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"O for a thousand tongues to sing/ my great Redeemer's praise!" Charles Wesley, one of Methodism's founders, voices this heartfelt wish in the opening hymn of The United Methodist Hymnal. This Wesleyan dream was affirmed in the 1990s by the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM) when it launched one of the twentieth century's most significant decades for United Methodist mission. Thanks to that global effort, which added countless new programs of evangelization and church growth around the world, the Gospel is resounding in more tongues today than the Wesleys could ever have imagined. |
 No one thought in 1989, after seven decades of Soviet rule in Eastern Europe, that the witness of Methodism would once again be widely heard in the Russian language. Only in Estonia did some Russian-speaking Methodist congregations survive. Yet, between 1991 and 2000, more than 70 congregations of the Russia United Methodist Church were established and sustained by the Russia Initiative of the GBGM and its partner churches.
Through the Russia Initiative, the Russia United Methodist Seminary has been established in Moscow. In St. Petersburg, the Methodist Episcopal Church of Christ the Savior—begun in the late nineteenth century and registered in 1912—has been renewed through the establishment of four United Methodist congregations in that city. Faith communities have sprung up all over the vast Russian landscape—in cities, in villages, even in prisons. And soon, through the support of the GBGM, the first hymnal of the Russia United Methodist Church will appear. |
 This photo of a Ugandan girl was taken during a worship service at the Wanyange United Methodist Church in Jinja, Uganda. The Uganda United Methodist Church is part of the new East Africa Conference. Photo by Richard Lord. |
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Soviet Communism had also closed the Methodist churches of Latvia. But in 1990, God opened the door for the rebirth of Methodism there. Within a decade, 10 congregations had been established and five church buildings reclaimed. Indigenous pastors now proclaim the Gospel in the Latvian language, and United Methodist missionaries have been assigned there.
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Like their counterparts in Russia, Estonia, and Latvia, the Methodists of Lithuania suffered under the Soviet regime. Their churches were closed and they were often imprisoned, executed, or forced to flee for their lives. Here, too, since the fall of the Soviet Union, the GBGM has renewed Methodism's witness. In just five years—1995 to 1999—eight congregations were established in Lithuania and two church buildings reclaimed. United Methodist missionaries and indigenous lay missioners are now proclaiming the Gospel in the Lithuanian language.
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Members of the Wanyange United Methodist Church in Jinja, Uganda, during a worship service. Photo by Richard Lord. |
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The refugee church is another sign of United Methodist mission evangelism. The African continent, so rich in diverse languages and cultures, has been ravaged in recent years by civil and regional wars. As a result, many of "the people called Methodists" have been forced to flee their homelands. Liberians have sought refuge in Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire; Sierra Leoneans, in Guinea; displaced peoples of Rwanda and Burundi, in refugee camps across the borders. In those camps and along the roads and forest paths, displaced members and clergy of United Methodist central conferences in Africa have spread the Gospel, aided by the GBGM's support.
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A new mission opportunity has been opened for Methodism in the West African nation of Senegal. There, for the first time, United Methodist missionaries and indigenous believers are proclaiming the Gospel of Christ in the Walaf language. Meanwhile, United Methodists from Angola are witnessing in Namibia; those from Zimbabwe, in South Africa and Malawi; and those from the Southern Congo, in Zambia. The North Katanga Conference of the Congo has outreach in Tanzania, and a new East Africa Annual Conference has been established in Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and Sudan. Lives are being saved and faith communities formed as the Gospel is spread in languages of which the Wesleys had never heard. |
 The Rev. Urmas Rahuvarm of the Haapsalie UMC in Estonia. Photo by Archie Hamilton. |
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The immigrant church is another remarkable story of the way God's mission is unfolding among United Methodists. World events occurring in the closing years of the twentieth century have moved populations in unexpected ways. These years have seen the extension of United Methodist witness among a diverse group of Asian immigrants to North America: Cambodians, Koreans, Laotians, Vietnamese, and people of Chinese origin from various countries. In many congregations across the United States, the Gospel is proclaimed in the indigenous languages of these peoples. United Methodist hymnbooks appeared during the last decade in the Vietnamese and Hmong languages, and one is forthcoming in Khmer, the national language of Cambodia. The GBGM, which has provided support for the hymnals, has been actively engaged in witness among these immigrants.
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The growth of Spanish-language congregations across the United States is also a phenomenal story of mission. The National Hispanic Plan, administered by the GBGM, is at the forefront of this witness to Jesus Christ in North America.
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 A United Methodist Church in St. Petersburg, Russia. Photo by Archie Hamilton. |
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One of the most phenomenal stories of United Methodist mission in the 1990s has taken place in Cambodia. Beginning in 1989, Cambodians living in North America, in Switzerland, and in France—who had become Christians through the witness of United Methodism—began to return to their Asian homeland to share the Gospel of Christ. The General Board of Global Ministries supported these efforts. For the first time in the twentieth century, four autonomous churches of the Wesleyan tradition—the Korean Methodist Church, the Methodist Church of Singapore, the Wesleyan Church, and the United Methodist Church in the United States, Switzerland, and France—joined together to form the Cambodian Mission. These four churches have cooperated in sponsoring an annual pastors' training school.
Thanks to the hundreds of Cambodians who have made commitments to Christ and the church, today there are more than 100 churches in Cambodia that follow the Methodist tradition. A landmark moment in this mission will be the coming publication of the first Cambodian hymnbook for use by Christians in the Methodist connection. This hymnal is to include more indigenous and global hymns than those found in traditional Methodist hymnbooks. So the Gospel will soon be sung in Cambodia in Khmer, a new tongue for Methodism, expressing old and eternal truths for a people whom God has always loved. Throughout United Methodism's most active mission decade of the twentieth century, new churches and faith communities have been established all over the earth. They are found in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia, in Africa and South America, in North American immigrant communities and among peoples who have been uprooted and displaced. In this ongoing mission outreach, we have added a thousand tongues and more to sing our great Redeemer's praise and "to spread through all the earth abroad the honors of [his] name." ST Kimbrough, Jr., is associate general secretary for Mission Evangelism at the General Board of Global Ministries.
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Text and photographs copyright 2000 by New World Outlook: The Mission Magazine of The United Methodist Church. Used by Permission. Visit New World Outlook Online at http://gbgm-umc.org/nwo/. For reprint permission, contact New World Outlook by E-mail at nwo@gbgm-umc.org.
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