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The rise and fall of the Student Volunteer Movement
1883: praying for a fire
At Princeton, Robert Wilder studied hard but felt a missionary calling. He met with other students to regularly study the Bible and pray for missions, and at the beginning of his junior year attended a conference of the “Interseminary Alliance.” There he challenged fellow students to pray for revival at Princeton and consider missions. In 1883, he helped form the Princeton Foreign Mission Society, with the covenant “We, the undersigned, declare ourselves willing and desirous, God permitting, to go to the unevangelized portions of the world.”
His sister Grace had started a student group for girls at Mt. Holyoke with a similar declaration, and 34 girls signed their names. The Princeton group met Sundays at the Wilder home; while they met in one room, Grace prayed for them in another—since girls at that time were not permitted to join the meetings. During Robert’s senior year, he and Grace regularly prayed for a widespread missionary movement in the colleges of America from which a thousand missionaries would be sent out.
Among the youth, Christian Endeavor was spreading virally. In a year the original 63 members had grown to 127. New societies sprang up. By 1882, three or four additional societies had been formed. They held their first convention that year, having 6 societies and 500 members. By 1883, there were 56 societies; by 1884, 156; by 1886, 850 (8 denominations, 33 states, 7 foreign countries); by 1887, over 7,000 societies and over half a million members.
Societies were rapidly formed in Canada, Hawaii, Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Foochow, Africa, England, Australia, Turkey, Japan, Spain, France, Samoa, Mexico and Chile. It was funded mostly by small personal gifts. When the United Society was organized in 1889, a membership fee was charged. When Christian Endeavor took over the magazine The Golden Rule, subscriptions to it also provided a line of revenue.
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Justin, thank you for a well researched SVM article. Over the past 30 years I have had an enduring interest in this history, as a scholar, practitioner and mobilizer. http://www.jaygary.com/students.shtml
But now I think the student generation following World War I also made good choices regarding the gospel. While Robert Wilder chose fundamentalism, Sherwood Eddy embraced both the gospel and social justice, and rallied the church to work with marginalized urban youth. As 21st century Christian leaders, we must not let this divide between evangelism and social action divide us any longer. Even as evangelicals, both WEA and Lausanne have dealt with this both theologically and practically for 30 years now. There are new paradigms of global engagement emerging. We must not be frozen in the 19th century, but open to our own paradigms becoming more biblical and integral.
Second, whatever calls to come to a new generation, their watchword must deal substantially, in a post-Bosch world, on how the gospel must change both the evangelized and the unevangelized. Jesus linked both the rich man and Lazarus in his parable. We must link our overconsumption with the destitution of the developing world, and consider ways to create sustainable enterprises that are culturally relevant, environmentally appropriate and wealth generating among the bottom of the pyramid. See the work of Stuart Hart in this, his book _Capitalism at the Crossroads_ http://www.stuartlhart.com/frameworks%20and%20t...
I am encouraged by your work from Asia. May God continue to give you strength to sound the trumpet.
–Jay, Program Director, M.A. in Strategic Foresight, http://www.regent.edu/global/msf
Assistant Professor, School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship, Regent University