100 – First Christians are reported in Monaco, Algeria; a missionary goes toArbela, a sacred city of theAssyrians that the Christian church iskatholikos ("universal")
208 –Tertullian writes that Christ has followers on the far side of theRoman wall in Britain where Roman legions have not yet penetrated[15]
250 –Denis (or Denys or Dionysius) is sent from Rome along with six other missionaries to establish the church in Paris[16]
270 – Death ofGregory Thaumaturgus, Christian leader in Pontus. It was said that when Gregory became "bishop" there were only 17 Christians in Pontus while at his death thirty years later there were only 17 non-Christians.[17]
280 – First rural churches emerge in northern Italy; Christianity is no longer exclusively in urban areas
287 –Maurice fromEgypt is killed at Agauno, Switzerland for refusing to sacrifice to pagan divinities[18]
300 – First Christians reported inGreater Khorasan; an estimated 10% of the world's population is now Christian; parts of theBible are available in 10 different languages[19]
330 – Ethiopian KingEzana of Axum makes Christianity an official religion
332 – Two young Roman Christians,Frumentius and Aedesius, are the sole survivors of a ship destroyed in theRed Sea due to tensions between Rome andAksum. They are taken as slaves to the Ethiopian capital ofAxum to serve in the royal court.[19]
334 – The first bishop is ordained forMerv /Transoxiana (area of modern-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and southwest Kazakhstan)[24]
337 – EmperorConstantine baptized shortly before his death[25]
341 –Ulfilas begins work with theGoths in present-day Romania[26]
350 – Bible is translated into the Sahidic dialect of the EgyptianCoptic language.[28]
354 – Theophilus "the Indian" reports visiting Christians in India;[12]Philostorgius mentions a community of Christians on theSocotra islands, south of Yemen in theArabian Sea[29]
364 – Conversion ofVandals to Christianity begins during reign of EmperorValens[30]
397 –Ninian evangelizes the SouthernPicts of Scotland; three missionaries sent to the mountaineers in theTrento region of northern Italy are martyred[34]
400 – Hayyan begins proclaiming gospel inYemen after having been converted in Hirta on the Persian border; in starting a school for native Gothic evangelists, John Chrysostom writes, "'Go and make disciples of all nations' was not said for the Apostles only, but for us also"[19]
578 – Conversion to Christianity ofAn-numan III, last of Lakhmids (Pre Islam Arab prince)
585 – Irish missionaryColumbanus arrives with twelve fellow missionaries inBrittany, France
592 – Death of Celtic/Irish missionaryMoluag (Old Irish: Mo-Luóc)[42]
596 –Gregory the Great sendsAugustine and a team of missionaries to (what is now) England to reintroduce the Gospel. The missionaries settle inCanterbury and within a year baptize 10,000 people[43]
600 – First Christian settlers inAndorra (between France and Spain)
771 –Charlemagne becomes king and decree that sermons will be given in thevernacular. He also commissioned Bible translations.[56]
781 –Xi'an Stele erected nearXi'an (China) to commemorate the propagation in China of theLuminous Religion, thus providing a written record of a Christian presence in China[57]
787 –Liudger begins missionary work among the pagans near the mouth of theEms river (in Germany)[58]
826 –Ansgar from France is sent by papal authority to Denmark as a royal chaplain and missionary; Harald Klak is baptized along with 400 of his followers at Mainz[59]
828 – First Christian church in present-daySlovakia is built inNitra;[60] First missionaries reach the area that is now the Czech Republic[19]
830 – Scots-bornErluph is evangelizing in (what is now) Germany when he is killed by theVandals[61]
859 – Execution ofEulogius of Córdoba, proponent of confrontational Christian witness in Spain and other Muslim-dominated societies. Opposed to any feeling of affinity withMuslim culture, Eulogius advocated using a missiology ofmartyrdom to confront Islam.[62]
1000 – Christianity accepted by common consent in Iceland by parliament (Alþingi).Leif the Lucky introduces the Gospel toGreenland, possiblyVinland (Newfoundland)[73]
1003 – The Hungarian king sends evangelists to Transylvania[74]
1008 – Sigfrid (or Sigurd), English missionary, baptizes KingOlof of Sweden
1015 – Russia is said to have been "comprehensively" converted to theOrthodox faith;[75] Olaf II Haroldsson becomes the first king of the whole of Norway. Over the next 15 years he would organize Norway's final conversion and its integration into Christian Europe.[76]
1017 – Günther tries to convert the inhabitants ofVorpommern; the mission is not successful.[77]
1266 –Mongol leaderKhan sendsMarco Polo's father and uncle, Niccolo and Matteo Polo, back to Europe with a request to thePope to send 100 Christian missionaries (only two responded and one died before reachingMongol territory)[88]
1334 – Chaghatayid Khan Buzun allows Christians to rebuild churches and permits Franciscans to establish a missionary episcopate in Almaliq,Azerbaijan[12]
1368 – Collapse of the Franciscan mission in China asMing Dynasty abolishes Christianity
1389 – Large numbers of Christians march through the streets of Cairo, denouncing Islam and lamenting that they had abandoned the religion of their fathers from fear of persecution. They were beheaded, both men and women, and a fresh persecution of Christians followed[97]
1408 – Spanish DominicanVincent Ferrer begins a ministry in Italy in which it is said that thousands of Jews and Muslims were won to faith in Christ[98]
1450 – Franciscan missionaries accompany Portuguese expedition to the Cape Verde Islands[99]
1453 –Constantinople falls to the MuslimOttoman Turks who make it their capital. An Islamic service of thanksgiving is held in the church of Saint Sophia[101]
1491 – TheCongo sees its first group of missionaries arrive.[104] Under the ministry of these Franciscan andDominican priests, the king would soon bebaptized and a church built at the royal capital.
1501 –Pope Alexander VI grants to the crown of Spain all the newly discovered countries in the Americas, on condition that provision be made for the religious instruction of thenative populations
1511 –Martin de Valencia came to believe that Psalm 58 prophesied theconversion of all unbelievers. While reflecting on the Scripture passage, he asked, "When will this be? When will this prophecy be filled . . . we are already in the afternoon, at the end of our days, and the world's final era." Later that same week, while reading aloud from the prophet Isaiah, he reportedly saw a vision of vast multitudes being converted and baptised. He began to pray to be chosen to preach and convert all heathen. He would die 20 years later as a missionary to Mexico.[109]
1512 –Dominican missionary Antonio de Montesino returns to Spain to try to convinceKing Ferdinand that all is not as it should be in the new western colonies. He reported that on the islands ofHispaniola (nowDominican Republic andHaiti) andCuba, the indigenous peoples were rapidly dying out under the system of slavery used by the colonists.
1513 – InCuba,Bartolomé de las Casas is ordained (possibly the first ordination in the New World). Soon thereafter, Las Casas will renounce all claims to his Indian serfs
1515 – Portuguese missionaryFrancisco Álvares is sent on a diplomatic mission toDawit II, the Negus or Emperor of Abyssinia (an old name forEthiopia)
1515 – Portuguese missionaries begin work in Benin,Nigeria[110]
1524 – Martin de Valencia goes toNew Spain with 12 Franciscan friars
1525 – Italian Franciscan missionary Giulio Zarco is sent toMichoacán on the western coast of Mexico where he will become very proficient in some of the indigenous languages
1526 – Franciscans enter Florida;[115] TwelveDominican friars arrive in the Mexican capital
1528 – Franciscan missionaryJuan de Padilla arrives in Mexico. He will accompanyCoronado's expedition searching for theSeven Cities and eventually settle among the Quivira (now called theWichita)[116]
1529 – Franciscan Peter of Ghent writes from Latin America that he and a colleague had baptized 14,000 people on one day[117]
1531 – FranciscanJuan de Padilla begins a series of missionary tours among Indian tribes southeast of Mexico City[13]
1532 – Evangelization ofPeru begins when missionaries arrive withFrancisco Pizarro's military expedition[106]
1544 – Franciscan Andrés de Olmos, leads group of Indian converts toTamaulipas
1545 – Testifying to the power that letters back home from missionaries have had, Antonio Araoz writes about Francis Xavier: "No less fruit has been obtained in Spain and Portugal through his letters than has been obtained in the Indies through his teaching."[124]
1549 Jesuit missionaries led by Xavier arrive in Japan and built a base in Kyushu.[126] Their activity was most successful in Kyushu, with about 100,000 to 200,000 converts, including manydaimyōs.[127]
1550 – Printed Scriptures are available in 28 languages[106]
1563 – Jesuit missionary Luis Frois, who will later write a history of Jesuit activity in Japan, arrives in that country;Ōmura Sumitada becomes the firstdaimyō (feudal landholder) to convert to Christianity
1566 – The first Jesuit to enter what is now the United States, Pedro Martinez, is clubbed to death by fearfulIndians on the sands ofFort George Island, Florida
1574 –Augustinian Guillermo de Santa Maria writes a treatise on the illegitimacy of the war the Spanish government was waging against theChichimeca in the Mexican state ofMichoacán
1575 – Church building constructed inKyoto. Built in Japanese architectural style, it was popularly called the "temple of the South Barbarians"
1575 – Spanish AugustiniansMartín de Rada andGeronimo Martín spend four months inFujian, China, trying to arrange for long-term missionary work there. The attempt ends in failure due to unrelated events in the Philippines.
1578 – The king of Spain orders the bishop of Lima not to conferHoly Orders onmestizos
1579 – JesuitAlessandro Valignano arrives in Japan where, as "Visitor of Missions", he formulates a basic strategy for Catholic proselytism in that country. Valignano's adaptationism attempted to avoid cultural frictions by covering the gap between certain Japanese customs and Roman Catholic values.[137]
1580 – Japanesedaimyō (feudal landholder) Arima Harunobu becomes Christian and takes the name Protasio
1583 – Five Jesuit missionaries are murdered nearGoa (India)
1584 –Matteo Ricci and a Chinese scholar translate acatechism into Chinese under the titleTian Zhu Shi Lu (天主實録) (A True Account of God)
1585 –Carmelite leader Jerome Gracian meets with Martin Ignatius de Loyola, a Franciscan missionary from China. The two sign avinculo de hermandad misionera—a bond of missionary brotherhood—by which the two orders would collaborate in missionary work inEthiopia, China, thePhilippines, and the East and West Indies.
1586 – Portuguese missionaryJoão dos Santos reports that locals kill elephants to protect their crops inSofala, Mozambique.
1587 – All foreigners ordered out of Japan when theshōgun fears they are as divisive and might present the Europeans with an opportunity to disrupt Japan. They stay but persecution escalates.
1587 – Manteo becomes the firstAmerican Indian to be baptized by the Church of England
1590 – A book by Belgian pastorHadrian à Saravia has a chapter arguing that theGreat Commission is still binding on the church today because the Apostles did not fulfill it completely[139]
1591 – First Catholic church built inTrinidad; First Chinese admitted as members of theJesuit order
1593 – The Franciscans arrive in Japan and establish St. Anna's hospital inKyoto; they dispute with the Jesuits.
1594 – First Jesuit missionaries arrive in what is todayPakistan
1596 – Jesuit missionaries travel across the island ofSamar in the Philippines to establish mission centers on the eastern side
1597 – Twenty-six Japanese Christians are crucified for their faith by GeneralToyotomi Hideyoshi inNagasaki, Japan.[141] Full-scale persecution destroys the Christian community by the 1620s. Converts who did not reject Christianity were killed. Many Christians went underground, but their communities died out. Christianity left no permanent imprint on Japanese society.[142]
1598 – Spanish missionaries push north from Mexico into what is now the state ofNew Mexico.
1599 – Jesuit Francisco Fernandez goes to what is now theJessore District ofBangladesh and builds a church there
1614 – Anti-Christian edicts issued in Japan with over 40,000 Christians being massacred[146]
1615 – French missionaries in Canada open schools inTrois-Rivières andTadoussac to teachFirst Nations children with the hopes of converting them
1616 – Nanjing Missionary Case in which the clash between Chinese practice ofancestor worship andCatholic doctrine ends in the deportation of foreign missionaries. MissionaryJohann Adam Schall von Bell arrives in China
1617 – Portuguese missionary Francisco de Pina arrives inVietnam
1623 – A stone monument (Xi'an Stele) is unearthed inXi'an (Si-ngan-fu), China. Its inscription, written by a Syrian monk almost a thousand years earlier and in both Chinese characters and Persian script, begins with the words, "Let us praise the Lord that the [Christian] faith has been popular in China"; it told of the arrival of a missionary,A-lo-pen (Abraham), in AD 625.Alvaro Semedo and other Jesuits soon publicize the stele's discovery in Europe.
1624 – Persecution intensifies in Japan with 50 Christians being burned alive inEdo (now called Tokyo)
1629 – Franciscan missionaryAlonzo Benavides founds Santa Clara de Capo on the border ofApache Indian country in what is nowNew Mexico
1630 – An attempt is made in theEl Paso, Texas area to establish a mission among the Mansos Indians
1631 – Dutch clergymanAbraham Rogerius (anglicized as Roger), who authoredOpen Door to the Secrets of Heathendom (1651), begins 10 years of ministry among theTamil people in the Dutch colony ofPulicat near Madras, India[151]
1632 –Zuni Indians murder a group ofFranciscan missionaries who had three years earlier established the first mission to the Zunis at Hawikuh in what is nowNew Mexico
1634 – Jesuit missionary Jean de Brèbeuf travels to thePetun nation (in Canada) and baptizes a 40-year-old man.
1635 – An expedition of Franciscans leavesQuito,Ecuador, to try to penetrate intoAmazonia from the west. Though most of them will be killed along the way, a few will manage to arrive two years later on the Atlantic coast.
1636 – TheDominicans ofManila (the Philippines) organize a missionary expedition to Japan. They are arrested on one of theOkinawa islands and will be eventually condemned to death by the tribunal ofNagasaki.
1638 – Official ban of Christianity in Japan with death penalty;The Fountain Opened, a posthumous work of the influentialPuritan writerRichard Sibbes is published, in which he says that the gospel must continue its journey "til it have gone over the whole world."
1639 – The first women toNew France as missionaries—threeUrsuline Nuns—board the "St. Joseph" and set sail forNew France
1641 – Jesuit missionary Cristoval de Acuna describes theAmazon River in a written report to the king of Spain
1642 – Catholic missionariesIsaac Jogues andRene Goupil are captured byMohawk Indians as they return to Huron country fromQuebec. Goupil was tomahawked to death while Jogues will be held for a period of time as a slave. He used his slavery as an opportunity for missionary work[153]
1650 – The destruction of Huronia by theIroquois puts an end to the Jesuits' dream of making theHuron Indians the focal point of theirevangelism
1651 – Count Truchsess of Wetzhausen, prominentLutheran layman, asks the theological faculty ofWittenberg why Lutherans are not sending out missionaries in obedience to theGreat Commission[156]
1652 – Jesuit Antonio Vieira returns toBrazil as a missionary where he will champion the cause of exploitedindigenous peoples until being expelled by Portuguese colonists[157]
1653 – AMohawk war party captures JesuitJoseph Poncet nearMontreal. He is tortured and will be finally sent back with a message about peace overtures
1657 –Thomas Mayhew, Jr., is lost at sea during a voyage to England that was to combine an appeal for missionary funds with personal business
1658 – After the flight of theFrench missionaries from his area, chiefDaniel Garakonthie of theOnondaga Indians, examines the customs of the French colonists and the doctrines of the missionaries and openly begins protecting Christians in his part of what is now New York
1665 – Japanese feudal landholders (calleddaimyōs) were ordered to follow the shogunate's example and to appoint inquisitors to do a yearly scutiny of Christians
1666 – John Eliot publishes hisThe Indian Grammar, a book written to assist in conversion work among theIndians. Described as "some bones and ribs preparation for such a work", Eliot intended hisGrammar for missionaries wishing to learn the dialect spoken by theMassachusett Indians.
1667 – The first missionary to attempt to reach theHuaorani (or Aucas), Jesuit Pedro Suarez, is slain with spears[162]
1668 – New Testament translated into theMalay language (the firstBible translation into a language ofsoutheast Asia). - In a letter from his post in Canada,French missionary Jacques Bruyas laments his ignorance of theOneida language: "What can a man do who does not understand their language, and who is not understood when he speaks. As yet, I do nothing but stammer; nevertheless, in four months I have baptized 60 persons, among whom there are only four adults, baptized inpericulo mortis. All the rest are little children."
1672 – A chieftain onGuam kills Jesuit missionaryDiego Luis de San Vitores and his Visayan assistant,Pedro Calungsod, for having baptized the chief's daughter without his permission (some accounts do say the girl's mother consented to thebaptism)
1675 – An uprising on the islands ofMicronesia leads to the death of three Christian missionaries
1676 –Kateri Tekakwitha, who became known as the Lily of theMohawks, isbaptized by a Jesuit missionary. She, along with many other Native Americans, joins a missionary settlement in Canada where a syncretistic blend of ascetic indigenous and Catholic beliefs evolves.
1679 – Writing fromChangzhou, newly arrived missionary Juan de Yrigoyen describes three Christian congregations flourishing in that Chinese city[165]
1680 – ThePueblo Revolt begins inNew Mexico with the killing of twenty-one Franciscan missionaries
1681 – After arriving inNew Spain, Italian JesuitEusebio Kino soon becomes what one writer described as "the most picturesque missionary pioneer of all North America." A bundle of evangelistic zeal, Kino was also an explorer, astronomer, cartographer, mission builder, ranchman, cattle king, and defender of the frontier[166]
1682 – 13 missionaries go to "remote cities" in EastSiberia
1683 – MissionaryLouis Hennepin returns to France after exploringMinnesota and being held captive by theDakota to write the first book about Minnesota,Description de la Louisiane
1696 – Jesuit missionary Francois Pinet founds the Mission of the Guardian Angel near what is today Chicago. The mission was abandoned in 1700 when missionary efforts seemed fruitless
1700 – After a Swedish missionary's sermon inPennsylvania, one Native American posed such searching questions that the episode was reported in a1731 history of the Swedish church in America. The interchange is noted inBenjamin Franklin'sRemarks Concerning the Savages of North America (1784).[170]
1706 – Irish-bornFrancis Makemie, who has been an itinerant Presbyterian missionary among the colonists of America since 1683, is finally able to organize the first American presbytery
1711 – JesuitEusebio Kino, missionary explorer in southernArizona and northern Sonora, dies suddenly in northern Mexico. Kino, who has been called "the cowboy missionary", had fought against the exploitation ofIndians in Mexican silver mines.
1717 – Chen Mao writes to the Chinese Emperor about his concerns overCatholic missionaries and Western traders. He urgently requested an all-out prohibition of Catholic missionaries in theQing provinces.
1718 –Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg constructs a church building in India that is still in use today
1720 – Missionary Johann Ernst Gruendler dies in India. He had arrived there in 1709 with the sponsorship of the Danish Mission Society
1721 – Mission San Juan Bautista Malibat inBaja California is abandoned due to the hostility of the Cochimi Indians, as well as to the decimation of the local population by epidemics and a water shortage. ChineseKangxi Emperor bans Christian missionaries as a result of theChinese Rites controversy.Hans Egede goes toGreenland under the dual auspices of the Royal Mission College and theBergen Company.
1723 – Robert Millar publishesA History of the Propagation of Christianity and the Overthrow of Paganism advocating prayer as the primary means of converting non-Christians[174]
1724 –Yongzheng Emperor bans missionary activities outside the Beijing area
1729 –Roman Catholic missionary Du Poisson becomes the first victim in theNatchez revolt. On his way toNew Orleans, he had been asked to stop and say Mass at theNatchez post. He was killed in front of the altar.
1730 – Lombard, French missionary, founds a Christian village with over 600 Indians at the mouth of Kuru river inFrench Guiana. A Jesuit, Lombard has been called the most successful of all missionaries in converting the Indians of French Guiana
1731 – A missionary movement is born when CountNicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf attends the coronation of KingChristian VI of Denmark and witnesses two of Egede'sInuit converts. Over the next two years, hisMoravian Church atHerrnhut will begin its missionary outreach with work among the slaves in the Caribbean and the Inuit in Greenland.[176]
1736 – Anti-Christian edicts in China; Moravian missionaries at work amongNenets people ofArkhangelsk
1737 – Rev. Pugh, a missionary in Pennsylvania with TheSociety for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts begins ministering to blacks. He noted that the masters of the slaves were prejudiced against them becoming Christian.
1738 – Moravian missionary George Schmidt settles in Baviaan Kloof (Valley of the Baboons) in the Riviersonderend valley of South Africa. He begins working with theKhoikhoi people, who were practically on the threshold of extinction.
1739 – The first missionary to theMahican (Mohegan) Indians, John Sergeant, builds a home inStockbridge, Massachusetts that is today a museum.
1744 – Thomas Thompson resigns his position as dean at theUniversity of Cambridge to become a missionary. He was sent by theSociety for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts toNew Jersey. Taking a special interest in the slave population there, he would later request to begin mission work in Africa. In 1751, Thompson would become the first S.P.G. missionary to the Gold Coast (modern-dayGhana)
1745 –David Brainerd, after preaching to Native Americans in December, wrote about the response: "They soon came in, one after another; with tears in their eyes, to know, what they should do to be saved. . . . It was an amazing season of power among them, and seemed as if God had bowed the heavens and come down ... and that God was about to convert the whole world."
1746 – From Boston a call is issued to the Christians of theNew World to enter into a seven-year "Concert of Prayer" for missionary work[181]
1748 – Roman CatholicPedro Sanz and four other missionaries are executed, together with 14 Chinese Christians. Prior to his death, Sanz reportedly converted some of his prison guards to Christianity.
1749 – Spanish Franciscan priestJunípero Serra (1713-1784 arrives in Mexico as a missionary. In 1767 he would go north to what is nowCalifornia, zealously building missions and converting Native Americans.
1751 – Samuel Cooke arrives in New Jersey as a missionary for the SPGFP
1752 – Thomas Thompson, first Anglican missionary to Africa, arrives in the Gold Coast (nowGhana)[184]
1753 – The disappearance of Erhardt and six companions leads to temporary abandonment of Moravian missionary initiatives inLabrador.
1754 – Moravian John Ettwein arrives in America from Germany as a missionary. Preaching to Native Americans and establishing missions, Ettwein will travel as far south as Georgia.
1755 – TheMoravian mission settlement atGnadenhütten, Pennsylvania is attacked and destroyed during theGnadenhütten massacre. Moravian missionaryJohann Jacob Schmick remains with the Mahicans through exile and captivity despite almost constant threats from white neighbors. Schmick will join hisIndian congregation as they seek refuge in Bethlehem, follow them as captives to Philadelphia, and remain with them after they settle inWyalusing, Pennsylvania.
1756 – Civil unrest forcesGideon Halley away from his missionary work among theSix Nations on theSusquehanna River where he has been working for four years under the supervision of Jonathan Edwards with an appointment from the Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians.
1757 – Lutherans begin ministering to Blacks in theCaribbean[185]
1758 –John Wesley baptizes two slaves, thus breaking the skin color barrier for Methodist societies[186]
1759 – Native American Samson Occom, direct descendant of the greatMahican chief Uncas, is ordained by the Presbyterians. Occom became the first American Indian to publish works in English. These included sermons, hymns and a short autobiography.[187]
1760 – Adam Voelker and Christian Butler arrive inTranquebar as the firstMoravian missionaries to India
1760 – Methodists first reach the West Indies.[188]
1761 – The first Moravian missionary in Ohio, Frederick Post, settles on the north side of the Muskingum.[189]
1763 – The Presbyterian Synod of New York orders that a collection for missions be taken. In 1767 the Synod asks that this collection be done annually.
1764 – The Moravians make a decision to expand and begin publicizing their missionary activity, particularly in the British colonies; Moravian Jens Haven makes the first of three exploratory missionary journeys toGreenland[190]
1765 –Suriname Governor General Crommelin convinces three Moravian missionaries to work near the head waters of the Gran Rio. They settle among theSaramaka near the Senthea Creek in Granman Abini's village where they are received with mixed feelings.
1766 – Philip Quaque, a Fetu youth from the Cape Coast area ofGhana who spent twelve years studying in England, returns to Africa. Supported as a missionary by theSociety for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, Quaque is first non-European ordained priest in the Church of England
1767 – Spain expels the Jesuits from Spanish colonies in the New World
1768 – Five United Brethren missionaries from Germany, invited by the Danish Guinea Company, arrive in the Gold Coast (now Ghana), to teach in the Cape Coast Castle schools
1770 – John Marrant, a free black from New York City, begins ministering cross-culturally, preaching to the American Indians. By 1775 he had carried the gospel to theCherokee andCreek Indians as well as to groups he called the Catawar and Housaw peoples.[192]
1775 – John Crook is sent by Liverpool Methodists to theIsle of Man
1776 – Cyril Vasilyevich Suchanov builds first church amongEvenks ofTransbaikal (or Dauria) in (Siberia); The first baptism of anEskimo by a Lutheran pastor takes place in Labrador.
1777 – Portuguese missionaries build a church at Hashnabad,Bangladesh
1778 – Theodore Sladich is martyred while doing missionary work to counter Islamic influence in the westernBalkans
1780 – August Gottlieb Spangenberg writesAn Account of the Manner in Which the Protestant Church of the Unitas Fratrum, or United Brethren, Preach the Gospel, and Carry On Their Missions Among the Heathen. Originally written in German, the book will be translated into English in 1788.
1781 – In the midst of theAmerican Revolutionary War, the British so feared Moravian missionaryDavid Zeisberger and his influence among theLenape (also called Delaware) and other Native Americans that they arrested him and his assistant, John Heckewelder, charging them with treason
1783 – Moses Baker and George Gibbions, both former slaves, leave the U.S. to become missionaries in the West Indies
1784 – First Christians reported inKorea;Yi Seung-hun back home in Korea after being baptized in China
1784 –Thomas Coke (Methodist) submits his Plan for the Society for the Establishment of Missions Among the Heathen. Methodist missions among the "heathen" will begin in 1786 when Coke, destined forNova Scotia, is driven off course by a storm and lands atAntigua in theBritish West Indies.[197]
1785 – Joseph White's sermon titled "On the Duty of Attempting the Propagation of the Gospel among ourMahometan andGentoo Subjects in India" is published in the second edition of his bookSermons Containing a View of Christianity and Mahometanism, in their History, their Evidence, and their Effects. The sermon was first preached at theUniversity of Oxford.
1786 –John Marrant, a free black from New York City, writes in his journal that he preached to "a great number of Indians and white people" atGreen's Harbor, Newfoundland.[198] Marrant's cross-cultural ministry led him to take the Gospel to theCherokee,Creek,Catawba (he called them the Catawar, andHousaw Indians).
1787 –William Carey is ordained in England by theParticular Baptists and soon begins to urge that worldwide missions be undertaken.
1788 – Dutch missionaries begin preaching the Gospel among fishermen inBangladesh
1790 – Prince Williams, a freed slave from South Carolina, goes toNassau, Bahamas, where he will start Bethel Meeting House[192]
1791 – One hundred and twenty Korean Christians are tortured and killed for their faith. It began when Paul Yun Ji-Chung, a noble who had become a Christian, decided not to bury his mother according to traditional Confucian custom.
1792 –William Carey writesAn Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use means for the conversion of the heathen and forms theBaptist Missionary Society to support him in establishing missionary work in India[200]
1793 –Stephen Badin ordained in U.S. Although much of Badin's ministry was pastoral work among his own countrymen, he did some outreach among thePotawatomi Indians[201]
1794 – EightRussian Orthodox missionaries arrive on Kodiak Island in Alaska. Within a few months several thousand people have been baptized[202]
1794 – Roman Catholic missionary Zhou Wenmo enters Korea
1795 – Roman Catholic missionary Zhou Wenmo celebrates the first mass in Korea at Easter
1796 – Scottish and Glasgow Missionary Societies established;[203] In India, Johann Philipp Fabricius' translation of the Bible intoTamil is revised and published[204]
1797 – Netherlands Missionary Society formed;[203][205] The Duff, carrying 36 lay and pastoral missionaries, sails to three islands of the South Pacific;[206] The first Christian missionary (from theLondon Missionary Society) visits Hiva on the Pacific island ofTahuata; he is not well received.
1798 – The Missionary Society of Connecticut is organized by the Congregationalists to take the gospel to the "heathen lands" of Vermont and Ohio. Its missionaries evangelized both European settlers and Native Americans.[207]
1802 –Henry Martyn hears Charles Simeon speak ofWilliam Carey's work in India and resolves to become a missionary himself. He will sail for India in 1805.[210]
1803 – The Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society votes to publish a missionary magazine. Now known asThe American Baptist, the periodical is the oldest religious magazine in the U.S.
1815 – Congregationalist ministerCyrus Kingsbury first served Cherokee in the Southeast, foundingBrainerd Mission near Chickamauga, Tennessee, in 1815.[223]
1816 – Barnabas Shaw opens the first Wesleyan mission in South Africa: Liliefontein, in the Khamiesberg Mountains (Namaqualand), among the Khoisan peoples in the northern Cape Colony.
1822 – African American Betsy Stockton is sent by the American Board of Missions to Hawaii. She thus becomes the first single woman missionary appointed by the American Board.[235]
1832 –Alfred Wright, a medically trained Presbyterian minister was sent to Mississippi with his wife, Harriet Bunce to minister in the Choctaw nation. After traveling with a group of Choctaws on their forced emigration to Indian Territory in 1832, they decided to establish a new mission near present-dayEagletown, Oklahoma. From then until 1846, they built and operated a church and a school to minister to Choctaws living in the surrounding area. Wright named the mission Wheelock, in honor ofEleazar Wheelock, a friend and first president of Dartmouth College. Meanwhile, ignoring his own frail health, Alfred spent as much time as he could translating religious documents from English into the Choctaw language until his death in 1853.[249]
1835 – Rev.Cyrus Byington arrived at Bethabara Mission in 1835. established Stockbridge Mission, and spent 31 years translating both religious and secular materials, using a Choctaw-English dictionary that he had created. Byington also established Stockbridge Mission on the opposite side of the Mountain Fork River from Bethabara.[254]
1836 –Plymouth Brethren begin work inMadras, India;[256]George Müller begins his work with orphans inBristol, England; Gossner Mission formed;[205] Leipzig Mission Society established;[205] Colonial Missionary Society formed; The Providence Missionary Baptist District Association is formed, one of at least six national organizations among African American Baptists whose sole objective was missionary work in Africa.
1839 – Entire Bible is published in language ofTahiti; three French missionaries martyred in Korea; English Protestant missionaries, including John Williams, murdered onErromango (Vanuatu, South Pacific).[258]
1840 –David Livingstone is in present-dayMalawi (Africa) with theLondon Missionary Society; American Presbyterians enterThailand and labor for 18 years before seeing their first Thai convert;[246] Irish Presbyterian Missionary Society formed; Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Missionary Society founded.
1841 – Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society formed;[214] Welsh Methodists begin working among theKhasi people of India.
1842 – Church Missionary Society enters Badagry, Lagos.
1842 – Gossner Mission Society receives royal sanction;[261] Norwegian Missionary Society formed inStavanger.[209]
1842 – Christian Mission to the Jews (CMJ) establishes Christ Church, first Anglican church in theOld City ofJerusalem.
1843 – Baptist John Taylor Jones translates New Testament into theThai language;[262] British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Jews formed.
1843 - Presbyterian missionaryRobert M. Loughridge comes to Indian Territory (present-dayOklahoma as missionary to Creek Indians and establishesKoweta Mission. In 1850, he establishesTullahassee Mission. Both missions were abandoned after the outbreak of the American Civil War.
1843 - Twenty-four West Indian Moravians recruited by the Basel Mission and the Danish missionary,Andreas Riis, sail to the Gold Coast, now Ghana to start mission work
1844 – GermanJohann Krapf of theChurch Missionary Society begins work inMombasa on the Kenya Coast;[263] first Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) formed by George Williams;George Smith and Thomas McClatchie sail for China as the first twoCMS missionaries to that country.
1849 –Johann Krapf of theChurch Missionary Society was the first European to reachMount Kenya.[212] Just weeks after arriving on theMelanesian island ofAnatom, missionary John Geddie wrote in his journal: "In the darkness, degradation, pollution and misery that surrounds me, I will look forward in the vision of faith to the time when some of these poor islanders will unite in the triumphant song of ransomed souls, 'Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood.'"[267]
1850 – On the occasion ofKarl Gützlaff's visit to Europe, the Berlin Ladies Association for China is established in conjunction with the Berlin Missionary Association for China. Work in China will commence in 1851 with the arrival of Hermandine Neumann in Hong Kong.Rev. Thomas Valpy French, came to India in 1850, foundedSt. John's College, Agra, and became first Bishop ofLahore in 1877.
1851 –Allen Gardiner and six missionary colleagues die of exposure and starvation atPatagonia on the southern tip of South America because a re-supply ship from England arrives six months late.[268]
1853- TheHermannsburg Missionary Society, founded in 1849 byLouis Harms, has finished training its first group of young missionaries. They are sent to Africa on a ship (theCandace) which had been built using money entirely from donations.[270]
1854 – New York Missionary Conference, guided by Alexander Duff, ponders the question: "To what extent are we authorized by the Word of God to expect the conversion of the world to Christ?";[271] Henry Venn, secretary of theChurch Missionary Society, sets out ideal of self-governing, self-supporting and self-propagating churches;Hudson Taylor arrives in China[272]
1855 –Henry Steinhauer is ordained as a CanadianMethodist missionary toNorth American Indians and posted toLac La Biche, Alberta. Steinhauer's missionary work had actually begun 15 years earlier in 1840 when he was assigned to Lac La Pluie to assist in translating, teaching and interpreting theOjibwa andCree languages.
1857 – Bible translated intoTswana language; Board of Foreign Missions ofDutch Reformed Church set up; four missionary couples killed at theFatehgarh mission during the Indian Mutiny of 1857;[274] Publication ofDavid Livingstone's bookMissionary Travels and Researches in South Africa
1863 –Robert Moffat, missionary to Africa with theLondon Missionary Society, publishes his bookRivers of Water in a Dry Place, Being an Account of the Introduction of Christianity into South Africa, and of Mr. Moffat's Missionary Labours
1865.Henry Venn (1796-1873) of the Church Missionary Society called for "three-self" native churches: self-supporting, self-governing, and self-propagating.[282]
1866 –Charles Haddon Spurgeon invents theWordless Book, which is widely used in cross-cultural evangelism;[283] Theodore Jonas Meyer (1819–1894), a converted Jew serving as a Presbyterian missionary in Italy, nurses those dying in acholera epidemic until he himself falls prey to the disease. Barely surviving, he becomes a peacemaker betweenCatholics andProtestants;Robert Thomas, known as the first Protestant martyr in Korea, is beaten to death by locals after getting involved in kidnapping, shooting & killing locals in Pyongyang, Korea[284]
1868 – Robert Bruce goes toIran, Canadian Baptist missionary Americus Timpany begins work among theTelugu people in India.
1869 – The firstMethodist women's missionary magazine,The Heathen Women's Friend, begins publication. Riot inYangzhou, China destroysChina Inland Mission house and nearly leads to open war between Britain and China.
1870 –Clara Swain, the very first female missionary medical doctor, arrives atBareilly, India; Orthodox Missionary Society founded[286]
1874 –Gustav Warneck founded theAllgemeine Missions Zeitschrift in Gütersloh / Germany, the first scientific missionary periodical;[292]Lord Radstock's first visit toSt. Petersburg, Russia, and the beginning of an evangelical awakening among the St. Petersburg nobility;Albert Sturges initiates the Interior Micronesia Mission in the Mortlock Islands under the leadership ofMicronesian students from Ohwa
1875 – The Foreign Christian Missionary Society organized within theChristian Church (Disciples of Christ) andChurch of Christ movements; Clah, a Canadian Indian convert, brought Christianity to natives at Ft. Wangel, Alaska. He assumed the name of Philip McKay.
1875 - TheSociety of the Divine Word, a Roman Catholic missionary community, is founded by Arnold Jannsen in Steyl, Holland.
1876 – In September, a rusty ocean steamer arrives at a port on theCalabar River in what is nowNigeria. That part of Africa was then known as the White Man's Grave. The only woman on board that ship is 29-year-oldMary Slessor, a missionary.[293]
1878 – Mass movement to Christ begins inOngole, India[295]
1880 – Woman missionary doctorFanny Butler goes to India;[296] Missionary periodicalThe Gospel in All Lands is launched byA. B. Simpson;[297]Justus Henry Nelson and Fannie Bishop Capen Nelson begin 45 years of service inBelém,Pará,Brazil, establishing the first Protestant Church in Amazonia in 1883
1880 – Conversion ofXi Shengmo (1836-1896), a brilliant Confucian philosopher who after being freed opium, dedicated his life to preaching the Gospel and creating of rehabilitation centers for thousands of opium addicts in the Chinese province ofShanxi and other cities and towns such as Chao-ch'eng, Teng-ts'uen, Hoh-chau, T'ai-yuan and Ping-yang, along with his wife. In 1906, there were, in all, 45 rehabilitation centers and 300,000 healed.[298][299][300][301]
1881 – Methodist work inLahore, Pakistan starts in the wake of revivals under Bishop William Taylor; North Africa Mission (now Arab World Ministries) founded on work of Edward Glenny inAlgeria[302]
1881 – Home & Foreign Mission Fund (now known as Interlink) was established in Glasgow as a missionary service group for brethren missionaries from Scotland
1882 – James Gilmour,London Missionary Society missionary toMongolia, goes home to England for a furlough. During that time he published a book:Among the Mongols. It was so well-written that one critic wrote, "Robinson Crusoe has turned missionary, lived years in Mongolia, and wrote a book about it." Concerning the author, the critic said, "If ever on earth there lived a man who kept the law of Christ, and could give proof of it, and be absolutely unconscious that he was giving it to them, it is this man whom the Mongols called 'our Gilmour.'"[303]
1886 –Student Volunteer Movement launched as 100 university and seminary students atMoody's conference grounds at Mount Hermon, Massachusetts, sign the Princeton Pledge which says:"I purpose, God willing, to become a foreign missionary."[309]
1887 –The Hundred missionaries deployed in one year in China under theChina Inland Mission. Dr. William Cassidy, a Toronto medical doctor, was ordained as theChristian and Missionary Alliance's first missionary preacher. Unfortunately, en route to China, he died ofsmallpox. However, Cassidy's death has been called the "spark that ignited the Alliance missionary blaze."
1888 –Jonathan Goforth sails to China;[310]Student Volunteer Movement for foreign missions officially organized withJohn R. Mott as chairman and Robert Wilder as traveling secretary. The movement's motto, coined by Wilder, was:"The evangelization of the world in this generation.;[311] Scripture Gift Mission (nowLifewords) founded;Lilias Trotter, founder of the Algiers Mission Band, arrives in Algiers
1889 – Missionary linguist and folkloristPaul Olaf Bodding arrives in India, Santhal Parganas, and continues the work among the Santals started by Skrefsrud and Børresen in 1867; North Africa Mission entersTripoli as first Protestant mission inLibya[312]
1890 – Central American Mission founded byC. I. Scofield, editor of theScofield Reference Bible;[307] Methodist Charles Gabriel writes missionary song "Send the Light";John Livingston Nevius of China visits Korea to outline his strategy for missions: 1) Each believer should be a productive member of society and active in sharing his faith; 2) The church in Korea should be distinctly Korean and free of foreign control; 3) The leaders of the Koreanchurch will be selected and trained from its members; 4) Church buildings will be built by Koreans with their own resources;[313]Fredrik Franson founds the Scandinavian Alliance Mission in Chicago, later known asThe Evangelical Alliance Mission.
1891 –Samuel Zwemer goes toBasra in southernIraq,[314] having founded the Arabian Mission in 1890;[315] Helen Chapman sails for the Congo (Zaire). She married a Danish missionary, William Rasmussen, whom she met during the voyage.
1898 – Theresa Huntington leaves her New England home for the Middle East. For seven years she will work as an American Board missionary inElazığ (Kharput) in the Ottoman Empire. Her letters home will be published in a book titledGreat Need over the Water; Archibald Reekie of theCanadian Baptist Ministries arrives in Oruro as the first Protestant missionary toBolivia. The work of Canadian Baptists led to the guarantee of freedom of religion in Bolivia in 1905.
1899 – James Rodgers arrives inPhilippines with the Presbyterian Mission;[321] Central American Mission entersGuatemala[322]
1900 – First Orthodox missionary fromRussia entersKorea
1900 –American Friends open work inCuba; Ecumenical Missionary Conference inCarnegie Hall, New York (162 mission boards represented);[323] 189 missionaries and their children killed inBoxer Rebellion in China;[324] South AfricanAndrew Murray writesThe Key to the Missionary Problem in which he challenges thechurch to hold weeks ofprayer for the world[325]
1901 – Nazarene John Diaz goes toCape Verde Islands;[326] Maude Cary sails forMorocco; Oriental Missionary Society founded by Charles Cowman (his wife is the compiler of popular devotional bookStreams in the Desert); Missionary James Chalmers killed and eaten by cannibals inPapua New Guinea[327]
1902-1927 – With world attention focused on the anti-WesternBoxer Rebellion, American Protestants made missions to China a high priority. They supported 500 missionaries in 1890, more than 2000 in 1914, and 8300 in 1920. By 1927 they opened 16 American universities in China, six medical schools, and four theology schools, together with 265 middle schools and a large number of elementary schools. The number of converts was not large, but the educational influence was dramatic.[328]
1903 – First group baptism at Sattelberg Mission Station underChristian Keyser inNew Guinea paves way for mass conversions during the following years
1904 –Premillennialist theologianWilliam Eugene Blackstone begins teaching that the world has already been evangelized, citing Acts 2:5, 8:4, Mark 16:20 and Colossians 1:23
1905 –Sadhu Sundar Singh, an Indian missionary, former adherent ofSikhism, begins his ministry assadhu preaching in Northern India and Tibet. From 1918-1922, he travels to preach throughout the world, but finishes his career in new missions toTibet.
1907 – Massive revival meetings in Korea;[323]Harmon Schmelzenbach sails for Africa;[332] Presbyterians andMethodists open Union Theological Seminary inManila, Philippines; Bolivian Indian Mission founded by George Allen[333]
1914-1918World War I numerous missionaries in Africa and Asia in British, French, German and Belgian colonies are expelled or detained for the duration of the war, if their nation was at war with the colonial authority.
1914-1918 The World War reduced the enthusiasm for missions, and led to growing doubts about the wisdom of cultural imperialism in dealing with foreign peoples.[343][344]
1914 – Large-scale revival movement inUganda; C.T. Studd reports a revival movement in the Congo[345]
1916 – Rhenish missionaries are forced to leaveOndjiva in southernAngola under pressure from the Portuguese authorities and Chief Mandume of theKwanyama. By then, four congregations existed with a confessing membership of 800.
1917 – Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association (IFMA) founded[347]
1924 – Bible Churchman's Missionary Society opens work in UpperBurma;[353] Baptist Mid-Missions begins work inVenezuela
1925 – Daniel Fleming publishedWhither Bound in Missions (YMCA Press), challenging the over-emphasis on conversions. Missions should instead focus on fighting evils such as materialism, racial injustice, war and poverty.[354][355]
1925 –E. Stanley Jones, Methodist missionary to India, writesThe Christ of the Indian Road[356]
1926 – Charles J. McDonald, aSouthern Baptist layman, started work in the town ofWahiawa,Territory of Hawaii, with a Sunday School which eventually became the First Baptist Church of Wahiawa.
1927 –Ngulhao Thomsong translates the Bible into Thadou-Kuki Language[357] East African revival movement (Balokole) emerges in Rwanda and moves across several other countries[323]
1928 – Cuba Bible Institute (West Indies Mission) opens; Jerusalem Conference of International Missionary Council;[323] foundation ofBorneo Evangelical Mission by Hudson Southwell, Frank Davidson and Carey Tolley.
1929 – Christian & Missionary Alliance enters East Borneo (Indonesia) and Thailand[358]
1931 – Franciscan missionary the VenerableGabriele Allegra arrives inHunan China from Italy to start translating the Bible[359]
1931 –HCJB radio station started inQuito, Ecuador by Clarence Jones;[360] Baptist Mid-Missions entersLiberia[361]
1932 -William Ernest Hocking, et al.Re-Thinking Missions: A Laymen's Inquiry After One Hundred Years marks the turning away from traditional missions by the mainstream Protestant denominations, leaving the field to the evangelicals and fundamentalists.[362][363]
1935 –Frank C. Laubach, American missionary to thePhilippines, perfects the "Each one teach one"literacy program, which has been used worldwide to teach 60 million people to read[366]
1936 – With the outbreak of civil war in Spain, missionaries are forced to leave that country.
1937 – After expulsion of missionaries fromEthiopia by Italian invaders, widespread revival erupts among Protestant (SIM) churches in south;[367]Child Evangelism Fellowship founded by Jesse Irvin Overholzer
1938 – Madras World Missionary Conference held;[368] Dutch missiologistHendrik Kraemer publishes his seminal workThe Christian Message in a non-Christian World; West Indies Mission entersDominican Republic;Church Missionary Society forced out ofEgypt; Dr. Orpha Speicher completes construction of Reynolds Memorial Hospital in central India[369]
1939-1945 –World War II numerous missionaries in Africa and Asia in British, French and Belgian colonies are expelled or detained for the duration of the war, if their nation was at war with the colonial authority
1939 – A sick missionary, Joy Ridderhof, makes a recording of gospel songs and a message and sends it into the mountains of Honduras. It is the beginning of Gospel Recordings[370]
1940 – Marianna Slocum begins translation work in Mexico;[371] Military police in Japan arrests the executive officers of theSalvation Army
1943 – CBFMS Conservative Baptist Foreign Mission Society [now WorldVenture] was formed sending Missionaries to the CONGO, South America and Philippines, now in over 60 countries.
1943 – Five missionaries withNew Tribes Mission go missing in Bolivia;[372] 11 AmericanBaptist missionaries beheaded in the Philippines by Japanese soldiers
1944 – Missionaries return to Suki,Papua New Guinea after withdrawal of the Japanese military
1947 –Whitby World Missionary Conference inCanada;[376] Conservative Baptist Foreign Mission Society begins work among theSenufo people in the Ivory Coast[377]
1948 – Alfredo del Rosso merges his Italian Holiness Mission with theChurch of the Nazarene, thus opening Nazarene work on the European continent;Southern Baptist Convention adopts program calling for the tripling of the number of missionaries.
1949 – Southern Baptist Mission board opens work inVenezuela, Mary Tripp sent out by CEF Child Evangelism Fellowship to the Netherlands.
1949 – Russian Orthodox Church stops in all activities in Korea.
1950 –Paul Orjala arrives inHaiti; radio station 4VEH, owned by East and West Indies Bible Mission, starts broadcasting from nearCap-Haïtien, Haiti[378]
1951 – Communist government of China expels all Christian missionaries; the void was more than filled by a Chinese Church, 25% of which consisted of independent churches.[379]
1951 – Eastern Orthodoxy is re-introduces in Korea by Greeks, and disseminates after almost 51 years since its first introduction in 1900
1960 – Kenneth Strachan starts Evangelism-in-Depth in Central America;[388] 18,000 people inMorocco reply to newspaper ad byGospel Missionary Union offering free correspondence course on Christianity;[389]Loren Cunningham foundsYouth with a Mission;[390] The Asia Evangelistic Fellowship (AEF), one of the largest Asian indigenous missionary organisations, is launched in Singapore by G. D. James[391]
1961 – International Missionary Council (IMC) integrated into theWorld Council of Churches (WCC) and renamedCommission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME);[392] International Christian radio stations now number 30[386]
1963 – Theological Education by Extension movement launched inGuatemala by Ralph Winter and James Emery[394]
1964 – Young missionary and pilotJerry Douglas Witt;[395] is presumably shot down over the mining town of Minas Las Coloradas, Zacatecas Mexico while dropping Gospels of St. John from his Cessna 170B, killing him and a young Mexican national who was with him; In separate incidents, rebels in theCongo kill missionaries Paul Carlson, Phyllis Rine and Irene Ferrel as well as brutalizing missionary doctorHelen Roseveare;[396] Carlson is featured on December 4Time magazine cover;[397] Hans von Staden of the Dorothea Mission proposes to Patrick Johnstone that he write the book now titledOperation World[398]
1966 –Red Guards destroy churches in China; Berlin Congress on Evangelism;[399] Missionaries expelled fromBurma;God's Smuggler published
1967 – All foreign missionaries expelled fromGuinea[400]
1968 – Wu Yung and others form the Chinese Missions Overseas in order to send out missionaries fromTaiwan to do cross-cultural ministry;Augustinian order re-established in India
1972 – American Society of Missiology founded with journalMissiology[405]
1973 – Services by Billy Graham attract four and a half million people in six cities of Korea;[406] first All-Asa Mission Consultation convenes in Seoul, Korea with 25 delegates from 14 countries;[407]Mission to the World is founded inGeorgia[408]
1975 – Missionaries Armand Doll and Hugh Friberg imprisoned inMozambique after communist takeover of government[410]
1976 –U.S. Center for World Mission founded inPasadena, California; 1600 Chinese assemble in Hong Kong for the Chinese Congress on World Evangelization; Islamic World Congress calls for withdrawal of Christian missionaries;Peace Child byDon Richardson appears inReader's Digest.
1977 – Evangelical Fellowship of India sponsors the All-India Congress on Mission and Evangelization[407]
1978 – LCWE Consultation on Gospel and Culture in Willowbank, Bermuda;[411]Columbans enterTaiwan[412]
1980 – Philippine Congress on Discipling a Whole Nation;[416] Lausanne Congress on World Evangelism Conference in Pattaya[417]
1981 – Colombian terrorists kidnap and killWycliffe Bible TranslatorChet Bitterman;[418] Project Pearl: one million Bibles are delivered in a single night to thousands of waiting believers in China[419]
1982 – Story on "The New Missionary" makes December 27 cover ofTime magazine;[420] Andes Evangelical Mission (formerly Bolivian Indian Mission) merges intoSIM (formerly Sudan Interior Mission)[421]
1983 – Missionary Athletes International, a global soccer ministry, founded by Tim Conrad[422]
1984 – Founding of The Mission Society for United Methodists, a voluntary missionary sending agency within the United Methodist Church; rebranded in 2006 to The Mission Society; Founding of STEM (Short Term Evangelical Mission teams) ministry by Roger Petersen signals the rising importance ofShort-term missions groups
1985 – Founding ofEvery Child Ministries, a mission organization focused on African children and youth, with special attention to groups of neglected, abused or marginalized children, founded by John and Lorella Rouster with DR Congo (then Zaire) as its first field of service[423]
1985 – Howard Foltz founds Accelerating International Mission Strategies (AIMS)[424]
1989 – Missionary pathologist, Dr. Ron Guderian, develops cure for and helps to elimatinate River Blindless inEcuador. He also develops cure that reverses effect of snake venom, saving the lives of many within very rural villages in Ecuador. This leads to many conversions in Ecuador.
1989 – The International Christian Fellowship, a small mission organisation operating in Sri Lanka, south India and the Philippines, became part ofSIM. The Lausanne Congress II on World EvangelizationLausanne II, an evangelical world missions conference, takes place in Manila / Philippines; the concept of10/40 Window emerges;[425] Adventures In Missions (Georgia) (AIM)Short-term missions agency founded by Seth Barnes; "Ee-Taow" video released by New Tribes Mission.
1990 –YWAM missionaries Jeff and Els Woodke begin work with Tuareg and Wodaabe pastoralists in Abalak, Niger.
1991 – The Marxist government ofEthiopia is overthrown and missionaries are able to return to that country
1999 –Trans World Radio goes on the air fromGrigoriopol (Moldova) using a 1-million-watt AM transmitter;[427] Veteran Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two sons are burned alive byHindu extremists as they are sleeping in a car in eastern India.
2000 – Asia College of Ministry (ACOM), a ministry of Asia Evangelistic Fellowship (AEF),[429] was launched by Jonathan James, to train national missionaries in Asia.
2001 –New Tribes MissionariesMartin and Gracia Burnham are kidnapped in the Philippines by Muslim terrorist group;Baptist missionary Roni Bowers and her infant daughter are killed when a Peruvian Air Force jet fires on their small float-plane. Though severely wounded in both legs, missionary pilot Kevin Donaldson landed the burning plane on the Amazon River.
2003 – Publication ofBack To Jerusalem: Called to Complete the Great Commission – Three Chinese Church Leaders with Paul Hattaway brings Chinese and Korean mission movement to forefront; Coptic priest Fr.Zakaria Botros begins his television and internet mission to Muslims in North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and western countries, resulting in thousands of conversions.
2005 – Korean Catholic Bible completed, the first translation of the entire Bible into modern Korean language.
2006 –Abdul Rahman, an Afghan Christian convert, is forced out of Afghanistan by local Muslim leaders and exiled to Italy. Missionary Vijay Kumar is publicly stoned by Hindu extremists for Christian preaching.
2012 – A study by political scientist Robert Woodberry, focusing on Protestant missionaries, found that they have often left a very positive societal impact in the areas where they worked. "In cross-national statistical analysis Protestant missions are significantly and robustly associated with higher levels of printing, education, economic development, organizational civil society, protection of private property, and rule of law and with lower levels of corruption".[431]
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^Heitz, Gerhard; Rischer, Henning (1995).Geschichte in Daten. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (in German). Münster-Berlin: Koehler&Amelang. p. 157.ISBN3-7338-0195-4.
^Heitz, Gerhard; Rischer, Henning (1995).Geschichte in Daten. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (in German). Münster-Berlin: Koehler&Amelang. pp. 161–162.ISBN3-7338-0195-4.
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^Pané, Ramón,An Account of the Antiquities of the Indians: Chronicles of the New World, edited by Jose Arrom and translated by Susan C. Griswold. Duke University Press, 1999 p. 32
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^Otis Cary,A History of Christianity in Japan: Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox missions (1909)online edition pp. 13–241
^Thwaites, Reuben Gold.The Revolution on the Upper Ohio, 1775-1777: Compiled from the Draper Manuscripts in the Library of the Wisconsin Historical Society. Genealogical Publishing Company, 2002, p. 45.
^White, Ann "Counting the Cost of Faith: America's Early Female Missionaries"Church History, Vol 57, No. 1 (Mar 1988), p. 22; Brackney, William HThe A to Z of Baptists Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2009, p. 605
^Gad C. Isay, "Religious Obligation Transformed Into Intercultural Agency: Ernst Faber's Mission In China."Monumenta serica 54.1 (2006): 253-267.
^Brian Stanley, "The church of the three selves: A perspective from the World Missionary Conference, Edinburgh, 1910."Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 36.3 (2008): 435-451.
^Balmer, Randall Herbert.Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism, Baylor University Press, 2004, p. 764
^Taylor, Mrs. Howard, Pastor Hsi: Confucian Scholar and Christian (1900; rev. 1949, 1989).
^Austin, Alvyn James, "Pilgrims and Strangers: The China Inland Mission in Britain, Canada, the United States and China 1865-1990" (Ph.D. diss., York University, North York, Ontario, 1996).
^Broomhall, A. J., Assault on the Nine, Book 6:1875-87 of Hudson Taylor and China's Open Century (1988).
^Latourette, Kenneth Scott, A History of Christian Missions in China (1966).
^John C. Barrett, "World War I and the decline of the first wave of the American Protestant missions movement."International Bulletin of Mission Research 39#3 (2015): 122-126.online
^Nathan D. Showalter,The End of a Crusade: The Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions and the Great War (1998).
^Anderson 1998, p. 215: "The work suffered an inordinate number of tragedies in its early years: five men of the first party of recruits disappeared into the Bolivian jungle in 1943; in 1946 fire destroyed two dormitories at the mission's training camp in California, claiming the life of an infant..."
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Udy, James Stuart. A "Attitudes within the Protestant churches of the Occident towards the propagation of Christianity in the Orient: an historical survey to 1914" (PhD. Dissertation. Boston University, 1952)online; major scholarly history
Walker, Williston.A History of the Christian Church. 1959
Young, Richard Fox, ed. 'Studies in the History of Christian Missions: Essays in Honor of Robert Eric Frykenberg (2009)Online, 14 scholarly essays on India.
