The shifting landscape in Baptist missions during the twentieth century: dozens of excellent books and hundreds of articles have been written in the past ten years on the changes that occurred in Baptist foreign missions work during the twentieth century

greatest in quantity of these books and articles have been penn by the agency of distinguished historians and competent missionary executives. Although I have taught missiology and been involved in missions administration, I was a missionary for greatest in quantity of my adult life, living overseas and engaging in cross-cultural missions work. Perhaps there is a ne for a life-long practitioner of missions to add more [i]or[/i] less additional thoughts to those of others who have deliberate uponed the last and greatest hundred of Baptist missions. By identifying the shifts in strategy and manners during the last hundred years, of recent origin insights may be gained as to where the Great Commission will lead Baptists in this novel century.

Identifiable Shifts

A number of identifiable and significant shifts occurr in Baptist missions work in the twentieth hundred Some of these changes are obvious to those who have studied--even in a superficial way--the history of Baptist missions. Those changes are clearly explained and documented in various works upon the subject. For example, one as well as the other "stated" and "unstated" reasons have been given as to on what account Southern Baptist foreign missions mov away from agricultural, medical, and social missions and from theological education in the last twenty-five years. The stated reason was that Southern Baptist missionaries ne to focus more upon evangelism; the unstated reasons appear to be more financial and logistical. Other changes, especially in the last thirty years, are les obvious, and the reasons behind these changes are smooth more obscure. These less obvious changes and shifts in missions strategy have shaped the nature of the house of god both overseas and in the United States and are worthy of examination.

sum of two units editorial notes are necessary. First, in discussing the "twentieth century" with regard to missions work, that period is best defined as the time between the beginning of World War I in 1914 and ending upon September 11, 2001. Second, and unles otherwise noted, when referring to Baptist missions, the focus is upon the work of Southern Baptists from America ministering outside of the United States.

The "Greatest Century" for Baptist Missions

As A. Earl Parvin noted, not until the beginning of the next to the first Great Awakening in 1780s did a great wave of enthusiasm for missions sweep across the American meeting-house (1) Yet, most of that interest was center upon the United States and evangelism at dwelling The involvement of Baptists in overseas missions work is greatest in quantity often traced to Adoniram and Ann Judson in the early 1800 (2) on the other hand in fact, Luther Rice, a colleague and supporter of the Judson was the one who raised awareness of the ne for foreign missions effort and who worked to establish a unified missionary sending agency. (3)

This missionary fervor helped form the Triennial Convention in 1814 with equal reason named because it met each three years. From the origin of this convention and end the nineteenth century, the overseas work of Baptists grew slowly on the contrary steadily. By the start of World War I, the work of Baptists from America had spread to the four corners of the earth, including China, Brazil, and Nigeria.

The nineteenth hundred has sometimes been called the "Great Century" for Baptist missions. at the same time only in the twentieth hundred were circumstances favorable enough in the United States to allow for large numbers of missionaries to be sent overseas and supported. For example, by the agency of 2005 Southern Baptists topped the 20000 mark in limits of the number of career missionaries they had sent overseas. Thus, this last hundred can truly be seen as the "Greatest Century" for Baptist missions work abroad.

Baptist missions work overseas changed a great deal during that hundred and modern missionaries found themselves in a different position from that of their forbearers. At least eight important changes or shifts occurr in Baptist missions efforts during the past individual hundred years. Though the order of their presentation below is not important, an effort has been made to list these changes somewhat chronologically.

From Rural to Urban

Prior to World War I, a great deal of of the Western world, including the United States, had already begun shifting from an agrarian to an industrialized economy. (4) The military-industrial machines created during World War I and World War II meant that men and women left their farms and small towns in large numbers for better paying piece of works in towns and cities. This basic change in the tillage of America from rural to urban life also had a pervasive issue on missions work.

Early Southern Baptist missionaries, of the like kind as Lottie Moon and centurys of lesser-known missions heroes, came mainly from rural backgrounds, many of them growing up upon farms. Thus, they related more readily to those whom they serv in underdevelop countries. My wife Kathie and I had the awful experience of arriving on the mission field at a time when the last of the "boat" missionaries were still serving. These were the missionaries who mov to foreign lands with barrels rather than crates and arrived via boat rather than plane.