Christians don’t always recognize the importance of the local church and church polity to missions. Yet some of the great missionaries and evangelists of the past knew that building healthy churches was central to their work.
The biographies of John G. Paton and Wang Ming-dao (王明道)1 both illustrate this lesson.
JOHN PATON (1824-1907)
Born in Scotland in 1824, John G. Paton spent much of his adult life as a missionary in the New Hebrides Islands of the South Pacific. Over many years, as Paton did pioneering missionary work among unreached peoples, he saw remarkable conversions. Paton served the cause of missions in the New Hebrides for decades, and eventually passed away in 1907 in Australia. Today, Christianity is the dominant religion in these islands, now known as Vanuatu.
While Paton offers many lessons for today’s Christians, three points from his autobiography stand out for contemporary discussions about missions’ strategies. (1) Paton practiced careful church membership as a part of his pioneering evangelism. (2) Paton centered his ministry on the local church. (3) Paton stressed the importance of patience.
Careful Practices of Church Membership
Paton refused to view pioneering evangelism as being at odds with church membership. His approach to baptism and
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