Raised a Congregationalist, John Mason Peck grew up to be a school teacher. Later, after becoming a Baptist, he was ordained
a minister. Beginning in 1813 Peck pastored a church in Catskill, NY. At the same time the Judsons
were trying to find a place for their mission in Burma, Peck also was thinking about becoming a
missionary. Thousands of people were settling in the new Illinois and Missouri territories. Peck
wrote to Luther Rice who was urging people to support foreign missions. He asked questions such
as, "If we send missionaries to other countries, why don't we send missionaries out West?" He also
asked, "How can I be a missionary to the new settlements in the West?" He aroused enough interest
so that the Baptists sent him to St. Louis, MO in 1817. In St Louis, Peck found almost no religion.
He began a church and a Sunday School. Before long he raised the money to build a church
building. Still, effective though he was in only two years the Baptist Mission Board decide to close
his mission to white settlers. The anti missionary movement attacked Home Missions even harder
than they did foreign missions. Spokesmen expressed loud opposition to organizations which
collected funds and then sent trained missionaries into their territory. Part of the problem was that the
missionaries were better trained that the local preachers.

 Thus it was that in 1820 the Triennial
Convention withdrew from Home Mission work. They gave three reasons
for this action:
1.   The lack of funds for the work
2.   The supposition that enough ministers would move into the area as
     part of the westward migration, thus meeting the need.
3.   The opposition the missionary movement was meeting in the west.
In making this decision the Triennial Convention returned to its original
purpose, foreign missions. It would continue to support missions to Indians
but those who had tried to broaden its scope to include all phases of
denominational work had failed.
Peck continued to work in Missouri. For two years he supported himself.
Then the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society began supporting him.
They allowed him a salary of $5.00 per week. Pecks work and vision for the
west inspired some Baptists to try to find a way to support and expend that
work. On April 27, 1832, The Triennial Convention, which was in session,
adjourned to permit its delegates to attend a conference on home missions.
That afternoon the American Baptist Home Mission Society was created.
The founders chose as their field of work North America. Their motto was
"North America For Christ."
In the first year of its existence the Home Mission Society appointed 89
missionaries. That first year saw 400 Baptisms. The following year 80
missionaries were added. 1600 Baptisms were reported. Forty churches and
fifty Sunday Schools had been formed. The first ten years saw 11,000
baptism, 400 new churches and the ordination of 142 ministers.
The home missionary spent much time traveling. Some traveled as much
as 4500 miles a year. This was not the era of a settled preacher serving one
church.
In 1845 schism struck Baptist in America. Southern churches, concerned
over the power northern based mission societies were gaining, and
discovering that slave holding was increasingly condemned, pulled out of the
mission societies to form their own Southern Baptist Convention. In spite of
that split, by the 50th anniversary of the Home Mission Society it had 513
missionaries working in every Western state and territory. Missionaries were
laboring with four races and in nine languages. The races were White,
Black, Indian and Asian.
As our country has changed, so has the work of the Home Mission
Society. The society was first founded to bring the Gospel to the frontier.
During this period the major emphasis was church planting. Working in the
West led the Home Mission Society to also take the responsibility for
witness to Indians. Until the Civil war the American Baptist Missionary
Union carried out this work. After the war the Home Mission society picked
it up. One result of the work was Bacone College in Oklahoma. This
college, originally founded for Indians still has a student body which is 75%
Indian.
As the century turned form the 19th to the 20th the Society saw the need
for work with the many immigrants coming to America. It formed bilingual
churches among peoples of many nations; Mexican, Finn, Russian, Polish,
Hungarian, Czech and Romanian. They also founded churches with Chinese
and Japanese. A large and effective work was begun among Scandinavians.
Work with Norwegians began in 1848 and with Swedes in 1853. Many of
these groups formed their own denominations as they moved from bilingual
churches to English speaking churches. This shift came as the new
generation, born in this country grew up in their churches. The Swedish
Baptist General Conference, for example, became the Baptist General
Conference. As the flow of immigrants slowed the need for bilingual
churches also declined. By 1970 the Home Mission board was only working
with bilingual Spanish ministries. Since then, with the new wave of
immigrants from Asia we have seen a new wave of churches speaking such
languages as Hmong.
Under the motto, North America for Christ, the Home Mission Society
planted churches in Mexico, Cuba, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti
and Jamaica. In 1972, the Board of International Ministries took over the
responsibility for this work.
The Home Mission Society is still active today. Currently it is called the
Board of National Ministries. It is still in the business of church planting. In
the decade 1984 to 1994 we planted over 500 new churches. the good news
here is that 80% of those who attend our new church starts were not going
to any church before they came to it. 18% are people who recently moved
into the community and only 2% transfer from other churches.
Another ministry of the Board of National Ministries is the American
Baptist Extension Corp. Through investments made by American Baptists
ABEC is able to loan money to churches for expansion and major repairs.
The board does work with Indians and with Spanish speaking ministries.
When we attempted to begin a Spanish work in our church we received help
from the BNM. Our work in Stewart NV, the Tahoe Indian Parish has
recently tripled in size.
National ministries provides evangelistic ministries, family ministries and
many other outreaches to the church and community in America.  

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