Earliest usage of the word “Missional”

Andrew Jones, the Tall Skinny Kiwi and prolific blogger on emerging/missional church, posted a brief article here in which he has the earliest use one can find of the word “Missional”.

Wanting to use this reference in my masters thesis, which is still in progress, I followed up and looked through the references Andrew posted.

His reference referred to the Proceedings of the Baptist Convention for Missionary Purposes, Held in Philadelphia in May, 1814, page 249. Published by American Baptist Foreign Mission Society.

There is no page 249 in the document, but the scanned book is in Google Books. The plain text view shows “missional” on p. 26, but looking at the actual scan shows this is a bad OCR reading of the word “missionary,” cut off at the end of the line.

Andrew’s other reference, the citation that “Bishop Tozer is called the “Missional Bishop of Central Africa and by some the ” fighting parson,”from The Heros of African Discovery and Adventure, from the death of Livingstone to the year 1882, by C.E. Bourne, 1883, page 191, is rock solid, though. This reference is verified as “Missional” by looking at the scanned image, and is the earliest conclusively verified use of the word in English in a sense which resonates with contemporary usage I can find right now.

Other references that come up on Google:

The Tribune Almanac and Political Register For… – Page 138
by Horace Greeley – United States – 1901 – Charles T. McMullin; superintendent of Sabbath school and missional work, Dr.
James A. Worden; editorial superintendent …
[bad OCR reading of the word "missionary". Page is cut off at right margin. Letter "r" clearly visible.]

Non-English readings:

Westafrikanische Kautschuk-expedition – Page 72
by Otto Warburg, Robert Henriques, Rudolf Schlechter – Rubber – 1900 – 326 pages
Als ich gegen 7 Uhr aufbrach, war das Wasser des Stromes derartig bewegt, dafs
mir die Missional-e rieten, noch länger zu bleiben, …
[Bad OCR read. Word is "Missionare" at the end of a line, followed by "reiten" on the next line.]

Westafrikanische Kautschuk-expedition – Page 72
by Otto Warburg, Robert Henriques, Rudolf Schlechter – Rubber – 1900 – 326 pages
Als ich gegen 7 Uhr aufbrach, war das Wasser des Stromes derartig bewegt, dafs
mir die Missional-e rieten, noch länger zu bleiben, …
[Bad OCR read. Word is "Mission a' l'assistance" with accent above the a."]

Die Expedition in die Seen von China, Japan and Ochotsk unter Commando von … – Page 131
by Wilhelm Heine – United States North Pacific Exploring Expedition – 1858
Missional« …
[Bad OCR read. Word is "Missionare"]

Thanks very much, Andrew for looking up the references. Sorry the one didn’t pan out, but we can at least state conclusively that the term has been in use since at least 1883.