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The rise and fall of the Student Volunteer Movement

1930s: Coping with Crisis

After the Black Tuesday crash, American culture entered into a dark mood—a Crisis. “After a three-year economic free fall, the Great Depression triggered the New Deal revolution, a vast expansion of government, and hopes for a renewal of national community. After Pearl Harbor, America planned, mobilized, and produced for war on a scale that made possible the massive D-Day invasion (in 1944). Two years later, the crisis mood eased with America’s surprisingly trouble-free demobilization.” (Strauss and Howe 1997)

The 1932 report Rethinking Missions, the Laymen’s Commission of Appraisal (a Rockefeller-funded body led by Harvard professor William E. Hocking established to review the work of the American Protestant missionary enterprise) concluded missionaries should not stress the distinct claims of Christianity over against non-Christian religions but rather cooperate for social improvement. This was a very big stone thrown in the missions pond, and reflective of the liberal/conservative challenge.

Interestingly enough, Christian Endeavor easily endured this period: its meetings in Germany drew delegates from 112 countries and 80,113 locally organized societies. Since its founding through 2000, Christian Endeavor has been dedicated for 125 years to equip young people with the tools to live the Christian life in a meaningful and personal way, according to its current leader Timothy Eldred. In 2000 it was active in more than 80 nations. Many of today’s best-known and respected Christian leaders, such as Dr. Billy Graham, Dr. Paul Cedar, Dr. Tony Campolo, and Dr. Howard Hendricks took part in the CE movement as youth.

In the SVM, Jesse Wilson was was facing a terrible challenge. “Because of financial conditions, we are so puzzled now about our whole program that it is difficult for us to commit ourselves to anything” (SVM Archives, Series III, Wilson to D.R. Porter, May 23, 1932).

The dire economic straits had not lessened by the end of the decade, and it became increasingly evident the SVM had to regroup and redefine itself or else cease to exist. The ongoing struggle with conservatives abandoning the SVM had not lessened.

In 1934, Wilson wrote “Many friends, rightly or wrongly, have questioned the soundness, from an evangelical point of view, of the Movement’s present position and have preferred to make their contributions to organizations concerning which no such questions have arisen.” (SVM Archives, Series V.) A direct rival to the Student Volunteer Movement’s work was growing in the conservative wings during this period, although not emerging officially in the United States until 1940 as the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship.

E. Fay Campbell, writing to Jesse Wilson, suggests the extent to which the Movement was wracked by conservative/liberal dissension: “Your years as SVM secretary have been terribly hard due to the spirit of the times, R.P. Wilder’s ineffective leadership and the situation in the General YMCA-YWCA. It was inevitable that your name and the name of the SVM should be identified with outworn ideas. I know it wasn’t true that you didn’t believe in social religion, but I also know that the fight for missions has antagonized certain People. You know I have talked on this point many times in YMCA group when you were accused of being only a personal gospel person.” (SVM Archives, Series III -Campbell to Wilson, May 1935.)

It appears there was a generational leadership gap: below the top level leadership, there was a liberal group in the “middle management” of the SVM which included educational secretaries and traveling secretaries as well as the most articulate and active portion of the actual student volunteers. This could explain why many of the publications and convention themes of the period were far to the liberal side of the theological and missiological spectrum despite the SVM’s leaders’ conservative reputation.

Finally, in 1935, unable to change the situation, Jesse Wilson and Vice Chairman of the Administrative Committee C. Darby Fulton resigned. In 1936, the SVM entered years of profound questioning without any stable leadership. In the decade following Wilson’s resignation, four different men served as an acting or permanent General Secretary for the Movement. The General Council, an “experiment in democracy” begun after the Des Moine convention, was replaced by a smaller General Committee in 1936, which in turn was replaced by a different organizational arrangement in 1941. The Movement struggled to figure out what it would be. How would the Movement relate to other general student movements (such as the YMCA, denominational student work, and union movements), conservative student movements (such as the Inter-varsity Christian Fellowship), mainline denominational missionary programs, and changing missiology of the period?

Complicating this was the fact that the more liberal minority within the SVM had given it a reputation that wasn’t upheld by the vast majority of the student constituency, who continued to be of a more conservative cast. Reporting on a tour of American campuses, SVM General Secretary Wilmina Rowland wrote: “Some students confess that they have gotten wrong impressions of the missionary enterprise through the Student Volunteers on their campus, who in such cases enlist a pious group of the more dependent-minded students… In summary, it seems to me that the SVM across the country is quite definitely conservative.” (SVM Archives, Series V, Appendix A of the Administrative Committee minutes of May 8,1936.)

While the Student Volunteer Movement had a role in its early years, the need for the Movement was increasingly uncertain in the post-WW1, pre-WW2 period.

“The influence of the SVM across the country is not heartening. Many persons who believe strongly in missions feel that its days of usefulness are over. A number of foreign mission board secretaries say that if the Movement went out of existence, it would not affect their candidate work. Many, even among the conservative leaders, think that the Movement should revamp its functions and expand its membership if it is to continue its existence.” (SVM Archives, Series V. Appendix A of the Administrative Committee minutes of May 8, 1936.)

The Movement had once been a powerful force on the campuses of prestigous colleges and universities, but it had fallen far. Now the majority of SVM groups existed only at small rural colleges, upheld by local tradition rather than following closely the lead of the national Movement.

In 1938, the first organizational meeting of the World Council of Churches was held. In the same year, several denominations (Presbyterians, American Baptists, others within the ecumenical movement) formed their own youth movements to compete with Christian Endeavor, shifting the focus from evangelical emphases to social causes. Christian Endeavor, however, remained staunchly evangelical and maintained its grassroots strength.

The argument over the future of the SVM was entering its final stages. Methodist leader H.D. Bollinger wrote “The SVM is a thing of the past and those who are charged with the responsibility of perpetuating it should realize this fact” (SVM Archives, Series III, Bollinger to Campbell, November 29, 1939). But the SVM still didn’t see it that way. A North American Student Conference on the World Mission of Christianity, sponsored by the NICC, the Council of Church Boards of Education, and the SVM, was held in Toronto in December 1939. It voted to:

recommend the continuance of the Student Volunteer Movement as the cooperative agency of the general Student Christian Movements for carrying forward their Christian World Mission emphasis in education and recruiting; and that, in addition, the Movement specialize in the following areas: 1) Establishment of standards of personnel for overseas service, and 2) Recruitment of personnel for missionary areas at home. (SVM Archives, Series V, General Committee, January, 1940.)

The SVM didn’t want to give up its independence at this point in the development of student Christian work in the United States, believing it was a more ecumenical force than the NICC or the denominational movements. Its influence, however, was steadily eroding. A January 1940 meeting of denominational leaders recognized that the SVM had done very little recruiting for the major boards in recent years, and did not seem likely to do much in the future. Needing candidates, the boards decided to set up their own cooperative recruiting system. “‘If the students want the SVM or its equivalent to continue, let them run it and finance it.” (SVM Archives, Series V, Personnel Committee, January 27, 1940.

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Related: The Mission Manual · Justin Long's Annotated Links and Notes