Religion: Young Pauls

St. Paul, greatest of missionaries, was responsible to no board of foreign missions. Boldly and zealously he went his own way. Today mission boards still hope for Pauls. They go recruiting for young ones, sometimes in big secular colleges, more often in small denominational institutions. But fewer & fewer young Pauls respond. A report on them issued last week, the final report of the indefatigable Laymen’s Foreign Missions Inquiry, declares that young Pauls are fewer because college students today lack religious conviction, are no longer sure that the Christian message is better than any other. Even if their faith is great they are more concerned with social issues, such as pacifism, or the Christianization of industrial and racial relations, than with foreign missions. More, they are uncertain about the future of Christian missionary work, how long it will last in its present form.

When a young Paul is found today, he is made aware that he may look forward some day to being subordinate in the Lord’s foreign vineyard to a native yellow, brown or black man, for “the day of the missionary ‘boss’ is past.” Thoughtfully must a young Paul weigh the Laymen’s Inquiry’s words: “The period upon which the missionary enterprise is entering will test the patience, the consecration and the qualities of leadership of the missionaries in the field. Only a high order of administrative statesmanship can guide the missionary movement at this time.”