Abstract: Luke Waite highlights the importance of the church in the missionary labors of William Carey, who is often referred to as “the father of modern missions.” Carey planted churches, pastored churches, and promoted pastoral training. He believed that the church was God’s design for the spread of the gospel, and he knew that the millions in India would not be reached unless churches pastored by Indians were planted across the country.
Editor’s Note: This article was adapted from Luke Waite’s book, May I Again Taste the Sweets of Social Religion: The Story of William Carey’s Devotion to the Local Church. Used by permission of Wipf and Stock Publishers, www.wipfandstock.com.
If church-centered missions seems like a new idea, you might be surprised to learn that it has a rich heritage. Throughout church history, many missionaries have recognized the importance of the local church and have prioritized good ecclesiology on the mission field. William Carey is one such example.
Many Christians admire Carey for his work in India where he evangelized the lost, translated Scripture into dozens of languages, and promoted social reform. He’s even been labeled “the father of modern missions.” But do we know he was church-centered in his approach? Here are three elements of Carey’s ministry that highlight the centrality of the church in his missionary labors.
Carey Planted Churches
As Carey set sail for India in 1793, he believed one of his primary tasks as a missionary was to establish churches. In his groundbreaking work on Christian missions (An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians, to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens), Carey noted how gospel advance to unevangelized lands was always accompanied by the foundation of gospel churches. What this meant for Carey was that individual conversions were not the end goal of missions; rather, the goal was to establish healthy churches that faithfully proclaimed the gospel.
Of course, Carey loved the lost as individuals and yearned for their salvation. As a schoolteacher in England, he often wept in the middle of teaching geography lessons as he considered the lost condition of most of the world and its lack of access to the gospel. Yet as a missionary Carey knew he needed to gather new believers into congregations in order for Christianity to take root in India.
But this task proved more difficult than Carey imagined. When as a young missionary he stepped on the shores of Asia, he was confronted by utter depravity. Here’s how one of his colleagues described India’s religious condition:
Amongst these idolaters no Bibles were found; no sabbaths; no congregating for religious instruction in any form; no house for God; no God but a log of wood, or a monkey; no Savior but the Ganges; no worship but that paid to abominable idols. . . . [Their worship] was a corrupt but rapid torrent, poisoning the soul and carrying it down to perdition. . . . [Their] gods are monsters of vice, [their] priests are their ringleaders in crime, [their] scriptures encourage pride, impurity, falsehood, revenge, and murder, [their] worship is connected with indescribable abominations, and [their] heaven is a brothel.11 . William Ward, Farewell Letters to a Few Friends in Britain and America on Returning to Bengal in 1821 (Bliss and E. White, 1821), 56–57.
How could a church be planted among such idolaters? In the midst of such corruption, Carey rested in God’s power to redeem sinners, transform lives, and establish gospel communities. He fervently prayed for God to redeem a people for himself out of this darkness. And God graciously answered Carey’s prayers.
After two years, he and three other Englishmen covenanted together as a Baptist church, the first of its kind in India. This congregation, small as it was, infused strength and joy into Carey’s life. It also served as a type of “firstfruits” for his future ministry of church planting. Over time, indigenous people came to faith and were added to the church’s membership, as were foreign nationals and other missionaries. With this addition came the possibility of establishing more churches in other cities, which meant new locations would have access to the gospel. Carey eagerly pursued this goal.
But what did he believe about the church? For Carey, a local church was more than an informal gathering of believers, even when gathered for the purpose of worship. A local church was a community of regenerate, baptized Christians who had intentionally committed to live together as a visible representation of Christ’s kingdom on earth. Under the leadership of pastors and deacons, a true church remained devoted to the worship of God, the preaching of his Word, the observance of the ordinances, and the purity of the saints. These biblical convictions lay at the heart of Carey’s church-planting efforts.22 . For more on William Carey’s ecclesiological convictions, see Luke Waite, May I Again Taste the Sweets of Social Religion: The Story of William Carey’s Devotion to the Local Church (Wipf and Stock, 2023); C.J. Moore, “An Ecclesiological Mission: The Basis for William Carey’s Threefold Mission Strategy,” Southeastern Theological Review 12.1 (Spring 2021), 83–109.
Over the years, Carey played a part in the establishment of 26 congregations across India, and they proved to be one of Carey’s greatest sources of joy. He knew these gospel communities would exalt Christ and proclaim the gospel long after he and other missionaries went to their graves.
Carey Pastored Churches
Before Carey labored as a missionary, he served as a pastor. A few years after he came to faith, Carey started lay preaching in various churches across the English countryside. These opportunities to preach had a profound impact on him as a young man. They cultivated within him two indispensable qualities: a love for God’s Word and a concern for God’s people. These traits were clearly evident to those who heard him preach, and eventually one congregation asked him to serve as their pastor, a position Carey eagerly accepted.
Carey loved being a pastor. He once told a friend that serving as a pastor was the highest honor on earth! He felt great joy in proclaiming God’s Word and leading people to greater maturity in Christ. At the same time, he was familiar with the unique pains of shepherding a congregation. On several occasions, Carey confronted believers over their sinful lifestyles. When some persisted in sin, he led his congregation in the painful work of church discipline. Such circumstances impressed upon Carey the seriousness and weight of shepherding the flock of God. In a letter to a fellow pastor, he wrote
The importance of those things that we have to do with ought always to impress our minds, in our private studies, our addresses to God, and our labors in the pulpit. The Word of God! What need to pray much and study closely, to give ourselves wholly to those great things, that we may not speak falsely for God. The Word of truth! Every article of it infinitely precious. O, that we may never trifle with [such] important things. The souls of men! Eternal things . . . their value beyond estimation, their danger beyond conception, and their duration equal with eternity. These . . . we have to do with; these we must give account of.33 . John Taylor, Biographical and Literary Notices of William Carey, D.D. (Dryden Press, 1886), 80.
Carey’s sense of the seriousness of his work and his accountability before God drove him to pursue faithfulness to the Lord, his Word, and his church.
It would be a mistake to assume that Carey stopped being a pastor once he became a missionary, as he continued in pastoral ministry for decades. When he and three other Englishmen covenanted together as a church two years after his arrival in India, the other men asked Carey to serve as the pastor. Later, when this church reaffirmed its covenant after moving to a new city, the members agreed that Carey should retain his pastoral role. Carey then served as the pastor of this congregation, comprised of both expatriate and indigenous believers, for more than thirty years.
What did Carey’s pastoral ministry look like overseas? Remarkably similar to his ministry in England. For example, Carey immediately devoted himself to preaching God’s Word to God’s people. The missionary-pastor knew the proclamation of Scripture was one of the primary means God used to preserve and strengthen his people. This proved true in Carey’s own life. On one occasion, after a fire destroyed much of his team’s translation work, Carey sought to encourage his fellow missionaries by preaching through Psalm 46, emphasizing God’s sovereign prerogative to do as he pleases. Preaching was the primary way Carey shepherded the flock under his care through this trial, and it bore much fruit in the congregation. Members of his church often noted how deeply their pastor knew Scripture, how effectively he communicated its truths, and how profoundly their lives had been impacted.
Carey prioritized other aspects of pastoral ministry as well. He counseled believers, organized prayer meetings, and oversaw the observance of the ordinances. When new converts desired to join the church, he led the congregation in evaluating the professing believer’s testimony and bringing them into the church. When church members lived in unrepentant sin, Carey confronted the wayward individuals, urged them to repent, and (if necessary) guided the church through church discipline. All this while also serving faithfully as a missionary.
For Carey, pastoring believers was not incidental to the missionary enterprise; it was essential. Both missionaries and local believers needed shepherds to watch over their souls.
Carey Promoted Pastoral Training
As Carey labored in India, one reality was crystal clear in his mind: indigenous pastors must be raised up. Carey recognized that there were not enough missionaries to evangelize India’s vast population or pastor the numerous churches being planted across the country. If churches were to be planted as gospel outposts, local believers would need to lead them. Carey explained to a friend,
The work of duly preparing as large a body as possible of Christian Indians for the duties of pastors and itinerants is of immense importance. The [financial] resources and the requisite number of missionaries for the Christian instruction of [India’s] millions can never be supplied from England, and India will never be turned from her idolatry to serve the true and living God, unless the grace of God rests abundantly on converted Indians.44 . S. Pearce Carey, William Carey (Wakeman Trust, 2008), 326.
This conclusion led Carey and his colleagues to regard pastoral training as a key component of the missionary task.
In what ways did Carey invest in pastoral training in India? One way was through personal discipleship. Carey was committed to spending large amounts of personal time (daily, if necessary) with Indian believers who had sacrificed much to identify with Christ. These believers needed mentors to guide them. Through discipleship, Carey strengthened the faith of Indian converts, and he also identified men whom he considered qualified for ministry. One such man was Krishna Pal. In the year 1800, Krishna came to faith in Christ through the witness of Carey and his friends and joined the membership of Carey’s church. There he received instruction from God’s Word regularly, as well as intentional discipleship from the missionaries he knew. After several years, Carey and his colleagues recognized Krishna’s qualifications and appointed him as a deacon in the church. Later, he served as an itinerant evangelist, preaching Christ with powerful impact.
It’s helpful to observe that Carey and his friends did not appoint Krishna to a position of church leadership immediately. Rather, they discipled him to a place of Christian maturity. It was only after they had ensured that he knew the content of the gospel, possessed godly character, and demonstrated competence for gospel ministry that they appointed him to the work of an evangelist and deacon. Such was their common practice, which required much time and patience. The missionaries, however, considered the investment to be worthwhile. They believed God’s normative pattern of working throughout history was through progressive, biblical means.
Another way Carey invested in pastoral training was through the formation of Serampore College. Few Indians in Carey’s time had access to academic institutions of any kind, and this lack of knowledge enabled superstition to hold its sway over countless people. Carey and his friends desired to open the gates of education to everyone, thus freeing them from certain forms of bondage. Their curriculum included subjects like philosophy, literature, and science. The college’s primary purpose, however, was to train future pastors and teachers of the gospel. Carey’s team believed future ministers would benefit from rigorous education, enabling them to effectively engage with the false religions of their homeland.
Conclusion
William Carey stands as a prime example of missionary zeal and perseverance. He also shows us what it looks like to be a church-centered missionary. Carey worked hard to plant healthy churches, and he served as a pastor for decades, caring for the spiritual needs of missionaries and local believers alike. Both formally and informally, he promoted the training of future pastors for continued gospel ministry. Here was a man who deeply loved the church and prioritized ecclesiology in his missionary labors.
