The first missionaries were appointed on October 7, 1948. Early ministries were launched in Alaska and among Jewish people, Navajos, Chinese and Latinos in the United States. Soon missionaries were sent to Honduras and Mexico. Ministries within the United States were developed to focus on suburban and rural church planting, Mormon ministry in Utah, urban ministry in major cities across the country and campus ministry among students at secular colleges and universities.

Originally incorporated as the Conservative Baptist Home Mission Society, the name of the Mission was changed to Mission to the Americas in 1994. By this time ministry had been launched in Belize, French Canada, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala and Haiti. Further expansion in Central America opened El Salvador, Nicaragua and Panama as new fields of ministry.

In addition to expansion to new countries, the missionary family began to significantly grow in ethnic diversity with over 30 percent of the missionaries being non-Anglo by the year 2000. African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans were serving as missionaries to reach their own people. Immigrants from Brazil, Cambodia, China, Cuba, Liberia and the Philippines joined the missionary family to reach immigrant communities in the United States.

In our international ministries outside of the United States, God raised up native-born missionaries from Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and French Canada. The Mission had become international, not just in its ministry focus but in the composition of its missionary family.

Originally headquartered in the Chicago area, the Mission relocated to the inner-city neighborhood of Five Points in Denver, Colorado in 2001.

Ministry among immigrants in the United States resulted in the development of ministry back to home countries in Asia and Africa—from there to here and back! With ministries developing beyond North America in Cambodia, China, Kenya and Liberia, Mission to the Americas became Missions Door in 2007, better describing the full scope of ministry and missionary activity.