Just before Christ ascended to be with the Father, he gave one last prophecy to his disciples.
He told them, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Ever since then, the gospel has traveled around the world through ordinary people like the 12 disciples. Many people are familiar with the stories of William Carey and Hudson Taylor, who pioneered the modern mission movement. However, even before Carey set sail for India in 1793, God used many ordinary people in different ways to preach the gospel to unfamiliar audiences in unfamiliar lands.
One of these people was Augustine of Canterbury (c. 530-604), who was sent to convert the Anglo-Saxons in modern-day England.[1]
Not His Desire
Going to England was not Augustine’s first choice. Historians assume that Augustine was not a passionate evangelist, but he was obedient. His call to England came through Pope Gregory I (540-604), who first desired the gospel to reach the Anglo-Saxons. He desired it so much that he set out for the distant land himself but was recalled to Rome after three days because of his papal duties. However, Gregory did not give up on England. He had a few ways in mind to evangelize the Anglo-Saxons, including some we would not endorse today. One of his methods was to buy Anglo-Saxon slave boys with his own money to raise them in the Christian faith and send them back to their country as missionaries. Meanwhile, Rome was receiving frequent requests for Christian teachers to come to England. This pressure motivated Rome to find a faster way to bring the gospel to them.
In 596, Gregory decided to select his own monk, Augustine, to lead a mission to England. Since Gregory was the leader of Augustine’s monastery and supposed successor to the Apostle Peter, Augustine believed he was obligated to obey Gregory as if he were obeying God. Therefore, he set out to England with a small group of his fellow monks.
God Prepared the Scene
On their way through Gaul, the monks heard many stories from strangers about the savagery and cruelty of the Anglo-Saxons. Upon hearing the stories, the men—who had been reluctant to go in the first place—were easily persuaded to turn back to Rome. Although Augustine’s courage and obedience were strong, his fear of torture and death was stronger. Once they returned to Rome, Gregory told them he would not allow them to fail and ordered Augustine to continue the mission entrusted to him.
The evangelists arrived in the Kingdom of Kent (modern-day southeast England) and discovered that there was nothing to fear. Although the stories may have been true in the past, the present was different. Even though the king of Kent, Ethelbert, was not a Christian, he was considered civilized and sympathetic to the Christian faith. Ethelbert’s exposure to Christian thought had most likely come from his Christian wife, the daughter of a Frankish king, and her chaplains. Once Augustine arrived, Ethelbert demanded to meet with him in a public setting, willing to hear about the monk’s faith.
The conversion of the Kingdom of Kent was surprisingly easy. After a few weeks, Augustine and his monks evangelized the community and baptized many. In 597, Augustine went to Gaul to be consecrated as a bishop, and it is said that on Christmas day he baptized 10,000 converts in and around Canterbury. His pioneering mission initiated a strong Christian heritage in England that lasted centuries.
Extraordinary or Ordinary Missions?
The life of a modern missionary will not look like Augustine’s life. Missionaries sent today are usually sent by a local church and desire to go to a land that could be hostile to foreigners and to the Christian religion. They rarely begin by preaching the gospel to the head of state like they did in the past.
However, missionaries can gain valuable insight from this event in church history. Some of these lessons include:
1. Augustine was not a super-Christian.
He did not have a supreme intellect, a robust mission movement strategy, or even the courage to move forward when the final destination looked like certain death. He did, however, have a firm grasp on the Bible, which historians speculate is what motivated Gregory to choose Augustine for the task. Although God uses ordinary people in his mission, it is still wise to send those who know the Scriptures well and have a reasonable level of qualification. Ultimately, as Augustine illustrates, the mission to the Anglo-Saxons did not need the greatest Christian leader, but it did need God, who sends whoever he pleases to bring his message of salvation.
2. God prepares people groups for missionaries to arrive at the right time.
This does not mean that missionaries will always arrive with nationals begging to hear the gospel message. The nationals may even be hostile toward the missionary’s arrival. Sometimes it takes years (even decades!) of hard labor to see any fruit.[2] Nevertheless, God always sends missionaries when it is the right time to go.
3. God will accomplish his will.
It is easy to forget that God is the primary actor in mission work. Without God, Gregory would never have desired to bring Christianity to England. Without God, the people of Kent would never have been receptive to the Christian message. Without God, no one would have believed the gospel and repented of their sins. The results from mission work are dependent upon God’s active work in the hearts of sinners.
Many of the greatest historical missionaries were Christians who did the ordinary work of faithfully going to another part of the world, preaching the gospel, starting churches, and baptizing new believers. Through the ordinary means he has given us in his Word, God’s mission will triumph around the world because his hand is at work. If missionaries today choose to trust in God’s sovereignty over their ministry and commit themselves to being ordinary Christians, they will be surprised to see how God uses them.
[1] Much of the research came from J. R. H. Moorman, A History of the Church in England, 3rd ed. (Morehouse Publishing, 1980), 12-16 and Nick Needham, 2000 Years of Christ’s Power, Volume 1: The Age of the Early Church Father, (Christian Focus Publications, 2016), 335-340.
[2] There are many famous stories of modern missionaries who have faced hostile tribes and endured decades of hard labor before seeing any conversions. Some include Jim and Elizabeth Elliot, John Paton, Robert Morrison, William Carey, and Adoniram and Ann Judson. God worked through their ministries to start a strong Christian presence in the areas in which they served.
