What can we learn from William Carey?

Two months ago today marked the 250th anniversary of the birth of the father of modern missions. William Carey’s birthday was Aug. 17, and Timothy George offered on The Gospel Coalition blog seven things we can learn from Carey. George is the dean of Beeson Divinity School of Samford University in Birmingham, Ala.

Here are his opening comments, setting Carey’s life and impact in context:

. . . Born on August 17, 1761, he was the son of a poor school teacher in the tiny village of Paulersbury [England]. Taught to patch shoes in a cobbler’s shop, he was converted to Christ as a teenager. Soon he was gripped with a passion for sharing the gospel with those who had never heard the name of Christ.

In those days, missions was a naughty word, something obsolescent, restricted to the days of the apostles long ago. But Carey read the Great Commission differently. “Go ye,” he said, “means you and me, here and now.” He challenged his fellow Baptists to respond to this call, to “expect great things from God, and attempt great things for God.” The result was the first missionary society organized by evangelical Christians with the aim of carrying the Good News of Christ to all parts of the world.

So on June 13, 1793, William Carey, his wife, Dorothy, and their four children—including a nursing infant—sailed from England on a Danish ship headed for India. Carey never saw his homeland again. He spent the rest of his life in India as a pastor, teacher, linguist, agriculturalist, journalist, botanist, social activist, and statesman of the world Christian movement. He died in India in 1834 with the words of a hymn by Isaac Watts on his lips: “A wretched, poor, and helpless worm, on thy kind arms I fall.”

George placed these seven principles at the top of his list of things we can learn from Carey: (1) The sovereignty of God; (2) the finality of Jesus Christ; (3) the authority of Holy Scripture; (4) contextualization; (5) holistic missions; (6) Christian unity, and (7) faithfulness.

George elaborates on each of these points, and the entire piece can be accessed here -- http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2011/08/19/william-carey-at-250/.

As an example, here are his comments on the sovereignty of God:

Carey knew that true missionary work is rooted in the gracious, eternal purpose of the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Today, more than a new program of missionary training or another strategy for world evangelization, the church of Jesus Christ needs a fresh vision of a full-size God—eternal, transcendent, holy, filled with compassion, sovereignly working by his Holy Spirit to call unto himself a people out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and languagegroup on earth. Only such a vision, born of repentance, prayer, and self-denial, can inspire a Carey-like faith in a new generation of Christian heralds.