Lesson 4: Revival and Missions: A.D. 1789-1914

By the end of this lesson, the student should:

(1) Appreciate the global growth of the church during the nineteenth century.

(2) Understand the role of laymen and voluntary societies in the evangelical reforms of the nineteenth century.

(3) Recognize the modern philosophy of missions inspired by William Carey and Hudson Taylor.

(4) Evaluate strengths and weaknesses of the nineteenth century missionary movement.

(5) Appreciate the effects of revival movements during the nineteenth century.

In previous lessons, we looked at the broad Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant traditions. However, in the final lessons, our study will focus primarily on the evangelical tradition. We will pay special attention to the rapid spread of world mission during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

In 1800, Protestant Christianity was almost exclusively Western. Only 1% of Protestant Christians lived in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. By the end of the nineteenth century, 10% of Protestants lived in those parts of the world. Today, approximately 67% of Protestant Christians live in countries once considered “foreign mission fields.”

Today, the strongest Protestant areas of the world are Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In 1900, Africa was 9% Christian; in 2005, Africa was 46% Christian. In 1900, Asia was 2% Christian; in 2005, Asia was 9% Christian. The roots of this change are found in the nineteenth century missionary movement. In Lessons 4 and 6, we will see how Christianity traveled around the world during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.[1]

[1] Sources of these statistics are:
+ Todd M. Johnson, Christianity in Global Context: Trends and Statistics.
+ ChristianHistory.net  http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-36/why-did-1800s-explode-with-missions.html (Accessed May 14, 2021)
+ Status of Global Mission, 2014.

The nineteenth century was the high point of the British Empire. London, the largest city in the world, was the commercial and financial center of Europe. The British navy supported worldwide commerce and colonization. By the end of the nineteenth century, England ruled the largest empire in history.

The nineteenth century was a time of evangelical reform in England. The eighteenth century evangelical revival emphasized the new birth, transformed lives, and a commitment to service. This revival resulted in ongoing reform during the nineteenth century.

The Methodist Movement in the Early Nineteenth Century

After the deaths of the Wesley brothers, the Methodist movement continued to spread in England and the United States. Two of the important leaders in the continuing growth of Methodism were Adam Clarke in England and Francis Asbury in America.

Adam Clarke was born in North Ireland in 1760. He was converted at the age of 19 under the ministry of a Methodist preacher and was preaching by the age of 22.

One of the most brilliant minds of the early nineteenth century, Adam Clarke was entirely self-educated. He taught himself at least ten languages and wrote a six volume commentary on the Bible. Adam Clarke’s Commentary has remained a valuable resource for nearly 200 years since its first publication.[2]

Clarke published twenty-two books in addition to his commentary, preached for more than fifty years on twenty-four Methodist circuits, and served as president of both the Irish Methodist and English Methodist Conferences. He also spent ten years editing state papers for the British government. In honor of his scholarly work, Clarke was awarded an honorary Doctoral degree by the University of Aberdeen.

Dr. Clarke was committed to evangelism. In 1818, he met two Buddhist priests who had traveled to England from Ceylon. He spent two years with these men and eventually baptized them and sent them home to take the gospel to Ceylon.

Dr. Clarke was also committed to the message of holiness. To the end of his life in 1832, he preached the possibility of having a heart that is “filled with all the fullness of God.”[1]

The Clapham Sect

Prior to the nineteenth century, most religious activity in England had occurred in traditional denominations – the Church of England, Baptist, Congregational, or Methodist. In the nineteenth century, change was led by individuals who joined religious societies formed for the purpose of social reformation, spiritual revival, or mission outreach.

A group of upper class evangelicals in the village of Clapham near London became known as the “Clapham Sect.” This was not a denomination or even an official organization; it was an informal community of Christians committed to the social and spiritual reform of English society. Their spiritual leader was a Church of England minister, John Venn. Lay members included the Governor General of India; the Chairman of the East India Company; and most famously, William Wilberforce, a Member of Parliament.

Clapham members started numerous organizations including the Church Missionary Society, a Bible distribution society, as well as societies to serve the poor and improve prison conditions. Their greatest impact was seen in the fight against slavery. Although slavery was banned in most Christian nations during the Middle Ages, England resumed the African slave trade in 1562. By 1770, British ships carried 50,000 slaves a year from West Africa.

William Wilberforce (1759-1833) was convinced that God placed him in Parliament to oppose the slave trade. Beginning in 1789, he campaigned for decades against slavery. The Clapham community published antislavery literature and gave lectures on the evils of slavery.

After years of struggle, the slave trade was outlawed in 1809. Wilberforce immediately began to campaign against slavery itself. The Emancipation Act, freeing all slaves in the British Empire, was passed on July 25, 1833, four days before Wilberforce died. While Wilberforce was the leader of the fight, the entire Clapham Sect participated. They believed that the gospel is concerned not only for “spiritual” affairs, but for a society that reflects Christian justice.

William Booth and the Salvation Army

In the early nineteenth century, the Clapham community worked among the upper classes to reform English society. In the late nineteenth century, a Methodist minister, William Booth (1829-1912) began preaching on the streets of London to evangelize and serve the neediest members of society.

William Booth began this work in 1864; within 20 years, he had nearly 1,000 workers. Organized like a military unit, these volunteers were called the Salvation Army, led by General Booth. Once again, a new volunteer organization led in social reform. In the next lesson, we will study in more depth the ministry of the Salvation Army.

Christian Voluntary Societies

Both the Clapham Sect and the Salvation Army show the importance of the “voluntary society” in nineteenth century Christianity. Voluntary societies allowed Christians across a range of denominations to work together for a specific need. Voluntary societies sponsored mission outreach, Bible distribution, prison reform, relief for the poor, and the abolition of slavery.

The Sunday School movement is another example of lay Christians meeting a social need. In 1780, Robert Raikes, an Anglican newspaper publisher, began offering free education for poor children. England had no state school system; poor children grew up with little or no education. Since the children worked in factories all week, Raikes offered reading classes and religious instruction each Sunday. The crime rate dropped dramatically in Raikes’ city and officials began to encourage the spread of Sunday schools to other cities. By 1830, 1,250,000 children throughout England (about ¼ of the population) were attending Sunday schools.

Christian voluntary societies put into action Luther’s principle that all Christians are called to serve God, regardless of their career. Through these organizations, laymen came to the forefront of leadership.

[1] Ephesians 3:19

[2]“To be filled with God is a great thing;
To be filled with the fullness of God is still greater;
To be filled with all the fullness of God is greatest of all.”
- Adam Clarke

In 1800, Protestant Christianity was located almost entirely in Europe and North America. Eighteen centuries after Jesus’ Great Commission, most of the world had yet to hear the gospel. This does not mean that there were no missionary efforts before the nineteenth century. Moravian missionaries had been active in translating Scripture, establishing schools so that people could read Scripture, and even preparing national pastors.

However, mission was usually done on a small scale, raising up “tiny islands in the surrounding sea of heathenism.”[1] In the early nineteenth century, William Carey changed the church’s view of missions. He envisioned the transformation of entire societies. From this beginning, others spread the gospel around the world.

William Carey, the “Father of Modern Missions”[2]

In 1783, William Carey was baptized and joined the English Baptist denomination. He became a schoolmaster, as well as the pastor of a local church. After reading Jonathan Edwards’ Life of David Brainerd, an account of Brainerd’s efforts to evangelize Native Americans, Carey became passionate about evangelism.

At the time, many English Baptists insisted that missions were unnecessary. God would save the elect; it was useless to preach to the non-elect. When William Carey suggested to a meeting of ministers that it was the duty of all Christians to spread the gospel, a respected pastor responded, “Young man, sit down; when God pleases to convert the heathen, he will do it without your help or mine.” A few years later, Carey published An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathen, a call to world evangelization.

Carey was certainly not the first person to see the need for world evangelization. Many others shared his passion for reaching the world for Christ. In 1784, the Methodist leader Thomas Coke submitted a “Plan for the Society for the Establishment of Missions among the Heathen.” The same year, an Anglican pastor, Joseph White, preached at Oxford from Mark 16:15, “On the Duty of Attempting the Propagation of the Gospel among Our Mahometan and Gentoo Subjects in India.”

Carey understood that change in a society must come from within. He placed great emphasis on translation of Scripture into native languages, respect for the culture and traditions of the nation (as long as they did not conflict with biblical principles), and the development of local ministers.

[1] Bruce Shelley, Church History in Plain Language, 3rd edition (Nashville, Thomas Nelson, 2008), 374

[2]“Expect great things from God;
Attempt great things for God.”
- William Carey’s motto

William Carey was not the first man to bring the gospel to India. According to church tradition, the apostle Thomas preached in India around A.D. 52. In the fourth century, the church historian Eusebius reported the presence of a community of Christians in India.

In 1705, two German Pietists, Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Plätschau, arrived as Protestant missionaries to India. They translated the Bible into Tamil and Hindustani. However, the greatest modern mission effort in India was led by William Carey. Carey served in India from 1793 until his death in 1834. Since the British East India Company opposed missionary outreach to India, Carey settled in Serampore, controlled by the Dutch.

During his forty-one years in India, Carey laid the foundation for evangelism in India. Carey and his colleagues translated the Bible into Bengali, Sanskrit, and four other languages; they translated portions of Scripture into twenty-four other languages. Carey wrote gospel songs in the Bengali language. He started the first college in Asia (Serampore College) to train national pastors, as well as to provide a liberal arts education to people of any caste.

William Carey asked, “What would India look like if Jesus were Lord of the nation?” Through this vision, Carey transformed the culture of the entire nation. Carey’s vision of the kingdom of God as the model for society affected areas far beyond “spiritual” matters. The Christian faith touched all aspects of Indian society.

Against Hindu teaching that nature is an “illusion” to be shunned, Carey believed that nature is the good creation of a loving God. Because of this, he published the first science textbooks in India. He organized agricultural reforms to improve farm productivity.

Against the Hindu practice of burning lepers alive to “purify them,” Carey believed that God loves the leper. Because of this, he campaigned for humane treatment of victims of leprosy.

Because he believed in economic justice, Carey introduced savings banks to loan money at reasonable interest rates. Because he believed that Christianity benefits from free discussion, he established the first newspaper ever printed in an Oriental language.

Because he believed that all people are created in the image of God, Carey fought the oppression of women. He started schools for girls, who rarely received any education in eighteenth century India. He battled polygamy, female infanticide, and widow burning ‒ all of which were supported by the Hindu religion. He worked for twenty-five years to achieve a legal ban on the burning of widows (sati).

William Carey shows the lasting impact of a person with a vision for the Kingdom of God in our world. Through his influence, Protestant missions were changed forever.

Other Nineteenth Century Mission Activities

Hundreds of missionaries traveled around the world during the nineteenth century. For the first time, evangelical Protestants were at the forefront of missionary activity. During the first two decades of the nineteenth century:

• Henry Martyn went to India (1805).
• Robert Morrison was the first Protestant missionary to China (1807).
• Adoniram Judson went to Burma as the first American foreign missionary (1812).
• Samuel Marsden led a group of missionaries to New Zealand (1814).
• Robert Moffat went to Africa (1816).

By the middle of the century, a spirit of optimism combined with a passion for missions had inspired the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions to set a goal of the “evangelization of the world in this generation.” The nineteen century was an age of mission.

David Livingstone traveled to the heart of Africa, opening the continent to the gospel. His 1859 speech to students at Cambridge shows one of the characteristics of nineteenth century missions; “I go back to Africa to try to make an open path for commerce and Christianity. Do your best to carry out the work which I have begun. I leave it to you.”

This does not mean that Livingstone saw missions as a means of opening Africa to exploitation by British commercial interests. Like Carey, Livingstone believed that the gospel should transform all areas of society. Livingstone recognized that in Africa the slave trade was a common path to wealth. He believed that opening the continent to legitimate commerce would end the immoral slave trade.

Protestant missionaries were not tools for British commerce. In fact, British companies often opposed missionaries, believing that the missionaries would defend natives against unfair practices by the British. The British East India Company prevented William Carey from settling in Calcutta and drove Adoniram Judson out of India. Contrary to the accusations of some modern historians, the nineteenth century mission movement was inspired by a love for God, not mammon.

…From Then to Now…

► What would your country look like if Jesus were Lord of the nation? Discuss some practical ways in which the gospel can transform your society.

One of the heroes of the Nigerian church is Samuel Crowther, the first African bishop in the Anglican Church. Crowther was born in Yorubaland (modern Western Nigeria). As a teen, he was captured by Muslim slave traders and sold to Portuguese traders.

[1]

Following the abolition of the slave trade in 1807, British evangelicals established the African colony of Sierra Leone as a haven for former slaves. In 1822, the British Navy intercepted the Portuguese ship carrying Ajayi and brought him to Sierra Leone. Ajayi was converted and took Samuel Crowther as his baptismal name.

Crowther was one of the first students at Fourah Bay College, established by the Church Missionary Society in 1827 to train African church leaders. Crowther proved to be a gifted linguist and was soon appointed to teach in other villages. In 1841, he was sent to England for further training. He was ordained and sent as a missionary to Yorubaland. In his home village, Crowther found his mother and sister after a separation of more than twenty years; they became his first converts.

Two of Crowther’s contributions carried a lasting impact. He translated the Bible into Yoruba, the first African translation done by a native speaker. He also established mission stations led entirely by Africans among the Nupe and Hausa peoples.

In 1864, Henry Venn (a member of the Clapham community) won the appointment of Crowther as bishop of Western Africa. Samuel Crowther became the first indigenous church leader in Africa. Sadly, a group of young English missionaries later undermined Crowther and removed him from his position. However, his memory shows the potential for indigenous African Christianity.

[1]Image: "Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther", retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bishop_Samuel_Ajayi_Crowther.png, public domain.

Evaluation of Nineteenth Century Missions

Were there weaknesses in the nineteenth century missionary movement? Of course. Some missionaries had little knowledge of the country to which they were called. Their methods were sometimes ineffective and left little lasting impact.

To many missionaries, Christianity and western culture were synonymous. Some missionaries assumed that a Chinese convert would dress like an Englishman, eat like an Englishman, and worship in a western church building.

However, in spite of these failings, the nineteenth century missionary movement demonstrates the strengths of evangelicalism. From Constantine through seventeenth century Roman Catholic missions to Latin America, Christianity was spread by compulsion. The evangelical missionary movement showed that the gospel alone, without state support or forced conversion, “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.”[1]

The nineteenth century missionary movement showed the power of lay Christianity. During the first decades of the nineteenth century, the Basel Evangelical Missionary Society, Danish Missionary Society, Berlin Missionary Society, and Paris Missionary Society were organized by lay Christians.

The nineteenth century missionary movement shows the impact of the gospel on the civic life of a nation. In many countries, hospitals and schools established by missionaries continue to serve their communities to this day. The missionary movement shows that the gospel, properly understood, transforms all of society.

[1] Romans 1:16, English Standard Version

Hudson Taylor (1832-1905) was not the first missionary to bring the gospel to China. Persian Christians reached China in the 7th century. A Roman Catholic, Matteo Ricci, preached to Chinese government officials in the 17th century.

In 1807, Robert Morrison became the first Protestant missionary to China. By the middle of the nineteenth century, many organizations had missionaries in China.  However, because government policies limited foreign access to the interior, these missions were located only on the coast. In the early nineteenth century, it was illegal to evangelize or print Christian literature in China. Foreigners were not allowed to learn Chinese.

Protestants who were fluent in Chinese served as translators for government officials, and eventually influenced a change in government policy. William Martin, a Presbyterian missionary, was able to include a clause in the 1858 Treaty of Tianjin allowing missionaries to enter the interior of China. This opened the door for Hudson Taylor’s China Inland Mission.

Hudson Taylor’s vision for the inland of China required a new approach to missions. While many nineteenth century missionaries assumed that “Christianity equals Western culture,” Taylor showed that the gospel is free from cultural expectations. His respect for Chinese tradition removed barriers to the gospel.

In his first year in China, Taylor and a colleague, Joseph Edkins, traveled by boat along the Huangpu River, distributing Bibles and tracts. Taylor soon made the city of Ningbo his headquarters for reaching the inland of China.

Realizing the size of the task before him, Taylor determined to recruit twenty-four missionaries, two for each Chinese province and Mongolia. In China: Its Spiritual Need and Claims, Taylor asked, “Can all the Christians of England sit still with folded arms while these multitudes are perishing for lack of knowledge? … We stay at home with the one sheep, and take no heed to the ninety and nine perishing ones!”

At the time Taylor began his effort, there were a total of ninety Protestant missionaries in all China. By Taylor’s death in 1905, China Inland Mission alone had 205 stations staffed by 849 missionaries. More than 125,000  Chinese Christians were associated with the mission.

Taylor identified six principles for China Inland Mission:

1. The mission would be non-denominational
2. There would be no guaranteed salary
3. No appeals for funds would be made (“faith mission”)
4. The work would be directed by leaders in China
5. The organization would press to the interior of China
6. Missionaries would wear Chinese clothes and worship in Chinese buildings

Though these principles do not apply to every mission organization, they show Taylor’s passion for a national church, rather than a foreign transplant. Because of this approach, the impact of China Inland Mission continued even after the 1951 Communist revolution drove out all missionaries.

Perhaps Taylor’s greatest innovation was his willingness to separate the gospel from western cultural practices. He believed that a missionary “must become all things to all people that by all means I might save some.”[1] Taylor’s Chinese dress and queue symbolized his willingness to adopt Chinese standards of behavior, as long as the standards did not conflict with Christian principles.

The effort to evangelize China faced many setbacks. In 1900, the Boxers martyred 136 adult missionaries, 53 missionary children, and nearly 50,000 Chinese Christians. In 1926, nearly 8,000 Protestant missionaries fled during the Northern Expedition conflict. In 1953, all missionaries were forced out following the communist revolution. However, the seeds planted by missionaries continued to grow. When westerners returned to China in the 1980s, they found a thriving house church movement, a passion for evangelism, and one of the great revival stories in the history of Christianity.

[1] 1 Corinthians 9:22, English Standard Version

In Lesson 3, we studied the Great Awakening in America. The effects of this revival faded during the years of the American Revolution. The struggles of wartime and the spread of Enlightenment ideas among the young led to spiritual decline. By the end of the eighteenth century, some colleges reported no professing Christians in their entire student body.

The spread of the American western frontier added to the challenges facing the church. Between 1792 and 1821, nine states were added to the original thirteen colonies. By 1850, half of the American people were west of the Appalachian Mountains. The major denominations were unable to keep up with the spread of the population. Backwoodsmen showed little interest in religion. Their energies were devoted to life in the rough frontier; when they were not working, they sought entertainment not worship. Out of a population of 5,000,000 people, the United States had an estimated 300,000 alcoholics at the end of the eighteenth century. Christianity appeared to be dying in the New World.

This was the setting at the end of the eighteenth century. According to Rodney Stark, only 17% of Americans were active Christians at the time of the American Revolution. However, in the nineteenth century, a series of revival movements brought this young nation back to the gospel. By the end of the nineteenth century, 50% of Americans were active Christians.

The Methodist Movement in America

In America, Francis Asbury led the Methodist Church much as the Wesleys led the Methodist movement in England.  He was born in 1745 in Staffordshire, England. Asbury became a Methodist lay preacher at the age of 18 and was appointed a traveling preacher by John Wesley at the age of 22. 

In 1771, at the age of 26, Asbury responded when John Wesley asked for volunteers to preach in America. He spent the next forty-five years in America. When the Revolution broke out, Asbury and James Dempster were the only British Methodist preachers who stayed in America.

During his forty-five year ministry, Asbury traveled more than 300,000 miles by horseback and carriage in spite of almost constant illness. He preached more than 16,000 sermons. Some historians believe that Francis Asbury was the best known face in America – known to more people than George Washington. He was so well-known that letters addressed only to “Bishop Asbury, United States of America” were delivered to him.

When Asbury arrived in Philadelphia, there were approximately 600 Methodists in the entire American colonies. By his death, there were 200,000 Methodists in America, served by 4,000 Methodist preachers.

Asbury had a passion for evangelism. In the eighteenth century, most Americans lived outside the cities where there were many churches. Asbury planted churches in rural areas and appointed traveling preachers (called circuit riders) who would travel from church to church in each district. These circuit riders took the gospel to the frontier.

Asbury also had a passion for the social impact of the gospel. He started Sunday Schools to educate the poor; he battled slavery; and he fought the impact of alcoholism among the frontier people. Methodism in America owes its birth to this preacher who gave his life for the spread of the gospel.

The Second Great Awakening

Beginning in the early 1790s, a revival spirit spread through the nation in response to a “Concert of Prayer” for spiritual awakening. Churches in the east began to experience revival, followed by campus revivals at several major colleges.

From the east, revival spread to the western frontier. Like the coal-miners of Bristol, this revival reached a largely illiterate population. Unlike the Oxford-educated Wesleys who preached in Bristol, the preaching in this revival was done by uneducated, rough-hewn frontier preachers. There were few “big names” connected with the Second Great Awakening; this revival was led by local pastors.

James McGready, a Presbyterian minister, was one of the first to preach a revival message in the west. After being driven out of North Carolina for his fiery preaching, McGready settled in Kentucky. In 1800, people traveled as far as 100 miles to attend a “camp meeting” in Gaspar River, Kentucky.

Then in 1801, over 20,000 people (10% of Kentucky’s population) attended a camp meeting at Cane Ridge, Kentucky. Since the building could not hold all the people, outdoor platforms were built and as many as five preachers preached simultaneously.

Effects of the Second Great Awakening included:[1]

1. The colleges were revived.
2. Tens of thousands of members were added to the evangelical denominations.
3. Midweek prayer meetings and Sunday schools became common.
4. New colleges and seminaries were established to train ministers.
5. America developed an emphasis on missions similar to that of England.

The revival also had many lasting social effects. During the nineteenth century American evangelicals formed the American Bible Society to distribute Bibles, the American Temperance Union to oppose alcohol abuse, the Home Missionary Society to preach the gospel on the frontier, and societies to reform prisons and care for the disabled.

Nineteenth century teachers of holiness, particularly Charles Finney, Asa Mahan, and Phoebe Palmer believed that the Holy Spirit could give victory not only over personal sin, but also over the sins of society. These people sought to reform American society through the power of the gospel.

Later Evangelistic Movements

A few years after the Second Great Awakening, Charles Finney (1792-1875) began to preach in New York. Nearly 1,000 people were converted in Rochester, New York in 1830. Other parts of the country reported revival, with a total of nearly 100,000 converts.

Although he was an ordained Presbyterian, Finney rejected the Calvinist doctrine of limited atonement. He preached the possibility of a pure heart and a life free of willful sin.[2] In addition to his evangelistic efforts, Finney wrote a systematic theology and served as president of Oberlin College.

From 1858-1859, a Laymen’s Revival spread through the nation. This revival, which started in Canada, was led by businessmen who met for prayer during their lunch breaks. There were an estimated 1,000,000 conversions in the United States during these two years, including 100,000 slaves. From the United States, the revival spread to the British Isles, where another 1,000,000 people professed faith.

Following the Civil War, D.L. Moody and his associate Ira Sankey led evangelistic campaigns in major cities. Since life in the city had broken people’s ties with the local church, Moody brought the gospel into this new social setting – much as Wesley and Whitefield had done in Bristol. On a trip to London, he preached to more than 2,500,000 people.

From 1905-1910, a Welsh Revival that began under the ministry of a coal miner named Evan Roberts spread around the world. In America, Baylor University and Asbury College reported revival. In Indonesia, a seven year “Great Repentance” saw 200,000 conversions. In India, “Praying Hyde” led prayer meetings that resulted in mass conversions. A “Korean Pentecost” in 1907 followed weeks of prayer for revival. Rees Howells started the “Bible College of South Wales” which sent workers throughout Africa. In Latin America, evangelical churches tripled from 132,000 members in 1903 to 369,000 in 1910.[3]

[1] Information from Howard F. Vos, An Introduction to Church History (Chicago: Moody Press, 1984), 138-139.

[2]“The impression of many seems to be that grace will pardon them in sin, if it cannot save them from sin.… Let no one expect to be saved from hell, unless grace saves him from sin.”
- Charles Finney

[3]“The effective cause of all true revivals is the life-giving, regenerating and sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit – converting the hardened sinner and reclaiming the backslidden believer.”
- Adapted from J. Wilbur Chapman

Many modern scholars criticize the nineteenth century revival and mission movements as naïve and misguided. Thousands of pages have been devoted to criticizing the “cultural imperialism” of the nineteenth century mission movement.

Were there problems in these missionary movements? Of course; they were led by fallible human beings. Did they fail to address some social issues? Yes; they had blind spots. However, the missionary movement contributed much to the Kingdom of God. Hundreds of missionaries gave their lives to spread the gospel. As a result, the worldwide church at the end of the nineteenth century was stronger than at the beginning of the century.

Millions of people heard the gospel through the efforts of the nineteenth century missionaries. Between 1800 and 1900, the number of professing Christians worldwide doubled, the number of Bible translations grew from fifty to 250, and the number of mission organizations multiplied from seven to 100.

Nations around the globe benefited from the social influence of missionaries. In a study published in The American Political Science Review, Robert Woodberry showed that Protestant missionaries had a greater impact on the rise of stable democracies in the non-Western world than any political factor. Woodberry found that “the greater the number of Protestant missionaries per local population in 1923, the higher the probability that by now a nation has achieved a stable democracy.”[1]

The power of the gospel continues to transform individuals, communities, and nations. The gospel, not the messenger, is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.”

[1] Robert D. Woodberry, “The Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy,” American Political Science Review Volume 106, Number 2, May 2012

Carey, William (1761-1834): English Baptist missionary pioneer who sparked the Protestant missions movement. The “Father of Modern Missions.”

Crowther, Samuel Ajayi (1806-1891): First African to be appointed an Anglican bishop.

Newton, John (1725-1807): Evangelical English minister and hymn-writer who aided the campaign against slavery after his conversion from the slave trade.

Taylor, Hudson (1832-1905): Founder of China Inland Mission. Led the spread of the gospel in the Chinese interior.

Wilberforce, William (1759-1833): English philanthropist and member of Parliament who labored for over thirty years to pass legislation against the slave trade. The bill was finally passed in 1833.

(1) Take a test on this lesson. The test will include dates from the “Key Events in Church History” timeline (1789-1914).

(2) Prepare a biographical summary of one of the following Christian leaders: Samuel Ajayi Crowther, Charles Finney or D.L. Moody. Your summary should include four parts:

• Biography: When did he live? Where did he live? When and where did he die?
• Events: What are the most important events in his life?
• Influence: What was his lasting influence on the Christian church?
• Application: What is one lesson for today’s church from this leader?

You have two options for presenting this summary:

• Submit a 2 page written paper to your class leader.
• Give a 3-5 minute oral presentation to your class

(1) The _____________________ was a community of upper class British evangelicals committed to social and spiritual reform.  

(2) The Parliamentary leader of the British anti-slavery movement was ______________.

(3) The founder of the Salvation Army was ________________.

(4) The leader of the Methodist church in America during the early 19th century was ________________________________.

(5) The “Father of Modern Missions” was ___________________.

(6) The first African bishop in the Church of England was _________________.

(7) The first Protestant missionary to China was _________________.

(8) The revival that spread through the American frontier between 1790 and 1840 was called the ____________________________.

(9) List two of the five effects of the revival named in Question 8.