Origin, development, and organization of the International Mission Board

Historians generally agree that the Great Awakening began in New Jersey with the preaching of Gilbert Tennent, a young Presbyterian. The spiritual spark that followed his and others’ proclamation of the gospel found its roots among rural and uneducated people. This resulted in a rapid expansion of religious excitement.
The Great Awakening brought missionary and evangelistic zeal to the South, mainly through Separate Baptists. Shubal Stearns, with his strong sense of mission, took Separate Baptists south into Virginia and on to North Carolina. In North Carolina, a Separate church was founded at Sandy Creek that became the mother of forty-two additional churches. Separates practiced Arminian theology and focused attention on the proclamation of the gospel to all men and the obligation of men everywhere to believe. In the South, evangelism and missions were the products of the Great Awakening.
In 1792, a Baptist cobbler named William Carey secured the financial support...