In October of 1792 the Baptist Missionary Society was formed in the home of Andrew Fuller. For the next twenty-one years Fuller served as the leader of this organization, raising funds, writing periodicals, recruiting missionaries, and sending personal letters to those on the frontlines.
He fulfilled his promise to the great missionary William Carey, who upon his trip to the unknown world of India, looked at the small band of brothers around him and said, as it were, “Well, I will go down, if you will hold the rope.” Andrew Fuller held the rope. Suffering the loss of his first wife, and eight of their eleven children, Fuller persevered in the midst of severe affliction and overwhelming responsibilities. He longed for unreached peoples to hear the gospel and championed the important (but often overlooked) foundation of doctrinal clarity.
For these reasons and more, John Piper delivered a biographical message on Andrew Fuller at the 2007 Conference for Pastors. Standing as the emblematic “rope holder,” Fuller's life is once again put on display for our encouragement and example in this book.
How do we give our lives to world missions if we feel called to stay in our homeland? How do we breathe the air of the world's lostness without living among unreached peoples? How do we grasp the importance of doctrine in fulfilling the missionary cause? Read Andrew Fuller.
“The Bible was always paramount: ‘Lord, thou hast given me a determination to take up no principle at second-hand; but to search for everything at the pure fountain of thy word.’ ... That is one of the main reasons why it is so profitable to read Fuller to this very day: He is so freshly biblical.
