Spurgeon and the Church’s Ownership of Her Mission

For almost seven years, Charles Spurgeon had taken on pastoral training alone. He began with one student, then took another. Eventually, the two grew into eight and then into sixteen. From 1854-1861, Spurgeon covered all the expenses from selling his sermons in America, paying for their books, room and board, and tuition, not to mention giving his time and attention amid a busy pastoral schedule. But in 1861, sales plummeted due to his outspoken condemnation of slavery, and all the funds for pastoral training dried up.

Spurgeon wondered if this would end his effort in pastoral training. Instead, his work was only beginning. With the support of his elders, Spurgeon presented the issue to his congregation on May 12, 1861, and the congregation unanimously voted to adopt the enterprise as their own. So, the Pastors’ College was born. Going forward, Spurgeon’s pastoral training efforts would not be a solitary effort but the work of the whole church. As Spurgeon reflected on this experience, he realized something evangelicals of his day had forgotten: the local church should take ownership of her mission. He delivered This message in a sermon on the following Sunday.¹

Ever since the revivals of the 18th century, evangelical churches have looked for ways to cooperate to further pastoral training, evangelism, and missions. They formed colleges, missions societies, and other parachurch institutions. Sometimes, these institutions would be connected to a denomination, which provided a closer connection to local churches. Many were also pan-denominational, allowing anyone to participate in the work. Over time, churches increasingly relied on these institutions for pastoral training and missions, and the work became more disconnected from the church. Ownership for the mission transitioned away from local congregations to various parachurch agencies.

And yet, as Spurgeon looked at the societies of his day, all was not well. Many of them began to tolerate false teaching. After all, the only requirement for membership in many of these societies was an interest in the work. They did not care what doctrinal positions you held if you were willing to give financially. Also, many of these groups had the same inefficiencies and bureaucracies as large corporations. But beyond these practical issues, Spurgeon saw a deeper problem.

“We have been wondering why our societies have not greater success. I believe the reason is because there is not a single word in the Book of God about anything of the kind. The Church of God is the pillar and ground of the truth, not a society. The Church of God never ought to have delegated to any society whatever, a work which it behoved her to have done herself.”

To be clear, the fundamental problem was not the parachurch ministries themselves. Spurgeon would clarify, “I would not say a single word against any society for the spread of God’s truth.” Rather, it was the church outsourcing the work that they’d been given to others. The mission to evangelize the nation belonged to the church and was to be done by the church. Certainly, colleges, mission agencies, and other parachurch organizations could be vital partners in that work. But ultimately, the church needed to take ownership of that work. And the stronger and healthier a church was, the more she could take on that work herself, “The Church, if she were in her right state, would do the whole of the work herself.”

If the church’s mission was to evangelize the nations, then pastoral and theological training would surely be an important component. But one drawback that Spurgeon saw in the college system of his day is that, too often, students were not integrated into the life of a local church. Rather, they spent four years associating only with other students and their professors. As a result, colleges produced men who had no idea how to interact with the person in the pew or on the street. Therefore, in his Pastors’ College, Spurgeon ensured that all his students were members of his church. They lived with other members and participated in the life and ministry of the church. The church became a part of the training and a source of relational support to these students amid rigorous years of study. Spurgeon sometimes had to remind his congregation not to be too kind to his students because they were taking them away from their studies. But this connection and love for the church created “a sort of esprit de corps which makes them long to distinguish themselves, that the whole Church may share in the honor of their connection.”

Beyond pastoral training, Spurgeon held that the church should also take responsibility for sending men and women to preach the Good News to the lost. Again, agencies could prove to be helpful partners in that work. But in the end, he believed the work belonged to the church and those sent out should belong to the church.

“The city missionary would be a member of the Church, sent out and supported by the Church itself. The missionary to foreign lands would have the Church at his back, to whom he would look for support both in prayers and in subscriptions. Every work would be performed, not through this secretary or that, but through the Church itself.”

In Spurgeon’s view, the congregation should not only send out workers but also continue supporting that work financially and in their prayers. Rather than praying for an agency or giving to an impersonal budget, the congregation should have the joy and confidence of supporting people they trained and commissioned for the work of the gospel. This relational link between a worker and his church would energize the work itself. Rather than a discouraged missionary sending update letters to be printed in some magazine, wondering who was praying for him, Spurgeon envisioned something far more meaningful:

“But suppose some young man from these galleries was sent out to preach the Word, why we should all notice him. When the letter came from John So-and-so at Canton, and we read it at the prayer-meeting, how should we pray for him! We should feel he was one of ourselves; and when we made the collection for his support, we should give far more liberally than for another that we never saw, who had no connection with us, and—however good the man might be—was not a personal friend of ours.”

Spurgeon knew that all this sounded daunting to his people. Where were they supposed to find future pastors to train? Wasn’t the pastor already busy enough with visitation, preaching, and all the other tasks assigned to him? How could a congregation produce teachers, administrators, logistics, and everything needed to do the work of colleges and mission agencies? And how could they provide for all this work financially? Certainly, in response to all these objections, Spurgeon modeled wisdom in his pastoral leadership: Start small. Work with what you have. Take advantage of parachurch resources to help you in that work. Rearrange and reprioritize your efforts, as needed. Expect that sacrifice will be required.

Most of all, however, Spurgeon saw the daunting nature of this task as an opportunity to depend on God in prayer. The fact that the church could not carry out her mission apart from a dependence on God proved to Spurgeon that this was the biblical way.

“For it seems to me that the most Scriptural system of Church government is that which requires the most prayer, the most faith, and the most piety, to keep it going. The Church of God was never meant to be an automaton. If it were, the wheels would all act of themselves. The Church was meant to be a living thing, a living person, and as the person cannot be supported, if life be absent, or if food be kept back, or if breath be suspended, so should it be with the Church. There should be certain solemn necessities without which she ceases to be a Church—certain things which she must have, and without which she cannot do her work.”

In other words, God would never give a mission to the church that it could do on her own strength. And so, alongside all her efforts, the church should lean into the impossibility of the mission and pray, knowing that, in the end, God must act, and He promises to act through the church.

©2024 Geoff Chang. Used with permission.

1. All quotes will be taken from the sermon “The Church – Conservative and Aggressive,” preached on May 19, 1861. C. H. Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit: Containing Sermons Preached and Revised by the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon During the Year 1861, Vol. 7 (Pasadena, Tx: Pilgrim Publications, 1995), 361-368. ↩︎