William Carey is widely regarded the father of Modern Missions. There
are several critical moments on the timeline that mark progress from
his modest career as a cobbler, to the revolutionary impact he would
have on the way we do missions. Before Carey, it was unheard of for
multiple small churches to band together and pool support for the
purpose of permanently transplanting a volunteer to the foreign field.
Missionaries were Christians who used to go on short-term journeys, or
otherwise were passengers of the Catholic armada that accompanied
British Colonial conquests. Carey pioneered this profound shift. One of
the lesser known turning points was after the second attempt he’d made
to have his minister’s fraternal establish a missions committee.
William Carey turned the tide of history with a simple, pleading
question he posed to Andrew Fuller, his like-minded friend and fellow
member of the Baptist fraternal of ministers who met at Nottingham in
1792. It was the meeting at which Carey had preached his renowned
“Deathless sermon” which challenged the ministers to “Expect great
things of God, attempt great things for God.”
The seventeen delegates were about to close the business of the day
without any resolution in favor of initiating a mission to the lost.
This would be the second time Carey was disappointed by their sluggish
lassitude. Ecclesiastical wheels grind slowly at the best of times, but
it was Carey’s passion that lubricated the mechanism that historic day. Continue at Clint Archer
