Journal: Southeastern Theological Review
Volume: STR 12:1 (Spring 2021)
Article: An Ecclesiological Mission: The Basis For William Carey’s Threefold Mission Strategy
Author: C. J. Moore

STR 12:1 (Spring 2021) p. 83

An Ecclesiological Mission: The Basis For William Carey’s Threefold Mission Strategy

C. J. Moore

Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

William Carey serves as a historical example as to why missionaries must have a solid ecclesiological framework before stepping foot on foreign soil. If one of the missionary’s primary tasks—or one might argue the primary task—is to plant churches, then he should know what he believes about the church. Before being sent, Carey showed three aspects of his ecclesiological beliefs in his pastoral oversight of two local churches and as an advocate for the fulfillment of the Great Commission through the cooperation of local churches: he believed the church was (1) missional, (2) logocentric, and (3) didactic. While his beliefs are evident in his groundbreaking missiological work, An Enquiry, much can also be gleaned from Carey’s journal, selected letters, numerous biographies, and other related works. In the following article, in order to defend my position, I will note the transition of Carey as pastor to Carey as both missionary, pastor (still), and indigenous church planter. After introducing Carey as a pastor, I will focus on each subsection of Carey’s threefold mission strategy—(1) evangelism, (2) translation, and (3) education—and how each component is based on Carey’s ecclesiological framework noted above. Carey believed the church was functionally missional and didactic, which led to his immediate focus on evangelism and education. He also believed the church was ontologically logocentric, which led to his ongoing translation of Scripture for the native people.

Key Words: church history, church planting, ecclesiology, missions, missions history, mission strategy, William Carey

In October of 1783, William Carey was baptized by John Ryland Jr., his friend and future partner in the ministry. Shortly thereafter, Ryland commented on this event; to him, Carey’s baptism was “merely the baptism of a poor journeyman shoemaker, and the service attracted no special attention.”1 Ryland could not have been more wrong. In 1793, William Carey, along with Dr. John Thomas, sailed for India never to return again. As for Carey’s purpose in this foreign land, he elaborated more than

STR 12:1 (Spring 2021) p. 84

thirty-five years after arriving, four years before his death:

The spread of the Gospel in India was the first object of the [Baptist Missionary] Society and it has been the first and last with us, to that object Bro. Marshman, Bro. Ward, and myself have uniformly devoted all our time, our strength, and our income, except a pittance scarcely sufficient for our ne...