Johannes Gossner was 63 years old when he founded his missionary training institution. He had been a Catholic priest from Bavaria, with a somewhat free-thinking approach to the scriptures which brought him into conflict with the Catholic Church. He converted to Lutheranism in July 1826, and in 1829 became pastor of the Bethlehem church in Berlin, replacing Johannes Jänicke, who had himself founded a small missionary training institution in 1800. Jänicke merely trained missionaries for assignment by any mission society from any Protestant denomination.

Gossner was a founding member of the Berlin Mission Society in 1824 but resigned from its committee in 1836. This period gained him valuable experience and contacts and a thorough distaste for cumbersome bureaucracy. In 1834 he began to publish a mission journal Die Biene auf dem Missionsfeld (The bee on the mission field) which carried news and reports from missions around the world, directed at an audience of friends and supporters of missions, mission societies and their support societies (Hilfsvereine).

Extracts from the Gossner Mission 1838 related to Moreton Bay.

Access the document here: Gossner-Mission-Journal-Zion-Hill-Extracts