Timeline of Christian Missions

This is far from complete...I'm just randomly filling in events as I research...

  • c. 48 - Saul begins his first journey.
  • c. 51 - Paul begins his second journey.
  • c. 54 - Paul begins his third journey.
  • c. 60 - Paul journeys to Rome.
  • c. 563 - Columba sails from Ireland to Scotland.
  • 635 - First Christian missionaries (Nestorian monks from Asia Minor and Persia) arrive in China
  • 1289 - Franciscan friars begin mission work in China
  • 1368 - Collapse of the Franciscan mission in China
  • 1582 - Jesuits begin mission work in China, introduce Western science, mathematics, astronomy
  • 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.
  • 1799 - The Church Missionary Society is formed.
  • 1810 - The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions is formed.
  • 1813 - The Methodists form the Wesleyan Missionary Society.
  • 1814 - First recorded baptism of a Chinese convert, Cai Gao
  • 1840 - David Livingstone is in present-day Malawi (Africa) with the London Missionary Society.
  • 1865 - The China Inland Mission is founded by James Hudson Taylor.
  • 1935 Dr. Frank C. Laubach, American missionary to the Phillipines perfects the "Each one teach one" literacy program, which was used worldwide to teach 60 million people to read in their own language.

See also: Missionary, Christianity