During the 1950s Southern Baptists experienced a massive growth spurt. Congregations were growing, resources were flowing, and Southern Baptist churches were missions-saturated environments. Missions education programs, including Sunbeams, GAs, RAs, WMU and Brotherhood, ensured most Southern Baptists were aware of, and concerned about, global missions. Support for the Foreign Mission Board’s Program of Advance was strong, and many new missionaries were sent out to new lands. By 1955, over 1,000 FMB missionaries were on the field.

In 1951 the FMB faced a blow when the last missionary in China was forced to leave due to the Communist government’s opposition to missionary presence. But, much like the persecution in the book of Acts helped spread the gospel to new areas, the hostility in China led to an expansion of ministry into many new parts of Asia. God graciously used these circumstances to open up countries like Taiwan, the Philippines and Indonesia. On Christmas Day 1951, three missionaries who previously served in China moved to Indonesia, which soon became one of Southern Baptists’ biggest mission fields.

In Africa, where missionaries were working only in Nigeria, Ghana and Southern Rhodesia (modern day Zimbabwe), a field leader called for additional workers to help minister to a massive continent where large populations of Muslims and Roman Catholics were resistant to the gospel. In 1956, missionaries moved out of Nigeria to start work in Tanzania. Soon new missionaries arrived in other parts of eastern and southern Africa, where many nations were starting to declare independence from European colonial rule.