which, praise God, is happening!) they might in time return to their homelands taking the light of Christ with them?
The January 1925 issue of Herald reported on a farewell meeting at St John’s Wood Road for David and Ruth Morling, as they prepared to return to India after their time on furlough. Mr Morling remarked on the decline of Christianity and rise of Islam in North Africa, then issued this stirring call which must challenge us today:
The S.B.M. stands for Evangelism, if it stands for anything at all. May we have men without the fear of man, but with very much the fear of God before their eyes, who shall give us faithful Bible teaching. Let us use all and every means, including preaching in the open air; and may God give us a great passion for the glory of Christ, in the salvation of sinners.