The International Mission Board (IMB) publicly announced Jan. 14 the closure of its Richmond Communications Center effective April 29 and the accompanying layoff of 30 stateside staff members. Ten additional communications staff members are being transitioned to other positions.
The layoffs were the result of “reevaluating systems and structures across IMB not only because of IMB’s financial realities but also to be the best possible stewards of resources that churches have entrusted to IMB to get the gospel to the nations,” the IMB news release said.
The affected communications employees represent about 6.5 percent of the approximately 450 stateside staff members at IMB prior to the board’s “organizational reset,” which began in August 2015 with the launch of a voluntary retirement incentive for personnel 50 and older with five or more years of service. The goal was to find 600–800 missionaries or staff to take the VRI.
News of the communications layoffs came as IMB announced the beginning of phase two in its reset: a “hand raising opportunity” (HRO) for missionaries and stateside staff members “to transition outside the IMB if they believe God is leading them to a new place of investment in mission,” according to the news release. Individuals who accept the HRO must finalize their decisions by Feb. 22 and will receive “a package beyond the scope of a normal resignation.”
Though overseas staff may volunteer to leave IMB for new fields of service, no missionaries will be “required” to leave the field as part of the continuing organizational reset, IMB said. And no additional teams, groups or departments will be eliminated during the organizational reset, the board said.
The termination actions for all involved IMB personnel were dictated by a financial crisis IMB President David Platt described as its own doing.
“The challenge we’re addressing is that despite increased giving to the IMB over the last four years, for example, we have consistently spent more money than has been given to us each year,” Platt explained in August.
He said IMB had been doing this “going back to 2010,” and the organization had covered the overspending by dipping into reserves as well as by selling global properties, adding “our organization has spent, combined, $210 million more than people have given to us.”
The board will continue to release news and feature stories, photos and videos produced by IMB media workers based overseas.
(BP, Baptist Message)
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