Arthur G Lindquist was a visionary Swedish American missionary with the Evangelical Free Church of America in China and Hong Kong in the first half of the 20th century, and founding president of the Evangel Theological Seminary in Hong Kong.
After completing his training with the Swedish-American Mission, he sailed to China together with his wife in 1923.
When spiritual revival swept in through the 1927-1928 Guangzhou Bible Conferences, Rev Lindquist and his wife recognised the growing hunger for spiritual nourishment, and they began teaching at a Bible evening school launched by the Evangelical Free Church of China (EFCC) in 1929. As the number of attendees approached one hundred, Rev Lindquist spearheaded the creation of a Bible school, in Guangzhou's Henan district, which was later named the Canton Bible Institute in 1932 and operated in Canton for approximately five years.
In 1935 Mrs Lindquist had been ‘broken in health’, and the Lindquists returned to America to allow her time to heal.
When the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war forced the closure of the school in 1937, Rev Lindquist led the Seminary's relocation to Hong Kong.
In 1939, he was spending Christmas on Cheung Chau in House #6, where he wrote a glowing report home for publication in the Evangelical Beacon on what the Free Church had achieved so far in Hong Kong: Two churches had been opened, with 300 attendees at the recent Christmas service in the second church. The Bible School had been transferred to Hong Kong, to a building which housed the Bible School, the second church and had quarters for EFCC missionaries on the third and fourth floors, at a cost of $23,000. Now they had aspirations for a church building that would seat at least a thousand.
He had been given a diagnosis of TB but after several weeks of rest and repeated negative tests the doctor assured him that he did not have it.
The following year Arthur Lindquist briefly resumed operations in Guangzhou, but renewed conflict there compelled another closure. Adapting to changing political tides, he relocated the Seminary permanently to Hong Kong in 1949, re-establishing it at sites in Kowloon City and Kowloon Tong.
At the same time he bought House #2 on Chung Chau for the use of himself and others for the next six years.
Arthur Lindquist was succeeded as President of the Evangel Seminary in 1955 by Mr. Woo, Yan-Tak.
Under Rev Lindquist’s guidance, the Seminary secured its official campus at 59 Cumberland Road in 1957 and expanded to include properties at 15 and 55 Cumberland Road as a dormitory and library, respectively.
Anticipating the Seminary’s ongoing growth, Rev Lindquist oversaw the acquisition of a new integrated campus at Mei Foo, addressing both the need for additional space and the advancement of theological education.
Rev Lindquist’s other great achievement was on the home front as a promoter of the Ministers' Annuity and Aid Plan in the Free Church Movement, which arose out the Great Depression in the years before the War.
He chaired its committee for a number of years and in his report at the 1945 Conference, he announced that over the past year, the plan had been presented in 111 out of 152 churches, with personal visits to 103 made by himself. Ninety-nine congregations had adopted the plan. Nearly 40 churches remained unvisited, but efforts would continue the following year. The plan’s income in this year was $23,993. An astonishing campaign.
Serving on the committee with him was colleague Rev Hugo Rodine, another capable Swedish-American, whose great achievement was as Secretary of Foreign Missions, where he doubled the numbers of mission fields served in, and trebled the numbers of missionaries in them. Like Rev Lindquist he too owned property on Cheung Chau, House #17A.
After a full life Arthur Lindquist was called home just before his 61st birthday circa 1961.
In August 2019, the Evangel Seminary transitioned to the Mei Foo campus, a testament to the enduring legacy of Rev Lindquist’s vision and leadership.
Source:
Evangel Seminary HK - Our History
Photos that show this Person
