Our History
Post-World War II was an era of new beginnings. Within a short span of time, some 150 new mission agencies were started in the United States. Christians dreamed dreams and held great expectations.
On the campus of Manhattan Bible College in Kansas, a group of students caught the vision for foreign missions, pondering the best ways to accomplish the task of world evangelization. Coming from a background in the Christian churches, they knew of two distinct methods of sending and supporting missionaries: independently or cooperatively. They wondered about a middle ground, a new method for sending missionaries that captured the advantages of each mission approach while leaving behind the disadvantages.
One student went to India in 1946 as a missionary and continued to think about alternate ways to approach the missionary relationships. Upon his return to the States, he shared his ideas and sought the advice of Christian leaders around the country. They envisioned a missionary-sending arrangement where the message would be thoroughly biblical, and at the same time, organized to allow for partnership, accountability, and efficiency. Out of the recommendation and support of these leaders, Christian Missionary Fellowship was incorporated in Kansas in 1949. The chartered purpose of this new mission agency was “to evangelize the non-Christian people of the world” – an effort of churches and individuals voluntarily working together to accomplish the task of global evangelism.
Through CMF, churches could support missionaries on a team whose purpose was cross-cultural evangelism and whose structure provided accountability. A carefully selected Board of Directors would set policy, affiliate missionaries, and approve budgets. Contributing churches and individual donors and missionaries would have the responsibility to elect the Board of Directors and vote upon the policies being formulated.
Missionaries would serve as members of field teams, who would determine the appropriate mission strategies for their areas of ministry. CMF would combine teamwork, continuity, and the shared strength of the entire group with its commitment to biblical evangelism. Those wishing to serve as missionaries would benefit in numerous ways. CMF would ensure continued research into potential fields of service and the recruiting of new teammates. Recruits desiring to serve would be examined according to carefully set spiritual, physical, and educational standards. They would receive assistance in raising prayer and financial support. Once on the field, these missionaries would be aided in bookkeeping and maintaining close contact with their church partners and supporters through a US service center.
Within the first year of existence, CMF missionaries were on the field in India to begin ministry at Jhansi. Another family soon followed. A third family began ministry in Tokyo, Japan, in the fall of 1955; a fourth family pioneered work in Brazil in 1957.
The 1960s proved to be pivotal in the growth of CMF. Our ministry in Brazil was geared to church planting and leadership training among economically depressed people. In 1963, a family opened the new field of Ethiopia, the first of almost two dozen missionary families to serve in that country. Ministry began in the Wollega Province among the Oromo and Gumuz people. By the time CMF missionaries left Ethiopia due to the Marxist takeover in 1977, some 4,000 Ethiopian people had become Christians through their efforts. In 1992, a new team entered Ethiopia to resume ministry there among the Oromo and Gumuz, and also to begin church-planting and urban poor ministries in the capital city of Addis Ababa.
The 1970s and 1980s saw new fields opened in Kenya (Turkana, 1977; Maasai, 1978; radio programming to Ethiopia), Indonesia (1978), Mexico (1980), Tanzania (1984), Chile (1988), and England (1989). In the 1990s CMF entered Singapore (1990), Benin (1991), Thailand (1994), Ukraine (1994), and Ivory Coast (1998). In the 1990s we began our intercultural ministry in the United States among the immigrant Hispanic-speaking population.
A marketplace ministries division was established in the 1990s out of the concern for providing effective ministry in nations and among people that are resistant to standard mission approaches because of religious, political, or social reasons. Workers offer job skills and experience with a commitment to evangelism that is appropriate to the culture. Our first fields were in Northeast Africa and Southeast Asia, later expanding into the Asia continent.
With the rise in globalization and burgeoning cities in a millennium full of changes, we recognized the needs of the poor go beyond the lack of food and shelter to the very repression of the human spirit. We began using Community Health Evangelism to work with the urban poor in their communities by helping them to identify their needs, their God-given resources, and possible solutions to improve their situation. We partner with nationals and with US churches to provide church-based child sponsorship, microfinance, education, church planting, and hope.
The new century brought opportunities for us to minister to university students in major cities across the globe. CMF-Globalscope entered Mexico City (2000) first to set-up a model to be duplicated in other cross-cultural campus ministries: Bangkok, Thailand (2002), Santiago, Chile (2002), Salamanca, Spain (2004), Puebla, Mexico (2004), Birmingham, England (2007), and Tübingen, Germany (2008). The goal is to draw university students into saving, meaningful relationships with God through Jesus Christ, then create a loving community that reaches out around the world.
Currently, 165 CMF missionaries serve in Chile, Mexico, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Tanzania, Germany, Great Britain, Spain, Ukraine, 2 closed countries in Asia, 1 closed country in Central Asia, Indonesia, Thailand, and the USA.
