The Seventh-day Adventist Church has nearly reached its 160th anniversary. Over that history, there have been great changes as it has grown into a worldwide phenomenon thanks, in large part, to its missionary efforts. In an effort to review and understand that history and to plan for future missionary emphasis, Chism, Trim and Younker have compiled this study for the Seventh-day Adventist Office of Archives, Statistics and Research. This is a monograph particularly focused on the missionary institutions of the Adventist Church, especially the General Conference Secretariat. It is a history of institutions, with very little space given to the narratives of church members or missionaries except as they fulfil roles within these institutions. The authors create a high-level overview with the goal of critiquing shifts in the missionary institutions and choices made by leadership over the last few decades. In that way, this is a conservative work, identifying a golden age in the past and advocating for a return to the emphases and zeal of that era. In the minds of the authors, unintentional drift and developments in the Secretariat over the past decades have contributed to a church culture that is far less focused on global missionary work. Even as numbers of Adventists worldwide have increased precipitously, overall numbers of missionaries have declined. The solution offered to this problem is a renewal of vision by Adventist leadership and a reform of the Secretariat. This is a decidedly internal document which often takes for granted the reader's sympathy with the perspective presented and a familiarity with Adventist luminaries. While this monograph is a useful source for scholars of Seventh-day Adventists and the modern missionary movement within Christianity, it will likely hold little appeal beyond its target audience of Adventist leadership and decision-makers.