In this post I provide a birds-eye view of the emergence of the Protestant Modern Missionary Movement and the development of missiology as a subset of ecclesiology, creating a dichotomy that, in some places, still exists today. I demonstrate the dynamic nature of missiology and touch on three pivotal moments in Protestant missions: William Carey’s Enquiry and the Great Commission, the Great Century of Missions (19th century), and the World Missionary Conference (1910).

William Carey (1761–1834) and The Great Commission

Important to our conversation is the fact the Great Commission (Matt 28:18–20), as many of us understand it, did not become the impetus for foreign missions until the early nineteenth century when William Carey, a nondescript shoe cobbler and newly ordained Particular Baptist pastor in Northamptonshire, England, presented his eighty-six page “Enquiry.”

Carey boldly argued that the Great Commission (Matt 28:18–20) provided a binding call for every Christian, including his Particular Baptist denomination. He presented his case in a pamphlet entitled, “An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens” wherein he introduces the Great Commission (Matt 28:18–20) as the biblical basis for engaging in foreign missions.

Initially, Carey drew the ire of older colleagues who rebuked him for his outrageous assumption. Undaunted, he pressed on, citing the efforts of Catholic missionaries and the Moravians[1] (Unitas Fratrum) as examples and called the Baptists to follow suit. Eventually, his Enquiry catalyzed the modern missions movement for Protestants and provided the impetus for the formation of hundreds of missionary societies and parachurch organizations. These societies became vehicles for sending thousands of Protestant missionaries across the globe.

The Great Century of Missions

The Protestant modern missionary movement focused on human and/or church agency as the primary motivation for engaging in mission work—which included obedience to the Great Commission.

For the next one hundred years, these agencies, aided and abetted by colonization, provided the vehicle for sending thousands of trained missionaries from the West to the rest of the world and earned the moniker, “the great century of missions.”

World Missionary Conference

Notably, the great century of missions culminated in the World Missionary Conference of 1910 in Edinburgh, Scotland, where some 1200 church leaders and ministry personnel from the West—many of whom came fresh from the mission field—gathered to plan for the completion of the task of world evangelization. “The first duty of a World Missionary Conference … is to consider the present world situation from the point of view of making the Gospel known to all men, and to determine what should be done to accomplish this Christ-given purpose.”[2] Their watchword, “The evangelization of the world in this generation.”[3]

With the onset of WWI in 1914, their well-laid plans were put on hold, but the gospel continued to spread and the church continued to grow and expand well beyond the borders and control of the West.

The Church Has A Mission

The modern missionary movement focused on human and/or church agency and the Great Commission as the primary motivation for engaging in mission work. Over time, and especially due to the formation of mission societies and the sending of thousands of missionaries, missiologists pressed into the unfolding realities of contextualization, cross-cultural and ministry training at home and on the mission field.

Significantly, these societies and parachurch organizations, for the most part, existed outside of formal church systems, denominations, and structures and inadvertently contributed to what became a growing dichotomy between the church (ecclesiology) and mission (missiology).

Next Time …

In my next post, God’s Mission Has A Church, I introduce the International Missionary Council (IMC) that first convened in 1921 as a direct result of the World Missionary Conference (1910).

In 1952 the IMC gathered in Willingen, Germany where theologian Georg Vicedom introduced the term “the missio Dei” (the mission of God). His presentation represented a shift from viewing missions as an activity of the church to God being the primary agent of mission through the church.

Footnotes:

[1] The Moravian Church (Unitas Fratrum) is one of the oldest Protestant denominations in the world, dating back to the fifteenth century.

[2] “Carrying the Gospel to All the Non-Christian World,” World Missionary Conference Records, Edinburgh, 1910, Missionary Research Library Archives, Section 12, 1–28 (New York: Union Theological Seminary, 2006), 4.

[3] John R. Mott, The Evangelization of the World in This Generation (London: Student Volunteer Movement, 1902), 2.