History of mission - timeline

AD30

Jesus starts his ministry on earth

Jesus gives the Great Commission

Peter preaches to Gentiles in Cornelius' house

Paul sets out on his first mission journey

Emperor Constantine legalises Christianity in the Roman Empire

Patrick goes to Ireland as a missionary

Columba goes from Ireland to Scotland. He establishes the monastic mission centre at Iona

Gregory the Great sends Augustine and a team of monks as missionaries to what is now England to reintroduce the gospel. They settle in Canterbury

Franciscan Order (Greyfriars) established

Dominican Order (Blackfriars) established

Bible translated into English from Latin by John Wycliffe

Johann Gutenberg produces the first printed Bible

Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic; six years later Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope and reached India. These geographical discoveries were followed over the subsequent century by expeditions of missionary monks (Franciscans, Jesuits, Augustinians and Dominicans) to the new worlds

Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, an event now seen as sparking the Protestant Reformation

Martin Luther writes 'the first missionary hymn of Protestantism', as the Protestant Reformation gets underway

Jesuit Order (Society of Jesus) established

John Eliot the puritan missionary from England, arrives in Boston. He became known as the ‘Apostle to the Indians’ (Native Americans)

The first Quaker missionaries arrive in Boston, Massachusetts

Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge - the oldest Anglican mission organisation - is founded by Thomas Bray with the aim of encouraging Christian education and the production and distribution of Christian literature

The Moravians send missionaries initially to West Indies, then to other parts of the world

John Wesley goes to Indians in Georgia as missionary with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts

William Carey writes 'An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use means for the conversion of the heathen' and founds the The Particular Baptist Society for Propagating the Gospel amongst the Heathen (later known as Baptist Missionary Society; now known as BMS World Mission) is founded

London Missionary Society formed

Church Mission Society (CMS) founded

The Methodists form the Wesleyan Missionary Society

David Livingstone goes to Africa (present-day Malawi), with the London Missionary Society

Hudson Taylor forms the China Inland Mission (now called OMF International)

William and Catherine Booth form the Salvation Army

Charles Spurgeon invents The Wordless Book, which is widely used in cross-cultural evangelism

Africa Inland Mission formed by Peter Cameron Scott

Approximately 189 Protestant missionaries are killed in the Boxer Rebellion in China

CT Studd establishes Heart of Africa Mission (now called WEC International)

Edinburgh Missionary Conference - beginning modern Protestant ecumenical co-operation in mission

Wycliffe Bible Translators founded by William Townsend

World Evangelical Alliance organised

Bill and Vonette Bright create Campus Crusade for Christ

Youth With a Mission founded, the first major short-term mission organisation

Missiologist Ralph Winter talks about unreached peoples at the Lausanne Congress of World Evangelism. Lausanne Covenant is written and ratified

Services by Billy Graham attract four and a half million people in six cities of Korea. First All-Asia Mission Consultation convenes in Seoul, Korea with 25 delegates from 14 countries

Jesus film commissioned by Bill Bright

Pioneers founded, the first missionary agency to focus solely on 'unreached people groups'

Lausanne II, a world missions conference, is held and the concept of the 10/40 Window emerges