William Carey (1761–1834), English shoemaker and cobbler, is usually considered to have been “the father of modern missions.” Were there Protestant missions also prior to Carey’s time? It is to this question that Rev. Timothy M. Monsma addresses himself in this article. After a brief ministry at Chandler, Minnesota, Rev. Monsma served as a CR […]
We read in Revelation 20 that an angel bound the dragon, who is Satan, and threw him into the abyss, where he is to stay for one thousand years (vss. 2, 3). This one thousand years has been called the millennium, which is a Latin word for “one thousand.” Some Christians describe the millennium as […]
For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven. Eccl. 3:1 Background Last June the Christian Reformed Synod endorsed full participation in the Theological College of Northern Nigeria. But this same Synod hesitated to make TCNN the sole institution for training Reformed ministers in Nigeria. She postponed decision on the […]
The request of the no Mission Field of the Christian Reformed Church in Nigeria for a Reformed Seminary has created a good deal of excitement in that denomination. In view of the fact that the Foreign Mission Board of the Christian Reformed Church will be asked to decide on this request at its next meeting, […]
THE WORLD OF MISSION by Bengt Sundkler (translated from Swedish by Eric J. Sharpe), Eerdmans, 1965. 307 pages. Price $6.95. This is an historical survey of missions that tries to stress especially the environment in which mission work has been carried on. In Part One the author discusses the Kingship of Christ as proclaimed by Christian […]
CHURCH GROWTH IN CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN NIGERIA by John B. Grimley and Gordon E. Robinson. Eerdmans, 1966, 374 pages. This is actually two books in one volume. The first is Church Growth in Central Nigeria by John B. Grimley. The second is Church Growth in Southern Nigeria by Cordon E. Robinson. The authors did their research […]
The primitive Nigeria in which Johanna Veenstra worked no longer exists today. The country is becoming more and more civilized; transportation is improving; cities are springing up; more and more goods are being bought and sold. Whereas pioneer missionaries entered this land by way of river boat, contemporary missionaries fly in. All this is taking place in a nation that […]
Five years ago the churches with which we are working in Nigeria had a total communicant membership of 4,928. Today they have a membership of 12,870. This is a growth rate of 161% over a five-year period. Few churches in the world have been blessed with such a rapid rate of growth. Our mission (the […]
INTRODUCTION In the fourth largest nation in the world (population 180 million), live several million Christians who trace their history to Dutch Reformed missionaries. If the 3000 inhabited islands of Indonesia were superimposed on the United States, they would stretch from Oregon to Bermuda. Indonesians like Americans even though most Americans don’t know this. I […]