How Did Colonialism Shape Christian Missions?

Colonialism often gave Christian missions money, routes, protection, and access—but it also repeatedly entangled the gospel with conquest and cultural domination.

The difference in principle

In Acts 13:1–3, the church at Antioch prays, fasts, and sends Barnabas and Saul because the Holy Spirit calls them.

That is very different from a state sending missionaries alongside soldiers, merchants, or settlers. Christian mission is meant to bear witness to Christ freely, not to make people subjects of a Christian empire.

Ways colonialism shaped missions

• Missionary travel followed imperial expansion. European ships, trade networks, colonies, and protected settlements made long-distance mission possible.
• Colonial governments sometimes supported missions. This could provide land, funding, schools, and legal protection.
• Conversion could be pressured or rewarded. In some places, baptism became connected to political loyalty, education, employment, or social advancement rather than free faith.
• European culture was treated as Christian culture. Missionaries sometimes confused the gospel with European dress, language, customs, racial hierarchy, or political rule.
• Indigenous churches were often controlled from abroad. Local Christians could be denied leadership, and their languages, customs, and theological insight were treated as inferior.

The result was that many peoples experienced “Christianity” not first as the good news of Jesus, but as part of the machinery of foreign rule.

It was not one simple story

Some missionaries defended colonized peoples against exploitation, learned local languages, translated Scripture, opposed slavery, built schools and hospitals, and helped form indigenous churches.

Others actively justified conquest, land seizure, forced assimilation, or racial hierarchy. Often the same mission movement contained both sincere sacrificial service and damaging colonial assumptions.

A Christian judgment

The church must tell the truth about this history: coercion and domination contradict Christ’s way. Jesus sends disciples to make disciples, teaching obedience to him—not to impose an empire (Matthew 28:18–20; Mark 10:42–45).

Yet colonial misuse does not make the gospel itself colonial. Christians from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Indigenous communities have received Christ, read Scripture, and built churches that are not mere extensions of Europe. The proper pattern remains Antioch: the Spirit calls, the church prays, and witnesses are sent as servants.