Geneva was not a large city. During Calvin’s lifetime it reached a peak of slightly more than 21,000 by 1560, of whom a goodly number were religious refugees.
Nevertheless, it became the missionary centre of Europe in this period of the Reformation. Calvin sought to harness the energies and gifts of many of the religious refugees so as to make Geneva central to the expansion of Reformation thought and piety throughout Europe. This meant training and preparing many of these refugees to go back to their native lands as evangelists and reformers.
Revival in France
Understandably, Calvin was vitally concerned about the evangelisation of his native land, France, and his countrymen, the French. It has been estimated that by 1562 some 2,150 congregations had been established in France with around 2 million members, many of them converted through the witness of men trained in Geneva. That 2 million comprised 50% of the upper and middle classes, and a full 10% of the entire population. The growth is enormous when one reckons that at the time of Calvin’s conversion, in the early 1530s, there were probably no more than a couple of thousand Evangelicals in France. And many, if not the majority, of their pastors were trained in Geneva.
Evangelism in Brazil
But Calvin was concerned not only for France, but also for the reformation of the church in places like Scotland, England and Spain as well as Poland, Hungary and the Netherlands. He even encouraged a mission to Brazil in 1555, though that turned out to be a failure.
It is noteworthy that when the church in Geneva heard of this Brazilian opportunity, contemporary chronicler (and participant in the mission to Brazil) Jean de Léry recorded that ‘Upon … hearing this news, the church of Geneva at once gave thanks to God for the extension of the reign of Jesus Christ in a country so distant and likewise so foreign and among a nation entirely without the knowledge of the true God’. Even though this mission ultimately failed, it speaks volumes about the desire to see the ends of the earth won to Christ by the Reformers in Geneva.
Little wonder that in light of all these missionary projects, Calvin could write: ‘When I consider how very important this corner [i.e. Geneva] is for the propagation of the kingdom of Christ, I have good reason to be anxious that it should be carefully watched over’.
A concluding word
Of late, there have been assertions that the Christian tradition that comes down from Calvin is essentially uncomfortable with missionary zeal and even that it is inherently anti-mission. Some of those making these assertions are knowledgeable historians who are rightly esteemed in their respective schools. Possibly they are confusing biblical Calvinism with the hyper-Calvinism that has frequently developed on the fringes of the Reformed tradition. Every movement has its fringe element that no more represents the centre than chalk resembles cheese. At the heart of Calvin’s life and witness was a passion to see the nations come to Christ.
