The Haystacks Effect

This article was originally published in Edition (4) of Prayer Magazine, Autumn 2005.

On a sultry afternoon, in the summer of 1806, five students from Williams College in Massachusetts sheltered from a thunderstorm under a large haystack. It was in this field that Samuel J. Mills shared his burden that there be a mobilisation of students for world mission. It was this catalytic moment that paved the way for a great awakening. It birthed the American bible society, ymca and later the student volunteer movement where over 20,000 students set sail and allowed the Holy Spirit to blow them and the gospel to the nations. 

Before the Haystacks meeting America had not yet sent her first missionary to a foreign land. The motto for the haystacks group was ``We can do it, if we will.'' And soon the ``Society of Brethren'' was established for the purpose of world mission. A movement was beginning that would spread to other US universities and would eventually impact UK universities and the world.

The students yearned to know ``what's it like to be a missionary?'' They invited missionaries to come to their colleges and speak. They collected funds for missions. They prayed, they prepared, and finally they went. America became a missionary sending nation starting with students.

Prophetic Prayer

One of the members of the Haystack meeting was Royal Wilder. After more than 30 years of missionary work in India, he returned to America and his son, Robert, enrolled in Princeton. At Princeton, Wilder studied hard, but it was God's calling, not study, that moved his heart. He met with several students regularly to study the Bible and pray for a revival at Princeton and to have interest in missions. That same fall semester Wilder and his friends established the ``Princeton Foreign Mission Society'' on the campus. Robert's sister Grace had started a girl's student group while at Mt. Holyoke. In his senior year, Robert and his sister Grace met regularly and prayed for a wide-spread missionary movement in the colleges and universities of America. They boldly prayed that one thousand would be sent out. Then, in the Summer of 1886, D. L. Moody, the famous evangelist, was speaking at a one month summer Bible conference for college students at Mt. Hermon in New York.

Before Robert left for the conference, his sister Grace prophesied that there would be one hundred student volunteers for the foreign mission field enlisted at the conference.

Peer-led Summoning

The conference was attended by 251 students and Robert Wilder immediately took the initiative to create an interest circle for foreign missions. Foreign missions had not originally been planned as an important part of the program and nearly 2 weeks passed before the subject of missions was mentioned in the sessions of the conference. Robert backed by the prayers of his sister, Grace, held a deep conviction that from this gathering God would call many to consecrate themselves to mission service.

D. L. Moody was not that knowledgeable about missions and Robert Wilder tried to persuade him to have a world mission night where 10 students would share about foreign mission. Moody wasn't sure if it was safe to let students take charge, but after consulting with other organizers he granted permission to Wilder. Each student represented a different nation and spoke for 3minutes each summoning fellow students to mission and appealing for more workers.

``The Meeting of the Ten Nations'' had an enormous impact on the students and in the next several days of the conference after much soul searching, a total of exactly 100 students made the pledge to serve foreign mission. John Wesley once said, ``Give me a hundred men who fear nothing but God, hate nothing but sin and are determined to know nothing among men but Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and I will set the world on fire with them.'' God had provided exactly 100 men at Mt. Hermon that summer. The Student Volunteer Movement was on its way.

The First Networker

Four representatives were chosen from the 100 for the task of travelling throughout the US and Canada to visit as many campuses as possible. Three of them later found excellent excuses for not going and the movement might have ended. Robert Wilder, the fourth member of the team, the only one from Princeton also had a problem: his father was dying! With his failing health, Royal Wilder needed Robert's help to edit The Missionary Review. After two days of silence his father called for Robert and said ``Son, let the dead bury their dead. Go thou and preach the kingdom.'' Wilder enlisted his Princeton college friend John Forman who had just begun study at Union Seminary in New York. Forman, a man of prayer, decided to postpone his studies and travel with Wilder. The burden of visiting campuses was great and to quote Wilder's own words, ``… the strain was so heavy that I collapsed completely and the doctors said I must give up the tour or run the risk of a permanent breakdown. Forman and I took this to the Lord and were confident that He wanted me to continue the tour….'' It was a fruitful year and many student groups were organized. During that first year 162 campuses were visited and the names of 2106 volunteers were secured, 500 of whom were women. These volunteers pledged to support missionaries both in prayer and financially.

Word and Spirit

Wilder was 27 years old when this first conference took place and by that time 320 student volunteers had already left for the mission field. The watchword of the SVM was, ``The Evangelization of the World in this Generation'' which became a banner over their meetings. It was this bold proclamation that became the distinguishing mark of the SVM. At the conference, Robert Wilder gave a message entitled ``The Bible and Missions.'' He stressed that the foundation of mission work is Bible study. The SVM conferences became a great success with students and were held every four years for 76 years. That summer Wilder travelled to England on his way to India. In England the SVM became an international movement (excepting of course Canada which had been involved from the start). Again Wilder visited campuses, starting at Cambridge, then Oxford, then in London. Wilder urged students to prove Christ is risen and living today by being Spirit-filled. He said, ``The early Christians turned the world upside down because they themselves were first turned upside down by the power of the Holy Spirit.'' Then after one and a half years of working in England, he obeyed his pledge, his covenant with God, and set off for India the nation of his birth.

Today

As we look to the present we want to celebrate the bi-centenary of the Haystacks Prayer Meeting. 1806 was the year of small but significant beginnings and the ‘spirit’ of the haystack was prayer, mobilisation and mission. 200 years on in 2006 we face the same challenge, but only this time on our door step as the nations gather in UK universities for education and inspiration. Fusion want to profile 2006 as a year of prayer for student mission, where we encourage students, graduates, parents, churches, chaplaincies and organisations to pray for student mission.

Margaret Ellis, the great grand daughter of Robert Wilder will be speaking at the National Fusion Weekend in November 2005.

Article by : Rich Wilson (Network Manager,  Fusion Student Movement)

Email: rich@fusion.uk.com

Website: www.fusion.uk.com

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