{"id":12653,"date":"2015-03-04T03:00:34","date_gmt":"2015-03-04T07:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/?p=12653"},"modified":"2015-03-04T00:56:35","modified_gmt":"2015-03-04T04:56:35","slug":"the-first-english-speaking-modern-overseas-baptist-missionary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2015\/03\/the-first-english-speaking-modern-overseas-baptist-missionary\/","title":{"rendered":"The First English-Speaking, Modern, Overseas Baptist Missionary?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Engraving<\/a>
Engraving of William Carey (Public Domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Timelines of evangelical history generally mark 1792 as the birth of the \u201cmodern missionary movement.\u201d \u00a0That year, catalyzed by the exhortations of William Carey, one if its members, the Northampton Minister\u2019s Association birthed the Particular Baptist Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Amongst the Heathen. \u00a0Thankfully, it most often went by its shorthand name, the Baptist Missionary Society. \u00a0The following year (1793), the BMS sent John Thomas, a medical doctor, and William Carey, to India. \u00a0Although they may\u00a0not admit it (publicly), most Baptists take proud in the fact that these first modern missionaries were Baptists.<\/p>\n

However, this narrative skews the story of modern missions. \u00a0In reality, another English-speaking Baptist minister left his homeland, travelled across the ocean (albeit not as far), and ministered to \u201cforeigners\u201d ten years before William Carey and John Thomas set sail for India.<\/p>\n

Born in colonial Virginia in the middle of the eighteenth century, George Sharp moved several times during the first several decades of his life. \u00a0By his early twenties, he settled in colonial Georgia where he regularly attended a Baptist church in Burke County. \u00a0While listening to a visiting preacher one Sunday afternoon, he came under conviction that his efforts to please God were insufficient. \u00a0Within six months, he was converted, baptized, and joined the church. \u00a0Soon after, he began ministering to others, teaching and exhorting them.<\/p>\n

The local ministerial council quickly recognized his gifts and gave him license to preach. \u00a0He regularly preached in his home church and on plantations along the Savannah River, both in Georgia and South Carolina. \u00a0His efforts were effective, and he helped plant many churches in the years leading up to the Revolutionary War. \u00a0Further, he replicated his own ministry. \u00a0Many of his converts became ministers themselves, planting and pastoring churches in Georgia, South Carolina, Nova Scotia, and West Africa.<\/p>\n

\"Flag-map_of_Jamaica\"<\/a>A Tory, Sharp fled Georgia in 1782 .\u00a0 With his family in tow, he settled in Jamaica, an English Colony, but one without a strong Baptist presence. \u00a0Sharp soon changed that. \u00a0Beginning in 1783 or 1784, he started preaching to a small group in a private home. \u00a0By 1791, over 500 people had been converted under his ministry. \u00a0By 1793, the burgeoning Baptist church had constructed a dissenting chapel in Kingston and planted churches in many other locations across the Island. \u00a0Sharp appealed to the BMS to send more missionaries to Jamaica, and by the time they arrived in 1814, there were over 8,000 Baptists in Jamaica.<\/p>\n

Without a doubt, Sharp was a gifted Baptist preacher and church planter who helped birth churches in colonial Georgia and South Carolina. \u00a0When he ended up in Kingston\u00a0through circumstance and choice, he turned his missionary zeal towards the people of Jamaica\u2013a full ten years before Carey arrived in Bengal. \u00a0He was the first English-speaking overseas missionary of the modern era, but he is not often recognized as such. \u00a0Also known as George Liele (Lisle), he is most often overlooked in this capacity because he was a black slave from the Southern colonies, not a white Englishman. \u00a0How would the history of modern missions look different if we shifted focus? \u00a0I wonder.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Timelines of evangelical history generally mark 1792 as the birth of the \u201cmodern missionary movement.\u201d \u00a0That year, catalyzed by the exhortations of William Carey, one if its members, the Northampton Minister\u2019s Association birthed the Particular Baptist Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Amongst the Heathen. \u00a0Thankfully, it most often went by its shorthand name, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1482,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[415,1],"tags":[2245,2248,2247,2246,2249,2244],"class_list":["post-12653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miles-mullin","category-uncategorized","tag-baptist-history","tag-church-planting","tag-george-sharp","tag-modern-missions","tag-plantation-preaching","tag-william-carey"],"yoast_head":"\nThe First English-Speaking, Modern, Overseas Baptist 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