Southern Baptist missionaries who found themselves with a calling but no resources to go to the field can now pack their bags.
International Mission Board (IMB) trustees voted during their April 25–27 meeting in Nashville to send 100 career missionaries and 100 short-term missionaries to the field. This lifts an appointment restriction imposed in 2003 after the 2002 LMCO fell $10 million short of its $125 million goal.
“Southern Baptists stepped up to the plate with their Lottie Moon giving,” said IMB trustee Bill Hudgins, pastor of First Baptist Church, Hokes Bluff.
With more than a month to go before the books close, the 2003 offering stands at almost $127 million — about $19 million ahead of the previous year’s pace, said David Steverson, IMB vice president for finance. Steverson said he believed the final total May 31 would exceed the base goal of $133 million.
IMB staff and missionaries have been blessed by testimonies of how God stirred both large and small churches to new levels of sacrificial giving when they heard missionaries were being kept from the field for lack of finances, Rankin said in a March Baptist Press news release.
“Gifts from some of the larger churches have been unprecedented, but it has been an almost daily emotional experience to hear from smaller churches that have multiplied their giving two, four or even six times,” he said.
Alabama Baptists were among those giving above and beyond (see story, this page), even exceeding the state’s 2003 LMCO goal of $9 million with gifts totaling more than $9.25 million.
“My gratitude is to the churches,” Hudgins said. “We’ve had folks sitting in the wings ready to go, and Southern Baptists came through.”
Laurelle Stoudenmire, IMB trustee from Thomasville, echoed Hudgins’ appreciation. “We are excited the churches heard the need,” she said. “We have lots of missionaries who have completed the application process and are ready to go. They were put on hold because of the funds.”
Budget allocations
IMB trustees approved adding $13 million to the 2004 budget, with $5 million allocated for the 200 long- and short-term missionaries. Of the remaining $8 million, half was allocated for capital expenditures such as missionary housing and vehicles.
The remaining $4 million was added to missionary support, a move made necessary because missionary attrition has been lower than expected this past year, Steverson said. “It appears that missionaries who were planning to retire or resign decided to stay when they heard last year that new missionaries were being held up for lack of finances.”
Stoudenmire noted that the 2003 offering gifts have opened up the way for these 200 missions workers to be appointed, but she hopes the move is not temporary.
“Our plans are to send more and more missionaries,” she said. “I want to encourage the churches to continue to give and support the missionaries.”
Along with releasing more missionaries to the field, IMB trustees also voted to consolidate eight of the current 15 regions into four, taking the total number of IMB regions down to 11.
Two of the merger decisions came from voice votes with slight opposition, according to IMB officials.
The Western Pacific region and the Southeast Asia and Oceania region will be combined into the Pacific Rim region. Don Dent, current leader in Southeast Asia and Oceania, will lead the Pacific Rim region.
The Eastern Africa and Southern Africa regions will be consolidated into the Eastern and Southern Africa region. Jon Sapp, the current leader in Eastern Africa, will lead the newly combined region.
The other two consolidations were recommended in the form of a motion from the floor and passed with a show of hands 43 to 29.
The Caribbean Basin and the Middle America regions will be merged into the Middle America and the Caribbean Basin.
The Western South America and Eastern South America regions will now be the South America region.
Rankin said leadership for these two regions would be addressed during the board’s May meeting.
In other business, the trustees:
Elected Tom Williams, regional leader for the Western Pacific region, as new regional leader for Western Europe. Williams replaces Eddie Cox, who recently resigned to join the board’s stateside staff as director of the International Prayer Strategies office. (IMB contributed)
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