If you are a reader of inspirational biographies, then perhaps you are familiar with the name William Carey. His notable quote, “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God,” has an interesting story behind it.
William Carey was not famous, wealthy, or highly educated. He was a shoemaker—a simple cobbler in an English village. As he repaired shoes during the day, he kept books beside him and taught himself geography, languages, and theology.
Carey became fascinated with the nations of the world. As he read accounts of distant lands and the millions of people who had never heard the name of Jesus, he began asking a troubling question: “If Jesus commanded us to go into all the world, why are we staying at home?”
As a reminder to pray for the nations, Carey made a large map of the world and displayed it where he worked. Some early accounts describe it as a map drawn on leather or paper. As he made and repaired shoes, he would look at the map and pray for people in distant lands.
When Carey began urging fellow ministers to send missionaries, many resisted. Some believed that if God intended to save the nations, He would do so without human effort.
In 1792, Carey preached a sermon to a small gathering of pastors in Nottingham, England. His sermon had two simple challenges: Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.
The following year, this cobbler who prayed over a map of the world sailed to India. Despite severe hardship—including poverty, illness, the death of a child, and a fire in 1812 that destroyed years of Bible translation work—Carey persevered. Over four decades in India, he and his colleagues translated Scripture into more than 30 languages and dialects, established schools, promoted literacy, and advocated social reforms. Historians widely regard Carey’s work as the beginning of the modern Protestant missionary movement.
From the opening pages of Scripture to the closing chapters of Revelation, one truth shines clearly: God is a missionary God.
After Adam and Eve sinned, we read of God walking through the garden in the cool of the day calling out, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9). That question was not asked because He did not know where they were or what they had done. It was asked because God was on mission—pursuing the lost.
Hagar was an Egyptian servant, mistreated and driven into the wilderness. Yet Scripture says, “The Angel of the Lord found her” (Genesis 16:7 HCSB). In response, she gave Him a remarkable name: “You are the God who sees me” (v. 13 NIV). Even in the Old Testament, God was pursuing the marginalized, the forgotten, and the foreigner.
When God called Moses, Israel was suffering in Egyptian bondage. God declared, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people . . . , and [I] have heard their cry . . . ; for I know their sorrows; and I am come down to deliver them . . .” (Exodus 3:7–8 KJV). Then He said to Moses, “Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh” (v. 10). God was inviting him to participate in His mission.
With almost every turn of the page in the Old Testament, the mission of God continued to unfold before crescendoing in the New Testament, reaching its fullest expression in Jesus Christ, who came to seek and save that which was lost.
Jesus later commissioned His disciples, saying to them, “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you” (John 20:21 NLT). Even now, we are on mission, reconciling the world to Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit . . . or are we?
The Center for the Study of Global Christianity, Lifeway Research, and Barna Group suggest that fewer than one in ten believers regularly shares their faith, and only about one in ten has ever participated in a short-term mission trip. In other words, more than 90 percent of Christians are not actively engaged in measurable missionary or evangelistic activity.
As you turn the pages of this mission edition, may you be challenged and inspired by the words of William Carey: “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.”
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Sources:
Carey, S. Pearce. William Carey: D.D., Fellow of Linnaean Society. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1923.
George, Timothy. Faithful Witness: The Life and Mission of William Carey. Atlanta, GA: New Hope Publishing, 1991.
Smith, George. The Life of William Carey, D.D.: Shoemaker and Missionary. London: John Murray, 1885.
Tucker, Ruth. From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya: A Biographical History of Christian Missions. Grand Rapids, MI: Academie Books, 1983.
