“Expect great things. Attempt great things.”

These two short sentences may be the most quoted of any missionary. Six great words that changed the face of missions forever!  When William Carey uttered these observations, he could not have realized all this would mean later in his life. 

Opposition Abroad. 

To outside observers, his reality did not match his expectations if he lived by this motto. He spent seven years in ministry without a convert. He watched three of his children die on the field, and his wife went clinically insane. I am sure that was not what he was expecting. Nor did he expect his fellow missionary and friend John Thomas to succumb to mismanagement of funds, which left Carey and his family in financial ruin. He also did not expect to see Indian women burned and buried alive with their dead husbands or children sacrificed to the Ganges. These unforeseen experiences did not thwart his expectations of what God could do in the land of India, though.  All of his circumstances actually worked as a type of motivation that drove him to fulfill the last half of his motto: attempt great things. And attempt the great things he did!  

Opposition at Home.

Before he ever got to the mission field, Carey experienced significant opposition to his ideals of reaching the heathen in foreign countries for Christ. A friend and fellow pastor, Andrew Fuller, accounted, “Some of our most aged and respectable ministers thought, I believe, at that time, that it was a wild and impracticable scheme that he had got in his mind, and therefore gave him no encouragement.”  Missions being an outrageous reality was confirmed in one fellowship when the pastor of Moulton Baptist declared, “Whether the command was given to the Apostles, to teach all nations, was not obligatory on all succeeding ministers to the end of the world, seeing that the accompanying promise was of equal extent.” This was followed up by a blast from the fellowship’s chairman when he shouted, “You are a miserable enthusiast for asking such a question. Certainly, nothing can be done before another Pentecost, when an effusion of miraculous gifts, including the gift of tongues, will give effect to the commission of Christ as at first.” Despite the opposition, Carey continued taking every opportunity to share his burden about world missions.  His emotion and passion were most convincing.

Attempt and Expect.

Carey kept heart in the face of this continual discouragement. It drove him to write a treatise called “An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens…”. This treatise was eventually published, promoted, and used as the foundation for the first-ever church mission organization. At the ministers’ meeting at Kettering on October 2, 1792, on the heels of a sermon in which Carey preached, “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God,” the ministers gathered to consult further on the matter and to lay a foundation for the Baptist Missionary Society.  It was not much of an organization, to say the least. Fuller would later say, “When we began in 1792, there was little or no respectability among us…”  But Carey expected great things from this society, which years later finally delivered!  

One year later, Carey sailed to India. The rest, as we know, unfolded for God’s glory and birthed modern missions as we have seen in the decades since. Great things God hath done! 

May we not lose heart, Christian! Sometimes, it may seem the world is against you, but God knows exactly what He is doing. Whether you are on deputation or trying to take the gospel next door, pray, plod, and persevere, attempting great things for God while expecting great things from Him!