1824-Present
Judson Press and Publications
District of Columbia/Pennsylvania DC/PA
In June of 1824 Adoniram Judson was imprisoned when the British invaded Burma thus beginning the First Anglo-Burmese War. His confinement would last for 21 months and during that time, Baptists in America began their publication ministry. The Judsons, aided by missionary George Hough, plus William Carey’s Serampore Mission in India, had already begun to print gospel literature in Burmese in 1817, seven years before the Americans got around to it.
What we now call Judson Press began in Washington, DC, on 25 February 1824, as the Baptist General Tract Society with the purpose of publishing Christian literature and Sunday School materials. Two years later, over the protests of Luther Rice, the Society moved to Philadelphia and has remained in that city and its suburbs for nearly 200 years. As its mission and ministry expanded the Tract Society morphed to meet the needs of the changing culture assuming a variety of corporate titles.
The first chapter of ministry for the Baptist General Tract Society, might be defined as 1824 to 1840. Money raised in the first year was $373.80 and with it the Tract Society produced 696,000 pages of Christian witness.[1] Initial publications were simple tracts with a gospel message and in the first 16 years over 3.5 million tracts were printed.[2]
The name was changed in 1840 to American Baptist Publication and Sunday School Society and shortened again in 1844 by dropping the Sunday School Society. This name change allowed for not only the publication of tracts but “sabbath school books and volumes of a biographical, doctrinal or historical nature.”[3] Colportors were an original development during this second period of ministry. These men were appointed to distribute publications town to town and door to door. “Twenty men were in service on this plan in 1845…. In 1851 there were 27 ‘colporter missionaries,’ in seven States, besides Canada and Oregon, working among the Germans, Dutch, Irish and French; the salary of each of these men being $150 a year.”[4] “Nearly all of the Society’s colportage ‘was bestowed on waste and desert places’ and ‘was, strictly speaking, a preaching institution,’ most of the men being ministers.”[5] Out of this printing ministry came the American Baptist Historical Society in 1853.
Adoniram Judson Rowland writes that during the Civil War, “Large quantities of literature were sent to camps and hospitals, and thousands of dollars were expended in work among the colored people. Perhaps at no time in the history of the Society was there greater activity or more satisfactory results.”[6]
From 1873 until 1924 this ministry went back to its old name, The American Baptist Publication Society.[7] The Chapel Car ministry began in 1891 and the Judson Press Building at 1329 Lombard Street, Philadelphia, was dedicated in 1896. With the formation of the Northern Baptist Convention in 1907, it was time to retool the work of the Publication Society yet again
In 1924 this American Baptist publication ministry assumed the name of Judson Press. For the past 100 years the names of these iconic missionaries have been used to identify the work of this important printing ministry. The Judson Press trademark was registered in 1922 in honor of Adoniram and Ann Judson to preserve their denominational and missionary spirit.
The publication society under its many names during its first century, was often squabbling with the American Baptist Home Mission Society which was eight years younger. Many of the same people worked with both entities and served the same constituencies.
One was designed to promote the gospel through the printed page and the educational process [Publication Society]; the other through the local church and the evangelistic process [Home Mission Society]. In actual practice, however, the boundaries could not so easily be defined or maintained.[8]
Toward the end of the twentieth century, the Judson Press publishing ministry was merged into the missions program of the American Baptist Home Mission Societies to serve Jesus Christ throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. The Judson Press mission statement highlights their continuing purpose.
As a part of the American Baptist Home Mission Societies, Judson Press develops Christ-centered leadership and discipleship resources for the healing and transformation of persons, congregations, and communities. Its backlist of 335 book titles (print and e-pub) are available in both secular and Christian bookstores as well as in online stores, libraries, educational institutions and churches. JP is a leader in producing materials for African-American congregations and their church leadership. Judson publishes titles on Christian living, pastoral and church leadership, Baptist beliefs and history, preaching, Christian education, and the intercultural church. Other products include church supplies, Judson Bible Journeys adult curriculum and a devotional periodical, The Secret Place.[9]
+++++++++++++++
[1] Lawrence T. Slaght, Multiplying the Witness, 150 Years of American Baptist Educational Ministries (Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 1974), p. 21.
[2] Ibid., p. 13.
[3] Ibid., p. 27.
[4] Ibid., p. 31.
[5] Ibid., p. 32.
[6] Adoniram Judson Rowland, “The American Baptist Publication Society,” in A Century pf Baptist Achievement, edited by A. H. Newman (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1901), p. 231.
[7] Daniel Gurgen Stevens, The First Hundred Years of The American Baptist Publication Society (Philadelphia: The American Baptist Publication Society, 1924) p. 111.
[8] Slaght, p. 57.
[9] https://www.judsonpress.com/Pages/About/About-Us.aspx