For seven years, missionary William Carey had not a single convert.

Carey, shoemaker and Baptist pastor from Northamptonshire, England, had taken his family to India as missionaries in 1793. They'd settled at Serampore, West Bengal.

Then funds ran out, leaving him and his family destitute; his wife, Dorothy, became severely depressed; three of their children died.

Yet by the time of his own death 41 years later, Carey had founded churches and colleges, overseen the translation of the gospels into forty local languages and had secured the banning of the ritual burning of widows on their husband's funeral pyres. He has been hailed by some as "the father of modern missions".

What made the difference were the changes made when reinforcements arrived in 1799. The first was sharing of leadership, recognising people's strengths.

Joshua Marshman, a gifted linguist, was a happily married man who saw immediately the strain in Carey's marriage and his neglect of his children. The Marshmans took the children under their wing and brought them some much-needed love and discipline, as well as an education.

William Ward brought a practical business brain and took the weight of administration off Carey's shoulders, as well as taking charge of the printing operation. All this gave Carey a support structure that freed him to discover his leadership gifts.

Next, the three men thrashed through many issues and found oneness of heart. This found an unusual expression: a covenant-pledge of brotherly loyalty and commitment. Their "Form of Agreement" was published in 1805 and has eleven points, the last of which was "to give ourselves without reserve to the cause, not counting even the clothes we wear as our own."

Three times a year, they read the pledge through at a special service and re-committed themselves to it. All of them faithfully kept this covenant bond until death. It was their backbone, the mainstay of the work in India. Finally, they moved in to "all things in common" Christian community, into which they drew their converts. White Europeans and Indians shared a common table and made decisions by majority vote. Each put anything they earned into a common pool and withdrew only what they needed. Any surplus went into the expenses of the Mission. The covenant was very strong on humility and loyalty, pronouncing woes on anyone who undertook anything for selfish gain.

Every Saturday evening they met together for prayer, to discuss family concerns and deal with any differences of opinion. There is no doubting God's blessing on their common life: "No private family ever enjoyed a greater portion of happiness, even in the most prosperous gale of worldly prosperity, than we have done since we proposed to have all things in common... If we are enabled to persevere in the same principles, we may hope that multitudes of converted souls will have reason to bless God to all eternity for sending His gospel into this country."