Movements

Jesus explained to his followers that their mission fields included all tribes and nations. When the disciples received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, they became His witnesses. The church at Antioch served as a base for the mission to Gentiles. The gospel spread throughout the Roman world, European countries, North America, Latin America, Asia and Africa through the working of the Holy Spirit and its inspired missionaries.

They might be seen as a dissenter against modernity but to do so would be to miss the foundation of mission and life. To enter into the life and death of Jesus is to affirm a spiritual reality, to become a disciple. There discipleship was the center from which their social apostolate arose rather than a peripheral attachment to an otherwise developed program of social reform. It formed the basis of their oft-repeated statement that their own word was tradition, not revolution--though, they would hasten to add, tradition made dynamic and faithful to its calling to represent Christ in the world.

The judgment of the possible future value of the mission movement depends, more than upon any other factor, on the question whether there is a real likelihood that either through changing the conditions of work, or through improvement in quality, the personnel of missions can be materially
strengthened.