History of Christian Missions

• c. 29 - Pentecost and birth of the church
• c. 39 - Peter preaches to the Gentiles
• c. 48 - Paul (formerly known as Saul of Tarsus) begins his first missionary journey to modern-day Turkey.
• c. 51 - Paul begins his second missionary journey, a trip that will take him through Turkey and on into modern-day Greece.
• c. 52 - Apostle Thomas arrives in India and founds church that subsequently becomes Indian Orthodox Church (and its various descendants).
• c. 54 - Paul begins his third journey.
• c. 60 - Paul journeys to Rome.
• c. 180 - Pantaenus preaches in India
• c. 300 - Ulfilas goes to the Goths in present-day Romania
• 328 - Frumentius takes gospel to Ethiopia
• 386 - Augustine of Hippo converted
• 410 - New Testament appears in Armenian language
• 432 - Patrick goes to Ireland as missionary
• 496 - Conversion of Clovis I, king of Franks in Gaul, along with 3,000 warriors
• c. 528 - Benedict destroys pagan temple at Monte Cassino (Italy) and builds monastery
• c. 563 - Columba sails from Ireland to Scotland.
• 596 - Gregory the Great sends Augustine to England
• 631 - Conversion of the East Angles
• 635 - First Christian missionaries (Nestorian monks from Asia Minor and Persia) arrive in China; Aidan launches crusade into heart of Nurthumbria (England)
• 637 - Lombards become Christians
• 692 - Willibrord and 11 companions cross the North Sea to become missionaries to the Frisians (in modern Holland)
• 697 - Muslims overrun Carthage, capital of North Africa
• 722 - Boniface goes to Germanic tribes
• 823 - Anskar goes to Sweden
• 830 - Scotch-born Erluph, Bishop of Werden is evangelizing in Germany when he is killed by the Vandals.
• 869 - Cyril and Methodius go to the Slavs
• 864 - Conversion of Prince Boris of Bulgaria
• 1000 - Leif the Lucky evangelizes Greenland
• 1219 - Francis of Assisi presents the Gospel to the Sultan of Egypt
• 1266 - The Khan sends Marco Polo’s father and uncle, Niccolo and Maffeo Polo, back to Europe with a request to the Pope to send 100 missionaries (only two responded and they turned back before reaching Mongolia)
• 1276 - Raymond Lull opens training center to send missionaries to North Africa
• 1289 - Franciscan friars begin mission work in China
• 1294 - Franciscan John of Monte Corvino goes to China
• 1329 - Nicea falls to Muslim Ottoman Turks
• 1368 - Collapse of the Franciscan mission in China as Ming Dynasty abolishes Christianity
• 1382 - Bible translated into English from Latin
• 1453 - Constantinople falls to the Muslim Ottoman Turks who make it their capital
• 1500 - Franciscans enter Brazil with Cabral
• 1510 - Dominicans begin work in Haiti
• 1526 - Franciscans enter Florida
• 1537 - Pope Paul III orders that the Indians of the New World be brought to Christ "by the preaching of the divine word, and with the example of the good life."
• 1542 - Francis Xavier, having two years previously launched the missionary work of the Society of Jesus, goes to Portuguese colony of Goa in South India; Franciscans reach what is now New Mexico
• 1555 - John Calvin sends Huguenots to Brazil
• 1564 - Legaspi begins Augustinian work in Philippine Islands
• 1582 - Jesuits begin mission work in China, introduce Western science, mathematics, astronomy
• 1577 - Dominicans enter Mozambique and penetrate inland, burning Muslim mosques as they go
• 1597 - Twenty-six Japanese Christians are crucified for their faith by General Toyotomi Hideyoshi in Nagasaki, Japan. By 1640, thousands of Japanese Christians had been martyred.
• 1601 - Matteo Ricci goes to China
• 1605 - Roberto de Nobili goes to India
• 1612 - Jesuits found a mission for the Abnakis in Maine
• 1614 - Anti-Christian edicts issued in Japan
• 1622 - Pope Gregory VI founds the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith
• 1628 - College of Propaganda established in Rome to train "native clergy" from all over the world
• 1644 - John Eliot begins ministry to Algonquin Indians in North America
• 1649 - Society for the Propagation of the Gospel In New England formed to reach the Indians of New England
• 1651 - Count Truchsess, prominent Lutheran layman, asked the theological faculty of Wittenberg as to why Lutherans were not sending out missionaries in obedience to the Great Commission
• 1658 - Paris Foreign Missions Society established by Jesuit Alexander de Rhodes
• 1661 - George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends (Quakers) sends 3 missionaries to China (although they never reached the field)
• 1664 - Justinian Von Welz goes to Dutch Guinea (now called Surinam)
• 1670 - Jesuits establish missions on the Orinoco River in Venezuela
• 1698 - Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge organized by Anglicans
• 1701 - Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts
• 1705 - Danish-Halle mission to India begins with Bartholomew Ziegenbalg and Henry Plutschau
• 1719 - Isaac Watts writes missionary hymn "Jesus Shall Reign Where'er the Sun"
• 1722 - Hans Egede goes to Greenland
• 1723 - Robert Millar publishes A History of the Propagation of Christianity and the Overthrow of Paganism
• 1732 - Moravians launch missionary outreach in Caribbean
• 1733 - Moravians go to Greenland
• 1735 - John Wesley goes to Indians in Georgia as missionary with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel
• 1736 - Anti-Christian edicts in China
• 1743 - David Brainerd starts ministry to North American Indians
• 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
• 1747 - Jonathan Edwards appeals for prayer for world missions
• 1750 - Jonathan Edwards, preacher of the First Great Awakening, having been banished from his church at Northhampton, Massachusetts goes as a missionary to the nearby Housatonic Indians.
• 1750 - Christian Frederic Schwartz goes to India with Danish-Halle Mission
• 1776 - The first baptism of an Eskimo by a Lutheran pastor takes place in Labrador.
• 1782 - Freed slave George Lisle goes to Jamaica as missionary
• 1786 - John Marrant, a free black from New York City, preaches to "a great number of Indians and white people" at Green's Harbor, Newfoundland. Marrant's cross-cultural ministry led him to take the Christian gospel to the Cherokee, Creek, Catawar, and Housaw Indians.
• 1792 - William Carey writes 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.
• 1795 - The London Missionary Society is formed.
• 1797 - London Missionary Society enters Tahiti
• 1799 - The Church Missionary Society (Church of England) is formed; John Vanderkemp, Dutch Physician goes to Cape Colony, Africa; Religious Tract Society organized
• 1804 - British and Foreign Bible Society formed; Church Missionary Society enters Sierra Leone
• 1806 - Haystack prayer meeting at Williams College; Henry Martyn lands in Calcutta
• 1807 - First Protestant missionary to China, Robert Morrison, begins work in Canton
• 1809 - National Bible Society of Scotland organized
• 1810 - The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions is formed.
• 1811 - English Wesleyans enter Sierra Leone
• 1812 - First American foreign missionary, Adoniram Judson, arrives in Serampore and soon goes to Burma
• 1813 - The Methodists form the Wesleyan Missionary Society.
• 1814 - First recorded baptism of a Chinese convert, Cai Gao; American Baptist Foreign Mission Society formed; Netherlands Bible Society founded
• 1815 - American Board of Commissioners open work on Ceylon; Basel Missionary Society organized
• 1816 - Robert Moffat arrives in Africa; American Bible Society founded
• 1817 - James Thompson begins distributing Bibles throughout Latin America
• 1819 - John Scudder, the missionary physician, joins the Ceylon Mission; Wesleyan Methodists start work in Madras, India; Reginald Heber writes words to missionary classic "From Greenland's Icy Mountains"
• 1820 - Hiram Bingham goes to Hawaii (Sandwich Islands)
• 1821 - African-American Lott Carey, a Baptist missionary, sails with 28 colleagues from Norfolk, VA to Sierra Leone.
• 1822 - Paris Evangelical Missionary Society established
• 1823 - Scottish Missionary Society workers arrive in Bombay, India
• 1825 - George Boardman goes to Burma
• 1826 - American Bible Society sends first shipment of Bibles to Mexico
• 1828 - Basel Mission begins work at Christiansborg, Accra (Africa); Karl F. A. Gutzlaff of the Netherlands Missionary Society lands in Bangkok, Thailand; Rhenish Missionary Association formed
• 1830 - Alexander Duff arrives in Calcutta; Baptism of Tauta'ahau Tupou, King of Tonga, by a western missionary
• 1831 - American Congregational missionaries arrive in Thailand, withdrawing in 1849 without a single convert
• 1833 - Baptist work in Thailand begins with John Taylor Jones; American Methodist missionary Melville Box arrives in Liberia
• 1834 - American Presbyterian Mission opens work in India in the Punjab
• 1835 - Rhenish Missionary Society begins work among the Dayaks on Borneo (Indonesia)
• 1836 - Plymouth Brethren begin work in Madras, India
• 1839 - Entire Bible in Tahiti published
• 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
• 1844 - Swiss Johann Krapf begins work on Zanzibar
• 1852 - Zenana (women) and Medical Missionary Fellowship formed in England to send out single women missionaries
• 1854 - London Missionary Conference; New York Missionary Conference
• 1856 - Presbyterians start work in Colombia with the arrival of Henry Pratt
• 1857 - Bible translated into Tswana language
• 1858 - John G. Paton begins work in New Hebrides; Elizabeth Freeman martyred in India; Basel Evangelical Missionary Society begins work in western Sumatra (Indonesia)
• 1859 - Protestant missionaries arrive in Japan
• 1860 - United Lutheran Church begins work in Liberia; Liverpool Missionary Conference; Cyrus Hamlin establishes Robert College in Constantinople
• 1861 - Sarah Doremus founds the Women's Union Missionary Society; Episcopal Church opens work in Haiti; Rhenish Mission goes to Indonesia under Ludwig Nommensen
• 1862 - Paris Evangelical Missionary Society opens work in Senegal
• 1864 - Baptists enter Argentina
• 1865 - The China Inland Mission is founded by James Hudson Taylor.
• 1867 - Methodists start work in Argentina; Scripture Union established
• 1868 - Robert Bruce goes to Iran
• 1870 - Clara Swain, the very first female missionary medical doctor, arrives at Bareilly, India.
• 1871 - Henry Stanley finds David Livingstone in central Africa
• 1872 - First All-India Missionary Conference with 136 participants
• 1873 - Regions Beyond Missionary Union founded in London in connection with the East London Training Institute for Home and Foreign Missions
• 1876 - Mary Slessor goes to the Calabar region of Nigeria
• 1877 - James Chalmers goes to New Guinea
• 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
• 1882 - A.B. Simpson founds missionary training school in New York
• 1883 - Salvation Army enters West Pakistan
• 1885 - Horace Underwood, Presbyterian missionary, and Henry Appenzellar, Methodist missionary, arrive in Korea; Scottish Ion Keith-Falconer goes to Aden on the Arabian peninsula; "Cambridge Seven" (C. T. Studd, M. Beauchamp, W. W. Cassels, D. E. Hoste, S. P. Smith, A. T. Podhill-Turner, C. H. Polhill-Turner) go to China as missionaries.
• 1886 - Student Volunteer movement launched as 100 university and seminar students at Moody's conference grounds at Mount Hermon, Massachusetts, sign the Princeton Pledge: "I purpose, God willing, to become a foreign missionary."
• 1888 - Jonathan Goforth sails to China; 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"; Scripture Gift Mission founded
• 1890 - Central American Mission founded by C. I. Scofield, editor of the Scofield Reference Bible; The Scandinavian Alliance (now The Evangelical Alliance Mission) founded; Methodist Charles Gabriel writes missionary song "Send the Light"
• 1891 - Samuel Zwemer goes to Arabia
• 1892 - Redcliffe Missionary Training College founded in Chiswick (London)
• 1893 - Eleanor Chestnut goes to India as Presbyterian medical missionary; Sudan Interior Mission founded
• 1895 - Africa Inland Mission formed by Peter Cameron Scott
• 1897 - Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. begins work in Venezuela
• 1899 - James Rodgers arrives in Philippines with the Presbyterian Mission; Central American Mission enters Guatemala
• 1900 - American Friends open work in Cuba; Ecumenical Missionary Conference in Carnegie Hall, New York (162 mission boards represented); 189 missionaries and their children killed in Boxer rebellion in China
• 1901 - John Diaz goes to Cape Verde Islands; Maude Cary sails for Morocco; Disciples of Christ open work in northern Luzon (Philippines); Oriental Missionary Society founded by Charles Cowman (his wife is the compiler of popular devotional book Streams in the Desert)
• 1902 - Swiss members of Christian Missions in Many Lands enter Laos; California Yearly Meeting of Friends opens work in Guatemala
• 1903 - Church of the Nazarene enters Mexico
• 1904 - The Azusa Street Revivals
• 1906 - The Evangelical Alliance Mission (TEAM) opens work in Venezuela with T. J. Bach and John Christiansen
• 1907 - Harmon Schmelzenbach sails for Africa; Presbyterians and Methodists open Union Theological Seminary in Manila, Philippines; Bolivian Indian Mission founded by George Allen
• 1908 - Gospel Missionary Union opens work in Colombia with Charles Chapman and John Funk
• 1910 - C.T. Studd establishes Heart of Africa Mission (now called Worldwide Evangelization Crusade); Edinburgh (Scotland) Missionary Conference
• 1911 - Christian and Missionary Alliance enters Vietnam
• 1912 - Conference of British Missionary Societies formed
• 1917 - Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association (IFMA) founded
• 1920 - Church of the Nazarene enters Syria
• 1921 - Founding of International Missionary Council (IMC); Norwegian Mission Council formed
• 1924 - Bible Churchman's Missionary Society opens work in Upper Burma; Baptist Mid-Missions begins work in Venezuela
• 1927 - Near East Christian Council established
• 1928 - Cuba Bible Institute (West Indies Mission) opens; Jerusalem Conference of IMC
• 1929 - Christian and Missionary Alliance enters East Borneo (Indonesia)
• 1930 - Christian and Missionary Alliance starts work among Baouli tribe in the Ivory Coast
• 1931 - HCJB radio station started in Quito, Ecuador by Clarence Jones; Baptist Mid-Missions enters Liberia
• 1932 - Assemblies of God open work in Colombia; Laymen's Missionary Inquiry
• 1933 - Gladys Aylward (subject of movie "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness") arrives in China
• 1934 - William Cameron Townsend begins the Summer Institute of Linguistics
• 1935 - Dr. Frank C. Laubach, American missionary to the Philippines perfects the "Each one teach one" literacy program, which was used worldwide to teach 60 million people to read in their own language.
• 1938 - West Indies Mission enters Dominican Republic; Church Missionary Society forced out of Egypt; Madras World Missionary Conference held; Dr. Orpha Speicher oversees construction of Reynolds Memorial Hospital in central India
• 1940 - Marianna Slocum begins translation work in Mexico
• 1941 - Joy Ridderhof founds Gospel Recordings
• 1942 - William Cameron Townsend founds Wycliffe Bible Translators; New Tribes mission founded
• 1943 - World Gospel Mission (National Holiness Missionary Society) enters Honduras; 5 missionaries with New Tribes Mission martyred
• 1945 - Mission Aviation Fellowship formed; Far East Broadcasting Company (FEBC) founded; Evangelical Foreign Missions Association formed by denominational mission boards
• 1946 - First Inter-Varsity missionary convention (now called "Urbana"); United Bible Societies formed; Missionary Aviation Fellowship purchases its first aircraft, a 1933 four-place Waco biplane
• 1947 - Conservative Baptist Foreign Mission Society begins work among the Senufo tribe in the Ivory Coast
• 1948 - Alfredo del Rosso merges his Italian Holiness Mission with the Church of the Nazarene, thus opening Nazarene work on the European continent; Don Owens goes to Korea
• 1949 - Southern Baptist Mission opens work in Venezuela
• 1950 - Paul Orjala arrives in Haiti; radio station 4VEH, owned by Oriental Missionary Society, starts broadcasting from near Cap Haitien, Haiti
• 1951 - World Evangelical Fellowship organized; Bill and Vonette Bright create Campus Crusade for Christ at UCLA
• 1952 - Church of the Nazarene enters New Zealand
• 1954 - Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities opens work in Cuba
• 1955 - Donald McGavran publishes Bridges of God; Brother Andrew makes first Bible smuggling trip into Communist Eastern Europe
• 1956 -Edward McCully, Peter Fleming, Jim Elliot, Roger Youderian and Nate Saint die in Ecuador at the hands of Auca Indians on the Curaray River; Assemblies of God open work in Senegal
• 1958 - Rochunga Pudaite completes translation of Bible into Hmar language (India)
• 1959 - Radio Lumiere founded in Haiti by West Indies Mission (now World Team)
• c. 1960 - Kenneth Strachan starts Evangelism-in-Depth in Central America
• 1962 - Don Richardson goes to Sawi tribe in Papua New Guinea
• 1963 - Theological Education by Extension movement launched in Guatemala by Ralph Winter and James Emery
• 1964 - In separate incidents rebels in the Congo kill missionaries Paul Carlson and Irene Ferrel as well as brutalizing missionary doctor Helen Roseveare; Carlson is featured on December 4 TIME magazine cover.
• 1966 - Red Guards destroy churches in China; Berlin Congress on Evangelism; Missionaries expelled from Burma; God's Smuggler published
• 1970 - Frankfurt Declaration on Mission
• 1971 - Gustavo Gutierrez publishes A Theology of Liberation
• 1973 - Church of the Nazarene enters Indonesia and Portugal; first All-Asa Mission Consultation convenes in Seoul, Korea with 25 delegates from 14 countries; founding of American Society of Missiology
• 1974 - Ralph Winter talks about "hidden" or unreached peoples at Lausanne Congress of World Evangelism
• 1975 - Nazarene missionaries Armand Doll and Hugh Friberg imprisoned in Mozambique
• 1976 - U.S. Center for World Mission founded; 1600 Chinese assemble in Hong Kong for the Chinese Congress on World Evangelization; Islamic World Congress calls for withdrawal of missionaries; Peace Child appears in Reader's Digest.
• 1977 - Evangelical Fellowship of India sponsors the All-India Congress on Mission and Evangelization
• 1979 - Production of JESUS film commissioned by Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ; Mother Teresa awarded Nobel Peace Prize
• 1980 - Philippine Congress on Discipling a Whole Nation; LCWE Conference in Pattaya
• 1981 - Colombian terrorists kidnap and kill Wycliffe Bible Translator Chet Bitterman
• 1982 - Third World Theologians Consultation in Seoul; story on "The New Missionary" makes December 27 cover of TIME magazine; Andes Evangelical Mission (formerly Bolivian Indian Mission) merges into SIM (formerly Sudan Interior Mission)
• 1984 - STEM (Short Term Evangelical Mission teams) ministries founded by Roger Petersen
• 1986 - Entire Bible published in Haitian Creole
• 1987 - Second International Conference on Missionary Kids (MKs) held in Quito, Ecuador
• 1988 - Wycliffe Bible Translators complete their 300 New Testament translation (Cotabato Manobo language of the Philippines)
• 1994 - Church of the Nazarene enters Bulgaria
• 1995 - Nazarene missionary Don Cox abducted in Quito, Ecuador
• 1999 - Radical Hindus murder veteran Australian missionary Graham Stewart Stains and his two sons as they are sleeping in a car in eastern India.