Oberlin

German Inner Mission, The

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With the decline of Pietism and the rising strength of rationalism German religion in the early nineteenth century seemed formal and unreal. The people needed to be stirred to an increased interest in a vital, practical religion. Several groups and individuals rose to meet the challenge. For instance, the Evangelical Union of Lutherans and Calvinists, formed in 1817 in Prussia and several other states, was an organization of Bible and tract societies dedicated to the distribution of religious literature. And John Frederick Oberlin worked tirelessly to bring the Gospel to the country folk of the Alsatian Mountains. Of particular note was John H. Wichern who founded the Inner Mission in Hamburg that was designed to meet the physical and spiritual needs of the poor. Along with Theodore Fliedner, the Inner Mission’s second great leader, Wichern’s work spread throughout central Europe. Fliedner, an organizational genius, developed deaconess associations, which established so-called “motherhouses,” including hospitals, orphanages, and rescue homes, and enrolled thousands of women for Christian service. Relocating their center to Kaiserswerth, the Inner Mission sent foreign missionaries to many countries to undertake similar services. Stimulated by the evangelistic meetings held in England and America, both ministers and lay preachers evangelized among the people, holding special tent and theater meetings.

Impact: The Inner Mission enlarged its scope beyond the expectations of its founders. Various organizations were created for children and young adults. Numerous agencies were established to cope with social ills. In short, it served a vital ministry role during the nineteenth century.

Mahan, Asa

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Asa Mahan (1800-1889) was born in Vernon, New York. He studied at Andover Theological Seminary and became a pastor at churches in New York and Ohio. For 15 years, beginning in 1835, he served as president of Oberlin College. Here he established that degrees would be granted to women and minorities under the same conditions and terms as men, a radical directive for that time. In 1871 he retired to England where he preached and wrote until his death. He was a staunch abolitionist and an advocate for women, expressing in his books and sermons that to deny the rights of equality was to deny a central tenet of Christianity.

Finney, Charles Grandison

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Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875), the great 19th-century revivalist, abolitionist, and educator was born in Warren, Connecticut but moved as a youth to New York and later New Jersey, where he went to school. His early career was as an attorney until he became interested in Bible study and began attending church services. Upon his conversion, he gave up the practice of law and began preaching. He was ordained in the Presbyterian Church in 1824 and started holding the revival services that made him nationally famous. His unique methods became standard practices among revivalists and included his insistence that those who repented make an immediate decision for Christ and publicly proclaim their newfound faith. During his fruitful life he became a professor of theology and later president at Oberlin College in Ohio, he held revival services throughout the cities of the eastern United States and in England, he served as pastor of the Second Free Church of New York City and the Congregational Broadway Tabernacle, he was a staunch supporter of the abolishment of slavery, and he wrote a number of works including the influential Lectures on Revival. His preaching led to the conversion of an estimated half-million people and his convictions about revival continue to influence evangelists.

Chafer, Lewis Sperry

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Lewis Sperry Chafer (1871-1952) was born in Ohio and educated at Oberlin Conservatory and College, where he studied under C. I. Scofield. He was a Presbyterian educator and evangelist who is best known for founding the Evangelical Theological College – later renamed Dallas Theological Seminary. He spent most of his life here writing, teaching, and serving as president. He was very influential in promoting and preserving conservative theology and dispensational doctrine.