The church’s first big push for foreign missions came in 1871 when GC delegates voted to send J.G. Matteson to witness to the Scandinavians and Danes — of Wisconsin. From here, the American Adventist church was beginning to catch a glimpse of the possibilities. The gospel preached to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.
Mission on the Move part 2
I realize words “rogue” and “missionary” don’t seem like they should go together, but Michael Czechowski was like Indiana Jones or Hans Solo. He was, and I quote, “a stubborn, impetuous man who refused to take advice from Ellen White.”
History gives us the sense that he was a charismatic swindler, yet without him, many Adventists
would have gone on believing what the Review and Herald printed in 1869: “It may not be
necessary to preach the gospel in any country besides our own since our land is composed of
people from almost every nation.”
If we reach the immigrants within the United States, they will witness to their friends and families
overseas. The great commission will fulfill itself.
The church’s first big push for foreign missions came in 1871 when GC delegates voted to send
J.G. Matteson to witness to the Scandinavians and Danes — of Wisconsin.
Czechowski, however, was no Millerite. He was an ex-Catholic Polish priest turned obsessive
Sabbatarian. He was young, idealistic, fluent in seven or eight languages, and terrible with
money.
James and Ellen White were so besotted by his personality that they helped him pay all his
debts and funded his travel from Battle Creek back to New York. Later Ellen would receive a
vision telling her to stop supporting him.
Czechowski left a wake of burnt bridges and bad business deals behind him. Though he hated
taking advice, he didn’t mind taking money. So when the SDA church wouldn’t support him as a
missionary to Europe, he found another denomination that would. Czechowski used their money
to share Adventist beliefs in Switzerland.
However, he failed to inform the Swiss congregation of the home church in America. It wasn’t
until a church elder found a copy of the Review and Herald that Czechowski’s secret came out.
The congregation was shocked. Naturally, their trust was bruised. The Swiss leaders wrote to
the GC asking for a replacement missionary.
Adventist historian David Trim writes, “Adventists in America were actually sort of embarrassed
to learn that there were already Adventist believers in Europe.”
The Americans invited the Swiss Adventists to send a delegate to the 1869 GC session. Though
he arrived too late for the session, he stayed long enough to return as an ordained minister.
Elsewhere, Czechowski’s tactics finally caught up to him. His bankroll was revoked. Disgraced,
he left his family and moved to Hungary, where he would later die at 57, reportedly from
exhaustion.
But the Swiss church still sought a missionary. And that is how John Nevins Andrews became
the first official Seventh-Day Adventist missionary to Europe. As a replacement for the rogue
missionary. The spirit of spreading the Three Angels Message began to intensify within the
Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Even J.G. Matteson got to move on from the wilds of Wisconsin to his home country of
Denmark. His work would lead to the first international Adventist conference, the Scandinavian
“Publishing House, and Matteson Institute in Mysen Norway.”
The American Adventist church was beginning to catch a glimpse of the possibilities. The
gospel preached to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.
A world church. But we still lacked a key component.
