Young People's Missionary Movement of the United States and Canada (commonly, Young People's Missionary Movement, or simply, Movement) was an American publisher of Christian missionary educational literature and provider of missionary studies through conferences, institutes, and other types of training. It was an interdenominational Protestant organization focused on the needs of young people. Established in 1901, the Young People's Missionary Movement was incorporated at Silver Bay, New York on July 18, 1902. The office of the Movement was first opened in New York City in January, 1903. The organization evolved into the Missionary Education Movement of the United States and Canada in 1911, under an expanded scope.
History Many factors had for years been contributing to a quickening of missionary interest among the young people's societies of the Protestant churches. Among these forces may be mentioned the influence of the Student Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), founded in 1877, and of the College Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), organized in 1885. The missionary spirit developed by these two associations among the college students of North America found its natural expression in the organization at Mt. Hermon, Massachusetts, in 1886, of the Student Volunteer Movement For Foreign Missions.
A few years after the organization of the Student Volunteer Movement, the Churches were forced to recognize the fact that a considerable number of the strongest and best young men and women of the colleges had signed the Volunteer Declaration Card, stating, “It is my purpose, if God permit, to become a foreign missionary.” Many of them having completed their college and professional training, were offering themselves to their missionary boards for appointment to the mission field, and in numerous instances were given the almost stereotyped reply, "We would like to send you, the work greatly needs you, but we scarcely, have sufficient funds available to support our present corps of workers, to say nothing of meeting the appeals for reinforcements." Thus the uprising of the Student Volunteers became an unspoken challenge to the Christian Church. The volunteers practically proclaimed by their consecration, though they did not presume to put it in words, "Our lives against your money for the evangelization of the world in this generation".
Movement Origins It soon became evident that a parallel movement or missionary quickening would be necessary among the Christian ministry and laity if the Church were to respond to the opportunity of sending these young men and women into the fields to which they had been called.
There arose about this time, beginning in 1881, the mass movement among the young people of the Churches which enrolled nearly 5,000,000 members in the various young people's societies, leagues, unions, brotherhoods, and similar organizations.
In many instances these young people's societies were not engaging in Christian missions, and Christian leaders believed that the personal contact and work on the part of the detained and other student volunteers with the young people in the Churches would increase missionary intelligence, interest, and a sense of responsibility.
Accordingly, there was organized first in Canada in March, 1895, under the leadership of Dr. F. C. Stephenson, of Trinity Medical College, Toronto, a movement known in the early days as The Student Missionary Campaign for an Exodus of Missionaries. Enough work was accomplished in Canada during the first summer of 1895 to demonstrate the value of the propaganda. In the summer of 1896, after a winter of careful preparation, 70 campaigners were engaged in the work, reporting 517 meetings, attended by 35,000 people. Between 1895 and 1902, a total of more than 300 students were engaged in the campaign work in Canada, holding upwards of 3,000 meetings and organizing work in more than 1,100 centers. During that period, the annual missionary contributions from the young people's societies of the churches visited, increased steadily from $1,600 in 1895-96, to $30,226 in 1902-03, and at the end of the year 1902-03, 38 missionaries had been assigned to young people's societies for support over and above regular contributions through the Church treasury. While this work was going forward in Canada, there was the beginning of a similar Churches movement in the United States. As early as 1894, a group of Baptist student volunteers from Denison University devoted their summer vacation to a missionary campaign among the Baptist churches of Ohio; and during the three succeeding vacation periods, from five to seven students visited each year about 200 churches in Ohio and West Virginia.
Campaign in Epworth Leagues In 1897, eight volunteers from Northwestern University and Lawrence University visited some of the Epworth Leagues of Wisconsin. During the summer of 189, Willis W. Cooper, an interested layman who was directing and supporting this experimental work in Wisconsin, and Fletcher S. Brockman, one of the secretaries of the Student Volunteer Movement, went to Toronto to study the principles and methods of the Canadian work. The result was, that during the spring of 1898, Brockman visited 30 American colleges, enlisting and training 160 students for the summer campaign work. Through the generosity of Cooper, a central office was opened in Chicago, with S. Earl Taylor as secretary. During the five summers, from 1898-1902 inclusive, under Taylor's direction, more than 300 students from 30 colleges and 25 states visited and organized work in more than 2,000 churches, reaching directly with their message over 200,000 Church members. The significance of this work was striking when considering the fact that at the beginning of the campaign in 1898, only 4.5% of the Epworth Leagues, among which this campaign was conducted, had a nominal missionary committee. By 1906, largely as a result of the student campaign work, nearly all of the more than 21,000 Epworth Leagues of the Methodist Episcopal Church had missionary departments.
The work thus somewhat extensively launched in one denomination was quickly adopted by other Churches, until in 1903, there were not less than 13 denominations using their student volunteers and other college students in the missionary campaign among their young people's societies. The work of the college students, however, being confined to the summer months, naturally reached largely the smaller towns and rural communities. It was apparent that to reach adequately the churches of the larger towns and cities, a carefully prepared plan of campaign would be required, extending through the winter months, and that the services of graduate rather than under-graduate students would be needed. For this work five Yale University men in the spring of 1898, offered their services without compensation for one year. This group of men, known as the Yale Missionary Band, visited during the year 1898-99 not less than 95 of the leading cities and towns, from the Missouri River to the Atlantic seaboard, addressed 900 meetings attended by 200,000 people, and held 364 conferences on practical methods of missionary work, attended by officers, committeemen, and official representatives of more than 2,000 young people's societies.
Student campaign work influenced churches by increasing missionary interest, prayer, and financial contributions, while deepening the spiritual devotion of congregations. The campaigners and general student body were also impacted. Through campaigning and delivering missionary appeals,many campaigners chose to pursue mission work themselves, while others became dedicated pastors or lay leaders in the home field.
Transfer of leadership
The time came, about 1901, when the missionary work among young people had far exceeded the ability of the student campaigners to meet its needs. For the first few years student campaigners were indispensable, but with the organization of strong missionary departments or committees, the establishment of missionary libraries, and the formation of mission study classes, there came to be a large number of young people's society officers and leaders who were competent to organize and supervise the work that had been pioneered by the students.
The next problem was that of organizing, unifying, and giving comprehensive direction to the energy of the increasing company of missionary specialists who were being developed in the churches and young people's societies. The secretaries of a number of missionary boards, realizing the possibilities of this rapid growth of interest, proposed that a conference of workers be held to compare methods. The first preliminary meeting was held in the Reformed Church Building, 25 East 22nd Street, New York City, September 27, 1901. At this meeting, it was resolved to hold a conference at which ample opportunity should be given for free discussion of the topics presented, and the details of preparation were entrusted to a committee.
In accordance with the above action, such a conference was held on December 11-12, 1901, in the Assembly Hall of the Presbyterian Building, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The conference was attended by 195 delegates. The Committee on "Principles and Results of the Conference," presented at the close a series of resolutions to which may be traced directly the organization of the Young People's Missionary Movement, formally consummated seven months later.
It was decided to hold the next conference at Silver Bay, New York on Lake George, July 16-27, 1902. It was at this conference, in full consultation with the secretaries of the various missionary boards who were present, that the committee entered into the formal organization of the Young People's Missionary Movement, on July 18, 1902.
The office of the Movement was first opened in New York City in January, 1903.
As is usually the case with new Movements, its plan of management passed through several different forms. In April 1907, it was incorporated by a special charter granted by the New York legislature under the name of "The Young People's Missionary Movement of the United States and Canada". The provisions of its articles required that a majority of the Board of Managers would always be officially connected with the home and foreign mission boards of the United States and Canada. This meant that the organization had to always be in the control of representatives of the mission boards which it was organized to serve. This organization was international. The work in North America was under the direction of the International Board of Managers. However, in prosecuting the work in Canada, the seven Canadian members of the board formed the Canadian Advisory Council. They executed the instructions of the board in the Canadian work, and under the direction of the board, supervised what was undertaken in the Dominion.
Organization