A unique book that focuses exclusively on the history of evangelical cross-cultural missions from the eighteenth century through today, The Great Commission will interest anyone who is passionate about the spreading of God's Word.

The nineteenth century, observes Dr. Orr, was the century of Christian action and accomplishment. The social and political upheavals of the late eighteenth century were followed by a decline in Christian witness so serious that it seems as though Christianity was near death. In despair, Christian leaders prayed for Divine intervention; and answer came--a series of six great waves of evangelical renewal and advance which made the nineteenth century the Great Century of evangelism. From this study of Evangelical Revivals it is possible to trace a pattern of action and discover a progression of achievement which demonstrates that the same Spirit of God who moved the apostles continues to operate in the world. Dr. Orr suggests that the evangelical awakenings may be shown to be the foremost method of an Almighty God to promote the betterment of all mankind, and His primary instrument to win men to transforming faith in Himself.

It was not the European and American churches which evangelised Africa, but the mission societies. The missions from the Great Awakening such as the London Missionary Society and Church Missionary Society, or the Holy Ghost Fathers and the White Fathers, which started the process of Sub-Saharan Africa becoming a Christian continent are well known and documented. Less known, and less documented are the interdenominational faith missions which began in 1873 with the aim of visiting the still unreached areas of Africa: North Africa, the Sudan Belt and the Congo Basin. Missions such as the Africa Inland Mission or Sudan Interior Mission gave birth to some of the big churches like ECWA in Nigeria and Africa Inland Church in Kenya. It is the aim of this book to describe faith missions and their theology and to present an overview of the early development of faith missions insofar as they touched Africa.

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Over the past decade, there have been few forums in which the controversial subject of this book could be openly discussed. During the 1994 and 1996 annual conferences of the Evangelical Missiological Society this subject was a central topic of discourse. These ten chapters represent an attempt to reflect the concerns and present understanding of evangelical missiologists on the Holy Spirit and mission dynamics.