OMF International


OMF International is an international and interdenominational Evangelical Christian missionary society with an international centre in Singapore. It was founded in Britain by Hudson Taylor on 25 June 1865.
WWW Official Site𝕏 OMFUS

Overview

The non-sectarian China Inland Mission was founded on principles of faith and prayer founded by James Hudson Taylor in 1865. From the beginning it recruited missionaries from the working class as well as single women. The original goal of the mission that began dedicated to China has grown to include bringing the Gospel to East Asia. Following the departure of all foreign workers in the early 1950s, the China Inland Mission redirected its missionaries to other parts of East Asia. The name was changed to the Overseas Missionary Fellowship in 1964, and then to the current name in the 1990s.

History

Missiological Distinctives of the CIM


Origins

Hudson Taylor made the first decision to found the China Inland Mission at Brighton, England during his first furlough from China. Like his missionary forebear Karl Gützlaff and contemporary William Chalmers Burns, Taylor was convinced that Chinese clothing should be worn when engaged in missionary work in inland China. On 3 October 1865, Taylor sent John and Anne Stevenson and George Stott to China, where they arrived on February 6, 1866. Including the five missionaries previously sent to Ningbo -James Joseph Meadows, Jean Notman, Stephen Paul Barchet, and George and Anne Crombie, these eight were already in China when Taylor returned in 1866. On 26 May of that year, Taylor accompanied the largest group of missionaries that had ever sailed to China on the Lammermuir. There were 16 missionaries as well as Hudson, his wife, Maria and their 4 children that became known as the Lammermuir Party. This journey took 4 months.

Inland pioneering

In 1872, the China Inland Mission's London council was formed. In 1875, it began to evangelise China systematically. Taylor requested 18 missionaries from God for the nine provinces which were still unreached. In 1881, he requested a further 70 missionaries, and, in 1886, 100 missionaries. In 1887 "The Hundred missionaries" were sent to China. Taylor travelled across several continents to recruit for the China Inland Mission. By the end of the nineteenth century, the CIM was well known around the world. Richard Lovett wrote about the practices of the missionaries in 1899. He noted that they were humble and not from the upper classes and they were having good success because they were willing to "rough it". That year Henrietta Soltau set up a training home for women missionaries in North London. She was secretary of the ladies' council of the CIM and hundreds were trained there.

Boxer Crisis of 1900

In 1900, attacks took place across China in connection with the Boxer Rebellion which targeted Christians and foreigners. The China Inland Mission lost more members than any other agency: 58 adults and 21 children were killed. However, in 1901, when the allied nations were demanding compensation from the Chinese government, Hudson Taylor refused to accept payment for loss of property or life in order to demonstrate the meekness of Christ to the Chinese. In the same year, Dixon Edward Hoste was appointed to the directorship of the mission.

Growth amid war and revolution

The early 1900s saw great expansion of missionary activity in China following the Boxer Rebellion, during the Revolution of 1912 and the establishment of the Chinese Republic. William Whiting Borden, wealthy heir of the Borden, Inc. family, who graduated from Yale University in 1909, left behind a comfortable life in America to respond to the call for workers with the Muslims of northwest China. He died in Egypt while still in training.
A musician and an engineer named James O. Fraser was the first to bring the Gospel message to the Lisu tribes of Yunnan in southwest China. This resulted in phenomenal church growth among the various tribes in the area that has endured to the 21st century.
The Warlord period brought widespread lawlessness to China and missionary work was often dangerous or deadly. John and Betty Stam were a young couple who were murdered in 1934 by Communist soldiers. Their biography, "The Triumph of John and Betty Stam", inspired a generation of missionaries to follow in the same steps of service despite the trials of war and persecution that raged in China in the 1930s and 1940s.
The Japanese invasion further complicated efforts as the Japanese distrusted anyone with British or American nationalities. When the Japanese invaded China in Second Sino-Japanese War, the China Inland Mission moved its headquarters upstream the Yangzi River to Chongqing. Many missionaries were put into concentration camps, such as Weifang, which lasted until the end of the war. The entire Chefoo School run by the mission at Yantai was imprisoned at a concentration camp. As the children and teachers were marched off they sang:
Despite the hardships, the number of Christians in China increased from 100,000 in early 1900s to 700,000 by 1950. The Chinese church was beginning to develop into an indigenous movement, with the assistance from key leaders such as John Sung, Wang Ming-Dao, Watchman Nee and Andrew Gih.

From CIM to OMF

Phyllis Thompson wrote that between 1949 and 1952 in the immediate aftermath of the Chinese Communist Revolution, there was a "reluctant exodus" of all of the members of the China Inland Mission. The leaders met at Bournemouth, England to discuss the situation and the decision was made to redeploy all of the missionaries into the rest of East Asia. Headquarters were moved to Singapore, and work commenced in Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Indonesia. In addition to reducing some languages to written form, the Bible was translated, and basic theological education was given to neglected tribal groups. The publication and distribution of Christian literature were prioritized among both the rural tribes people and the urban working classes and students. The goal remained for every community to have a church in East Asia and thereby the Gospel would be preached "to every creature". The proclamation of the Christian message also included medical work. Three hospitals were opened in rural Thailand as well as a leprosy control programme. Many of the patients were refugees. In the Philippines, community development programs were launched. Alcoholic rehabilitation began in Japan, and rehabilitation work among prostitutes was begun in Taipei and Bangkok.
In 1980, Hudson Taylor's great grandson James Hudson Taylor III was appointed General Director for the mission work. According to Taylor in 1989,
Dr. Patrick Fung, a Chinese Christian appointed in 2006, is the first Asian to lead the mission. The work continues to the present day.

The old London headquarters building

The original headquarter was located at Newington Green in North London. By the late 19th century, when the CIM building was commissioned, what was once a rural village had long been subsumed into the metropolis. Newington Green had grown up around a core of English Dissenters and their famous academies. The CIM headquarters sits between two other listed buildings on the green, Newington Green Unitarian Church, and the oldest brick terrace in London, 52-55 the Green, where the notable minister Richard Price lived.
The building was refurbished by Haworth Tompkins. Now known as Alliance House, it is run by Sanctuary Students as accommodation for City University.

Chronology

1860s

1870s

1880s

1890s

  • Shanghai Headquarters at Wusong Road 1890.
  • 1890 Australia Home Council for CIM formed.
  • First party of Australian missionaries arrived in 1890.
  • New Zealand Home Council formed.
  • Newington Green office headquarters in London 1895.

1900s

  • Boxer Rebellion of 1900 claims 58 missionaries and 21 children killed from the China Inland Mission.
  • In 1901 Hudson Taylor refused to accept compensation payment from the Chinese government for loss of property or life, to show the ‘meekness and gentleness of Christ’
  • 1901, A council was set up, headquartered in Philadelphia, to supervise the mission's work in the United States
  • Dixon Edward Hoste appointed acting General Director in 1901
  • James Hudson Taylor resigned as Director of the China Inland Mission November 1902
  • 1904 Xinjiang: George Hunter opens a mission station
  • James Hudson Taylor died 3 June 1905 in Changsha, Hunan, China
  • Empress Dowager dies in 1908
  • China Inland Mission sent relief team to flood and famine in Jiangsu, Anhui and Henan

1910s

1920s

  • 1925 Gustav Burklin arrives in China
  • 1927 The Chinese Civil War forced a temporary evacuation of nearly all of the missionaries
  • 1929-1932 The China Inland Mission is This was part of 'The Forward Movement' as the Missionaries moved back to their stations. The 'Call for Two Hundred New Workers' was issued in March 1929 and shared in China's Millions in May 1929

1930s

  • Headquarters in Shanghai move to Sinza Road in 1930
  • By 31 Dec 1931 the last of the Two Hundred New Workers had sailed.
  • 1934 1,368 missionaries were serving at 364 stations. The mission staff also included hundreds of Chinese pastors, teachers, colporteurs, chapel keepers and Bible women.
  • John and Betty Stam executed in South Anhui in 1934
  • World War II forced many of the missionaries further inland – or they were captured by the Japanese and detained until the end of the war
  • By 1939, 200,000 Chinese and Minority people had been baptised by CIM workers

1940s

  • 1942, 1,263 missionaries. The headquarters was evacuated out of Shanghai to escape the Japanese army. An emergency headquarters was set up in Chongqing, the same city where the Chinese government had relocated.
  • November 1942 China Inland Mission School at Chefoo is closed and all students and staff imprisoned.
  • 1943, South Africa Home Council formed
  • August 1945 China Inland Mission School at Chefoo is liberated by American paratroopers
  • 1945, The staff moved back to Shanghai
  • 1 October 1949 Mao Zedong proclaims People's Republic of China in Beijing
  • Werner Bürklin. son of Gustav and Lina Bürklin was born in Wuhu, Province Anhui

1950s

  • After "The Christian Manifesto", the China Inland Mission began to withdraw its missionaries ending in 1953
  • 1950, 1,104 missionaries, of whom 757 were in China. CIM home council started in Switzerland
  • 1951 Three-Self Patriotic Movement launched allowing government control of Christian assembly
  • In November 1951, a new headquarters was set up in Singapore, and the organisations name was changed to The China Inland Mission Overseas Missionary Fellowship
  • 1951, A temporary headquarters was set up in Hong Kong, mainly to oversee the withdrawal of the missionaries.
  • 14 October 1954, The mission was reorganised at a meeting of the mission's overseas council. The council reaffirmed the need for the mission, but changed its structure so that non-Western Christians could become full members and set up home councils in their own countries. The main emphasis of the OMF was to continue to be evangelism, but support would also be given to a literature programme, medical services, radio and TV outreach, student work and linguistic work.
  • Re-deployment of all missionaries to East Asia

1960s

1970s

1980s

  • 1980-1990 James Hudson Taylor III served as seventh General Director.
  • Chinese Church reaches 21.5 million baptised members, over 52 million including Christian families and adherents
  • Werner Bürklin, born in China, returns to China in 1980 to start a teaching ministry, first in Nanchang, Jiangxi and then in many cities across China. He founded China Partner, a mission organisation to facilitate this. Later his son Erik alongside his daughter Linda continued this ministry.

1990s

  • Overseas Missionary Fellowship renamed OMF International
  • 1993 First OMF workers enter Mongolia
  • 1994 AIDS ward opens at Manorom Hospital, Thailand
  • 1995 OMF establishes web presence
  • 1999 OMF workers involved in relief operation after Taiwan earthquake

2000s

  • 2004 OMF involved in relief after Asian tsunami
  • 2006 Dr Patrick Fung is appointed as General Director, the first Asian to hold this position in OMF.
  • 2008 OMF involved in relief work, including counselling, after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

2010s

  • 2011 OMF involved in relief, counselling and visiting temporary housing following 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
  • 2014 OMF reopens its OMF Southern Africa centre, based in South Africa
  • 2015 OMF Celebrates 150 years: 1865-2015.
  • 2016 OMF joins the network of mission agencies.
  • OMF International has 1400 workers from over 40 nations, serving globally.

Archives

The papers of the China Inland Mission are held by, the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism at Wheaton College, the OMF International Center in Singapore, the Hong Kong Baptist University, and several regional offices.

Selected publications

  • LONDON : MORGAN AND SCOTT, 12, PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS, E.C. Original from the New York Public Library Digitized Aug 15, 2006.
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