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RESOLUTIONS AND FINDINGS 185II.REPORT ON EVANGELISMAdopted by the East Asia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church,Nanking, November, J9J5We are profoundly grateful that with the blessing ofGod upon us we have added 46 % to our membership in allChina during the past quadrenriium, and that we now haveabout 28,000 members and 25,000 probationers in ourfellowship. But these four years have brought us no reliefas to the utter and pitiable inadequacy of our evangelisticforces.The population of East Asia isnearly one-third of thehuman family. It occupies one- third of the habitableglobe, and presumably has, at least latent, one-third of thematerial wealth of the globe. With the rapid spread ofmaterialistic civilization, with commercialism and militarism in charge of these vast forces, Christianity faces themost tremendous, the determining task of the ages. Thework of our institutions, schools, etc., while so necessary forthe more intensive cultivation of the few, is altogether tooslow a process for the present needs of the present generation, and to meet the political, social, and economicconditions now facing us. The development of a materialistic Far Fast imperils the Christian civilization. Forharmonizing the nations of the Far East among themselves,and for harmonizing the East and the West, there is noother single agency or force comparable to the rapidspread of Christian conceptions and gospel ideals througha great increase in direct evangelism of the masses and allclasses. We pray that the Church in the homeland maysee and feel this situation, and may during the comingquadrennium increase at least fourfold the number of missionaries engaged in direct evangelistic work throughoutthis area.Even so, we do not suppose that the evangelization ofthese nations is to be done in any large measure byforeigners; hence we need to cultivate most assiduously allindigenous resources of men, means, and methods.A 23