Serampore College, founded by Carey
The next three sections of the 1805 covenant made by the “Serampore Trio”, William Carey, William Ward and Joshua Marshman (click here for for part 1 of this post), are shorter and deal with the practical issues of missionary service.
First comes a pledge of committed urgency. We do well always to fix in our minds that life is short and that all around us are perishing. Where has this urgency gone in the West today? There should be an urgency to show love, as Jesus did (‘the love of Christ compels us’, 2 Corinthians 5:14). There should also be an urgency because the time is short (1 Corinthians 7:29). Whatever happened to the concept of hell? Jesus mentioned it often; we don’t. For a deeper look at this debate, see John Blanchard’s book, “Whatever Happened to Hell?” In this article, Kevin Halloran assesses why many preachers avoid the subject of hell altogether. In this piece, Tim Keller offers some practical guidance for ‘preaching hell in a tolerant age’.
Carey admits that, in a hot climate, it is easy to run out of energy, but calls their team to consistent action: to carry on conversations with the natives almost every hour in the day; to go from village to village, from market to market; to talk to labourers and servants. And he quotes the Apostle Paul on ‘being urgent in season and out of season’ (2 Timothy 4:2).
Next, the trio pledge to ‘Christocentric’ mission. It would be very easy to preach nothing but truths for many years, without being useful even to one soul! The expiatory death and all-sufficient merits [of Jesus Christ must be central]. Oh that these glorious truths may ever be the joy and strength of our own souls!
Here again, contemporary Christianity has drawn back from the full force of this – witness the involved debate over “penal substitution” among church leaders, which, curiously enough, began with the aim of opening the gospel to more people.
Image: northamptonjesuscentre.wordpress.com
Then comes a pledge to being available and approachable. We must on all occasions be willing to hear their complaints, give them the kindest advice, and make decisions regarding their affairs in the most open, upright and impartial manner. Any heated or haughty behaviour by the missionaries will sink their character in the eyes of their audience. We must at all times treat them as our equals. We can never make sacrifices too great, when the eternal salvation of souls is the object.
This surely corresponds with today’s emphasis on “incarnational” missiology – being like Jesus among those we hope to reach. Yet again, Carey and his fellow-covenanters show remarkable relevance to missional questions of today.
Article 7 is longer and deals with areas of behaviour appropriate to missionary work in another culture, and the priorities that William Carey and his companions should set themselves. A real missionary becomes, in a sense, a father to his people, is the crucial sentence here. Carey echoes the Apostle Paul, who wrote of ‘becoming a father’ to his converts (the Bible, 1 Corinthians 4:15). God’s workers should feel all the anxiety, tender solicitude, and delight in their welfare and company that a natural father would feel for his offspring.
Carey and his covenanted partners, Joshua Marshman and William Ward, pledge first to build up and watch over the souls entrusted to them, to spend time with them daily, and with great patience to see them thoroughly grounded in the foundation of their hope. But the practical must go with the spiritual: they must help them into habits of industry and to find jobs with the least danger of temptation.
Carey stresses that Indian converts have made considerable sacrifices, even been cast out from their families, so cannot expect help to come from that quarter. If we do not sympathise with them in their temporal losses for Christ, we shall be guilty of great cruelty.
Joshua Marshman, co-signatory of the covenant
The missionaries understand also that the native religion of any converts will have given them no adequate sense of the seriousness of sin or its consequences. So these things must be taught and consistently restated. Even so, reproof must be gentle, and great grace and forbearance shown. We ought not, even after many falls, to give up and cast away a relapsed convert while he manifests the least inclination to be washed from his filthiness.
These points, taken together, run uncannily close to a current shift of emphasis in missional churches. Long emphasis on “Behave – Believe – Belong” (where loving acceptance is dependent on jumping through a number of hoops) is turning towards “Belong – Believe – Behave”, where all are welcomed with loving concern, as Jesus Himself welcomed the crowds; then the teaching is given and a sifting takes place. This article explains more, while this one addresses how to communicate sin in today’s postmodern world.
In reaching out to women, the missionaries pledge to be especially wise, given that Indian women were generally segregated from men. Female help is invaluable, and we must afford our sisters all possible assistance. A European sister may do much for the cause by promoting holiness and stirring up zeal in female native converts. By God’s grace, they conclude, their women may become instrumental in promoting the salvation of the millions of native women who are in great measure excluded from all opportunities of hearing the words of life.
Section 8 is the longest of all. It covers long-term vision and short-term goals for their mission. There is plenty here that is relevant for today. In a clear swipe at Baptist traditions back home in the UK, where only one man was “the Minister”, Carey states: If the practice of confining ministry of the word to a single individual in a church be once established among us, we despair of the Gospel ever making much progress in India by our means. It is only by means of native preachers that can we hope for the universal spread of the gospel throughout this immense continent.
A native missionary in India today Image: freedomfromchains.org
Carey’s vision is clear: a body of native missionaries, used to the climate, acquainted with the customs, language, modes of speech and reasoning of the inhabitants, able to become familiar with them, enter their houses, sleep on their floors or under a tree, and who may travel [far and wide] almost without any expense. This page shows how such a vision is being implemented today, with great effect.
Where does this leave Western missionaries? Basically, to be fathers, mentors and enablers. Carey writes of forming usefulness, fostering every kind of genius, and cherishing every gift of grace in them. As the first generation of native evangelists begins to form, the incumbent Western missionary’s task is to superintend their affairs, give them advice in cases of order and discipline, and correct any errors into which they may fall – but also to enjoy the partnership with them, their steadfastness in faith, and keep pointing them to new openings for church-planting. Books like this show that this quality of spiritual fathers and mothers is a desperate need in churches today.
An interesting decision made by Carey’s team was not to change the names of native converts when they got baptised. Other missionary organisations either gave completely new, ‘Christian’ names or added one. For Carey, the New Testament was evidence enough not to do this; the Apostle Paul saw no need to change names like Epaphroditus or Sylvanus, even though they were derived from pagan gods. For the ‘Serampore Trio’ it was essential to avoid alienating their target audience by suggestions of superiority or judgementalism. Far more important was to foster, by all means at their disposal, a new heart, a moral and divine change in their conduct.
William Ward, co-signatory of the covenant
The document ends with three shorter sections. Numbers 9 and 10 deal with the spiritual side of the mission. Here we are on known ground. The ‘Serampore Trio’ pledge devotion to the Bible and to religious education. We consider the publication of the Divine Word throughout India as an object which we ought never to give up until it is accomplished.
This meant translation (in time, Carey and his team would translate the gospels into forty Indian languages and dialects, in addition to Christian tracts) and publication, for which they had their own printing press, run by William Ward. Over and above this, the missionaries covenant to explain and distribute, and to excite attention and reverence for, the Word of God.
Free schools for Indian children were seen as a priority. The progress of divine light is gradual, so religious education for children was a vital tool. The missionaries should establish, visit, encourage and recommend these at every opportunity.
Section 10 is a commitment to fervent, believing prayer, both individual and corporate. The concluding section 11, however, is anything but traditional missionary fare! It is a passionate recommendation of common purse Christian community living (the Bible, Acts 2:42), and a withering blast against any lessening of covenant commitment or a turning back to selfish, independent ways. Let us give up ourselves unreservedly to this glorious cause. Let us never think that our time, our gifts, our strengths, our families, or even the clothes we wear, are our own.
Carey’s Bengali Bible translation
The Serampore team had embraced a shared purse around 1804, so they are able to testify: No private family ever enjoyed a greater portion of happiness, even in the most prosperous gale of worldly prosperity, than we have done since we resolved to have all things in common. This book looks at the biblical and historical evidence for Christian community living; this one looks at its relevance for today.
Having renounced self-centred living for the sake of the gospel, and having reinforced this by a pledge of loyalty and accountability, Carey, Marshman and Ward warn severely against turn back from it. Woe to that man who shall ever make the smallest movement towards doing things on his own. The moment it is admitted that each brother may act independently, a worldly spirit, quarrels and every evil work will succeed.
It is this formal, solemn and very human pledge of covenant that makes the Serampore mission both different and compelling. High standards indeed, but they were crowned with success. If we are enabled to persevere [in these principles], we may hope that multitudes of converted souls will have reason to bless God to all eternity for sending His gospel into this country. And succeed they did, as these links eloquently show.
Here ends this fascinating, courageous and visionary document. It shows how timeless are many of the issues raised in the proclamation of the gospel, but also how each age and culture is unique and will require particular sensitivity and research. Carey and his team were bold to put in print their own considered strategy, which history shows to have been remarkably effective. Today’s students of ‘missional‘ communities and methods could do a lot worse than starting with the Serampore Covenant of 1805!