David Howard Adeney (3 November 1911 – 11 May 1994) was a British

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

missionary and university evangelist in

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to ...

, China and East Asia. He served with the

China Inland Mission OMF International (formerly Overseas Missionary Fellowship and before 1964 the China Inland Mission) is an international and interdenominational Evangelical Christian missionary society with an international centre in Singapore. It was founded i ...

(CIM), InterVarsity Fellowship, and

International Fellowship of Evangelical Students The International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) is an interdenominational association of 170 evangelical Christian student movements worldwide, encouraging evangelism, discipleship and mission among students. The headquarters is in Oxf ...

(IFES). In 1968 he founded the Discipleship Training Centre (DTC) in Singapore.

Life and Ministry

Born into a missionary family in

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...

, England on 3 November 1911, Adeney decided to become a missionary to China, following the path of his parents who had worked in

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with the London Jews' Society. He was educated at

Monkton Combe School (Thy Word is Truth) , established = , type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school , founder = The Revd Francis Pocock , head_label = Head Master , head ...

, Somerset, UK, and completed an MA in theology and history at

Queens' College Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the oldest colleges of the university, founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. The college spans the River Cam, colloquially referred to as the "light s ...

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, UK in 1933. Before moving to China in 1934, he spent a year at the CIM training school in London. Between 1934 and 1914, he involved in

church planting Church planting is a term referring to the process (mostly in Protestant frameworks) that results in a new local Christian congregation being established. It should be distinguished from church development, where a new service, worship center or ...

in rural villages in central China. and left for the United States due to the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...

. During his stay in the U.S., he worked in InterVarsity for a year, before moving back in China and being appointed as the associate general secretary of China InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. In 1956, Adeney was appointed the associate general secretary for the Far East of IFES, whose office was located in Hong Kong. He led the student ministry until 1968 when the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...

started. He founded DTC in Singapore, an institution first initiated by the CIM, to train university graduates in theology. He had various teaching experiences in theological institutes, including the

China Graduate School of Theology The China Graduate School of Theology (CGST) is a theological seminary in Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong. The President is Bernard Wong, who succeeded Stephen Lee in 2021. CGST is accredited by the Asia Theological Association to offer Master of Christi ...

and

New College Berkeley New College Berkeley is an Gospel-centered, ecumenical graduate school of Christian studies and spiritual formation. It is located near the campus of the University of California, Berkeley and is affiliated with the nearby Graduate Theological Uni ...

, California. He died on 11 May 1994 in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

Family

He married with CIM missionary Ruth Temple in 1938. Both of them moved to

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

for missionary after marriage.

Works

Primary Sources

* David H. Adeney, ''The Unchanging Commission'' (1955) * David H. Adeney, ''Before Missionary Service'' (1967) * David H. Adeney, ''China: Christian Students Face the Revolution'' (1973) * David H. Adeney, ''China, the Church's Long March'' (1985)

Secondary Sources

* Carolyn Armitage, ''Reaching for the Goal: The Life Story of David Adeney'' (1993)

External links

Transcripts of interviews with David Adeney

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adeney, David Howard 1911 births 1994 deaths English Protestant missionaries Protestant missionaries in China British expatriates in China Protestant writers Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge People educated at Monkton Combe School