The Study Of The Enterprise Of Methodist Episcopal Church,South In China (1848-1939)

American Methodist Episcopal Church, South, which entered the field of China in1848and was united into Methodist Church in1939, has built up huge church enterprises and multifunctional Christian community with modern and local features in the process of complicated and dynamic communication with local society.Despite obvious divergence in their evanglistic methods, particularly between those of J. W. Lambuth’s and Young John Allen’s, no severe conflicts occurred among the early missionaries who merely dissemanated their ideas. J. W. Lambuth contributed a large number of clergies for the future work of the Methodist Church and enabled Soochow to become a big missionary basis. Meanwhile, Young John Allen portrayed a clear picture for the further development of the Church in China through his evangelistic methods changed from a "direct way"to an "indirect-way" and "upper-class way." The First China Annual Conference which held in1886, saw a unified development of the Methodist Episcopal Church(south) in China and Young John Allen’s evangelistic methods became the prominent one.In the aspect of education and culture, Wan Kuoh Kong Pao (Review of the Times) became not only the most influential Chinese newspapers in Late Ch’ing, but also being the textbook of modern China enlightenment. The setting of Soochow University and other related schools by Methodist Episcopal Church South witnessed the appearance of an independent integrated educational system in China. With the setting up of the Methodist Book Room then to Methodist Publishing House, and later to the Mission Book Company, the Church’s media work trended to be on the right track.In aspect of health and medicine, the the modern hospitals in Soochow, Huchow and Changchow had been built one after another. At the same time, the medical education, health and epidemic prevention work had also been carried out. It is the specialized intrinsic pursuit of the hospitals of the Methodist Episcopal Church that made the function about social service clear, and thus made the close communication between the church and local society develope quickly.Under the leadship of WHMS and later WMC, the women missionaries began their work in the field of evangelization, education, medicine and community service. Affected by the women missionaries, the local women went out of the house to the community, and they became career women from housewives. In the girl schools like McTyeire school, the women’s gender consciousness and epoch characteristics became clear.Although Methodist Episcopal Church South is not a big mission organization in terms of its missionaries and the financial allocation, but it has been built up huge church enterprises and has a deep impression on modern China. The reasons are as follows:the development of modern Chinese society, two local factors from the traditional society in the south of Yangtze River and new Shanghai provided more local force between the worker and the finiance, while the finianial resource from Shanghai played even more important in the enterprise of the Methodist Episcopal Church South in China.