Recruiting for Missions: The Baylor Volunteer Foreign Mission Band, 1900-1906: the Protestant Foreign Mission Movement in the United States Began Early in the Nineteenth Century, But As Late As 1890, Fewer Than One Thousand Missionaries Lived Abroad (Baylor University) (Essay‪)‬

By 1900, however, that number had risen to over five thousand. (1) These numbers support the claim that Protestants produced a veritable explosion of missionary activity by 1900. Effective methods of recruiting were absolutely essential to the success of the modern foreign missionary enterprise. In 1901, John R. Mott observed that "the closing years of the nineteenth century have witnessed an unprecedented development of missionary life and activity among young men and young women. A remarkable manifestation of the interest in the extension of the Kingdom of Christ has been among students." (2) Mott noted that a "remarkable" feature of this missionary interest was the level of interest and commitment to a life of missions that occurred among college students. The largest and most successful of these groups was the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, or the SVM, led by Mott himself. (3) At first its secretaries recruited chiefly in "the eastern half of the country." (4) Famous Glasgow professor Henry Drummond's notable tour of campuses in 1887 was confined to the Northeast. (5) The idea of recruiting for missions on university campuses eventually reached distant corners of the United States.