This timeline of Christian missions chronicles the global expansion of Christianity through a listing of the most significant missionary outreach events.
100 – First Christians are reported in Monaco, Algeria; a missionary goes to Arbela, a sacred city of the Assyrians that the Christian church is katholikos ("universal")
208 – Tertullian writes that Christ has followers on the far side of the Roman wall in Britain where Roman legions have not yet penetrated[14]
250 – Denis (or Denys or Dionysius) is sent from Rome along with six other missionaries to establish the church in Paris[15]
270 – Death of Gregory 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.[16]
280 – First rural churches emerge in northern Italy; Christianity is no longer exclusively in urban areas
287 – Maurice from Egypt is killed at Agauno, Switzerland for refusing to sacrifice to pagan divinities[17]
300 – First Christians reported in Greater Khorasan; an estimated 10% of the world's population is now Christian; parts of the Bible are available in 10 different languages[18]
330 – Ethiopian King Ezana of Axum makes Christianity an official religion
332 – Two young Roman Christians, Frumentius and Aedesius, are the sole survivors of a ship destroyed in the Red Sea due to tensions between Rome and Aksum. They are taken as slaves to the Ethiopian capital of Axum to serve in the royal court.[18]
334 – The first bishop is ordained for Merv / Transoxiana (area of modern-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and southwest Kazakhstan)[23]
337 – Emperor Constantine baptized shortly before his death[24]
341 – Ulfilas begins work with the Goths in present-day Romania[25]
350 – Bible is translated into the Sahidic dialect of the Egyptian Coptic language.[27]
354 – Theophilus "the Indian" reports visiting Christians in India;[11]Philostorgius mentions a community of Christians on the Socotra islands, south of Yemen in the Arabian Sea[28]
364 – Conversion of Vandals to Christianity begins during reign of Emperor Valens[29]
397 – Ninian evangelizes the Southern Picts of Scotland; three missionaries sent to the mountaineers in the Trento region of northern Italy are martyred[33]
400 – Hayyan begins proclaiming gospel in Yemen 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"[18]
578 – Conversion to Christianity of An-numan III, last of Lakhmids (Pre Islam Arab prince)
585 – Irish missionary Columbanus arrives with twelve fellow missionaries in Brittany, France
592 – Death of Celtic/Irish missionary Moluag (Old Irish: Mo-Luóc)[41]
596 – Gregory the Great sends Augustine and a team of missionaries to (what is now) England to reintroduce the Gospel. The missionaries settle in Canterbury and within a year baptize 10,000 people[42]
600 – First Christian settlers in Andorra (between France and Spain)
771 – Charlemagne becomes king and will decree that sermons be given in the vernacular. He also commissioned Bible translations.[55]
781 – Xi'an Stele erected near Xi'an (China) to commemorate the propagation in China of the Luminous Religion, thus providing a written record of a Christian presence in China[56]
787 – Liudger begins missionary work among the pagans near the mouth of the Ems river (in Germany)[57]
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[58]
828 – First Christian church in present-day Slovakia is built in Nitra;[59] First missionaries reach the area that is now the Czech Republic[18]
830 – Scots-born Erluph is evangelizing in (what is now) Germany when he is killed by the Vandals[60]
859 – Execution of Eulogius of Córdoba, proponent of confrontational Christian witness in Spain and other Muslim-dominated societies. Opposed to any feeling of affinity with Muslim culture, Eulogius advocated using a missiology of martyrdom to confront Islam.[61]
1000 – Christianity accepted by common consent in Iceland by parliament (Alþingi). Leif the Lucky introduces the Gospel to Greenland, possibly Vinland (Newfoundland)[72]
1003 – The Hungarian king sends evangelists to Transylvania[73]
1008 – Sigfrid (or Sigurd), English missionary, baptizes King Olof of Sweden
1015 – Russia is said to have been "comprehensively" converted to the Orthodox faith;[74] 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.[75]
1017 – Günther tries to convert the inhabitants of Vorpommern; the mission is not successful.[76]
1266 – Mongol leader Khan sends Marco Polo's father and uncle, Niccolo and Matteo Polo, back to Europe with a request to the Pope to send 100 Christian missionaries (only two responded and one died before reaching Mongol territory)[87]
1334 – Chaghatayid Khan Buzun allows Christians to rebuild churches and permits Franciscans to establish a missionary episcopate in Almaliq, Azerbaijan[11]
1368 – Collapse of the Franciscan mission in China as Ming 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[96]
1408 – Spanish Dominican Vincent Ferrer begins a ministry in Italy in which it is said that thousands of Jews and Muslims were won to faith in Christ[97]
1450 – Franciscan missionaries accompany Portuguese expedition to the Cape Verde Islands[98]
1453 – Constantinople falls to the Muslim Ottoman Turks who make it their capital. An Islamic service of thanksgiving is held in the church of Saint Sophia[100]
1491 – The Congo sees its first group of missionaries arrive.[103] Under the ministry of these Franciscan and Dominican priests, the king would soon be baptized and a church built at the royal capital.
1496 – First Christian baptisms in the New World take place when Guaticaba along with other members of his household are baptized on the island of Hispaniola[104]
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 the native populations
1511 – Martin de Valencia came to believe that Psalm 58 prophesied the conversion 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.[108]
1512 – Dominican missionary Antonio de Montesino returns to Spain to try to convince King Ferdinand that all is not as it should be in the new western colonies. He reported that on the islands of Hispaniola (now Dominican Republic and Haiti) and Cuba, the indigenous peoples were rapidly dying out under the system of slavery used by the colonists.
1513 – In Cuba, 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 missionary Francisco Álvares is sent on a diplomatic mission to Dawit II, the Negus or Emperor of Abyssinia (an old name for Ethiopia)
1515 – Portuguese missionaries begin work in Benin, Nigeria[109]
1524 – Martin de Valencia goes to New Spain with 12 Franciscan friars
1525 – Italian Franciscan missionary Giulio Zarco is sent to Michoacán on the western coast of Mexico where he will become very proficient in some of the indigenous languages
1526 – Franciscans enter Florida;[114] Twelve Dominican friars arrive in the Mexican capital
1528 – Franciscan missionary Juan de Padilla arrives in Mexico. He will accompany Coronado's expedition searching for the Seven Cities and eventually settle among the Quivira (now called the Wichita)[115]
1529 – Franciscan Peter of Ghent writes from Latin America that he and a colleague had baptized 14,000 people on one day[116]
1531 – Franciscan Juan de Padilla begins a series of missionary tours among Indian tribes southeast of Mexico City[12]
1532 – Evangelization of Peru begins when missionaries arrive with Francisco Pizarro's military expedition[105]
1544 – Franciscan Andrés de Olmos, leads group of Indian converts to Tamaulipas
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."[123]
1546 – Xavier travels to the Indonesian islands of Morotai, Ambon, and Ternate
1547 – Wealthy Spaniard Juan Fernández becomes a Jesuit. He will go to Japan as a missionary.
1548 – Xavier founds the College of the Holy Name of God in Baçaim on the northwest coast of India
1549 Jesuit missionaries led by Xavier arrive in Japan and built a base in Kyushu.[125] Their activity was most successful in Kyushu, with about 100,000 to 200,000 converts, including many daimyōs.[126]
1550 – Printed Scriptures are available in 28 languages[105]
1563 – Jesuit missionary Luis Frois, who will later write a history of Jesuit activity in Japan, arrives in that country; Ōmura Sumitada becomes the first daimyō (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 fearful Indians on the sands of Fort George Island, Florida
1574 – Augustinian Guillermo de Santa Maria writes a treatise on the illegitimacy of the war the Spanish government was waging against the Chichimeca in the Mexican state of Michoacán
1575 – Church building constructed in Kyoto. Built in Japanese architectural style, it was popularly called the "temple of the South Barbarians"
1575 – Spanish Augustinians Martín de Rada and Geronimo Martín spend four months in Fujian, China, trying to arrange for long-term missionary work there. The attempt ends in failure due to unrelated events in the Philippines.
1578 – King of Spain orders the bishop of Lima not to confer Holy Orders on mestizos
1579 – Jesuit Alessandro 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.[136]
1580 – Japanese daimyō (feudal landholder) Arima Harunobu becomes Christian and takes the name Protasio
1583 – Five Jesuit missionaries are murdered near Goa (India)
1584 – Matteo Ricci and a Chinese scholar translate a catechism into Chinese under the title Tian 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 a vinculo de hermandad misionera—a bond of missionary brotherhood—by which the two orders would collaborate in missionary work in Ethiopia, China, the Philippines, and the East and West Indies.
1586 – Portuguese missionary João dos Santos reports that locals kill elephants to protect their crops in Sofala, Mozambique.
1587 – All foreigners ordered out of Japan when the shōgun 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 first American Indian to be baptized by the Church of England
1590 – A book by Belgian pastor Hadrian à Saravia has a chapter arguing that the Great Commission is still binding on the church today because the Apostles did not fulfill it completely[138]
1591 – First Catholic church built in Trinidad; First Chinese admitted as members of the Jesuit order
1593 – The Franciscans arrive in Japan and establish St. Anna's hospital in Kyoto; they dispute with the Jesuits.
1594 – First Jesuit missionaries arrive in what is today Pakistan
1596 – Jesuit missionaries travel across the island of Samar in the Philippines to establish mission centers on the eastern side
1597 – Twenty-six Japanese Christians are crucified for their faith by General Toyotomi Hideyoshi in Nagasaki, Japan.[140] 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.[141]
1598 – Spanish missionaries push north from Mexico into what is now the state of New Mexico .
1599 – Jesuit Francisco Fernandez goes to what is now the Jessore District of Bangladesh and builds a church there
1614 – Anti-Christian edicts issued in Japan with over 40,000 Christians being massacred[145]
1615 – French missionaries in Canada open schools in Trois-Rivières and Tadoussac to teach First Nations children with the hopes of converting them
1616 – Nanjing Missionary Case in which the clash between Chinese practice of ancestor worship and Catholic doctrine ends in the deportation of foreign missionaries. Missionary Johann Adam Schall von Bell arrives in China
1617 – Portuguese missionary Francisco de Pina arrives in Vietnam
1623 – A stone monument (Xi'an Stele) is unearthed in Xi'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 in Edo (now called Tokyo)
1629 – Franciscan missionary Alonzo Benavides founds Santa Clara de Capo on the border of Apache Indian country in what is now New Mexico
1630 – An attempt is made in the El Paso, Texas area to establish a mission among the Mansos Indians
1631 – Dutch clergyman Abraham Rogerius (anglicized as Roger), who authored Open Door to the Secrets of Heathendom (1651), begins 10 years of ministry among the Tamil people in the Dutch colony of Pulicat near Madras, India[150]
1632 – Zuni Indians murder a group of Franciscan missionaries who had three years earlier established the first mission to the Zunis at Hawikuh in what is now New Mexico
1634 – Jesuit missionary Jean de Brèbeuf travels to the Petun nation (in Canada) and baptizes a 40-year-old man.
1635 – An expedition of Franciscans leaves Quito, Ecuador, to try to penetrate into Amazonia 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 – The Dominicans of Manila (the Philippines) organize a missionary expedition to Japan. They are arrested on one of the Okinawa islands and will be eventually condemned to death by the tribunal of Nagasaki.
1638 – Official ban of Christianity in Japan with death penalty; The Fountain Opened, a posthumous work of the influential Puritan writer Richard 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 to New France as missionaries—three Ursuline Nuns—board the "St. Joseph" and set sail for New France
1641 – Jesuit missionary Cristoval de Acuna describes the Amazon River in a written report to the king of Spain
1642 – Catholic missionaries Isaac Jogues and Rene Goupil are captured by Mohawk Indians as they return to Huron country from Quebec. 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[152]
1650 – The destruction of Huronia by the Iroquois puts an end to the Jesuits' dream of making the Huron Indians the focal point of their evangelism
1651 – Count Truchsess of Wetzhausen, prominent Lutheran layman, asks the theological faculty of Wittenberg why Lutherans are not sending out missionaries in obedience to the Great Commission[155]
1652 – Jesuit Antonio Vieira returns to Brazil as a missionary where he will champion the cause of exploited indigenous peoples until being expelled by Portuguese colonists[156]
1653 – A Mohawk war party captures Jesuit Joseph Poncet near Montreal. 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 the French missionaries from his area, chief Daniel Garakonthie of the Onondaga 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 (called daimyōs) were ordered to follow the shogunate's example and to appoint inquisitors to do a yearly scutiny of Christians
1666 – John Eliot publishes his The Indian Grammar, a book written to assist in conversion work among the Indians. Described as "some bones and ribs preparation for such a work", Eliot intended his Grammar for missionaries wishing to learn the dialect spoken by the Massachusett Indians.
1667 – The first missionary to attempt to reach the Huaorani (or Aucas), Jesuit Pedro Suarez, is slain with spears[161]
1668 – New Testament translated into the Malay language (the first Bible translation into a language of southeast Asia). - In a letter from his post in Canada, French missionary Jacques Bruyas laments his ignorance of the Oneida 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 in periculo mortis. All the rest are little children."
1672 – A chieftain on Guam kills Jesuit missionary Diego 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 the baptism)
1675 – An uprising on the islands of Micronesia leads to the death of three Christian missionaries
1676 – Kateri Tekakwitha, who became known as the Lily of the Mohawks, is baptized 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 from Changzhou, newly arrived missionary Juan de Yrigoyen describes three Christian congregations flourishing in that Chinese city[164]
1680 – The Pueblo Revolt begins in New Mexico with the killing of twenty-one Franciscan missionaries
1681 – After arriving in New Spain, Italian Jesuit Eusebio 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[165]
1682 – 13 missionaries go to "remote cities" in East Siberia
1683 – Missionary Louis Hennepin returns to France after exploring Minnesota and being held captive by the Dakota 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
1699 – Priests of the Quebec Seminary of Foreign Missions establish a mission among the Tamaroa Indians at Cahokia in what is now the state of Illinois
1700 – After a Swedish missionary's sermon in Pennsylvania, one Native American posed such searching questions that the episode was reported in a 1731 history of the Swedish church in America. The interchange is noted in Benjamin Franklin's Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America (1784).[169]
1706 – Irish-born Francis 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 – Jesuit Eusebio Kino, missionary explorer in southern Arizona and northern Sonora, dies suddenly in northern Mexico. Kino, who has been called "the cowboy missionary", had fought against the exploitation of Indians in Mexican silver mines.
1717 – Chen Mao writes to the Chinese Emperor about his concerns over Catholic missionaries and Western traders. He urgently requested an all-out prohibition of Catholic missionaries in the Qing provinces.
1718 – Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg constructs a church building in India that is still in use today
1719 – Isaac Watts writes missionary hymnJesus Shall Reign Where'er the Sun[173]
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 in Baja 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. Chinese Kangxi Emperor bans Christian missionaries as a result of the Chinese Rites controversy. Hans Egede goes to Greenland under the dual auspices of the Royal Mission College and the Bergen Company.
1723 – Robert Millar publishes A History of the Propagation of Christianity and the Overthrow of Paganism advocating prayer as the primary means of converting non-Christians[173]
1724 – Yongzheng Emperor bans missionary activities outside the Beijing area
1729 – Roman Catholic missionary Du Poisson becomes the first victim in the Natchez revolt. On his way to New Orleans, he had been asked to stop and say Mass at the Natchez 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 in French 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 Count Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf attends the coronation of King Christian VI of Denmark and witnesses two of Egede's Inuit converts. Over the next two years, his Moravian Church at Herrnhut will begin its missionary outreach with work among the slaves in the Caribbean and the Inuit in Greenland.[175]
1736 – Anti-Christian edicts in China; Moravian missionaries at work among Nenets people of Arkhangelsk
1737 – Rev. Pugh, a missionary in Pennsylvania with The Society 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 the Khoikhoi people, who were practically on the threshold of extinction.
1739 – The first missionary to the Mahican (Mohegan) Indians, John Sergeant, builds a home in Stockbridge, Massachusetts that is today a museum.
1744 – Thomas Thompson resigns his position as dean at the University of Cambridge to become a missionary. He was sent by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts to New 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-day Ghana)
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 the New World to enter into a seven-year "Concert of Prayer" for missionary work[180]
1748 – Roman Catholic Pedro 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 priest Junípero Serra (1713-1784 arrives in Mexico as a missionary. In 1767 he would go north to what is now California, 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 (now Ghana)[183]
1753 – The disappearance of Erhardt and six companions leads to temporary abandonment of Moravian missionary initiatives in Labrador.
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 – The Moravian mission settlement at Gnadenhütten, Pennsylvania is attacked and destroyed during the Gnadenhütten massacre. Moravian missionary Johann Jacob Schmick remains with the Mahicans through exile and captivity despite almost constant threats from white neighbors. Schmick will join his Indian congregation as they seek refuge in Bethlehem, follow them as captives to Philadelphia, and remain with them after they settle in Wyalusing, Pennsylvania.
1756 – Civil unrest forces Gideon Halley away from his missionary work among the Six Nations on the Susquehanna 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 the Caribbean[184]
1758 – John Wesley baptizes two slaves, thus breaking the skin color barrier for Methodist societies[185]
1759 – Native American Samson Occom, direct descendant of the great Mahican 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.[186]
1760 – Adam Voelker and Christian Butler arrive in Tranquebar as the first Moravian missionaries to India
1760 – Methodists first reach the West Indies.[187]
1761 – The first Moravian missionary in Ohio, Frederick Post, settles on the north side of the Muskingum.[188]
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 to Greenland[189]
1765 – Suriname Governor General Crommelin convinces three Moravian missionaries to work near the head waters of the Gran Rio. They settle among the Saramaka 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 of Ghana who spent twelve years studying in England, returns to Africa. Supported as a missionary by the Society 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 the Cherokee and Creek Indians as well as to groups he called the Catawar and Housaw peoples.[191]
1775 – John Crook is sent by Liverpool Methodists to the Isle of Man
1776 – Cyril Vasilyevich Suchanov builds first church among Evenks of Transbaikal (or Dauria) in (Siberia); The first baptism of an Eskimo 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 western Balkans
1780 – August Gottlieb Spangenberg writes An 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 the American Revolutionary War, the British so feared Moravian missionary David Zeisberger and his influence among the Lenape (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 in Korea; 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 for Nova Scotia, is driven off course by a storm and lands at Antigua in the British West Indies.[196]
1785 – Joseph White's sermon titled "On the Duty of Attempting the Propagation of the Gospel among our Mahometan and Gentoo Subjects in India" is published in the second edition of his book Sermons Containing a View of Christianity and Mahometanism, in their History, their Evidence, and their Effects. The sermon was first preached at the University 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" at Green's Harbor, Newfoundland.[197] Marrant's cross-cultural ministry led him to take the Gospel to the Cherokee, Creek, Catawba (he called them the Catawar, and Housaw Indians.
1787 – William Carey is ordained in England by the Particular Baptists and soon begins to urge that worldwide missions be undertaken.
1788 – Dutch missionaries begin preaching the Gospel among fishermen in Bangladesh
1790 – Prince Williams, a freed slave from South Carolina, goes to Nassau, Bahamas, where he will start Bethel Meeting House[191]
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 writes An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use means for the conversion of the heathen and forms the Baptist Missionary Society to support him in establishing missionary work in India[199]
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 the Potawatomi Indians[200]
1794 – Eight Russian Orthodox missionaries arrive on Kodiak Island in Alaska. Within a few months several thousand people have been baptized[201]
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;[202] In India, Johann Philipp Fabricius' translation of the Bible into Tamil is revised and published[203]
1797 – Netherlands Missionary Society formed;[202][204] The Duff, carrying 36 lay and pastoral missionaries, sails to three islands of the South Pacific;[205] The first Christian missionary (from the London Missionary Society) visits Hiva on the Pacific island of Tahuata; 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.[206]
1802 – Henry Martyn hears Charles Simeon speak of William Carey's work in India and resolves to become a missionary himself. He will sail for India in 1805.[209]
1803 – The Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society votes to publish a missionary magazine. Now known as The American Baptist, the periodical is the oldest religious magazine in the U.S.
1815 – Congregationalist minister Cyrus Kingsbury first served Cherokee in the Southeast, founding Brainerd Mission near Chickamauga, Tennessee, in 1815.[222]
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.[234]
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-day Eagletown, 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 of Eleazar 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.[248]
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.[253]
1836 – Plymouth Brethren begin work in Madras, India;[255]George Müller begins his work with orphans in Bristol, England; Gossner Mission formed;[204] Leipzig Mission Society established;[204] 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.
1837 – Evangelical Lutheran Church mission board established;[256] First translation of Bible into Japanese (actual translation work done in Singapore).
1839 – Entire Bible is published in language of Tahiti; three French missionaries martyred in Korea; English Protestant missionaries, including John Williams, murdered on Erromango (Vanuatu, South Pacific).[257]
1840 – David Livingstone is in present-day Malawi (Africa) with the London Missionary Society; American Presbyterians enter Thailand and labor for 18 years before seeing their first Thai convert;[245] Irish Presbyterian Missionary Society formed; Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Missionary Society founded.
1841 – Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society formed;[213] Welsh Methodists begin working among the Khasi people of India.
1842 – Church Missionary Society enters Badagry, Lagos.
1842 – Gossner Mission Society receives royal sanction;[260] Norwegian Missionary Society formed in Stavanger.[208]
1842 – Christian Mission to the Jews (CMJ) establishes Christ Church, first Anglican church in the Old City of Jerusalem.
1843 – Baptist John Taylor Jones translates New Testament into the Thai language;[261] British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Jews formed.
1843 - Presbyterian missionary Robert M. Loughridge comes to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma as missionary to Creek Indians and establishes Koweta Mission. In 1850, he establishes Tullahassee 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 – German Johann Krapf of the Church Missionary Society begins work in Mombasa on the Kenya Coast;[262] first Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) formed by George Williams; George Smith and Thomas McClatchie sail for China as the first two CMS missionaries to that country.
1849 – Johann Krapf of the Church Missionary Society was the first European to reach Mount Kenya.[211] Just weeks after arriving on the Melanesian island of Anatom, 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.'"[266]
1850 to 1899
1850 – On the occasion of Karl 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, founded St. John's College, Agra, and became first Bishop of Lahore in 1877.
1851 – Allen Gardiner and six missionary colleagues die of exposure and starvation at Patagonia on the southern tip of South America because a re-supply ship from England arrives six months late.[267]
1853- The Hermannsburg Missionary Society, founded in 1849 by Louis Harms, has finished training its first group of young missionaries. They are sent to Africa on a ship (the Candace) which had been built using money entirely from donations.[269]
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?";[270] Henry Venn, secretary of the Church Missionary Society, sets out ideal of self-governing, self-supporting and self-propagating churches; Hudson Taylor arrives in China[271]
1855 – Henry Steinhauer is ordained as a Canadian Methodist missionary to North American Indians and posted to Lac 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 the Ojibwa and Cree languages.
1857 – Bible translated into Tswana language; Board of Foreign Missions of Dutch Reformed Church set up; four missionary couples killed at the Fatehgarh mission during the Indian Mutiny of 1857;[273] Publication of David Livingstone's book Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa
1863 – Robert Moffat, missionary to Africa with the London Missionary Society, publishes his book Rivers 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.[281]
1866 – Charles Haddon Spurgeon invents the Wordless Book, which is widely used in cross-cultural evangelism;[282] Theodore Jonas Meyer (1819–1894), a converted Jew serving as a Presbyterian missionary in Italy, nurses those dying in a cholera epidemic until he himself falls prey to the disease. Barely surviving, he becomes a peacemaker between Catholics and Protestants; 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[283]
1868 – Robert Bruce goes to Iran, Canadian Baptist missionary Americus Timpany begins work among the Telugu people in India.
1869 – The first Methodist women's missionary magazine, The Heathen Women's Friend, begins publication. Riot in Yangzhou, China destroys China Inland Mission house and nearly leads to open war between Britain and China.
1870 – Clara Swain, the very first female missionary medical doctor, arrives at Bareilly, India; Orthodox Missionary Society founded[285]
1874 – Gustav Warneck founded the Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift in Gütersloh / Germany, the first scientific missionary periodical;[291]Lord Radstock's first visit to St. 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 of Micronesian students from Ohwa
1875 – The Foreign Christian Missionary Society organized within the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and Church of Christ movements; Clah, a Canadian Indian convert, brought Christianity to natives at Ft. Wangel, Alaska. He assumed the name of Philip McKay.
1875 - The Society 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 the Calabar River in what is now Nigeria. That part of Africa was then known as the White Man's Grave. The only woman on board that ship is 29-year-old Mary Slessor, a missionary.[292]
1878 – Mass movement to Christ begins in Ongole, India[294]
1880 – Woman missionary doctor Fanny Butler goes to India;[295] Missionary periodical The Gospel in All Lands is launched by A. B. Simpson;[296]Justus Henry Nelson and Fannie Bishop Capen Nelson begin 45 years of service in Belém, Pará, Brazil, establishing the first Protestant Church in Amazonia in 1883
1880 – Conversion of Xi 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 of Shanxi 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.[297][298][299][300]
1881 – Methodist work in Lahore, Pakistan starts in the wake of revivals under Bishop William Taylor; North Africa Mission (now Arab World Ministries) founded on work of Edward Glenny in Algeria[301]
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 to Mongolia, 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.'"[302]
1886 – Student Volunteer Movement launched as 100 university and seminary students at Moody's conference grounds at Mount Hermon, Massachusetts, sign the Princeton Pledge which says: "I purpose, God willing, to become a foreign missionary."[308]
1887 – The Hundred missionaries deployed in one year in China under the China Inland Mission. Dr. William Cassidy, a Toronto medical doctor, was ordained as the Christian and Missionary Alliance's first missionary preacher. Unfortunately, en route to China, he died of smallpox. However, Cassidy's death has been called the "spark that ignited the Alliance missionary blaze."
1888 – Jonathan Goforth sails to China;[309]Student Volunteer Movement for foreign missions officially organized with John 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.;[310] Scripture Gift Mission (now Lifewords) founded; Lilias Trotter, founder of the Algiers Mission Band, arrives in Algiers
1889 – Missionary linguist and folklorist Paul Olaf Bodding arrives in India, Santhal Parganas, and continues the work among the Santals started by Skrefsrud and Børresen in 1867; North Africa Mission enters Tripoli as first Protestant mission in Libya[311]
1890 – Central American Mission founded by C. I. Scofield, editor of the Scofield Reference Bible;[306] 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 Korean church will be selected and trained from its members; 4) Church buildings will be built by Koreans with their own resources;[312]Fredrik Franson founds the Scandinavian Alliance Mission in Chicago, later known as The Evangelical Alliance Mission.
1891 – Samuel Zwemer goes to Basra in southern Iraq,[313] having founded the Arabian Mission in 1890;[314] 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 in Elazığ (Kharput) in the Ottoman Empire. Her letters home will be published in a book titled Great Need over the Water; Archibald Reekie of the Canadian Baptist Ministries arrives in Oruro as the first Protestant missionary to Bolivia. The work of Canadian Baptists led to the guarantee of freedom of religion in Bolivia in 1905.
1899 – James Rodgers arrives in Philippines with the Presbyterian Mission;[320] Central American Mission enters Guatemala[321]
1900 – First Orthodox missionary from Russia enters Korea
1900 – American Friends open work in Cuba; Ecumenical Missionary Conference in Carnegie Hall, New York (162 mission boards represented);[322] 189 missionaries and their children killed in Boxer Rebellion in China;[323] South African Andrew Murray writes The Key to the Missionary Problem in which he challenges the church to hold weeks of prayer for the world[324]
1901 – Nazarene John Diaz goes to Cape Verde Islands;[325] Maude Cary sails for Morocco; Oriental Missionary Society founded by Charles Cowman (his wife is the compiler of popular devotional book Streams in the Desert); Missionary James Chalmers killed and eaten by cannibals in Papua New Guinea[326]
1902-1927 – With world attention focused on the anti-Western Boxer 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.[327]
1903 – First group baptism at Sattelberg Mission Station under Christian Keyser in New Guinea paves way for mass conversions during the following years
1904 – Premillennialist theologian William 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 of Sikhism, begins his ministry as sadhu preaching in Northern India and Tibet. From 1918-1922, he travels to preach throughout the world, but finishes his career in new missions to Tibet.
1907 – Massive revival meetings in Korea;[322]Harmon Schmelzenbach sails for Africa;[331] Presbyterians and Methodists open Union Theological Seminary in Manila, Philippines; Bolivian Indian Mission founded by George Allen[332]
1914-1918 World 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.[342][343]
1914 – Large-scale revival movement in Uganda; C.T. Studd reports a revival movement in the Congo[344]
1916 – Rhenish missionaries are forced to leave Ondjiva in southern Angola under pressure from the Portuguese authorities and Chief Mandume of the Kwanyama. By then, four congregations existed with a confessing membership of 800.
1917 – Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association (IFMA) founded[346]
1924 – Bible Churchman's Missionary Society opens work in Upper Burma;[352] Baptist Mid-Missions begins work in Venezuela
1925 – Daniel Fleming published Whither 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.[353][354]
1925 – E. Stanley Jones, Methodist missionary to India, writes The Christ of the Indian Road[355]
1926 – Charles J. McDonald, a Southern Baptist layman, started work in the town of Wahiawa, 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[356] East African revival movement (Balokole) emerges in Rwanda and moves across several other countries[322]
1928 – Cuba Bible Institute (West Indies Mission) opens; Jerusalem Conference of International Missionary Council;[322] foundation of Borneo Evangelical Mission by Hudson Southwell, Frank Davidson and Carey Tolley.
1929 – Christian & Missionary Alliance enters East Borneo (Indonesia) and Thailand[357]
1931 – Franciscan missionary the Venerable Gabriele Allegra arrives in Hunan China from Italy to start translating the Bible[358]
1931 – HCJB radio station started in Quito, Ecuador by Clarence Jones;[359] Baptist Mid-Missions enters Liberia[360]
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.[361][362]
1932 – Assemblies of God open mission work in Colombia; Laymen's Missionary Inquiry report published
1935 – Frank C. Laubach, American missionary to the Philippines, perfects the "Each one teach one" literacy program, which has been used worldwide to teach 60 million people to read[365]
1936 – With the outbreak of civil war in Spain, missionaries are forced to leave that country.
1937 – After expulsion of missionaries from Ethiopia by Italian invaders, widespread revival erupts among Protestant (SIM) churches in south;[366]Child Evangelism Fellowship founded by Jesse Irvin Overholzer
1938 – Madras World Missionary Conference held;[367] Dutch missiologist Hendrik Kraemer publishes his seminal work The Christian Message in a non-Christian World; West Indies Mission enters Dominican Republic; Church Missionary Society forced out of Egypt; Dr. Orpha Speicher completes construction of Reynolds Memorial Hospital in central India[368]
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[369]
1940 – Marianna Slocum begins translation work in Mexico;[370] Military police in Japan arrest the executive officers of the Salvation 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 with New Tribes Mission go missing in Bolivia;[371] 11 American Baptist 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 in Canada;[375] Conservative Baptist Foreign Mission Society begins work among the Senufo people in the Ivory Coast[376]
1948 – Alfredo del Rosso merges his Italian Holiness Mission with the Church 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 in Venezuela, Mary Tripp sent out by CEF Child Evangelism Fellowship to the Netherlands.
1949 – Russian Orthodox Church stops in all activities in Korea.
1950 to 1999
1950 – Paul Orjala arrives in Haiti; radio station 4VEH, owned by East and West Indies Bible Mission, starts broadcasting from near Cap-Haïtien, Haiti[377]
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.[378]
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;[387] 18,000 people in Morocco reply to newspaper ad by Gospel Missionary Union offering free correspondence course on Christianity;[388]Loren Cunningham founds Youth with a Mission;[389] The Asia Evangelistic Fellowship (AEF), one of the largest Asian indigenous missionary organisations, is launched in Singapore by G. D. James[390]
1961 – International Missionary Council (IMC) integrated into the World Council of Churches (WCC) and renamed Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME);[391] International Christian radio stations now number 30[385]
1963 – Theological Education by Extension movement launched in Guatemala by Ralph Winter and James Emery[393]
1964 – Young missionary and pilot Jerry Douglas Witt;[394] 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 the Congo kill missionaries Paul Carlson, Phyllis Rine and Irene Ferrel as well as brutalizing missionary doctor Helen Roseveare;[395] Carlson is featured on December 4 Time magazine cover;[396] Hans von Staden of the Dorothea Mission proposes to Patrick Johnstone that he write the book now titled Operation World[397]
1966 – Red Guards destroy churches in China; Berlin Congress on Evangelism;[398] Missionaries expelled from Burma; God's Smuggler published
1967 – All foreign missionaries expelled from Guinea[399]
1968 – Wu Yung and others form the Chinese Missions Overseas in order to send out missionaries from Taiwan to do cross-cultural ministry; Augustinian order re-established in India
1969 – OMF International begins "industrial evangelism" to Taiwan's factory workers[400]
1972 – American Society of Missiology founded with journal Missiology[404]
1973 – Services by Billy Graham attract four and a half million people in six cities of Korea;[405] first All-Asa Mission Consultation convenes in Seoul, Korea with 25 delegates from 14 countries;[406]Mission to the World is founded in Georgia[407]
1975 – Missionaries Armand Doll and Hugh Friberg imprisoned in Mozambique after communist takeover of government[409]
1976 – U.S. Center for World Mission founded in Pasadena, 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 by Don Richardson appears in Reader's Digest.
1977 – Evangelical Fellowship of India sponsors the All-India Congress on Mission and Evangelization[406]
1978 – LCWE Consultation on Gospel and Culture in Willowbank, Bermuda;[410]Columbans enter Taiwan[411]
1980 – Philippine Congress on Discipling a Whole Nation;[415] Lausanne Congress on World Evangelism Conference in Pattaya[416]
1981 – Colombian terrorists kidnap and kill Wycliffe Bible TranslatorChet Bitterman;[417] Project Pearl: one million Bibles are delivered in a single night to thousands of waiting believers in China[418]
1982 – Story on "The New Missionary" makes December 27 cover of Time magazine;[419] Andes Evangelical Mission (formerly Bolivian Indian Mission) merges into SIM (formerly Sudan Interior Mission)[420]
1983 – Missionary Athletes International, a global soccer ministry, founded by Tim Conrad[421]
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 of Short-term missions groups
1985 – Founding of Every 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[422]
1985 – Howard Foltz founds Accelerating International Mission Strategies (AIMS)[423]
1989 – Missionary pathologist, Dr. Ron Guderian, develops cure for and helps to elimatinate River Blindless in Ecuador. 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 of SIM. The Lausanne Congress II on World Evangelization Lausanne II, an evangelical world missions conference, takes place in Manila / Philippines; the concept of 10/40 Window emerges;[424] 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 of Ethiopia is overthrown and missionaries are able to return to that country
1999 – Trans World Radio goes on the air from Grigoriopol (Moldova) using a 1-million-watt AM transmitter;[426] Veteran Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two sons are burned alive by Hindu extremists as they are sleeping in a car in eastern India.
2000 – Asia College of Ministry (ACOM), a ministry of Asia Evangelistic Fellowship (AEF),[428] was launched by Jonathan James, to train national missionaries in Asia.
2001 – New Tribes Missionaries Martin 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 of Back 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".[430]
↑ Barrett, David B., Todd M. Johnson, Christopher R. Guidry, and Peter F. Crossing. World Christian Trends, AD 30-AD 2200, William Carey Library Publishers, 2001, p. 115
↑ 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
↑ Robert Richmond Ellis, "The Best Thus Far Discovered": The Japanese in the Letters of St. Francisco Xavier", Hispanic Review, Vol. 71 No. 2 (Spring 2003), pp. 155–169 in jstor
↑ 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 H The 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[usurped]
↑ 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..."
↑ Winter, Ralph D., Steven C. Hawthorne, Darrell R. Dorr, D. Bruce Graham, Bruce A. Koch, eds. Perspectives on the World Christian Movement: Reader, William Carey Library Publishers, 1999, p. 536
Anderson, Gerald H., ed. (1998), Biographical dictionary of Christian missions, Simon & Schuster Macmillan
Bainbridge, William F. Around the World Tour of Christian Missions: A Universal Survey (1882) 583 pages; full text online
Barrett, David, ed. World Christian Encyclopedia, Oxford University Press, 1982
Bliss, Edwin Munsell, ed. The Encyclopaedia of missions. Descriptive, historical, biographical, statistical. With a full assortment of maps, a complete bibliography, and lists of Bible version, missionary societies, mission stations, and a general indexonline vol 1 1891, 724pp; online vol 2 1891, 726pp
Cox, Jeffrey. The British Missionary Enterprise since 1700 (2008).
Denzinger, Heinrich; Hünermann, Peter, eds. (2012). Enchiridion symbolorum: a compendium of creeds, definitions and declarations of the Catholic Church (43rded.). San Francisco: Ignatius Press. ISBN978-0898707465.
Etherington, Norman, ed. Missions and Empire (Oxford History of the British Empire Companion Series) (2008)
Gailey, Charles R. and Howard Culbertson. Discovering Missions, Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 2007
Glazier, Michael and Monika K. Hellwig, eds., The Modern Catholic Encyclopedia, Liturgical Press, 2004
Glover, Robert H. The Progress of World-Wide Missions, rev. by J. Herbert Kane., Harper and Row, 1960
Herbermann, Charles George. The Catholic Encyclopedia, The Encycylopedia Press, 1913
Herzog, Johann Jakob, Philip Schaff, and Albert Hauck. The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 12 volumes, Funk and Wagnalls Company, 1910–11
Kane, J. Herbert. A Concise History of the Christian World Mission, Baker, 1982
Laroutette, Kenneth Scott. A History of Christianity, 2 vol 1975
Latourette, Kenneth Scott. A History of the Expansion of Christianity, 7 volumes, (1938–45), the most detailed scholarly history online in 7 volumes
Mason, Alfred DeWitt. Outlines of missionary history (1912) online 362pp
Moreau, A. Scott, David Burnett, Charles Edward van Engen and Harold A. Netland. Evangelical Dictionary of World Missions, Baker Book House Company, 2000
Neill, Stephen. A History of Christian Missions. Penguin Books, 1986; Comprehensive survey
Newcomb, Harvey. A Cyclopedia of Missions: Containing a Comprehensive View of Missionary Operations Throughout the World: with Geographical Descriptions, and Accounts of the Social, Moral, and Religious Condition of the People (1860) 792 pages complete text online
Olson, C. Gordon. What in the World is God Doing? Global Gospel Publishers, 2003
Parker, J. Fred. Mission to the World. Nazarene Publishing House, 1988
Pocock, Michael, Gailyn Van Rheenen, Douglas McConnell. The Changing Face of World Missions: Engaging Contemporary Issues And Trends (2005); 391 pages
Robinson, Charles H. History of Christian missions (1915), Comprehensive coverage; online
Shedd, Clarence Prouty. Two centuries of student Christian movements: Their origin and intercollegiate life (1934) online.
Tejirian, Eleanor H., and Reeva Spector Simon, eds. Conflict, Conquest, and Conversion: Two Thousand Years of Christian Missions in the Middle East (Columbia University Press; 2012) 280 pages; focus on the 19th and 20th centuries.
Tiedemann, R.G. Reference Guide to Christian Missionary Societies in China: From the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century (2009).
Tucker, Ruth (2004), From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya
Tucker, Ruth (1988), Guardians of the Great Commission
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.
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