In this special issue of Mission Frontiers we celebrate 200 years of mission society sending of missionaries. What have we learned in the last 200 years? How far have we come? Can we complete the task of reaching all peoples?

Adoniram Judson and his wife, Nancy (also called Ann), went out in 1812 as one of the first North American Missionaries. They sailed to Burma knowing full well that sufferings lay ahead – a significant lesson to us Christians 200 yeas later whose first question is often, “Is it safe to go there?” Indeed, the most striking aspect of the Judson-Burma story is endurance in spite of hardship.

Events over the past two hundred years have transported us to a world radically different than that of the Judsons. When they sailed out of Salem Harbor in 1812, 20% of the world was Christian and over 90% of all Christians were Europeans. In 2012, the world is about 33% Christian and only about 25% of all Christians worldwide are Europeans. The question remains: how did we get from 1812 to 2012?

United at first by circumstances, by similar spiritual experiences, and by shared goals, the lives of Harriet Newell, Ann Judson, and Roxana Nott demonstrated how a range of hard realities could reshape mission theory and dictate practice.

This year’s mission bicentennial draws attention to the first North American missionaries who were sent out by an organized mission society. That sending precipitated the sending of hundreds of thousands of North American missionaries who followed after them right up until today. However, it needs to be remembered that there were those who had engaged in cross-cultural and even cross-country missionary work before 1812. Here is a look at some of the better known.

It would seem clear that Asian mission leaders (and others) have a great advantage in being able to learn from the mistakes of Western agencies. The twelve “mistakes” of Western churches and agencies, as described below, are my best understanding of the lessons mission leaders can and should learn from the mistakes the West has made.

Reliving the movements of Acts has moved from a remote possibility to a realistic faith-filled expectation with each generation. To believe that we have arrived would be a naïve assumption. However, what we have learned in 200 years of missionary history is bearing fruit in unprecedented ways. Various North American mission leaders share their views here.