More than 900 people logged on to a livestream event March 3 to listen to David Platt talk through what he sees as the future of the International Mission Board (IMB).
Noting the past several months of changes, financial struggles and even a grieving process through the changes, Platt, IMB president, focused the event on the days to come.
“There are five primary desires that are driving us in the IMB … as we look at the vision for missions in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) through IMB,” Platt said.
“Our No. 1 desire is to exalt Christ. This seems pretty basic but I think there are dangerous tendencies and temptations, even in missions, to work apart from the Spirit of God and Word of God. … We want to be tethered totally to the person of Christ, the Spirit of Christ and the Word of Christ.
“If we’re not careful we can carry out things with what we think works and then go to Scripture and even twist it to (support) what we’re doing,” Platt said.
The second desire is to “mobilize ordinary Christians.”
“We want to see an exponentially increasing missions force of ordinary Christians. … God has designed ordinary people for the spread of His glory to the nations. … I want to help us see and expand our understanding of a missionary.”
The third desire of IMB is “serving and equipping the Church.”
Platt emphasized that any conversation about IMB’s future revolves around “the centrality and primacy of the local church.”
“I’m biblically convinced that it is the local church that is the agent God promised to bless. It’s the local church that is on the front line of the Great Commission.
“We’re in the process of shifting structures to make sure … we exist to help you (the local church) regardless of what size you are.”
He also noted several training resources that are being created for use in the local church to help prepare a person feeling a call to missionary service.
Platt said the fourth desire is to “facilitate church planting.”
“We as IMB want to facilitate that work wisely.”
The fifth desire is to “play our part in the accomplishment in the Great Commission.”
“By God’s grace we are not the only Christians on the planet,” Platt said, sharing a story about how the great-great-great-grandparents of a Christian leader in Brazil were led to Christ by IMB missionaries. He also noted how other Christians in China and Africa are working for the spread of the gospel and the need for IMB to “work alongside the rest of Great Commission Christian partners … to think like Paul in the New Testament in facilitating church planting.”
“That’s what I mean by playing our part in what God is calling us to do right now and trusting that means all kinds of other people are playing their part. … That’s my challenge for every single church in the SBC and beyond … to ask what is the part that God is leading you to play in the spread of the gospel and the accomplishment of the Great Commission?”
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