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The First Missionary You’ve Never Heard Of · Theology Made Podcast

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Theology Made Podcast.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Jordan.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Today, we're going to look at the first missionary you've never heard of.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: When we talk about the history of missions, a few names always come up.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: William Carey, Adoniram Judson, Hudson Taylor.
• 0:25
  They're the ones in the books,
• 0:26
  the ones who,
• 0:27
  quote unquote,
• 0:29
  started it all.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: But actually someone beat them to it by decades.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: And he wasn't from Europe.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't white.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't even free.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: He was a formerly enslaved black man.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: And he may have been the first American missionary in history.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: His name, George Laley.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've never heard of him, don't worry, you're not alone.
• 0:51
  But today we're going to look at the slave who became a
• 0:53
  preacher and left the
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: American church in the dust.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Section 1, The Slave Who Found His Voice.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: George Laley was born into slavery around 750 in Virginia.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: This means his first breath was owned,
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: his body,
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: someone else's property,
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: his future already decided by the color of his skin.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't have a last name of his own.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't have freedoms.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't have rights.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: But he did have something.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: He had ears.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: And one day, those ears heard something that would change everything.
• 1:25
  As a teenager,
• 1:26
  Laylee was taken to Georgia,
• 1:27
  sold to a man named Henry Sharp,
• 1:29
  a Baptist deacon.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's pause there.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's a strange and painful contradiction, isn't it?
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: A man who preached Christ, declared freedom, also held slaves.
• 1:40
  It's a wound at the center of American Christianity we still
• 1:43
  haven't fully healed.
• 1:44
  But in one of history's strange turns of providence,
• 1:47
  Sharp allowed Laylee to hear the gospel.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: but then not just hear it, study it, read it, and eventually preach it.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: And that changed everything.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Lely came to faith as a young man,
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: and when he opened his mouth to preach,
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: the people around him listened.
• 2:04
  Something about his words,
• 2:05
  his passion,
• 2:06
  his understanding of scripture cut through.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't just believe the gospel.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: He embodied it.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's be clear.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: This wasn't safe.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't normal.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't allowed.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: For a black man,
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: an enslaved man,
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: to preach in the American South in the 1770s,
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: that wasn't just unusual.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: It was dangerous.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Preaching was power.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: And in a system built on control, Lely's voice was a threat.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Preaching gave dignity to the undignified, hope to the hopeless.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: And the slave owners knew it.
• 2:39
  Because when someone starts preaching that every human is made
• 2:42
  in the image of God,
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: that Christ died for all,
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: that in Christ there is neither slave nor free,
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: that doesn't just change hearts.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: It shakes foundations.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: But George Laley didn't wait for permission.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't ask for a platform.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: He just started preaching.
• 2:56
  He rode out to nearby plantations and shared the gospel with
• 3:00
  other enslaved people,
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: many of whom had never been told that God saw them,
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: that God knew their names,
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: their lives mattered,
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: and the Spirit moved.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: People wept, repented, and believed.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: And in 1773,
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: three years before the Declaration of Independence,
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Lely was ordained by white Baptist pastors in Georgia.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: that's not just a historical footnote.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's a thunderclap.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because before there was an America,
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: before the Constitution,
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: before the flags and the fireworks and the tea,
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: there was George Lely,
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: an enslaved black man preaching the gospel on southern soil.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that gospel, it didn't belong to slaveholders.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't serve the empire.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: It served a kingdom that can't be bought or sold.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Section two, freed to go further.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now here's where the story flips the narrative.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because most tales of early missionaries start with a calling,
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: a committee,
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  SPEAKER_00: a commissioning service,
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: and a ship.
• 4:03
  But George Lely's story,
• 4:05
  it started with freedom and the fight to keep it.
• 4:08
  After years of faithful preaching,
• 4:10
  Lely's owner,
• 4:11
  Henry Sharp,
• 4:11
  did something almost unheard of.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: He granted George his freedom.
• 4:17
  Not because of pressure,
• 4:18
  not because of law,
• 4:19
  but because he believed Lely was called by God.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: But freedom in the South wasn't safe.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Not then, and not for a black man.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Especially not in the chaos of the American Revolution.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: You have to understand this wasn't the kind of freedom we think of today.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Free black men in the 1770s walked a razor's edge.
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  SPEAKER_00: You could be free and still kidnapped.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Still accused and still enslaved again.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Especially if you were outspoken.
• 4:46
  particularly if you were preaching and preaching hope to people
• 4:51
  who weren't
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: supposed to have any.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Then came the rumors that Lely supported the British,
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: that he was stirring up unrest,
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  SPEAKER_00: that his freedom wasn't real or shouldn't be.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: One wrong move and he'd lose everything.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: So what does he do?
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  SPEAKER_00: He leaves, not out of fear, but on mission.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: In 1782,
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: still in the middle of the Revolution,
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  SPEAKER_00: George Laley boards a ship bound for Jamaica,
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: a brutal British colony known for its sugar plantations,
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: slave uprisings,
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: and harsh conditions.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: He could have stayed hidden.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: He could have gone silent.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: He could have protected his freedom.
• 5:26
  But he didn't,
• 5:28
  because there were people in Jamaica who had never heard the
• 5:30
  gospel.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: And Lely believed it was worth everything,
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: even exile,
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: potential slavery or death to bring it to them.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: So he went.
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  SPEAKER_00: No support letters, no denomination behind him.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: There was no safety net and there was no applause.
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  SPEAKER_00: He just went.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Ten years before William Carey set sail for India.
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  SPEAKER_00: Ten years before the official modern missionary movement began.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't have to wait for a mission board to send him.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't need a white robe or a seminary degree or a title.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: He just simply believed Jesus is Lord.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: and that people need to hear it.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: So he sailed across an ocean alone because the gospel was worth it.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so were they.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Section 3.
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  SPEAKER_00: Missionary before missions existed.
• 6:16
  When George Laley stepped off that ship to Jamaica,
• 6:19
  he didn't just step into a mission field.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: He stepped into a furnace.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Jamaica in the late 1700s wasn't just hot, it was violent.
• 6:28
  It was one of the wealthiest and most brutal slave economies in
• 6:32
  the world.
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  SPEAKER_00: Because sugar plantations...
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: They ran on blood.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Enslaved Africans were worked to death under the whip.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Mortality rates were so high that plantations didn't plan for children,
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  SPEAKER_00: they planned for replacements.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: It was hell on earth.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: And Lely,
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: he walked straight into it with nothing but a Bible,
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: a burning conviction,
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: and a deep love for Christ.
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  SPEAKER_00: And he got to work.
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  SPEAKER_00: He didn't wait for a pulpit to be offered.
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  SPEAKER_00: He didn't wait for a church to form.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: He started preaching in open fields, on porches in sugar cane rows.
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  SPEAKER_00: Wherever enslaved people would gather, he would tell them the good news.
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  SPEAKER_00: You're not forgotten.
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  SPEAKER_00: You're not animals.
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  SPEAKER_00: You're not property.
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  SPEAKER_00: You children of God, made in His image, redeemed by His blood.
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  SPEAKER_00: And they listened.
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  And they came by the dozens and then the hundreds to hear a
• 7:22
  gospel that didn't prop
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: up slavery but broke its back.
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  SPEAKER_00: Lely preached.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: He taught the scriptures.
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  SPEAKER_00: He baptized hundreds of new believers,
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  most of them enslaved men and women who had never been told
• 7:33
  that God knew their
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: name.
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  SPEAKER_00: But he didn't stop at preaching.
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  SPEAKER_00: He started schools to teach literacy,
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  SPEAKER_00: because reading the Bible wasn't just spiritual,
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  SPEAKER_00: it was revolutionary.
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  He trained lay preachers to carry the gospel into the hills and
• 7:46
  plantations,
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  and he planted what would become the first African Baptist
• 7:50
  church of Kingston,
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  SPEAKER_00: one of the earliest Baptist churches on the island.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: All without a salary, all without protection, all under constant threat.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because to the plantation owners, George Laley wasn't a preacher.
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  SPEAKER_00: He was a problem.
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  SPEAKER_00: His gospel wasn't tame.
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  SPEAKER_00: It didn't just tell people how to go to heaven.
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  SPEAKER_00: It told them, have dignity now.
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  SPEAKER_00: Your body matters.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Their chains were not blessed by God, but were an offense to him.
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  SPEAKER_00: And that message, it shook the system.
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  SPEAKER_00: So they came for him.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: He was arrested,
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  SPEAKER_00: thrown in jail,
• 8:21
  dragged into court multiple times by slave owners who wanted to
• 8:23
  silence him.
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  SPEAKER_00: They called him dangerous.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: They said he was stirring up rebellions.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing.
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  SPEAKER_00: They were right.
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  SPEAKER_00: Because Lely didn't preach a gospel that left the world as it was.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: He preached a gospel that turned the world upside down.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: A gospel that said, you're made in the image of God.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: You are not a slave.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: You're a saint.
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  SPEAKER_00: You are not the property of man.
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  SPEAKER_00: You are the beloved of Christ.
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  SPEAKER_00: And that kind of gospel, it doesn't stay caged.
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  SPEAKER_00: It can't be chained.
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  SPEAKER_00: It will break something.
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  SPEAKER_00: And in Jamaica, through George Lely, it did.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Section 4.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Why haven't you heard of this?
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: So why don't we talk about George Lely?
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Why isn't he in the missions textbooks?
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  Why isn't his name etched in the stained glass of our
• 9:07
  missionary heritage right
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: alongside William Carey and Judson?
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Why did the man who went first become the man we forgot?
• 9:14
  And there are a lot of reasons,
• 9:16
  but let's be honest about the biggest ones.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: First, because of race.
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  SPEAKER_00: For too long,
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  SPEAKER_00: church history,
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  SPEAKER_00: especially Western church history,
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: has been written with a particular lens.
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  SPEAKER_00: Eurocentric, white, institutional.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's not that stories like George Laley's didn't exist.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: is that they didn't fit the narrative.
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  SPEAKER_00: He didn't come from Europe.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't speak with a posh accent or write long theological treaties.
• 9:39
  He didn't have a formal education or the endorsement of a
• 9:42
  denominational board.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: He was poor.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: He was black.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: He was formerly enslaved.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: And to many people in power, that made him invisible.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Second, because we like clean stories.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: We like heroes with credentials,
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: missionaries with mission boards,
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: sermons that don't disrupt the system too much,
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: just maybe stir a little something inside of me.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: William Carey had a passport,
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: a plan,
• 10:03
  and eventually the full weight of the Baptist missionary
• 10:05
  society behind him.
• 10:07
  George Lely,
• 10:08
  he had nothing but the gospel and a conviction that it belonged
• 10:10
  to everyone.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Carey was celebrated in his lifetime.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Lely was arrested, harassed, and almost erased.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the truth.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: If you believe in missions,
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: if you care about the global church,
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: if you've ever given to a missionary or prayed for the unreached,
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: you owe George Lely a thank you.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because while the institutions were still trying to figure it out,
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: while Europe was still organizing committees and drawing maps,
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: George Lely had already gone,
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: already preached,
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: already planted churches,
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: already baptized believers,
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: already laid a foundation.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: Before the missions movement had a name, he was the movement.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe the question isn't, why haven't we heard of him?
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe the question is,
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: What does it say about us that we haven't?
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: George Lely didn't wait to be sent.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't wait to be safe.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't wait for the world to get it.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: He just went.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: And in doing so, he proved something powerful.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need a platform to preach.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need sadness to serve.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: And you don't need permission to obey Jesus.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: You just need a gospel worth giving your life to.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: And George Lely, he found it.