The immediate origins of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions are well known.

In the midst of the Second Great Awakening and a growing Trinitarian-Unitarian controversy, a small group of college students met in 1806 to discuss the spiritual condition of the Asian nations. A storm arose and they took shelter in a haystack. From this “Haystack Prayer Meeting” came the resolve to take the Gospel to those who had not heard. The Field Is the World tells the story of the students’ petition to the General Association of Congregational Ministers of Massachusetts to seek ways to respond to Christ’s call to preach the gospel to every creature. The resulting Board of Commissioners became the first evangelical mission organization to transcend denominational affiliations in the U.S. and to represent the epitome of the missionary enterprise at large.

Donald Philip Corr has presented one of a limited number of scholarly works on the Board’s ministry beyond the U.S., particularly its pioneering efforts on the role of preaching and social work and the theme of indigenization among unreached peoples.