Sermon illustrations

Sermon illustrations on missions & calling

Four lives that heard a call and went — to Ireland, to inland China, to the world, and back up the rivers of a homeland. The table is the quick scan; the stories below give you the words to preach. Each is a first-person account you can read in full.

Figure	The calling	Scripture
St. Patrick — back to the land that enslaved him	Returned to evangelise Ireland — his former captors.	Acts 16:9
Hudson Taylor — the inland millions of China	Carried the gospel to China's unreached interior.	Isaiah 6:8
Amanda Smith — from slavery to three continents	Born enslaved; preached across the US, Britain, India, and Africa.	Romans 10:15
Samuel Crowther — a homeland evangelised by its own son	Freed slave who became the first African Anglican bishop.	Acts 1:8

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St. Patrick — back to the land that enslaved him

Acts 16:9

Patrick had every reason never to see Ireland again: he had been enslaved there for six years. Yet he writes of a vision — the "voice of the Irish" pleading with him to come back — and he obeyed, returning to spend his life baptising and ordaining among the people who had once held him captive. A calling that ran straight at the place of his deepest wound.

From Confessio (The Confession of St. Patrick) by Patrick of Ireland (450) — read the account →

Hudson Taylor — the inland millions of China

Isaiah 6:8

Converted as a teenager while reading the words "It is finished" in a gospel tract, Hudson Taylor became convinced God meant him for the vast, unreached interior of China. He founded the China Inland Mission in 1865 and gave the rest of his life to the people few others would go to reach — adopting Chinese dress and customs to do it.

From A Retrospect by J. Hudson Taylor (1894) — read the account →

Amanda Smith — from slavery to three continents

Romans 10:15

Born into slavery, Amanda Smith became an independent evangelist whose calling carried her far beyond anything her beginnings would have predicted — preaching at camp meetings across America and then on to Britain, India, and Africa, and founding an orphanage. A reminder that God's call is bounded by neither birth nor borders.

From An Autobiography: The Story of the Lord's Dealings with Mrs. Amanda Smith by Amanda Smith (1893) — read the account →

Samuel Crowther — a homeland evangelised by its own son

Acts 1:8

Carried off by slave raiders as a boy and freed by a Royal Navy patrol, Samuel Crowther was baptised in Sierra Leone in 1825, became a pioneering Bible translator, and in 1864 was consecrated the first African bishop of the Anglican Church. Then he sailed back up the Niger to bring the gospel to his own homeland — the mission field charting itself.

From Journal of an Expedition up the Niger and Tshadda Rivers by Samuel Ajayi Crowther (1855) — read the account →

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T.S. Baker Books — true stories of changed lives, free to read and quote.