William Carey and the Baptist Missionary Society

On the wall of a house in Lower Street, Kettering, is a plaque commemorating a meeting held there on 2 October 1792.  Fourteen church ministers were meeting to launch what became the Baptist Missionary Society under whose auspices missionaries would be sent to India and other “heathen lands.” These men had become convinced that it was their responsibility to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to parts of the world where its vital message  had never been heard.

As a result of this meeting, the newly-formed society sent one of the ministers – William Carey – to India the following June. At the time, Carey was a Baptist minister in Leicester, but he was a native of Northamptonshire and had previously been the minister at the Baptist Church in Moulton, near Northampton.  Carey departed for India in June 1793, and with another missionary, Dr John Thomas, set up their base at Serampore, a village near Calcutta (now Kolkata), in West Bengal.  However, despite their zealous labours, they saw no converts in their first seven years.

The breakthrough came in November 1800, when a Calcutta carpenter, Krishna Pal, dislocated an arm while working, and sought the help of Dr Thomas. He and another newly-arrived missionary colleague, Joshua Marshman, told Pal of a disease more deadly than physical injury – the disease of sin. Pal was greatly moved by the story of God’s salvation through Jesus Christ, and was baptised in the River Ganges by Carey.

Although slow to take root, Christianity in India steadily grew after Pal’s conversion. Pal himself was ordained as a minister in 1804 and established a church in Calcutta. In 1818 Carey founded Serampore College, which trained men for the Christian ministry, leading to the spread of the Christian faith throughout India.

There are now more than 24 million Christian believers in India. Many of their churches and church associations can trace their origins back to the Serampore missionaries and their successors.

Those who met in that modest house in Kettering in 1792 would be amazed at all that would be accomplished over the 230 years since.