Europe’s Story and the Future of Global Evangelism
This five-part series traces how Europe once sent missionaries to the world, how it became a mission field, and what its story teaches us about renewing the Great Commission today.
Part 1: When Europe Sent Missionaries to the World
When Christians today talk about “missions,” we speak a language the earliest believers wouldn’t have recognized. Mission committees, sending agencies, fundraising trips, passports, and planes didn’t exist for most of church history. Even the idea of intentionally leaving home to bring the gospel to another culture was so unusual that early missionaries had to justify not only what they were doing but why they were doing it.
Out of this history, Europe eventually became the continent from which the gospel spread with astonishing reach. Without a detailed plan, God kept raising men and women willing to obey, even when their obedience looked strange to other believers. Today, God is still raising these servants toward what looks dangerous and even impossible. Their stories are the foundation of a missionary legacy that has shaped our Baptist identity and the work of the Baptist Missionary Association.
The Strange Idea of Going
Early Christians were primarily concerned with their survival. Christianity spread because everyday people shared Christ with neighbors and family members. Persecution scattered believers across the Roman world. That scattering unintentionally carried the gospel outward. Believers simply remained faithful wherever they landed.
After Christianity became legal, cross-cultural evangelism remained unusual. Most church leaders expected their ministry to stay close to home. The idea of leaving one’s homeland to deliberately preach to pagans or foreign tribes was so foreign that those who attempted it were sometimes viewed as reckless.
Even in those days, God called His people to go.
Patrick: The Slave Who Returned
Patrick is an example of how unexpected God’s calling was for most people. As a teenager, he was kidnapped from Britain and taken to Ireland as a slave. After escaping years later, he returned home. Instead of avoiding Ireland at all costs, he became convinced that God was sending him back to proclaim the gospel.
Ireland at the time was considered wild, dangerous, and spiritually dark. The people surrounding Patrick surely didn’t encourage him. The idea of going was strange. But Patrick obeyed, until Ireland became the land God used to send missionaries of its own. Patrick’s obedience planted seeds that grew beyond his life and work.
Boniface and the Forest Peoples
A few centuries after Patrick, an English monk named Boniface felt called to evangelize the tribal peoples of central Europe. The European continent was known for its violence and spiritual superstitions. Boniface left a comfortable church behind to enter thick forests of unfamiliar cultures where no one was waiting to welcome him.
Legend tells us about Boniface cutting down trees that pagan believers viewed as sacred to preach to hostile audiences. While not all of his methods are admirable, his ministry shaped the spiritual direction of Germany and parts of the Netherlands. His courage continues to inspire missionaries who realize how radical the missionary impulse still is – to be willing to die for the sake of those who have never heard Christ’s name.
The Moravians: Missions Without Safety Nets
The Moravians took this same spirit to extremes. In the 1700s, long before modern agencies existed, they sent missionaries to places most of Europe had never seen. They sailed to the Caribbean to reach enslaved Africans, and in some cases, sold themselves into slavery so they could preach from within the plantations. Several packed their belongings in coffins because they knew they would not live to return home.
Their methods seemed extreme to the Christians of their day. But to them, the gospel’s urgency justified any sacrifice. The Moravian movement showed Europe what it looked like for the church to take Jesus’ words seriously, no matter the cost.
The Arrival of “Means”
For centuries, the bravest missionaries could reach only as far as their feet or as far as a small boat could carry them. When Europe began to experience cultural and technological shifts, new horizons opened.
Literacy increased. Printing presses multiplied the availability of Bibles and Christian writings. Ships became larger and safer. Trade routes connected Europe with Africa, Asia, and the Americas. People could now cross the oceans in a matter of months.
At the same time, the Protestant Reformation sharpened theological conviction and encouraged believers to read the Bible for themselves. Ordinary Christians grew into biblical understanding. New questions started to be asked: If Jesus commanded us to make disciples of all nations, why aren’t we going?
Toward the end of the 1700s, this question led to the formation of early mission societies (voluntary groups of believers who pooled money, prayer, and practical support to send workers). Suddenly, missions wasn’t only for the rare few willing to gamble their lives. It became something churches could participate in together.
William Carey, often called the “father of modern missions,” embodied this shift. He used statistics and consistent reporting to inspire others to help carry the responsibility of sharing the gospel with distant peoples. His vision wasn’t initially celebrated, but Carey persisted. His work sparked a movement that spread through Europe and eventually America.
Baptists around the world (including those who, generations later, would form the BMA) were shaped by this new understanding. Missions is not an individual calling; it is a shared responsibility.
Why This History Matters
Two thousand years is a lot of history. I think we sometimes forget how foreign the idea of missions once was. The church had to learn it, rediscover it, and then learn it again. In the Bible, God reveals Himself as a missionary God from the beginning. Through history, God used men like Patrick, Boniface, and the Moravians to show what obedience looked like before the church had structures for sending. He used technology, travel, and organization to multiply that obedience into global reach.
The missionary Spirit that sent believers to the edges of the known world is the same Spirit that leads our associations, our missionaries, and our churches today.
Next week, we’ll explore the surprising reversal of Europe’s missionary heritage: how the continent that once sent missionaries to the world became one of our day’s greatest mission fields.
