ABCFM

The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was among the first American Christian missionary organizations. It was created in 1810 by recent graduates of Williams College. In the 19th century it was the largest and most important of American missionary organizations.

In 1961, the ABCFM or the American Board, as it was often called, merged with other societies to form the United Church Board for World Ministries, an agency of the United Church of Christ. Other organizations that draw inspiration from the ABCFM include InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference, and the Missionary Society of the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches.

The ABCFM consisted of an annual meeting with a Prudential Committee (aka Executive Committee) that took care of day-to-day business. It elected a Corresponding Secretary to produce written documents, and a Treasurer to receive donations, and had Board Members.

The ABCFM held its first meeting on 5 September 1810, and elected Samuel Worcester corresponding secretary.

In 1826, the American Board absorbed 26 members of the United Foreign Missionary Society (UFMS) into its board.

The founding of the ABCFM was inspired by the Second Great Awakening. In 1806, five students from Williams College in western Massachusetts took shelter from a thunderstorm in a haystack. At the Haystack Prayer Meeting, they came to the common conviction that "the field is the world" and inspired the creation of the ABCFM four years later. The objective of the ABCFM was to spread Christianity worldwide.Congregationalist in origin, the ABCFM also accepted missionaries from Presbyterian (1812–70), Dutch-Reformed (1819–57) and other denominations.

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