Its principal mission effort was directed towards promoting Congregationalist forms of Christianity among "British or other European settlers" rather than indigenous peoples.
[1][2] At first it functioned as part of the Congregational Union, which Andrew Reed, an early honorary secretary, described as 'a crippled and dependent existence'.
[3] In 1901, in a printed souvenir of the Autumnal Meetings (14 to 18 October, 1901 in Manchester) of the Congregational Union of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, the object of the Society was stated as: "to promote Evangelical religion among British or other European Settlers and their descendants in the Colonies and Dependencies of Great Britain, and in other parts of the world, and among converts gathered into Christian Churches from heathenism, in accordance with the doctrine and the discipline of Congregational Churches".
In accordance with this, Churches or Missions were being helped in: Cape Colony, Natal, The Transvaal, Rhodesia, Newfoundland, British Columbia, Manitoba, Jamaica, Western Australia, Tasmania, Queensland and New Zealand.
[5] The records of the Colonial Missionary Society are held at the library of the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.