A Study of United Missions and Interboard Committees

Abstract

The Reverend Loren E. Noren is a missionary of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Societies, stationed in Kong Kong. He was educated at Ottawa University in Kansas and at Andover-Newton Theological School in Massachusetts. He served in Swatow, China, from 1946 to 1952 and has been Secretary. Treasurer of the American Baptist Mission in Hong Kong since 1954. When the Missionary Research Library was asked to undertake research for appraisal of various cooperative efforts in foreign missions, an Advisory Committee for the Study of United Missions ana Interboard Agencies was set up, with Dr. Barnerd M. Luben, then Executive Secretary of the Board for the Christian World Mission of the Reformed Church in America, as chairman. Mr, Noren, on furlough, was asked to conduct this research, under the supervision of the Advisory Committee, the Missionary Research Library, and the faculty of Union Theological Seminary. The study was accepted in partial fulfillment of requirements for the S.T.M. degree at Union Seminary. It has been published by the Missionary Research Library under the some title as that of this Occasional Bulletin. It is available at a price of $1,50, postage included. The terms used, new to the modern missionary endeavor and unique to the American undertakings in mission, reflect a similar approach to a united effort but with differences arising out of historical situations. The “United Mission” represents an instrument by which several denominational mission boards Join in initiating and carrying on missionary work in newer territory with a view to providing from the outset a united evangelical witness. The “Interboard Committee” represents a technique by which several denominational mission agencies undertake cooperative administration of work in situations where indigenous churches, once related to the mission-supporting denominations, are already united into a single church. Few even among those acquainted with missions are aware of the thrilling and pioneering character of these approaches to the fulfillment of the missionary obligation. Therefore we are happy to present a summary of Mr. Noren's study.