At a conference in London in 1920, Baptists from around the world strategized together about where to send missionaries. The Foreign Mission Board agreed to work in Spain, Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia. FMB representatives were astounded to learn there were as many as 100,000 Baptists in areas like Ukraine and the Russian Empire, and resolved to help their work as well.

During this decade, the Southern Baptist Convention made grand efforts to support and expand mission work, first through the $75 million campaign and then through the Cooperative Program. In many ways the $75 million campaign was a success, because it rallied Southern Baptists around the common cause of global missions and unified a denomination that had come dangerously close to falling apart. But only $58.6 million of the $92 million pledged was received, and the FMB fell deeply into debt to support the many new missionaries who had been guaranteed funding. In 1925, the Cooperative Program was formed to provide a more reliable, ongoing source of funding for Baptist entities.

Despite these financial challenges, during this decade FMB missionaries experienced what some consider the greatest revival in Baptist church history. In China’s Shantung province, missionaries had been disheartened by the apathy of the Chinese people. No one was coming to faith in Christ, and churches were stagnant and dying. Missionary Mary Crawford said groups began earnestly praying for revival, some as early as 1925. John Abernathy and others faithfully taught the Word and preached about sin. In 1927, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit brought about earnest repentance of sin and renewed spiritual fervor among missionaries and Christians across many denominations. This decade-long revival spread from Shantung province in the north throughout the entire country.