1 OBJETIVOS GENERALES

Because of the lack of records, Baptist beginnings and development in Korea are difficult to trace. The earliest missionary efforts did not have the name ‘Baptist’ associated with them and were started by Malcolm C. Fenwick and his associates from Toronto, Canada. They simply wanted to remain as a group of ‘Bible Christians.’ At the same time, contemporary Christians of other denominations often referred to them as Baptists.157

Malcolm C. Fenwick (1863-1935), the founder and leader of the Church of Christ in Corea, was the most prominent figure during the early decades of Korean Baptist work. Fenwick arrived in Korea in December 1889. Through itinerant missions, Fenwick and his Korean associates planted many churches in Korea, Manchuria, and Siberia. They established the Church of Christ in Corea in 1906 to consolidate their work. This denomination emerged but dissolved as an organization in May 1944 during the Japanese occupation of Korea. Japan invaded and ruled Korea from 1905 until 1945.

3.1.2 Beginnings: The Life and Ministry of Malcolm C Fenwick

156

There is a problem with using twentieth terms, such as ‘Pentecostal-charismatic’,to refer to nineteenth century people. However, there are similarities between Gordon’s theological character (for example, his emphasis on the general gifts of the Holy Spirit and Spirit Baptism) and the modern Pentecostal-Charismatic movement. Therefore, I use the term ‘proto type Pentecostal-charismatic’ to describe Gordon.

157

Allen D. Clark, History of the Korean Church (Seoul: The Christian Literature Society of Korea, 1961), p. 82.

In 1889, Malcolm C. Fenwick (1863-1935) came to Korea as a layman, a bachelor, and an independent missionary with very limited missionary experience. Horace Grant Underwood,158 James S. Gale,159 and William J. McKenzie,160 earlier Protestant missionaries with whom Fenwick became familiar were all highly educated; only Fenwick was self-educated. However, when comparing the fruit of their missionary labour, Fenwick was second to none. For example, by the time Fenwick passed away at the age of seventy-two in 1935, he had planted two-hundred and fifty churches during a forty-five year span of missionary work in Korea. Judging from a missiological perspective, not only was Fenwick a great church planter, he was also undeniably a missionary-innovator. This was a result, generally, of the huge impact, both positive and negative, that the Niagara Bible Conference and Adoniram Judson Gordon had upon him. Fenwick also had a mystical experience before he came to Korea.

Malcolm C. Fenwick was born in Markham, Toronto, Canada in about 1863. His grandparents had emigrated there from Scotland. His father Archibald Fenwick (1813-1868) had eleven children and died when Fenwick was only five years old. Archie Fenwick had a good reputation with his neighbours and he reared his children well. Fenwick’s mother was a pious and sincere Christian. She educated and inspired her children with Christian faith and

158

Horace G. Underwood graduated from the University of New York in 1881 and from New Brunswick Seminary in 1884. In 1891, the University of New York conferred on Underwood the degree of D. D. Lillias H. Underwood, Underwood of Korea (New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1918), 114; see Taik Poo Chun, Hankuk Kyohwoi Paljunsa [The History of Church Development in Korea] (Seoul, Korea: Christian Literature Society, 1989), p. 78.

159

James S. Gale, after graduating with a Bachelor of Arts, was sent to Korea by the YMCA of Toronto University; he was not trained in a seminary. See James S. Gale, Korean Sketches (New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1898), title page.

160

William J. McKenzie was educated at Dalhousie College in 1888, and received his theological degree at Presbyterian College, Halifax, in 1891. See L. George Paik, The History of Protestant Missions in Korea, 1832- 1910 (Seoul, Korea: Yonsei University Press, 1927), p. 192.

piety. The young Fenwick was also influenced by the teaching of the Scotch minister Donald M. McIntosh who lived in his home for several years.161

After a long spiritual struggle, Fenwick experienced conversion when he walked in a certain street of Toronto. He accepted God’s calling for foreign missions while attending the Niagara Bible Conference, probably in July of 1887. It seemed that he departed for Korea in August 1889 and arrived there in December 1889.162 Although Fenwick had a close relationship with the University YMCA of Toronto, he came to Korea as an independent missionary without the organized support of any denominational mission boards or even from the University YMCA of Toronto itself.163 He only had the support of the Corean Union Mission which was organized by volunteer Christian businessmen in Toronto who were mostly YMCA members.164 When he landed in Korea late in 1889, and having studied the Korean language for ten months in Seoul, he went to the village of Sorai, about 160 miles north of Seoul, where he continued to learn by living among the Koreans and ministering to a handful of Christians there.165 After a short time, he left Sorai and went to Wonsan which became the centre of his mission work. Fenwick chose Wonsan City as the centre of his

161

Malcolm C. Fenwick, The Church of Christ in Corea: A Pioneer Missionary’s Own Story(New York: George H Doran Company , 1911; reprint, Seoul: Baptist Publication, 1967), 1-7; Cho, “A History,” pp. 42-3; Huh, History of Korea, pp. 23-4.

162

Fenwick, Church of Korea, pp. 8-15 163

William Scott, a Canadian missionary to Korea from 1914 to 1956, pointed out that Fenwick had a very close relationship to the University College YMCA. See William Scott, “Canadian in Korea: Brief Historical Sketch of Canadian Mission Work in Korea” (n. p., 1975), 19-20. Young Sik Yoo also pointed out that University College’s YMCA did not send Fenwick. Young Sik Yoo, Earlier Canadian Missionaries in Korea: A Study in History, 1888-1895 (Mississauga, Ontario: The Society for Korean and Related Studies, 1987), p. 42. Another view was from Max Willocks, a Southern Baptist missionary to Korea. He pointed out that Horace Underwood (1859-1916) asserted the YMCA of Toronto sent Fenwick to Korea. Willocks, “Christian Missions in Korea,” 123. Timothy Cho, however, opposed this view and proved that the YMCA of Toronto had not sent any missionary to Korea from 1889 to 1893 through his reading of the minute books of the YMCA of Toronto. Cho suggested that the University YMCA of Toronto possibly sent Fenwick to Korea. Cho also pointed out that Fenwick’s followers maintained that the University YMCA of Toronto sponsored him (Cho, “A History,” 49- 51). Many Korean Baptists believed that Fenwick was sent by the University YMCA of Toronto (Jang Bae Kim, Living Witness, 16).

164

Huh, History of Korea, 27; Min, “Malcolm Fenwick,” 61-62; Yoo, Earlier Canadian Missionaries, p. 42. 165

mission activities because no other Protestant denominations’ mission boards had occupied the city as their mission area.166 Fenwick purchased a large site where he built his house and a small farm. Wonsan City later became the centre of the Church of Christ in Corea.167

In 1893, Fenwick came back to Canada, and the lack of finances forced him to remain in his homeland for three years. During this extended stay, he was greatly influenced spiritually, and he attended a revival meeting in Chicago in which A. J. Gordon was the evangelist. During the services, Fenwick came under great conviction that the Baptist denomination was the true church and he decided to project his work in Korea along Baptist lines.168 And then during his stay in Canada, he visited the Clarendon Street Baptist Church in Boston where Adoniram J. Gordon was pastor. It is likely that he received instruction from Gordon at the Boston Missionary Training School. In 1894, Fenwick organized the Corean Itinerant Mission and broke his relationship with the Corean Union Mission.169 He returned to Korea in 1896, at which time he and his Korean disciples exerted themselves in evangelizing the Korean people. Through their efforts, thirty-one local churches were established by 1906. Since Fenwick and his followers recognized the need for a more organized body to do missions and evangelization, they founded the Church of Christ in Corea on October 6, 1906.170 Fenwick served as the superintendent pastor and occupied the position of Supreme Officer in the Church of Christ in Corea from 1906 to 1914. Afterwards, between 1915 and 1934, he personally selected the supreme officer. Even after he resigned

166

Fenwick, Church of Christ, p.36, p. 46. 167

Unfortunately, Wonsan is now located in North Korea. Furthermore, Fenwick and his followers started many churches in Northern Korea, North East China (Manchuria) and Russia. Therefore, the modern Baptists lost most of their churches and congregations after the Korean War.

168

Robert M. Willocks, “Christian Mission in Korea with Special Reference to the Work of Southern Baptists” (Unpublished Master’s Thesis, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, 1962), p. 59.

169

Huh, History of Korea; Fenwick, Church of Christ, 57; Scott, “Canadian in Korea,” p. 20. 170

from that position, Fenwick still exercised almost absolute control within the denomination because he was the only person who could select the principle leaders within the CCC.171 When he retired from leadership, he focused on sending missionaries and built Bible schools in several areas, as well as the CCC headquarters located in Wonsan (now in North Korea), and several education institutions located in Chungcheng province (now in South Korea).172 Since 1915, many denominational missionaries stressed building many churches in large cities on the Korean Peninsula. On the other hand, Fenwick decided to concentrate his mission efforts in Manchuria, Mongolia, and the southern part of Siberia. Because of comity arrangements, Fenwick and the CCC’s church planting focused on areas outside of the Korean Peninsula. From this time, a number of the church leaders made evangelistic trips as pioneer missionaries into Manchuria and Siberia. In this way the church came to have more than one hundred churches in Korea, more than one hundred churches in Manchuria, forty- seven churches in Siberia, and a number of mission points in Mongolia by 1940.173 The CCC emphasized sending missionaries. The nature of the denomination remained the same and did not change until 1944. Fenwick died on December 6, 1935.174 Unfortunately, the CCC did not build a formal theological academic institute but only a small bible school in Chungcheng

171

Timothy Hyo-Hoon Cho, A History of the Korea Baptist Convention: 1889-1969. Th.d. Dissertation, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, School of Theology, 1970. pp. 94-6.

172

If Fenwick had built CCC headquarters in Seoul or South Korea, the modern Korea Baptist membership would have become much larger than it is at present. However, the CCC concentrated on building their church in North Korea, Manchuria, Mongolia and Siberia, and therefore lost most of their churches as well as church members, because this area is now ruled by communists and most of their churches were persecuted or

disappeared. This situation was caused by the Comity Arrangement, which was the division of territory on the Korean peninsula between the Presbyterian Mission, Methodist Mission and CCC (later Korea Baptist) in Korea to avoid unfortunate duplication of effort and competition. Presbyterians occupied Southern Korea, Methodists occupied Central Korea and CCC concentrated on Northern Korea and other areas. See Allen D. Clark, History of the Korean Church (Seoul Korea: the Christian Literature Society of Korea, 1961), pp. 82-3.

173

Yong-Hee Kim, Taehan Kitokkyo Chimyeawhesa (History of Korean Baptist Convention) (Seoul, Korea: Taehan Kitokkyo Chimyeawhe Chongwhe, 1964), pp. 24-60.

174

province.175 Since Fenwick resigned as vice-chairman of the first Official Korean Bible Translation committee, he did not want to cooperate with other denominations.176 Therefore, the CCC was a small denomination until it changed its name to the Korea Baptist Convention linked to the Southern Baptist Convention.