The persistent decline of the church(1) in the postmodern West stirs debate. As the changing culture shoves the church to the margins of society, new methods and theologies emerge to bridge the gap between church and country. Many emerging movements tend to neglect either biblical soundness or cultural relevancy, and thus remain ineffective at evangelizing the new populace. The situation requires a missionary. The following essay attempts to describe how Hudson Taylor, one of the founders of the modern missionary movement, served as a precursor for the budding missional church movement. Hudson Taylor unknowingly planted the seed of the modern missional church in China, and though separated by thousands of miles and hundreds of years, Taylor’s actions may supply the greatest hope for the despairing Western church.

Mission characterized Hudson Taylor’s life. Taylor’s provocative missionary tactics originated from his mission-oriented upbringing. Understanding Taylor’s childhood and entrance into the mission field offers the reader a fuller understanding of his unique practices.

Life of Hudson Taylor

Born in 1832,(2) Taylor matured during the tumultuous environment of the rise of evangelicalism and romanticism in England.(3) Taylor accepted Christ at age seventeen(4) as a fourth-generation Methodist,(5) but he, along with his father, left the Methodist church later that year in opposition to the church’s emphasis on professional clergy.(6) Immediately upon his conversion, Taylor experienced a definitive call to missions work in China which, unbeknownst to Taylor, answered his father’s prayers.(7)

In London, Taylor dedicated his time to preparing for Chinese life. He emptied his house of modern comforts,(8) relied on God to provide for living expenses,(9) and volunteered work among the poor and sick.(10) Taylor’s actions stemmed from a belief that if he couldn’t survive a bitter lifestyle in London, he would never be able to survive the lifestyle of China.(11) The preparations proved wise, because the Chinese Evangelization Society hurriedly whisked Taylor to China before he turned twenty-two years old.(12)

Innovative Practices

Taylor’s first experiences in Shanghai highly influenced his future mission enterprises. As a resident of the European-controlled International Settlement,(13) Taylor quickly developed distaste towards the Settlement’s missionaries for they "openly disdained and criticized their Chinese flock."(14) Taylor viewed the missionaries as lazy, self-indulgent aristocrats, and he noticed that the Chinese paid little attention to them.(15)

Taylor, unsatisfied with living among other missionaries, decided to travel to China’s interior.(16) Millions of interior Chinese remained untouched by the gospel while all of China’s Protestant missionaries huddled in a few coastal cities.(17) Taylor refused to settle on China’s fringes. Despite legal restrictions(18) and public opposition,(19) Taylor made ten evangelistic trips to inland China within his first two years.(20)

Difficulties in the interior forced Taylor to make adaptations. Recognizing that the people were more interested in Taylor’s foreign clothing than his message, Taylor adopted the native dress(21) and immediately found more freedom to travel among the people.(22) Other missionaries criticized Taylor for his tactics,(23) and Taylor responded: "... to settle among the people, obtaining free and familiar communication with them, conciliating their prejudices, winning their esteem and confidence, and so living as to be an example to them of what Chinese Christians should be, requires the adoption not merely of their costume but of their habits also to a very considerable extent... I have never heard of any one, after a bona fide attempt to become Chinese to the Chinese that he might gain the Chinese, who either regretted the course taken or wished to abandon it."(24)

Taylor mastered the context of interior China. Recognizing the need for an indigenous Chinese Christianity, Taylor entered far into Chinese culture in order to "gain the Chinese." Years later, Taylor mandated his radical tactics for all missionaries serving on his mission board, the China Inland Mission (CIM), and through the board, the Chinese Church grew to over 125,000 Christians at the time of Taylor’s death.(25)

In order to understand Taylor’s connection with the missional church movement, one must grasp the context from which the movement has emerged. Just as Taylor broke away from "Westernized" missionary tactics, the missional movement broke away from traditional tactics huddled on the fringes of Western culture. The culture of the new millennium prompted the missional movement’s actions; therefore, the following section attempts to explain the context of those actions.

Emerging Western Culture

The emerging twenty-first century culture adores multiculturalism and religious pluralism. Theologian and missionary Lesslie Newbigin claims that the West has never been in such a state of religious pluralism as today.(26) Communication and travel technologies allow for the merging of world religions and cultures,(27) creating one global society.(28) "Christian" and "non-Christian" nations no longer exist(29) because, according to missiologist Ed Stetzer, "Christendom is dead..."(30)

Emerging culture shoved the church to the fringes of society. The West’s former dependence on the church for a metanarrative placed the church in a privileged position,(31) but as the postmodern West abandoned the metanarrative,(32) the church lost its cultural influence.(33) A Christian perspective transformed from an asset to a liability.(34)

Failure to Engage the Emerging Western Culture

The traditional Western church failed to master the new context. Under the influence of Constantianism, a process which privatized faith and merged the church with the state,(35) culturally indigenous mission work halted.(36) An "ecclesiocentric" understanding of mission(37) prompted the church to isolate itself from emerging culture(38) and focus on maintaining its societal position,(39) which the traditional church continues to do today. Consequently, "[t]he Christian faith is either explicitly repudiated or passively ignored by the majority of the people..."(40) The emerging culture ignores the tactics of the traditional church, and the traditional church ignores the demands of the emerging culture; both view one another as irrelevant.

The emerging context of the Western church necessitated a new paradigm of ecclesiology. Newbigin observes, "The [church] structure which we have inherited appears to be neither relevant to the life of a secularized society, nor true to the biblical picture of the Church as a missionary community."(41) The modern missionary movement, founded by Hudson Taylor and others,(42) established the foundation for change. The following investigates Taylor’s contributions to four key traits of the missional church within the new paradigm.

Taylor revived the understanding of missio Dei.(43) He writes, "In language, in appearance, in everything not sinful He [Jesus] made Himself one with those He sought to benefit."(44) Taylor justifies his missionary tactics by pointing to Christ’s scandalous missionary tactics.(45) Missional theology further developed missio Dei by claiming that the Church is a missionary and must act as one.(46)

The missionary nature of the Church demands an outward-focused church organization. Taylor’s mission board exemplified an outward focus.(47) The CIM successfully infiltrated the untouched interior regions, and at least one missionary reached Tibet.(48) Likewise, missional churches move out from their Christian subculture and reach into the culture they are serving.(49)

Missional churches contextualize the gospel in order to reach new cultures. Taylor adopted Chinese customs out of respect for Chinese culture(50) and out of desire to see the gospel planted in Chinese culture.(51) A self-supporting, fully Chinese church filled the vision of the CIM.(52) In the same way, a missional church attempts to embed itself within culture. Stetzer states, "...a truly indigenous church seeks to become incarnate within the culture in which it finds itself."(53) Taylor introduced the necessity of contextualization for the spread of the gospel.

The fluidity of mission prevails over the establishment of institutions in the missional church. Taylor received much criticism for his negligence to establish a national body of churches.(54) Taylor’s critics failed to see that Taylor was never interested in building his own organization.(55) Upon studying the Bible, Taylor states, "I saw that the apostolic plan was not to raise ways and means, but to go and do the work..."(56) Missional church leaders embrace Taylor’s assertion and emphasize the movement of the church rather than the institution of the church.(57) Newbigin describes the missional church "as a thing sent out into the world, an expedition rather than an institution, the visible form of the action of God the Holy Spirit in sending his people out to draw all men to Christ."(58)

The pressing demands of the emerging Western culture continue to strain the conventional church. Unless a missionary arrives, the Western church will die. According to the missional church movement, Jesus Christ sends the Church as the missionary. This paper shows how the life and missionary tactics of Hudson Taylor instruct the burgeoning missional church movement. Though the cultural landscape appears bleak, the gospel has advanced in hostile cultures for thousands of years. Hudson Taylor introduced a new approach to missions that continues today through the missional church movement. Neither Taylor nor the missional church can take credit for the strategy, because the essential nature of the new paradigm of mission finds root in Christ’s missional commands. If the Western church remains faithful to Christ and his mission, the church will rediscover its role as an unstoppable force of global transformation.

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