Old Princeton and Missions
I am always intrigued when I read the writings of those from previous generations who served as missionaries, especially the pioneering sort. Where did their initial drive, their sustaining perseverance, get instilled in them? Without a doubt they were first and foremost men and women who did not count their lives as precious, only that they finished the work that was given to them by their God. But what of their upbringing, their education, their peers, teachers, and mentors? Were those any factors?
There are many that the parents/guardians in their life shaped them (John Paton and Amy Carmichael being two good examples) in such a way that the concept of leaving behind home and family for the glory of the King was assigned pre-eminent value. Others were impacted by a forerunner in missions. Maybe the most impactful was David Brainerd. His biography and writings arrested men like William Carey, Robert Morrison, and Henry Martyn, eventually guiding them to faraway lands. (1) But the longer one reads about the history of missions it is quite common to see the role of institutions, especially the key leaders in those institutions, that shaped so many for long-term missions.
Recently I have been greatly blessed to come across the radical nature of Princeton Seminary in relation to missions. Some of you are likely as unaware of Princeton’s missions heritage as I was just a few months ago. Princeton was the jewel of theological education 200 years ago in the English-speaking world. Princeton today, like so many other institutions, has lost all semblance of orthodoxy, but in its day it WAS the school that all others were measured by. It was the most known, trusted, and respected theological school of the 19th century.
Luminaries like B.B. Warfield(2), James Boyce(3), Jonathan Edwards(4), J. Gresham Machen(5), and so many others were professors and/or students at this venerable institution. The startling missions fact about Princeton Seminary that I was unaware of is this; at its prime, 1 in 3 of its graduates was heading out to be involved in serious long-term missions! (6)
I must confess that I didn’t stumble on Princeton initially by my own investigation. At the recent Radius Conference, one of the breakouts was led by Jonathan Master, President of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, titled Training Missionaries at Old Princeton. Master laid out so well why missions was a resounding theme in Old Princeton.
When Princeton was formed one of the stated pillars of Princeton was to be a “nursery for missionaries.” There were student-led groups that got together to pray for one another that some would be led to missions. There was another group called, “The Society of Inquiry,” that would go over logistical issues in reaching far away countries and language data, and worked steadily to gather a library of books that could be of aid to those students setting out to be missionaries. They would write missionaries on the field asking for information on their field of service and ways they could be praying for the work on the ground. In short, the faculty of old Princeton made missions a primary topic of discussion and study. The students caught what the professors made primary resulting in over one-third graduating and moving out to places where no church existed. Oh, for God to raise up more seminaries, Bible schools, and colleges with Princetonian values in our day!
Most who will read this article, however, will not be faculty members at a Christian institution of higher education. But there are two primary applications that we can take from the model of Princeton and see well applied to churches today.
Application #1.
Making missions primary helps, not hurts, the church.
David Livingston, the famous missionary to Africa, once remarked “The best remedy for a sick church is to put it on a missionary diet.” While many would expect such a thing to come from a missionary, from the faculty and staff of the leading seminary would be another matter. There exists today, as in earlier days, an unvoiced fear that if a church, or seminary, pushes too hard on missions the building projects won’t get done, the giving won’t be able to support what may happen, some that are needed for ministry at home will end up going. This is a common fear of many pastors that usually goes unvoiced.
The problem with this fear is that it views the task of missions through man-centered eyes. If the task of taking the gospel and the church to those groups that still stand in darkness is one that is conjured up by and led by the church and its leadership then we are right to hold back resources, hold back speaking about it from the pulpit, and generally tamp the entire enterprise down. But, if the commission that was given to the followers of Jesus still remains, then the God of all grace has stamped his own name on this task. He MUST bring those sheep of other sheep pens (John 10:16) that have yet to hear his voice, and this voice, this appeal for the gospel, comes through God’s ambassadors. As though God himself was making his appeal through men (II Corinthians 5:20).
The church, the school, the seminary that puts the commission of the God of heaven and earth above endowments, above building plans, above succession plans will find that it is working in harmony with the heart of our God. Oh, to be known as a church that is a “nursery for missionaries,” a congregation that has sister congregations around the world that were birthed because of sent ones from that local church. On that great day, the glory accorded to those pastors and congregations will be something to behold.
Application #2
Missions must be championed from the front.
The astounding legacy of Princeton can be measured in what its graduates gave their lives for. But most of the graduates didn’t go into the seminary with missions in mind, they caught it from the leaders of the institution. Men like Archibald Alexander, Charles Hodge, Samuel Miller, and others led from the front.
Listen to James W. Alexander as he gave a talk to the seminary students about “calling” in missions. He says,
“Candidates for the sacred office (church pastor) are too much accustomed to think “I will prepare myself to serve God as a preacher in my native land, and if I should be specially moved, and loudly called, I will become a foreign missionary.” Here there is altogether an error, and an error so great, that we need not be surprised to find him who harbors it, as really unfitted for the ministry at home, as he supposes himself to be for the ministry abroad.”
Catch what he’s saying. If you think you need a special call to go into missions, you’re unsuited for ministry in your home country. This is coming from the leadership!
No amount of zeal from a young person, no depth of history from a missions committee will make up for the leading pastor/teacher of the church leading his flock into long-term missions. If the pastor isn’t “into it” it won’t happen. There will be the proverbial missions weekend, there will be an offering for some overseas cause, but there will be scant few who give up their futures for the sake of going to the nations unless the leadership of the church is genuinely leading it from the front. I don’t mean every Sunday is a Matthew 28/Act 1 message, but the burden of reaching those who still have no access to the gospel is clearly and regularly put before the congregation. The book reading is tailored so missions is in the mix (good biographies to start with), and the young people are taken to the right conference, exposed to missions regularly, and given a chance to see what it might be like to consecrate their lives in the task of cross-cultural church planting. Oh, for church leadership that fearlessly leads in missions.
The lessons from Old Princeton are too good to not be retold.(8) Today Princeton is most often spoken of in regard to its theological acumen and well-known graduates who changed the course of the English-speaking world. But when the King does the final accounting of this school someday it is likely that a far greater legacy, in foreign tongues, will dwarf what is presently known. May God raise up more like her for His glory to the ends of the earth.
Footnotes:
One of my favorite resources on Brainerd is: Five Pioneer Missionaries, (The Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh, UK, 2016).
His book, Inspiration and Authority of the Bible is a wonderful defense of the infallibility of the Scriptures.
The founder and first president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
His sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” was key to the First Great Awakening.
His book, Christianity and Liberalism is still powerfully applicable today.
David B. Calhoun, Princeton Seminary, 1812-1868, Volume 1, (The Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh, UK, 1994). Pg 406
Rev. James W. Alexander, “Considerations on Foreign Missions: Addressed to Candidates For the Holy Ministry” Leopold Classic Library, pg. 125-126
David B. Calhoun’s 2 volumes by Banner of Truth are easy to read and digest. A great place to start.
