Indigenous church mission theory

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The Indigenous church mission theory was developed in response to the extreme paternalism exercised by western missionaries of the early 19th century, particularly in Asia. Opposition arose to the making of 'rice' Christians who were completely dependent on missionaries and loyal to the church only as long as they were receiving free food. In exchange, missionaries expected complete loyalty from the 'natives' and resisted giving up authority and control. The system was thought to foster an unhealthy parent-child relationship between the missionaries and national believers.

Henry Venn (1796 - 1873) and Rufus Anderson (1796 - 1880) were contemporaries and the modern pioneers of indigenous church mission theory. They defined an indigenous church as one that is

• self-supporting
• self-governing and
• self-propagating

John Nevius (1829-1893) served as a Presbyterian missionary to China in the late 1800s. After questioning the methods of western missionaries of his time, he wrote a book published in 1886, "The Planting and Development of Missionary Churches," which called for discarding old-style missions and the adoption of his new plan to foster an independent, self-supporting local church. He criticized the missionaries' practice of paying national workers out of mission funds, believing the healthy local church should be able to support its own local workers.

Roland Allen (1868-1947) also attempted to apply indigenous church principles to the missions of his day. After serving as an Anglican missionary in China from 1895 to 1903, he returned to England and spent 40 years writing about missions principles. Two of his books, Missionary Methods: St. Paul's or Ours? (1912) and The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church: And Causes that Hinder It," are still in print.

Alice Luce (1873-1955), an Anglican missionary in India, was influenced by Allen's theory of missions and in 1921 she wrote a series of articles, "Paul's Missionary Methods," for the Pentecostal Evangel. Due to her advocacy, indigenous church principles became normative for Assemblies of God missions during the early part of the 20th century.

Melvin Hodges (1909-1988), an Assemblies of God missionary to Nicaragua, again popularized the idea in the 1950s with his book, On the Mission Field: The Indigenous Church. He defined the indigenous church as "a native church . . . which shares the life of the country in which it is planted and finds itself ready to govern itself, support itself, and reproduce itself." Hodges believed that foreign money creates dependence and establishes paternalistic patterns within mission movements, leading to an unhealthy, anemic church. His experience as a missionary no doubt influenced his presentation of the Three-Self principles. He emphasized the need for flexibility and tailoring the principles to fit the need of the local believers.