While researching in preparation for our television documentary “Asia: The Great Wall and Beyond” I discovered that legendary missionary William Carey really understood the power of a creative tagline. Carey, who many consider the father of the missionary movement organized a missionary society in 1792 and launched an evangelistic meeting with the line:
“Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God!”
That line so inspired the people of his time that in spite of widespread skepticism of missions, within a year, he was on a ship traveling to India to begin his ministry. The book goes on to comment about the influence of that simple but powerful line:
“His greatest legacy was in the worldwide missionary movement of the nineteenth century that he inspired. Missionaries like Adoniram Judson, Hudson Taylor, and David Livingstone, among thousands of others, were impressed not only by Carey’s example, but by his words “Expect great things; attempt great things.” The history of nineteenth-century Protestant missions is in many ways an extended commentary on the phrase.”
