On October 7, 1805, nine men signed their names to a document that would govern their lives and efforts to proclaim the gospel throughout India. The document became known as the Serampore Form of Agreement (sometimes inaccurately called the Serampore Covenant). The signers, many of them pioneers in the history of baptist missions, included William Carey, Joshua Marshman, William Ward, John Chamberlain, Richard Mardon, John Biss, William Moore, Joshua Rowe, and Felix Carey (William Carey’s son). In the Agreement, the signers accepted eleven principles that would henceforth guide the mission work in India, with the “hope that multitudes of converted souls will have reason to bless God to all eternity for sending His Gospel into this country.”

Reading the Agreement today, we might be surprised by the number of themes that continue to prevail among missionaries and missiologists: an emphasis on cultural anthropology, the desire for self-supporting churches, the priority of Bible translation and education, and more. So, although originally written to guide missionary work two centuries ago, this document remains profoundly relevant today, not only for missionary service but for every disciple of Christ seeking to make him known in an increasingly globalized world.

Wherever we need to remember our priorities as pilgrims in this present world — at home, school, or work, or while traveling, running errands, or hosting neighbors — the Serampore Agreement serves as a timeless teacher.

Serampore Priorities

William Carey arrived in India in 1793, sent out by the recently formed Baptist Missionary Society. After first establishing work in Calcutta (now Kolkata), Carey relocated to Danish-controlled Serampore in West Bengal in 1800, where he ministered until he died in 1834. There he joined Joshua Marshman and William Ward, and together they formed a new church, with Carey as the pastor and Marshman and Ward as deacons.

“God delights to answer prayers that reflect his holy cause.”

Five years later, with an increasing number of new missionary recruits arriving and new converts being added to the fellowship, they agreed to review the church-leadership structure and recent progress of the work and establish parameters for future ministry. It was in this missional-ecclesial context that the Agreement was formed.

The document consists of eleven convictions that set forth “the Great Principles upon which the Brethren of the Mission at Serampore think it their duty to act in the work of instructing the Heathen.” The Agreement calls the missionaries to fix their “serious and abiding attention” on these principles. Recognizing that the Lord, in his sovereignty, had planted them at Serampore and given them difficult work to do, they wanted to put their hands to the plow with diligence and perseverance under his own mighty hand.

In what follows, I do not summarize every article in the Agreement (though I encourage you to read the short document yourself). Instead, I aim to highlight three priorities expressed in the document that characterized these early missionaries and that remain priorities for Christians today.

‘May our hearts bleed’

What drew Carey and others to India in the first place? In his Enquiry, published about thirteen years prior to the Agreement, Carey argued that the commission given by Jesus to the apostles in Matthew 28:18–20 “laid them under obligation to disperse themselves into every country of the habitable globe, and to preach to all the inhabitants, without exception, or limitation” (An Enquiry, 7). Carey’s claim did not fall on deaf ears. Fired by zeal to see people from across the globe yield to Christ, scores of missionaries were sent out by churches to the far reaches of the world.

This same zeal sets the tone for the whole Serampore Agreement. Article 1 states,

In order to be prepared for our great and solemn work, it is absolutely necessary that we set an infinite value upon immortal souls; that we often endeavor to affect our minds with the dreadful loss sustained by an unconverted soul launched into eternity. . . . If we have not this awful sense of the value of souls, it is impossible that we can feel aright in any other part of our work. (article 1)

Remembering that many millions of people lay under the power of darkness was indispensable for the multiform work of missions in West Bengal. Though the missionaries engaged not only in evangelism but also in education, cultivation, business, translation, and much more, the lost state of souls and the danger of eternal damnation was the raison d’être for their labors. Forgetfulness of such an awe-full reality would result in work that focused merely on temporal needs — perhaps improving the conditions of unbelievers but failing to hold forth salvation.

Belief in eternal judgment has dissipated of late in our Western context. No longer do many fear “the punishment of eternal destruction” that will come “on those who do not know God and . . . do not obey the gospel” (2 Thessalonians 1:8–9). Prone to forget that every person we meet has an eternal future, our interactions become less salty; we lose a little of our luster. The Agreement reminds us that we all walk on the precipice of eternity: “Life is short . . . all around us are perishing, and . . . we incur a dreadful woe if we proclaim not the glad tidings of salvation. . . . Oh! may our hearts bleed over these poor idolaters, and may their case lie with continued weight upon our minds” (articles 4, 1).

‘In all weathers’

The work in West Bengal and the surrounding regions progressed slowly. A man named Krishna Pal became the first recorded convert of the mission work, seven years after the work began in 1793. In 1805, at the formation of the Serampore church, more converts were present, and two men, including Krishna Pal, became deacons.

Patience had to mark every aspect of the work. In article 2, the missionaries expressed the necessity of gaining as much information as possible about the local customs and religious practices so that they could “converse . . . in an intelligible manner.” They wanted to learn how and what the locals thought, “their habits, their propensities, their antipathies, the way in which they reason about God, sin, holiness, the way of salvation,” and more, recognizing that only by such careful interaction would they “avoid being barbarians to them.” Such knowledge is not gained overnight; it develops over time through relationships, conversations, and assiduous study.

To carry on conversations with the natives almost every hour in the day, to go from village to village, from market to market, from one assembly to another, to talk to servants, laborers, etc., as often as opportunity offers, and to be instant in season and out of season — this is the life to which we are called in this country. (article 4)

Why this approach as opposed to a rapid succession of mass rallies or constant movement from town to town? “It is absolutely necessary that the natives should have an entire confidence in us and feel quite at home in our company” (article 6). Force, aggressive behavior, pressing for quick results — all these would “sink our characters exceedingly in their estimation.” The missionaries understood that the work of gathering, building up, and watching over souls did not happen in a day. “We must be willing to spend some time with them daily, if possible, in this work. We must have much patience with them, though they may grow very slowly in divine knowledge” (article 7).

Such patience is the fruit of deep trust in the providence of God. The promises of Scripture undergirding their understanding of God’s sovereign orchestration of his plan to redeem a people from all nations proved “fully sufficient to remove [their] doubts, and to make [them] anticipate that not very distant period when He will famish all the gods of India, and cause these very idolaters to . . . forever renounce the work of their own hands” (article 1). They understood themselves as fishers of men in the great fishing fleet of the King, called to work “in all weathers,” firmly convinced that while they may plant or water, only God could give the increase.

In our instant age — instant food, instant communication, instant “friendships” — we desperately need the virtue of patience. Christian formation takes time. Lots of it. While the Lord is able to cause rapid success (like saving three thousand people through Peter’s Pentecost sermon), in his perfect wisdom, he more frequently brings about slow change. The work of the kingdom requires fortitude and determination. These come not from inner reserves of strength, but from a deep dependence on and confidence in the Lord of the harvest.

‘Root of personal godliness’

The explosion of missionary activity out of Scotland and England in the late eighteenth century began with the spark of prayer — a monthly meeting committed to “pray to the Lord Jesus that the work may be carried on . . . that the kingdoms of this world may become the kingdoms of our Lord” (Sutcliff, Persuasives to a General Union in Extraordinary Prayer, 81).

The Serampore team recognized that all their labors depended on them “being instant in prayer” (article 10). Naming David Brainerd as an example, they enjoined themselves to “secret, fervent, believing prayer,” without which they would not be fit “instruments of God in the great work of Human Redemption.” They also committed themselves to united prayer “at stated seasons, whatever distance may separate us,” with the intention to wrestle together with God “till He famish these idols and cause the heathen to experience the blessedness that is in Christ.”

“Prayer is the engine God has ordained to drive forward his kingdom in this world.”

Prayer is the engine God has ordained to drive forward his kingdom in this world. In a little address to fellow pastors, John Sutcliff wrote, “[Christ] is pleased in these matters not only to command us to ask, but to represent himself as waiting to be gracious . . . as ready to bestow these mercies whenever we shall earnestly pray for them” (Persuasives, 79). God delights to answer prayers that reflect his holy cause. Jesus taught the disciples to begin their prayers by asking for his kingdom to come (Matthew 6:9–10).

When Carey wrote his Enquiry, he estimated the world population at 730 million, with some 122 million professing the name of Christ. He, his teammates, and many churches in Great Britain committed themselves to pray for the gospel to run among those 600 million who lived in darkness. And the result of those prayers? The Great Century of world missions. Today, the estimated world population is eight billion. The Joshua Project estimates that only eleven percent follow Christ. What might God be pleased to do if his people committed to pray for his kingdom to come?

Unreserved Resolve

Originally written to guide the work of the Serampore missionary team, the Serampore Form of Agreement remains relevant today, not just for missionaries, but for every follower of Jesus committed to the glorious cause of declaring the “good news of peace through Jesus Christ,” that “he is Lord of all” (Acts 10:36). The risen Lord sends his church into the world for this purpose. May we resolve ourselves, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to

give ourselves up unreservedly to this glorious cause. Let us never think that our time, our gifts, our strength, our families, or even the clothes we wear, are our own. Let us sanctify them all to God and His cause. Oh, that He may sanctify us for His work! (conclusion)

Amen. May it be so.