inner mission

American  

noun

1. a movement, originating in the early 19th century within the evangelical churches of Germany and later spreading through Europe and America, that ministered chiefly to the material and spiritual needs of poor people and of social outcasts.

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Etymology

Origin of inner mission

First recorded in 1850–55

Example Sentences

Much of Washington in 2018 arguably has more in common with the country’s hippest neighborhoods — Williamsburg in New York, Silver Lake in Los Angeles, the Inner Mission in San Francisco — than it does with the less cool cities of middle America.

From Washington Post

A catalog note explains that the women probably were members of a Christian revival movement called the Inner Mission, to which Ancher’s mother and three sisters belonged.

From New York Times

But the San Francisco Tax Assessor’s Office made that argument last week — with a straight face — in the case of Jon Stuber and his modest two-bedroom, one-bath condominium in the inner Mission.

From New York Times

He resigned his presidency of the Lutheran Inner Mission Society, stopped preaching, canceled a lecture tour.

From Time Magazine Archive

North has, consciously or unconsciously, made a striking distinction between mere social service work, which aims at the alleviation of human need and suffering, and inner mission work, which seeks to help men spiritually as well as physically.

From Project Gutenberg