Episode Overview

Podcast: 5 Minutes in Church History with Stephen Nichols
Episode Title: The Haystack Prayer Meeting
Air Date: February 25, 2026
Host: Stephen Nichols (Ligonier Ministries)

This episode spotlights the legendary Haystack Prayer Meeting, tracing its pivotal role in launching the American foreign missions movement. Nichols explores the setting, the influential students involved, and the transformative outcomes that grew from five young men praying under a haystack in 1806. Drawing connections to the Second Great Awakening and subsequent generations of missionaries, Nichols distills a story that shaped the church’s global mission.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

The Setting and Historical Background

• Location: Williams College, near Williamstown, Massachusetts, founded in 1793 ([00:10]).
• Event: In the summer of 1806, five college students gathered for prayer and discussion on missions, forced to take shelter by a sudden storm under a haystack ([00:14]).
• Era Context: Occurred during the early days of the Second Great Awakening, a widespread revival movement with strong roots in American colleges like Williams, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard, Middlebury, Union College, and Princeton ([00:27]).

The Five Students

• Names: Samuel Mills, James Richards, Francis Robbins, Harvey Loomis, Byron Green ([00:36]).
• Leadership: Samuel Mills emerged as the leader, a committed advocate for foreign missions ([00:41]).

Creation of the Society of the Brethren

• Founding: The five students formed "the Society of the Brethren" at Williams College with the clear goal “to affect in the persons of its members a mission to the heathen” ([00:46]).
• Spread: The society quickly inspired similar missions groups at other colleges, catalyzing a student-led missions movement ([00:54]).

Founding the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions

• Year: 1810
• Role: Samuel Mills’s leadership instrumental in the formation of the board, which organized and sent out missionaries from the United States ([00:57]).

Samuel Mills’s Ongoing Mission Work

• Domestic Missions: Mills traveled throughout the US, distributing Bibles, including in New Orleans, motivated by the lack of available Bibles in the region ([01:06]).
• International Vision: In 1818, Mills sailed to West Africa to establish a mission. Tragically, he died at sea while returning home on June 16, 1818 ([01:16]).

Early American Missionaries Abroad

• Notable Missionary: Adoniram Judson, one of the first missionaries ordained and sent by the board in 1812 ([01:23]).
  • Challenges: Forced out of India by the British East India Company, ultimately settled in Burma.
  • Legacy: Founded churches, schools, and translated the Bible into Burmese (finished in 1834); imprisoned on espionage charges, demonstrating perseverance ([01:27]).

Enduring Legacy and Growth of the Movement

• Societies Expand: By 1856, out of 70 U.S. colleges, 49 had their own missionary advancement societies ([01:35]).
• Missionary Force: By the 1850s, over 2,000 American missionaries had been sent abroad, establishing churches, schools, hospitals, and translating biblical material ([01:42]).
• Key Quote & Motif: “We can do this if we will.” — Samuel Mills ([01:50]).

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On the Monument’s Inscription:
  “On this site, in the shelter of a haystack during a summer storm in 1806, five Williams College students dedicated their lives to the spread of the church around the globe. Out of their decision grew the American Foreign Mission movement. And on the monument itself is inscribed these words, the field is the world.”
  — Stephen Nichols, reading the plaque ([00:07])

• On Motivation and Resolve:
  “We can do this if we will.”
  — Samuel Mills, recounted by Stephen Nichols ([01:50])

• On the Movement’s Breadth:
  “That is a whole generation of missionaries establishing the critical foundations for the mission movement. Churches, schools, hospitals, agriculture, business, Bible translation, theological and biblical literature translation.”
  — Stephen Nichols ([01:44])

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:07 – Introduction and reading of the Haystack Monument plaque
• 00:14 – Description of the 1806 Haystack Prayer Meeting and its historical context
• 00:27 – Connection to the Second Great Awakening and revival on college campuses
• 00:36 – Naming of the five college students
• 00:41 – Samuel Mills’ biography and leadership
• 00:46 – Formation of the Society of the Brethren
• 00:57 – Establishment of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
• 01:06 – Mills’s Bible distribution efforts in New Orleans
• 01:16 – Mills’s death at sea following mission work in Africa
• 01:23 – Judson’s missionary journey and challenges in Burma
• 01:35 – Growth of missionary societies across colleges
• 01:42 – Expansion of missionary work and foundational legacy
• 01:50 – Samuel Mills’s iconic declaration: “We can do this if we will.”

Conclusion

Nichols concludes by emphasizing the enduring impact of five faithful students and their prayerful vision, encapsulated in Samuel Mills’s words: “We can do this if we will.” The legacy of the Haystack Prayer Meeting, he notes, is a continuing inspiration for missionary zeal and foundational to the spread of Christianity from America in the 19th century and beyond.