The financial outlook for the International Mission Board (IMB) is optimistic but “tempered with caution,” the board’s vice president for finance told the trustees during their May 17–18 meeting in Atlanta.
Trustees named leaders for two regions of overseas work during the meeting and tightened oversight on the selection of non-Southern Baptists to serve in volunteer projects through the IMB and elected their officers for 2004–2005.
The business session was held in conjunction with a joint meeting with trustees of the North America Mission Board.
Major cutbacks in board spending in 2003 succeeded in restoring positive financial operating trends while still allowing the agency to sustain significant growth in the missionary force, said David Steverson, the board’s finance vice president.
But receipts for the 2003 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering were running about $20.5 million ahead of the previous year’s pace, and Steverson said he anticipated a final total of more than $135 million — a 17.4 percent increase over 2002 — when the books close May 31.
He noted that the board has seen an increase in cash flow of 2 percent and an increase in net assets of 9 percent. Net assets, however, will have to increase another 29 percent to return the agency to the financial position it held in 2000 before it began using unrestricted assets to fill the gap between the cost of supporting new missionaries and income from the churches.
Trustees elected Phil Templin, former leader of the board’s Middle America region, to lead the newly formed Middle America and Caribbean region. They also named Dickie Nelson, former leader of the board’s Caribbean Basin region, to lead the new South America region.
Trustees created those regions during their April meeting in Nashville by consolidating the Middle America, Caribbean Basin, Western South America and Eastern South America regions. The regional leader position in Eastern South America was vacant. Larry Gay, leader of the Western South America region, is considering other opportunities offered him by IMB leadership.
During 2003, the number of long-term missionary personnel rose above 4,000 for the first time, in spite of restrictions placed on appointments for financial reasons, Executive Vice President Clyde Meador told the trustees. The IMB ended the year with 5,370 missionaries in service.
An analysis of personnel trends in 2003 also indicated an attrition rate of 5.2 percent, a rate identical to 2002 and squarely within the pattern since 1999, Meador said. The rate held in spite of the resignation of 64 missionaries and the termination of 13 others who refused to affirm the Southern Baptist Convention’s 2000 Baptist Faith and Message statement of beliefs.
The leading factors cited by missionaries in decisions to resign were issues related to IMB organization, children, spouses, work, calling, stateside job opportunities, interpersonal relationships and adjustment to the field.
The attrition rate was highest among missionaries who had served between 13 and 16 years.
The trustees’ overseas committee also expressed concern about an increase in the number of non-Southern Baptists participating in short-term volunteer projects through the IMB. The trustees approved three actions proposed by the committee:
- Enforcing a requirement that all volunteers submit information about their denominational affiliation prior to acceptance for service and maintaining a record-keeping system to track that information.
- Clarifying and possibly redefining the policy that governs participation of non-Southern Baptist volunteers to ensure the integrity of witness and ministry efforts.
- Clearly communicating that policy to staff and field personnel on a regular basis and asking IMB staff to regularly report to the overseas committee on non-SBC volunteer participation in IMB projects.
In other business, trustees elected Tom Hatley of Arkansas as chairman and re-elected their other officers by acclamation. Mike Barrett of North Carolina is first vice chairman. Bill Duncan of Hawaii is second vice chairman. Nedra Jackson of Georgia is recording secretary. (BP)
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