The Present Status of Foreign Missions

Abstract

present undergoing changes of a certain importance. For both Protestants and Catholics they are part of the world-wide enterprise of their respective branches of organized Christianity. In other words, American Protestant missions are closely co-ordinated with Protestant missions from other lands, and American Catholic missions are integrated into the missionary program of the Catholic Church. In a sense, foreign missions are part of the cultural outreach of the United States, but they do not have as their objective the spread of American ideals. Insofar as they promote that extension of our ideals they do so incidentally and often unintentionally. Nor are they ancillary to economic or political imperialism. Not in any sense are they agents of the Department of State. Their primary purpose is to spread the Christian faith by establishing and assisting Christian communities in other lands, and to make the Christian faith effective among the people who comprise such communities.