John Christian Frederick Heyer First American Lutheran Missionary
Worship
What Grace They Received
Worship Commemorations For 12 Ancient And Modern Saints
Reader 1: The year is 1869. A group of Lutheran pastors and laypersons had come together for a convention in Reading, Pennsylvania. A 77-year-old man, his long white hair curling up at the ends, rises to speak to the assembly. He argues passionately for the Lutheran church to resume its missionary work in India.
The speaker is John Christian Frederick Heyer, who 27 years earlier had been Americans s first Lutheran foreign missionary. He had been sent twice as a missionary to India, so he definitely knew what he was talking about. But could he do more than just talk about it? Listen to his own words:
Reader 2: "Although I am nearly 77 now, I am willing to go to India myself and reorganize that work!"
Reader 1: The assembly is astounded. A delegate jumps to his feet and asks, "Will Pastor Heyer tell us how soon that will be?" Heyer reaches down to the floor, picks up his suitcase and holds it up for everyone to see and replies:
Reader 2: "I am ready now!"
Reader 1: John Christian Frederick Heyer was born in Helmstadt, Germany in 1793. Almost immediately after his confirmation in the Lutheran Church at the age of 14, he set sail for America, specifically the city of Philadelphia, where his uncle took him on as an apprentice in the furrier trade.
Heyer learned quickly how to make the beaver hats which were so popular in that day. He joined Zion Lutheran Church, a German-speaking congregation; he sang in the choir, attended a Bible study group and taught a Sunday school class.
When he was 16, Heyer was tremendously moved by a sermon in which Zion's pastor spoke eloquently of the need for home missionaries among the westward-moving American settlers.
Reader 3: When is the last time you heard a pastor preach a sermon calling for young men and women to consider God's call to become a pastor? Why does it happen so infrequently? Are there not just as many opportunities today to proclaim the good news? And are there not has many young people open to the prodding of God's spirit?
Reader 1: Heyer responded enthusiastically. Now in those early days of the 1 800s in America, before there were any seminaries, a young man became a pastor the same way he became a furrier: he would apprentice himself to an experienced pastor. In addition, Heyer spent a year as a theological student at a university back in Germany. During the voyage across the ocean, Heyer read a book which predicted the end of the world in 1816; it was a complicated theory which connected Napoleon to a reference in the book of Revelation to "the angel of the bottomless pit" whose Greek name was "Apollyon."
Reader 3: Is there nothing new under the sun? In the 1970s it was Hal Lindsey and The Late Great Planet Earth. In 1991, it was the Persian Gulf war and all the talk about an imminent Armageddon. When will Jesus' words finally sink in for us human beings, that "no one knows the hour?"É but that we live every day as if it were the coming of the kingdom.
Reader 1: When Heyer returned to America, he began his work as a home missionary on the western frontier. Now realize that in 1818 the frontier was western Pennsylvania and Maryland!
One night Heyer stayed with a very pious American family who asked him to lead devotionsÉ in English! He had no difficulty reading from the English Bible, but when it came time for the free prayer, he froze. He had never before prayed in English!
Reader 2: "I finally saved the day by repeating the Lord's Prayer. But I resolved then and there never again to pray publicly in English."
Reader 1: But English was the language of the frontier, and Heyer, tutored by his wife, eventually became very fluent in it. However, the issue of language would crop up again and again. For many German-Americans, German was the language of piety and religion. In 1815, the Lutheran Church in Pennsylvania refused to receive an Episcopalian rector into its ministry -- not because of his theology, but because he couldn't speak German!
Heyer was very adept at reading the signs of the times, not only in his early conversion to English, but also in the way he made use of contemporary trends in religion. For example, revivals were a common occurrence on the western frontier and Heyer made use of them as well.
Reader 2: "On the second Thursday in June, 1819, it pleased the Lord to pour out his spirit upon some of the catechumens. It was a day long to be remembered with gratitude and praiseÉ The Lord was verily in the midst of usÉ It is remarkable that the arrows of the Almighty were aimed at some of the most wicked characters in this place. They now rejoice that the Lord has snatched them."
Reader 1: The Sunday school movement was another one of Heyer's tools. It had begun in England in 1790, and Heyer was a strong advocate of its value for American Lutherans.
Reader 2: "Dear brothers and sisters, you desire with your whole hearts that your children should be saved. Do not be satisfied merely with praying for their salvation. Do something about it. Join us and give of your time and strength to this good work [of the Sunday schools]."
Reader 3: How does the modern-day pastor/developer go about starting a congregation? As it was for Heyer, today it was done by meeting lots of people. Heyer had to do it on horseback; today the mission developer goes through lots of shoe leather, going door-to-door in new housing developments, extending the invitation to come and worship. Today's mission developer also utilizes the tools of the time; today such tools include direct mail, telephone surveys and advertising.
Reader 1: Mission work among Lutherans in America had been exclusively home missions, that is, the planting of congregations on America's western frontier. But increasingly, the American Lutheran church began thinking about the possibility of sending missionaries to foreign lands. After all, they reasoned, isn't that the way the Lutheran church had begun in America? Way back in 1741 the German pastor, Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, had been preparing himself for mission work in India, but instead he had been sent to America. In 1841, the Lutheran church in America would be celebrating the 100th anniversary of his arrival here. What better way to celebrate than by sending its first Lutheran missionary to India? Heyer, at the age of 48 and recently a widower, eagerly accepted the call. In his farewell letter, he wrote:
Reader 2: "I feel calm and cheerful, having taken this step after serious and prayerful consideration. The smiles of friends have cheered, and the approbation of the churches has encouraged me thus far. But I am aware that, ere long, amidst a tribe of men whose language will be strange to me, I shall behold those smiles only in remembrance, and hear the voice of encouragement only in dying whispers across the ocean; and then, nothing but the grace of God, nothing but a thorough conviction of being in the path of duty, nothing but the approving smile of heaven can keep me from despondency."
Reader 1: After a six-month voyage across the ocean, Heyer arrived in India. But where and how to begin? European Protestant mission work in India had begun in 1706, and over the years the various churches had staked out their mission fields. But where should Heyer begin this mission work of the American Lutheran church?
He eventually settled upon Guntur, among the Teluga Indians. His decision was strongly influenced by Huddleston Stokes, an Englishman.
Reader 2: "Here at Guntur we met with a very kind reception from Huddleston Stokes, Esquire, an ardent friend of mission and missionaries, as well as a very exemplary Christian gentleman."
Reader 1: For Heyer, his acceptance by Stokes was persuasive evidence of a divine call. As it turned out, Mr. Stokes was also a very generous financial supporter of the mission. In fact, without Mr. Stokes' aid, the mission would very likely have failed.
Mission work in India was slow and laborious. At the end of his first year, Heyer had baptized only three adults. The primary thrust of the mission was the establishment of schools, with the hope that the seeds of the gospel could be planted in the children's minds.
We should not forget that preaching the gospel in India was an act of radical social revolution. One could not proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ without also speaking against the social caste system of India, a system which was especially oppressive for the have-nots, the out-castes. It was among these out-castes that Heyer began his work.
Reader 3: Today the gospel still has overtones of radical social revolution. Just listen to our Latin American missionaries as they speak to us about liberation theology, about God's "preferential option for the poor." We here in America may have forgotten just how radical Jesus' message was -- both religiously and socially!
Reader 1: Heyer's lifestyle in India was a frugal and ascetic one. He lived as the natives lived. A bowl of rice, curry and tea easily satisfied him. A mat and a blanket on the ground was more than sufficient for a good night's sleep.
There were many back home in America who felt that the progress was slowÉ and too expensive. They had spent $5,500 on the India mission field in four years! Could not that money have been better spent on home missions on the American western frontier?
Reader 3: How do you resolve that issue -- home missions or foreign missions? Do you feed the hungry by contributing to your local food shelf or by giving to famine relief efforts in the Horn of Africa? In our congregations today we can find advocates on both sides of that issue.
Mission is not a matter of "either/or," but rather "both/and." The book of Acts tells us that, yes, charity and mission begin at home, "in Jerusalem," which was "home" for Jesus' disciples. But it doesn't end there. Rather it spreads to "all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth."
Reader 1: During Heyer's second tour of duty in India, he concentrated his efforts in Gurzala, mainly because of the efforts of a native Indian Christian by the name of Weaver John. When Heyer arrived in this village, he found 125 people waiting to be baptized by him. Weaver John held up a small book in his hands, a Teluga translation of the gospel, and he said to Heyer:
Reader 2: "From this book, sir, we date the beginning of the gospel light to our midst. You gave it to me about four years ago, before you went back to your country. Since that time it has pleased the Lord to enlighten us more and more. Some of our children have learned to read and a number of people desire that you should administer the rite of Christian baptism to them."
Reader 1: After spending 16 years in India, Heyer returned to America, and at the age of 64 again took up the challenge of home missions, this time in the state of Minnesota. He traveled to Red Wing, St. Paul, Owatonna, Rochester and many other places, establishing congregations along the way.
Even in those days it took a lot of money to start a new congregation, especially when it came time to erect a church building. When Heyer was pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Paul, he spoke about his own stewardship and contribution to the building fund.
Reader 2: "Dear friends, the first $500 which I paid, you may regard as my tobacco money. It is meant this way: 50 years ago, like many other boys, I could have begun smoking cigars, which would annually have cost me about $10; thus, in 50 years, without counting interest, $500. But I never had a cigar in my mouth, nor have I spent money for tobacco in any other form; thus I have saved money.
"Those other $500 paid toward the church fund you may regard as my liquor money. I have never made use of the insidious drink; so, in 50 years I have saved much. I have children and grandchildren some of whom are poor, and who would have been delighted had I divided this money among them. But then, they smoke and use alcohol; therefore I do not consider it proper for me to give them this money which I have saved, just to see them smoke and drink it away.
"I thus hand it over to this congregation, on the following condition: until Christmas, 1870, no interest should be paid on the $1,000. But from Christmas, 1870, onward, this congregation shall annually at Christmastime distribute $60 worth of flour, wood and clothing among the poor widows and orphans of the parish."
Reader 1: We have already heard how, at the age of 77, Heyer made his third and final tour of duty as a missionary to India. He then returned to America, almost 80 years old, and became a housefather at the Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia, living in the dormitory and becoming the loveable, grandfatherly man on campus. It was here that he died, on November 7, 1873.
During the last years of his life he had become known as Father Heyer. It was a term of endearment, signifying respect and appreciation. Yet from our perspective today, he is also very much the father of American Lutheran missions.
Bibliography
B. Theodore Bachmann, They Called Him Father: The Life Story of John Christian Frederick Heyer, Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1942.
George Drach, Father Heyer, Pioneer Foreign Missionary, Baltimore: Board of Foreign Missions, ULCA, 1941.
Hymn Of The Day: "O Zion, Haste, Your Mission High Fulfilling"
Prayer Of The Day:
God of grace and might, we praise you for your servant, John Christian Frederick Heyer, to whom you gave gifts to make the good news known. Raise up, we pray, in every country, heralds and evangelists of your kingdom, so that the world may know the immeasurable riches of our Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (LBW 139, p. 37)
Prayers:
In thanksgiving for your servant, John Christian Frederick Heyer, that we too may spread the good news of Jesus Christ both here at home and throughout the world.
The speaker is John Christian Frederick Heyer, who 27 years earlier had been Americans s first Lutheran foreign missionary. He had been sent twice as a missionary to India, so he definitely knew what he was talking about. But could he do more than just talk about it? Listen to his own words:
Reader 2: "Although I am nearly 77 now, I am willing to go to India myself and reorganize that work!"
Reader 1: The assembly is astounded. A delegate jumps to his feet and asks, "Will Pastor Heyer tell us how soon that will be?" Heyer reaches down to the floor, picks up his suitcase and holds it up for everyone to see and replies:
Reader 2: "I am ready now!"
Reader 1: John Christian Frederick Heyer was born in Helmstadt, Germany in 1793. Almost immediately after his confirmation in the Lutheran Church at the age of 14, he set sail for America, specifically the city of Philadelphia, where his uncle took him on as an apprentice in the furrier trade.
Heyer learned quickly how to make the beaver hats which were so popular in that day. He joined Zion Lutheran Church, a German-speaking congregation; he sang in the choir, attended a Bible study group and taught a Sunday school class.
When he was 16, Heyer was tremendously moved by a sermon in which Zion's pastor spoke eloquently of the need for home missionaries among the westward-moving American settlers.
Reader 3: When is the last time you heard a pastor preach a sermon calling for young men and women to consider God's call to become a pastor? Why does it happen so infrequently? Are there not just as many opportunities today to proclaim the good news? And are there not has many young people open to the prodding of God's spirit?
Reader 1: Heyer responded enthusiastically. Now in those early days of the 1 800s in America, before there were any seminaries, a young man became a pastor the same way he became a furrier: he would apprentice himself to an experienced pastor. In addition, Heyer spent a year as a theological student at a university back in Germany. During the voyage across the ocean, Heyer read a book which predicted the end of the world in 1816; it was a complicated theory which connected Napoleon to a reference in the book of Revelation to "the angel of the bottomless pit" whose Greek name was "Apollyon."
Reader 3: Is there nothing new under the sun? In the 1970s it was Hal Lindsey and The Late Great Planet Earth. In 1991, it was the Persian Gulf war and all the talk about an imminent Armageddon. When will Jesus' words finally sink in for us human beings, that "no one knows the hour?"É but that we live every day as if it were the coming of the kingdom.
Reader 1: When Heyer returned to America, he began his work as a home missionary on the western frontier. Now realize that in 1818 the frontier was western Pennsylvania and Maryland!
One night Heyer stayed with a very pious American family who asked him to lead devotionsÉ in English! He had no difficulty reading from the English Bible, but when it came time for the free prayer, he froze. He had never before prayed in English!
Reader 2: "I finally saved the day by repeating the Lord's Prayer. But I resolved then and there never again to pray publicly in English."
Reader 1: But English was the language of the frontier, and Heyer, tutored by his wife, eventually became very fluent in it. However, the issue of language would crop up again and again. For many German-Americans, German was the language of piety and religion. In 1815, the Lutheran Church in Pennsylvania refused to receive an Episcopalian rector into its ministry -- not because of his theology, but because he couldn't speak German!
Heyer was very adept at reading the signs of the times, not only in his early conversion to English, but also in the way he made use of contemporary trends in religion. For example, revivals were a common occurrence on the western frontier and Heyer made use of them as well.
Reader 2: "On the second Thursday in June, 1819, it pleased the Lord to pour out his spirit upon some of the catechumens. It was a day long to be remembered with gratitude and praiseÉ The Lord was verily in the midst of usÉ It is remarkable that the arrows of the Almighty were aimed at some of the most wicked characters in this place. They now rejoice that the Lord has snatched them."
Reader 1: The Sunday school movement was another one of Heyer's tools. It had begun in England in 1790, and Heyer was a strong advocate of its value for American Lutherans.
Reader 2: "Dear brothers and sisters, you desire with your whole hearts that your children should be saved. Do not be satisfied merely with praying for their salvation. Do something about it. Join us and give of your time and strength to this good work [of the Sunday schools]."
Reader 3: How does the modern-day pastor/developer go about starting a congregation? As it was for Heyer, today it was done by meeting lots of people. Heyer had to do it on horseback; today the mission developer goes through lots of shoe leather, going door-to-door in new housing developments, extending the invitation to come and worship. Today's mission developer also utilizes the tools of the time; today such tools include direct mail, telephone surveys and advertising.
Reader 1: Mission work among Lutherans in America had been exclusively home missions, that is, the planting of congregations on America's western frontier. But increasingly, the American Lutheran church began thinking about the possibility of sending missionaries to foreign lands. After all, they reasoned, isn't that the way the Lutheran church had begun in America? Way back in 1741 the German pastor, Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, had been preparing himself for mission work in India, but instead he had been sent to America. In 1841, the Lutheran church in America would be celebrating the 100th anniversary of his arrival here. What better way to celebrate than by sending its first Lutheran missionary to India? Heyer, at the age of 48 and recently a widower, eagerly accepted the call. In his farewell letter, he wrote:
Reader 2: "I feel calm and cheerful, having taken this step after serious and prayerful consideration. The smiles of friends have cheered, and the approbation of the churches has encouraged me thus far. But I am aware that, ere long, amidst a tribe of men whose language will be strange to me, I shall behold those smiles only in remembrance, and hear the voice of encouragement only in dying whispers across the ocean; and then, nothing but the grace of God, nothing but a thorough conviction of being in the path of duty, nothing but the approving smile of heaven can keep me from despondency."
Reader 1: After a six-month voyage across the ocean, Heyer arrived in India. But where and how to begin? European Protestant mission work in India had begun in 1706, and over the years the various churches had staked out their mission fields. But where should Heyer begin this mission work of the American Lutheran church?
He eventually settled upon Guntur, among the Teluga Indians. His decision was strongly influenced by Huddleston Stokes, an Englishman.
Reader 2: "Here at Guntur we met with a very kind reception from Huddleston Stokes, Esquire, an ardent friend of mission and missionaries, as well as a very exemplary Christian gentleman."
Reader 1: For Heyer, his acceptance by Stokes was persuasive evidence of a divine call. As it turned out, Mr. Stokes was also a very generous financial supporter of the mission. In fact, without Mr. Stokes' aid, the mission would very likely have failed.
Mission work in India was slow and laborious. At the end of his first year, Heyer had baptized only three adults. The primary thrust of the mission was the establishment of schools, with the hope that the seeds of the gospel could be planted in the children's minds.
We should not forget that preaching the gospel in India was an act of radical social revolution. One could not proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ without also speaking against the social caste system of India, a system which was especially oppressive for the have-nots, the out-castes. It was among these out-castes that Heyer began his work.
Reader 3: Today the gospel still has overtones of radical social revolution. Just listen to our Latin American missionaries as they speak to us about liberation theology, about God's "preferential option for the poor." We here in America may have forgotten just how radical Jesus' message was -- both religiously and socially!
Reader 1: Heyer's lifestyle in India was a frugal and ascetic one. He lived as the natives lived. A bowl of rice, curry and tea easily satisfied him. A mat and a blanket on the ground was more than sufficient for a good night's sleep.
There were many back home in America who felt that the progress was slowÉ and too expensive. They had spent $5,500 on the India mission field in four years! Could not that money have been better spent on home missions on the American western frontier?
Reader 3: How do you resolve that issue -- home missions or foreign missions? Do you feed the hungry by contributing to your local food shelf or by giving to famine relief efforts in the Horn of Africa? In our congregations today we can find advocates on both sides of that issue.
Mission is not a matter of "either/or," but rather "both/and." The book of Acts tells us that, yes, charity and mission begin at home, "in Jerusalem," which was "home" for Jesus' disciples. But it doesn't end there. Rather it spreads to "all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth."
Reader 1: During Heyer's second tour of duty in India, he concentrated his efforts in Gurzala, mainly because of the efforts of a native Indian Christian by the name of Weaver John. When Heyer arrived in this village, he found 125 people waiting to be baptized by him. Weaver John held up a small book in his hands, a Teluga translation of the gospel, and he said to Heyer:
Reader 2: "From this book, sir, we date the beginning of the gospel light to our midst. You gave it to me about four years ago, before you went back to your country. Since that time it has pleased the Lord to enlighten us more and more. Some of our children have learned to read and a number of people desire that you should administer the rite of Christian baptism to them."
Reader 1: After spending 16 years in India, Heyer returned to America, and at the age of 64 again took up the challenge of home missions, this time in the state of Minnesota. He traveled to Red Wing, St. Paul, Owatonna, Rochester and many other places, establishing congregations along the way.
Even in those days it took a lot of money to start a new congregation, especially when it came time to erect a church building. When Heyer was pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Paul, he spoke about his own stewardship and contribution to the building fund.
Reader 2: "Dear friends, the first $500 which I paid, you may regard as my tobacco money. It is meant this way: 50 years ago, like many other boys, I could have begun smoking cigars, which would annually have cost me about $10; thus, in 50 years, without counting interest, $500. But I never had a cigar in my mouth, nor have I spent money for tobacco in any other form; thus I have saved money.
"Those other $500 paid toward the church fund you may regard as my liquor money. I have never made use of the insidious drink; so, in 50 years I have saved much. I have children and grandchildren some of whom are poor, and who would have been delighted had I divided this money among them. But then, they smoke and use alcohol; therefore I do not consider it proper for me to give them this money which I have saved, just to see them smoke and drink it away.
"I thus hand it over to this congregation, on the following condition: until Christmas, 1870, no interest should be paid on the $1,000. But from Christmas, 1870, onward, this congregation shall annually at Christmastime distribute $60 worth of flour, wood and clothing among the poor widows and orphans of the parish."
Reader 1: We have already heard how, at the age of 77, Heyer made his third and final tour of duty as a missionary to India. He then returned to America, almost 80 years old, and became a housefather at the Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia, living in the dormitory and becoming the loveable, grandfatherly man on campus. It was here that he died, on November 7, 1873.
During the last years of his life he had become known as Father Heyer. It was a term of endearment, signifying respect and appreciation. Yet from our perspective today, he is also very much the father of American Lutheran missions.
Bibliography
B. Theodore Bachmann, They Called Him Father: The Life Story of John Christian Frederick Heyer, Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1942.
George Drach, Father Heyer, Pioneer Foreign Missionary, Baltimore: Board of Foreign Missions, ULCA, 1941.
Hymn Of The Day: "O Zion, Haste, Your Mission High Fulfilling"
Prayer Of The Day:
God of grace and might, we praise you for your servant, John Christian Frederick Heyer, to whom you gave gifts to make the good news known. Raise up, we pray, in every country, heralds and evangelists of your kingdom, so that the world may know the immeasurable riches of our Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (LBW 139, p. 37)
Prayers:
In thanksgiving for your servant, John Christian Frederick Heyer, that we too may spread the good news of Jesus Christ both here at home and throughout the world.
