For more than 170 years, God has blessed the International Mission Board (IMB) for the spread of the gospel among the nations — and by God’s grace IMB is “standing strong,” IMB President David Platt reported to Southern Baptist Convention messengers June 15.
“I am confident that not every one of [those years] has been easy,” Platt said. “But that’s the beauty of Proverbs 3:5–6. As Southern Baptists have trusted in God, as Southern Baptists have acknowledged Him year after year, God has made our paths straight for the spread of His glory among the nations.”
Current missions force
Platt recounted IMB’s financial situation that led to his decision to reduce missions personnel. The result was about a 20 percent reduction in missionaries and staff.
But thousands of missionaries and seasoned leaders with thousands of years of collective experience remain on the field, he said. This missions force maintains IMB as the largest missions organization of its kind in the world, with potential for the force to grow to thousands more in the days to come.
“Now some might say, ‘You just said goodbye to hundreds of missionaries for financial reasons; what’s the IMB’s strategy for sending thousands more in their place?’” Platt said. “In the months ahead we are going to be talking with you across this convention of churches about creating more pathways for more people with the Spirit of God to go to more places with the gospel of God.”
With Lottie Moon Christmas Offering gifts increasing and the cost of sending a missionary being about $50,000, “then we can send a couple of hundred more missionaries,” Platt said. “That’s the kind of thinking we must avoid. Our goal as a group of 40,000 churches is not just to send a couple of hundred more missionaries. We want to send thousands more missionaries, and the potential for doing that is real if we’ll create the pathways for that to happen.
“Let me be crystal clear: the IMB is still going to send full-time, fully funded career missionaries just like we’ve always sent,” he said. “They are the priceless, precious, critical core of our missions force.”
Those career missionaries will be surrounded with professionals, students, retirees and others who show that global mission “is not just for a select few people in the Church, but for multitudes of Spirit-filled men and women across the Church,” he said.
“God, give us a vision of thousands more people going from all of our churches through all kinds of pathways for Your glory … all over the world,” he implored.
(BP)
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