HAS THE FREE CHURCH MISSION
IN PERU BEEN A SUCCESS?

David E. C. Ford,
Pastor,  Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Peru
Celendín, Peru
5 November 1985

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Note:  When this document was first written in 1985 the Foreign Missions Board of the Free Church of Scotland requested that it not be published.  Now the Board have given permission but wish to make clear that it represents the views of one missionary and not of the Board.
David Ford,  FUSBC,  Medellín,  Colombia,  28 October, 2007

                                                                                                                     

1. The Issue                                                                                               

2. Evaluation of he Diaconal Ministry                                                 
            2.1. A Brief History                                                                      
            2.2. Evaluation                                                                              

3. Development of the National Church                                            
            3.1. The Iglesia Evangélica Presbiteriana del Perú         
            3.2. Inroads by Gospel-plus People                                      
            3.3. Lack of Pastors and Elders                                              
            3.4. Delay in establishing the National Church                  

4. The Ecumenical Approach of the Mission                                     
            4.1. The Founder of he Mission                                                
            4.2. Inter-Denominational Activities                                      
            4.3. An Evaluation                                                                       

5. ¿Is Scottish Calvinism an Enemy of Missionary Work?          

TABLES

1. Church Growth in Peru                                                                               
2. Analysis of Free Church Missionaries in Peru                                                 
3. Numerical Development  of the Iglesia Evangélica Presbiteriana del Perú        
4. Churches Founded in the Area of Cajamarca                                                
5. Ministers of the Free Church of Scotland Involved in Missionary Work        
6. Analysis of Free Church Missionary in Peru place of work                            

1. THE ISSUE

About twenty years ago John Kessler published his doctoral thesis, which contained the following information [1] :

TABLE 1
CHURCH GROWTH IN PERÚ

He Wrote: “The Free Church of Scotland missionaries in  Peru clung so tightly to the historic form of the church as it has grown up in Scotland…that in the Peruvian context they failed to express…basic elements of the gospel”. He further sees the lack of growth as being due to the missionaries’ emphasis on the sovereignty of God which influenced them against making evangelistic appeals for people to come forward. This is said to have been a mistake in Peru, since “the Indians’ fatalistic attitude to life has had such an influence on the general thinking, the hearers need to give some active and immediate way of demonstrating their faith” [2] .

The Peruvian evangelical leader, Pedro Merino, has been nearly all his life a member of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Peru (IEPP). This is the denomination witch the Free Church mission founded. In 1981 he presented a paper at a national Presbyterian youth conference, analysing the history of the IEPP. He believes that the Free Church mission policy en Peru has “cancelled out true national leadership and held back the growth development of many congregations” [3] .

Recently a post-graduate student at the Lima Evangelical Seminary, Gaye Mercier, presented a research paper in which she   argued that the IEPP is a new religious movement which has been liberated from the Free Church mission. She lists something like 25 criticisms of the mission, and typically writes: “It is possible to clearly see the confusion between the cultural expression of the gospel on the part of the Scottish missionaries and the determination of the national church to rediscover its national identity and the expression of the gospel in its own culture… It is not possible to say even yet, as to what point the obvious identification of the gospel with the British or Scottish culture has influenced the lack of conversions” [4] .

The line of thinking of each author is similar. The Free Church was so concerned with its ecclesiology and theology; that is it was so concerned to produce a correct national church, that it effectively put a “brake on the growth of many congregations” [5] .

Shortly after the Lima Evangelical Seminary paper was made available, Free Church missionaries were meeting in their annual Field conference. It was then decided to evaluate the validity of such critically analyse the Free Church mission work in Peru. What is now written will, no doubt, be controversial, both from the view of the mission and the view of the national church.

2.  EVALUATION OF THE DIACONAL MINISTRY

2.1     A BRIEF HISTORY

Carlos Mariátegui is an influential Lain American thinker.  John A. Mackay comments: In respect to Protestantism, Mariátegui thinks that this not entered directly into Latin America in its own spiritual and religious power, but only indirectly, that is by means of educational and social work” [6] . The need for medical and educational work was clear in the minds of the early missionaries. In 1920, Dr. Helen MacDougall wrote: “it is practically impossible for a protestant to be treated in a Roman Catholic hospital without consenting to confession and hearing Mass” [7] . For many people there would have been little option had to pass an annual examination in Roman Catholic dogma. So John A. MacKay’s aim was to strike “a mortal blow at the system of Roman education, which is more responsible than any other agency for the woeful condition of this unhappy land” [8] . The medical work was centred in Moyobamba and Cajamarca. In the 1920, two well-known independent missionaries in Moyobamba, Annie Soper and Rhoda Gould, were incorporated into the Free Church mission.

The medical work they started was carried on by Dr. Kenneth Mackay, who became the Medical Officer for the whole region. In Cajamarca the work was dominated by Sara MacDougall who nursed there from 1921 to 1955. She became so well known in Cajamarca that in 1952 the citizens gave her a gold medal, and after her death a monument was raised by public subscription and a street was named after her. Wherever the medical missionaries were, their work was in great demand.    Dr. Harold Lindsay reported carrying out nearly 50 major operations and over 200 minor ones in a year [9] . In nursing, Sara MacDougall managed to see an average each year of about 3.500 patients in his mission house; made 1500 home visits and dealt with 150 maternity cases. And when Nurse Mary Macleod went she was going to leave [10] .   But the lack of new volunteers from the Free Church combined with an increasing state medical work, to cause the decision to close down this side of the Free Church diaconal ministry.

Colegio San Andrés has taken up most of the mission’s educational work. From the start school was popular amongst Peruvians. It offered good academic standards, high morality and freedom from control of priests. By 1920, there were 260 pupils enrolled. Mackay wrote to Scotland:” We receive the boys of University professors, Cabinet ministers, foreign diplomats, leading doctors and lawyers” [11] . In 1928 a new school building was opened by the then President of Peru, Sr. Leguia.

The school bore fruit in that, for instance, about forty years after its founding Sam Will could report of many ex-pupils in influential positions [12] , and James Mackintosh could refer to others who were “filling key positions in the national evangelical work” [13] .   So Kessler could conclude that the school had served the Peruvian nation well. The educational work has been extended significantly recently, with the school’s headmaster being involved in starting up an evangelical teacher’s training college.

In Cajamarca, because of discrimination against Protestants, a Primary school was started up by Mrs. Calvin Mackay and Miss Christine Mackay. Later James Turnbull opened up a secondary department.  However the Foreign Missions Committee decided to close the school in 1933.  Later, in the time of Hugo Varnes, an English academy was run for several years in Cajamarca.

The other notable diaconal work is a community development project near Cajamarca.  This project started in 1982 and was initially aimed at two poor rural communities. It gave help in a variety of areas-medical, veterinary, agriculture, adult education, irrigation, and the development of home industries.  Nearly all the staff involved is Peruvians, and the project is presently being extended to other areas in the Cajamarca region.

2.2 AN EVALUATION

Much good has come from the diaconal work. The Colegio, the medical work and the community development programme have all helped to give the evangelical cause a good name.  The Peruvian authorities, both local and national, have expressed gratitude for this aspect of the mission’s work.

Those involved have to combine their practical activities with evangelism.  Reading through Dr. Lindsay’s reports to the General Assembly gives the impression that he was more interested in church extension than in medical work.  And of the Colegio, John A. Mackay said:” Our pronounced Protestantism is no secret; the Word of god is taught openly” [14] . In conjunction with Sarah MacDougall’s nursing that, “In Cajamarca there are two classes who don’t show interest in the truth: the donkeys and the priests” [15] .

MacKay’s aim was to strike” a mortal blow at the system of Romish education”, and of having, as in the Reformation a movement to Protestantism though the educated classes. But this hope has yet to be fulfilled. Roman Catholics still dominate education, and the evangelical church is usually found among the lower social classes.

The diaconal work produced many who associated themselves only superficially with the evangelical cause.  From his own experience, Pedro Merino says that people became involved more because of “the help the mission offered, than because of much spiritual need” [16] .  In 1941 in Moyobamba and its surrounding area, there were 660 adherents, but only 66 actual members.  At the same time in the Cajamarca region there were 879 adherents, but only 111 members [17] .  

Mackay did plan to have direct church work alongside the school. However the demands of the educational work occupied all his energy.   Thirty-six years after the founding of the school, James Mackintosh wrote: The sad fact is that we have not succeeded yet in building up a congregation of families interested, though the school, in our evangelical witness” [18] .

The diaconal ministry has absorbed the time of most of the missionaries and been expensive. Up until Sarah MacDougall’s death in 1955, the mission employed about 32 of its people in educational and medical work; and only 5 in direct church work (see Table 2). In the last 30 years even with the closing of the Moyobamba medical work and an increased development of the national church, about 19 missionaries have been involved in diaconal work and only 12 in church work.  On the finance side, large sums of money have been involved in the diaconal work, for instance the 20.000 paid out in 1928 for the new Colegio building; or the annual budget of 40.000 in 1985 for the Community Development projection.  Although in the case of this project most of the money comes from sources outside of the Free Church.

TABLE 2
ANALYSIS OF FREE CHURCH MISSIONARIES IN PERU
TYPE OF WORK

Total number of missionaries who have served in Peru =61 (33 men, 28 ladies)

Note: the figures do not add up as may be expected. This is because some missionaries changed their sphere of work, and some overlapped the first two time periods.

One missionary, frustrated by the lack of emphasis given by the mission to the development of the national church wrote in 1955 about those in institutional work: “it is true that indirectly their influence might have very great, but… the fact is that the closed door of the institutional work is sufficient proof that that side of our policy was not only inadequate but harmful to native church development” [19] .

It is not to be doubted that the doctors, nurses and teachers have done all within their power to help build up the national church.   But the demands of their profession have left little time for church work. So the present national church is a product of direct work of only a handful of pastors and lady church workers.

3. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATIONAL CHURCH

3.1 THE IGLESIA EVANGELICA PRESBITERIANA DEL PERU

At present the IEPP has about 1600 members and adherents, with over 100 Peruvian elders and pastors in charge of the work (see Table 3).  The first church work was started in 1921 in Cajamarca.   The Committee of Missionary Cooperation had previously delimited a large section of northern Peru for Free Church expansion.  Of the main population centres without gospel witness, Cajamarca was decided upon since:

§         It was the centre of a more populated region than Trujillo.

§         It gave acces inland.

§         The native population could be reached [20] .

The first meetings were held in Calvin MacKay’s home, and Bible study groups were started up.  Persecution against the Mackays was initiated by the Catholic clergy: the locals being instructed not even to greet the missionaries and at times the lives of the Mackays were threatened [21] .   Two men were ordained as elder’s en 1929.  In 1936 the present church building was opened with over 600 people present, including the leading men of the city.

The Moyobamba church work commenced in the mid-1920s with the help of the nurses, Annie Soper and Rhoda Gould.  Local men were sent to the Seminary in Costa Rica for training.  Again there was persecution by the Catholics and one of the first believers who died, Fulton Pina, was refused burial en the public cemetery.  From Cajamarca and Moyobamba, the work spread out to other important centre of population like Cajabamba, Tarapoto and Chachapoyas.

TABLE 3
DEVELOPMENT OF THE IGLESIA EVANGELICA PREBISTERIANA DEL PERÚ [22] ^, [23]

DEVELOPMENT IN NUMBERS

Note:

• Mem: Members
• Adh: Adherents
• Presbyteries are given in the order in which church work started.
• Between 1941 and 1960 about two-thirds of the mission work was lost to other denominations.
• The high figures for adherents in 1941 represent the time when there was medical work in Cajamarca and Moyobamba.

DEVELOPMENT IN LEADERSHIIP

Note:

• National Eld.: National elders
• National Pas: National pastors and church works
• Mission Pas: Missionary pastors and church works
• Mission Dia.: Missionary Diaconal Works
• The figures for missionaries in 1985 include those who belong to missionary organizations outside of the Free Church.  The numbers of Free Church missionaries for that year are: Pastors-2; Diaconal workers -6.

Originally it had been hoped that a united evangelical church could be formed though the work of the Evangelical Union of South America, the Christian and Missionary Alliance, and Free Church Missions.  However due to practical and theological difficulties, the idea could not be pursued [24] .

Many missions entered Peru with the aim of plating their own denomination. This is clearly seen in the work of the American Southern Baptists, the Assemblies of God and the Nazarenes.  Despite present opinion to the contrary, the Free Church mission lacked this emphasis.  Even in 1958, when there was discussion about forming a congregation in Lima, Free Church missionaries were worried about the impression it would create amongst other missions [25] . Up until the Second Regional Council  held in Cajamarca in 1954, the churches founded were often simply known as “evangelical” or “mission” churches.  In 1954 the name “Presbyterian” was introduced into the title of the Cajamarca Regional Council through the request of the Foreign Missions Board in Scotland [26] . The first General Assembly of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church was not held until 1963; that is 47 years after the mission work had started en Peru.

3.2 INROADS BY GOSPEL-PLUS PEOPLE

Problems arose after the Second World War when denominational missions came to Peru in a big way, especially from North America [27] .  Many did not share the Free Church’s broad churchmanship, and saw no reason why they should not start up denominations in areas traditionally occupied by the Free Church mission. Problems soon arose with those who brought a gospel-plus message: the gospel plus baptism in the Holy Spirit; the gospel plus law keeping-, the gospel plus holiness.    Their theology made them want to draw those who were simply evangelical into their denomination.  Those who had been converted under the Free Church mission were regarded as being Christian. but lacking in something.

How the churches en the Cajamarca area has faired is indicated in table 4. Of the 54 congregations founded in the area, 33 have completely gone over to other denominations and another 12 have been affected by divisions. Most of the congregations that have remained faithful to Presbyterianism have been caused by the different Pentecostal denominations.

There is a similar picture in the other areas where the mission works. In Amazonas, the work in the capital, Chachapoyas, and in seven groups in Rodriguez de Mendoza went over to the AIENOP churches [28] .  AIENOP stands for Association de Iglesias Evangélical del Nor Orient Peruano, and is essentially a Baptist denomination.  In the San Martin area, work in important places like Taraporto, was lost to the AIENOP; and there were divisions caused by the entrance of Nazarene Church.  A complaint was made to the National Evangelical Council in 1963 about the Nazarenes trying to take over Presbyterian work.

The thrust of the Free Church mission, outside of their institutional work, was mainly evangelistic. By 1941 about 40 evangelical groups had been formed, with 2000 people connected with these congregations [29] . As the Free Church itself kept the agreements of courtesy to limit the mission work to a designated area; so it expected other missions to have the same respect. Sadly this was not so, which means that many of today’s denominations in the north of Peru owe their existence to Free Church evangelism.

TABLE 4  [30] ^{, [31] , [32] , [33]}
CHURCHES FOUNDED

3.3 LACK OF PASTORS AND ELDERS

Four students from Leimebamba were sent by the mission to study at the Bible Institute en Lima during the early 1950s. Within the first year, two of them were expelled for immorality. A third student left after two years to get married. So only one man graduated. He was appointed pastor of the Chachapoyas congregation, but resigned after two years.  He has since left his wife and now lives with another woman in a costal town. Only one of the original four has remained a professing Christian [34] .

Between 1930 and 1950 about 20 men were trained at the mission’s expense, for the pastorate [35] . Only about four of these have remained within the IEPP. Reviewing the situation Malcolm Macrae concluded that time has proved that it was wrong to train and pay pastors at mission expense.  He  gives three reasons:  (1) It limited the pastor’s scope as he was responsible to the mission as an employees.     (2) It encouraged professionalism.(3) It deprived the congregation of  the necessity to give [36] . As Kessler observes: “The members of the congregation far from learning to give proper support to the church, came to view their religion primarily as a matter of receiving and not of giving” [37] .  To this day there remains a low level of giving by the national church.  For instance, in 1984, the Central Fund of the IEPP needed 33 million soles for pastor’s salaries.  The fund received 2 million soles from IEPP churches; and 42 million soles from Scottish and Dutch churches [38] .

There was also a lack of national elders.  As Table 3 indicates, after forty years of mission work in the north of Peru there were only two elders.  One can only conclude that unrealistic standards were put as requirements for the eldership. For instance, in 1951, the Peruvian Field Council referred to “The extreme difficulty of enforcing church discipline especially in the matter of Sabbath observance with the consequent difficulty of finding msn suitable for ordination to church eldership” [39] .  Even today, in the sierra, the main and perhaps only, market day is Sunday. Many people have no other option but to buy on that day.

However the problem was not just confined to the lack of nationals; there was a continual shortage of missionary pastors.  In the 1950s, Malcolm Macrae reported the urgent need for: “Missionaries such as Bible-women and pastors who, being free from other obligations may spend the greater part of the year among the believers and especially the children in the many, many villages now neglected” [40] .   He further warned: “If we do not do something soon it is possible that work by a group very much out of sympathy with us may invade this area.”   This is precisely what did happen when the shortage of workers continued. In 1965, Fergus Macdonald wrote to the Board stating that “present staffing is barely sufficient to care for the already established church work, and that consequently missionary opportunities of church extension are being forfeited” [41] . In the same letter he wrote of a minimum need of four new missionaries simply to conserve the church work in the provinces. The Chairman of the Board wrote to the Field Council in 1967:” The presence of a resident Free Church missionary at each main centre is basic to the Board’s policy [42] ”.   This need for missionary staff raises the question as to whether there is neglect on the part of the home church.  But an analysis of the placement of Free Church ministers over the last ten years indicates that about 10% of ministers are engaged in recognized missionary work (see Table 5).

TABLE 5
MINISTERS OF THE FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND INVOLVED IN MISSIONARY WORK

When home missions are taken into consideration, in 1985 15% of Free Church ministers are engaged in home or overseas missionary activities.

Tied in with the lack of pastors and elders, was the lack of administration of the sacraments.  Even when there was a move by the Peruvian to become independent of the mission, it was agreed that only ordained ministers could administer the sacraments [43] .  Since there were virtually no ordained ministers it means that for decades many of the national brethren were denied the sacraments, especially those of the Lord’s Supper and Infant Baptism.

One missionary, exasperated by the situation, wrote from Moyobamba in 1971: “In the Peruvian church we have non-ordained pastors… who preach, teach…but cannot dispense the sacraments… the situation has arisen, I believe, because of teaching given by Scottish missionaries.  A certain educational standard has been set for national workers… which in the Peruvian context is wholly unreasonable.   This standard has been accepted by those in Lima who govern the policy making of the Peruvian church… in the villages of Cajamarca, Amazonas and Moyobamba where the average person has at most primary education, a man from among the people with basic Bible training who can explain the Scriptures…could and should be ordained minister of the word” [44] .

3.4             DELAY IN ESTABLISHING THE NATIONAL CHURCH

The moat rapid development of the national church has occurred within the last ten years. In 1960-62 there were 6 national elders, today there are about 90 (see Table 3). Membership during that period has increased four-fold. This period of growth corresponds to the period when Peruvian leadership has come to the fore. It took 47 years before the national church became independent of the mission in 1963. But even then, in the first years of the new denomination, the missionaries dominated affairs, since they had been the traditional leaders. From his experience of church courts, Pedro Merino says that even after the IEPP had been founded as a legally independent body “in practice the government continued in the hands of the missionaries” [45] .

This delay in establishing the national church, and in handing over ecclesiastical leadership to the Peruvian, seems to have had a detrimental effect on church growth.  As was commented previously, most of the mission church work was lost to Pentecostal and Baptist-type denominations in the 1950s.  If the local believers had been accustomed to be in control of their own church, then the situation could have been very different.  Today moves by other denominations to take over Presbyterian work are resisted either by the local larders, or by the Presbyteries.

The national church has takes more initiative in extending the Presbyterian witness.  The mission usually sent its missionaries to work in the same areas.  Table 6 shows that of the 61 missionaries to served with the mission in its 70 years in Peru, only 6 of those have been resident outside of Lima, Cajamarca or Moyobamba. This lack of mobility of staff mean the mission did not take advantage of the great population moves witch have occurred in Peru. When the mission entered the country, Cajamarca was preferred to Trujillo as a centre of work because of its larger population; since then Trujillo has grown to have six times the Cajamarca population.  Yet it was not until 1983 that work was started up in Trujillo. The Lima population has been increasing at the rate of about 1000 people per day.  Yet the Presbyterian Church work in Lima has only been developed in recent years, with the presbytery not being formed until 1983. The most rapidly expending area of Presbyterian witness has been in Amazonas, where church membership has gone from 25 to 318 in 25 years. Yet hardly any missionaries were sent to work in that area. One important factor in this church growth has been the migration of believers from the Cajamarca area to the new Marginal Highway in the Amazonas and Moyobamba areas.

 TABLE 6
ANALYSIS OF FREE CHURCH MISSIONARIES IN PERU

PLACE OF WORK

Note:  the figures do not add up as may be expected. This is because some missionaries changed their place of work, and some overlapped the first two time periods.

With national in control, surprisingly enough, the shortage of pastoral missionaries has almost ceased to be a problem.  In the last seven years several other Presbyterian missionary organizations have been encouraged to work with the IEPP in Peru. In 1985, pastors from the Reformed Missions League of the Dutch Reformed Church, the Presbyterian Church of Korea, and the Presbyterian churches in the United States have worked alongside Free Church missionaries.

A further important effect of the lack of establishing a national church early on in the work, was the difficulties it caused in working relationships between nationals and missionaries, and also between missionaries themselves.  In 1951, James mackintosh said that, “an intense and growing nationalism is making the work of the foreign evangelist daily more difficult” [46] .  Malcolm Macrae felt that the anti-missionary spirit was “but a small echo of the feeling against foreigners in general” and was due partly to the positions of responsibility the missionary held over the Peruvians [47] .  One Moyobamba nurse recalled the resentment she sensed in some Peruvian pastors when they received their salary from her [48] ; at that time Peruvian pastor’s stipends came with the remittances from Edinburgh. One of the saddest incidents was the Cajamarca court case witch arose through a salary claim made by a national worker against the mission.

The work was further weakened though missionary-missionary conflicts. Most missionary organizations seem to have suffered a similar fate.  There are a small number of people working under strain in a foreign culture, and at times living in close contact.  When the same people then have to work together in running a church, it is not surprising that heated arguments occur.  Some of these became known publicly and obviously had a bad effect on the church work. However, when the missionaries became part of a larger church, and held office on an equal footing with their Peruvian brethren, then the hest generated by differences amongst missionaries tended to be diffused in the church courts.  It is interesting today that the missions witch have perused a policy of working independently of the national church continue to suffer from bitter disagreements between missionaries.

4. THE ECUMENICAL APPROACH OF THE MISSION

4.1 THE FOUNDER OF THE MISSION

John A. Mackay comments on his conversion to Christ at the age of 14: “As a result of that encounter, I have been unable to think of my own life or the life of mankind or the life of the cosmos a part from Jesus Christ… The years that have followed have been a footnote to that encounter” [49] .  Mackay became interested in Latin America though a prayer meeting organized by the Regions Beyond Missionary Union.  After reading philosophy at Aberdeen, he went to Princeton to study theology, where he became involved in the Student Volunteer Movement, which held the theme: “the evangelization of the world in this generation”.  He recommended Peru as a new area for Free Church missionary work, and was subsequently ordained and in October 1916 sailed for Peru.  John A. MacKay was the founder of the Free Church missionary work in Peru; but he also became one of the founders of the modern ecumenical movement.

After completing nine years of service with the mission, Mackay went to Bonn to study under Barth and then worked with the South American Federation of the YMCA.  Subsequently he became a leading figure in the Presbyterian Church in the USA; and in 1936 became president of Princeton Theological Seminary. This was after many evangelical, such as Gresham Machen, had withdrawn to form Westminister Seminary.   While at Princeton, Mackay was able to propagate fully his ecumenical thinking.  A course on ecumenics was introduced, the first of its kind in America and Mackay himdelf taught the course.  He suffered criticism from students for introducing radical theologians like Emil Brunner and J.L. Hromadka into Princeton.   Hromadka was to go on to receive the Lenin Peace Prize for urging reconciliation between Christians and communists. For ten years of his teaching career he was also President of the International Missionary Conference, which later merged into the World Council of Churches in 1961.

Mackay was a modern ecumenical churchman of similar standing to William Temple and John Mott.  His views developed over the years, but must have been in embryo form while he served as a Free Church missionary.  It is interesting that his colleague in the mission in Lima, Stanley Rycroft, also became involved in international ecumenism.

4.2 INTER-DENOMINATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

 Colegio Anglo-Peruano, which subsequently became Colegio San Andrés, was the vision of Mackay. He wrote: “Popular education has ever been a handmaid of Protestant missionary activity… individual evangelical schools are inextricably interwoven with the cultural life of the countries they have served…Especially in the early years of Protestant missionary effort in Latin America was the work of the schools the most natural and simple point of contact with a community or country” [50] . Kessler, analysing the situation, comments that Mackay did not make the mistake of using the school as an evangelizing agency, as happened with the Instituto Inglés in Santiago.  The school sought to wield evangelical influence amongst Peruvian leaders and maintain high academic and moral standards [51] .  So, a radical such as Haya de la Torre who sought to wed the Bible’s teaching with politics was attracted to Mackay.  Missionary staffs were drawn from a variety of denominations and in the first thirty years of the school apart from the Headmasters, only one Free Churchman taught.  The broad evangelicalism of the school has continued and so the Peruvian Ministry of Education was informed in 1956 that the school sought t present a positive teaching of true Christianity, without promoting any particular religious creed [52] .  By the late 1970s the Free Church of the IEPP, and much mission property was scheduled to be transferred to the national church. Yet the Colegio has remained outside of the IEPP, denomination, as an independent evangelical institution.

The mission was involved in the founding of three more important inter-denominational institutions: the Lima Evangelical Seminary, the National Evangelical Council and the Scripture Union.

Although an inter-denominational Bible Institute had been held in John A. MacKay’s time, the founding of the present Seminary was not until 1933.  Three missions combined: the Free Church, EUSA and CMA, to star up the then, Peruvian Bible Institute. Classes were held in the old premises of Colegio San Andrés [53] .  Free Churchmen like, A.M. Renwick, James Mackintosh and John McPherson have since been prominent in running the Seminary and teaching there.

The Concilio National Evangélico del Perú is an umbrella organization which represented the interests of the majority of mission and evangelical churches.  The idea of a National Evangelical Council developed from the “Comité de Cooperación Misionera” which met between 1916 and 1925.  It was formed in 1940, amongst other reasons, to defend the evangelical cause against abuse by Roman Catholic clergy.  The Free Church helped to found the Concilio [54] , and in the early years took a leading role in its activities.  For instance in 1954, when the General Secretary was on furlough, the Concilio’s activities were virtually run by the Free Church mission [55] .

Through the combined effort of Sam Will and John Kessler, the Scripture Union movement was started in 1953 in Peru [56] . With other San Andrés teachers, like Donald Mitchell, the SU work was developed and its Kawai camp is a result of Free Church collaboration.

4.3 AN EVALUATION

The Free Church mission has practised a broad ecclesiology, working in inter-denominational activities.  This is a further reason why the mission was unable to build up a strong denomination.  Such inter-denominational work has clearly been beneficial to the evangelical cause at large in Peru; however it has detracted from the work directly aimed at building up the denomination.

We would probably see today a much stronger Presbyterian church in Peru, if the mission had founded a Presbyterian seminary in the north of the country, rather than become involved in a denominationally mixed seminary in Lima. Today the Lima Evangelical Seminary is of limited use to the IEPP.  Its academic standards are now too high to train most lay Presbyterian leaders and some would-be pastors; its correspondence course programme is similarly unsuitable; there are hardly any Calvinists on the teaching staff; and it is too distant from where most of the IEPP churches are. Local presbytery Bible institutes have been started up to cater for the needs or the IEPP.

The Scripture Union movement has served the youth of many denominations.  But it was not until 1981 that youth camps for Presbyterian youth started annually.  Would it not have been better for the IEPP, if the talented and resources of Free Church missionaries involved in SU had been channelled into Presbyterian youth work? 

The Colegio is regarded by many as being the high-point of the Free Church mission work.  Much finance and personnel have been put into her over many years. Criticism of the Colegio seems to be a sensitive area.  However, why is it, when it has proved to be a wide policy to hand over church leadership to Peruvians; that the Colegio is still run by the Scots? Would it not be better for the evangelical cause in Peru and for Presbyterianism in particular, if the school came under church courts in Peru? For instance, a continual problem for the school’s headmaster is the lack of Christian staff if Peruvian evangelicals were involved in running the school.

5. ¿IS SCOTTISH CALVINISM AN ENEMY OF MISSIONARY WORK?

From the analysis given we can conclude that the national church which the Free Church has founded did not grow as it might have done because:

Firstly, most of the missionaries were involved in either medical or educational work; and many have put a lot of effort into inter-denominational church work.  The national church has been aided by only a few missionary pastors and lady church workers.

Secondly, there has been an inadequate policy for the development of the national church. Perhaps there was no realization by the mission at the beginning of the work that a whole denomination would be started up. But whatever the reasons, national leadership and the national church organization were not properly developed.    This meant that churches founded were taken over by other denominations; there was a failure to move into new areas of opportunity; a practical economic policy for the young church was not worked out; there was insufficient administration of the sacraments.  Despite what the critics say, the Free Church did not take its ecclesiology seriously enough. Instead of the Presbyterian ideal of equality amongst elders, three offices were created: the missionary, the pastor and the elder.

Behind these two failures lies an inadequate overall missionary policy. What has happened in practice is that individual missionaries have created the Foreign Mission’s policy.  This has given liberty to individuals to make brilliant endeavours in missionary work.  For instance, MacKay’s building-up of the Colegio; Macrae’s national church development and Bible school work; the present day Community Developments project in Cajamarca and the Teacher’s Training College in Lima.

However, there has been no clear-out plan of action guiding the different generations of missionaries. Therefore it took nearly 50 years before the national church was properly started. At times there were radical changes in missionary strategy, such as the changes which occurred in the 1950s over paying national workers.  There has been a lop-sided use of personnel and finances.  For instance, the Colegio has employed 25 of the missionaries sent out and required large capital outlay, whereas only 10 men have been employed as pastoral missionaries.  The mission seems also to have been unrealistic in the support she expected from ministers in Scotland.

It is interesting, though, that the usual criticisms made against Scottish Calvinism cannot be sustained.  The Scots mission, with its high regard for the sovereignty of God in manis conversion, has been an effective evangelizing agency.  Not only has a Presbyterian denomination been started up, but many Pentecostal, Nazarene and Baptist churches across about 400 miles of northern Peru owe their origin to Free Church evangelism.  The accusation that the mission presented the gospel in terms of British culture reflects more the theological position of the critics.  Kessler regards an Armenian gospel presentation is being culturally more suited to Peru.  Is it not that simply Kessler would prefer Finney’s preaching to Whitfield’s?

Similarly, attacks against the form of worship the mission introduced, are also unproven. It is true that attempts have been made to copy Scottish church practice [57] . But the net effect on the IEPP today in comparison with other evangelical churches, is that the IEPP has (1) a greater emphatic upon the exposition of Scripture in preaching. (2) More reverence in worship and less entertainment. (3)  A greater love of Psalm singing.   Attempts to introduce the metrical Psalms have more or less failed.  However, what has occurred is that an increasing number of Psalms in the Bible have been set to music.  Parts about 40 prose Psalms are now being sung.  Other denominations, including the Pentecostals have been kenn to learn this form of Psalm singing.

Discipline has been exercised in the national church.  At times perhaps too strictly [58] . Resulting in other denominations being started up by those who felt unjustly disciplined.  However, those congregations that have remained in the IEPP now have a reputation for being well taught [59] .

There are two ways we could view history.  In Psalms 105 and 106 the same history of Israel is shown to be either a record of God’s grace or a register of Israel’s disobedience.  The Free Church mission in Peru has made serious errors: however, it is also possible to see God’s grace at work.  The mission’s diaconal projects have been influential at regional and national level.  The educational works in Cajamarca have done great good and have helped to shape the culture in those areas.   The mission’s church work, although continually under-staffed, has born fruit out of proportion to its size.  And the Christian church in Peru today has as one of its founding pillars, the Free Church mission in Peru.