The International Mission Board (IMB) recently appointed seven individuals with Alabama ties to work overseas.
The seven — three of whom are headed to work in high security areas and cannot be named — were among 60 appointed during a service Sept. 16 at First Baptist Church, Jacksonville, Fla.
The appointees are being sent to four regions: 35 to Asia, 12 to Europe, 12 to Africa and one to the Americas, bringing the total number of Southern Baptist representatives overseas to 5,562. But rather than assigning representatives to specific regions, such as Europe or East Asia, the IMB now appoints them to affinity (people) groups, such as the European Peoples or East Asian Peoples.
Mike and Carrie Lazenby, of Birmingham, will serve among the European Peoples.
Mike Lazenby, who holds a bachelor’s degree from Auburn University and master of divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, will serve in evangelism and church planting. He formerly served as a children’s ministry associate at Shades Mountain Baptist Church, Vestavia Hills.
Carrie Lazenby, who also holds a bachelor’s degree from Auburn, will serve in community and home outreach.
Tara Greene Jones, a Mobile native, and her husband, Jared, will serve among the East Asian Peoples.
Jared Jones, who earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri in Rolla (now Missouri University of Science and Technology) and master of divinity from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., will serve in evangelism and church planting.
Tara Jones, who earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Mobile, will serve in community and home outreach.
Both Jared and Tara Jones previously served a short-term journeyman assignment with the IMB.
IMB treasurer David Steverson told trustees that more representatives will be sent this year than originally planned. In May, trustees were forced to reduce appointments because of a shortfall in funding from the Cooperative Program and Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. The appointment of 69 long-term candidates and some 350 short-term candidates waiting to serve on the missions field was delayed. Now about 25 of those 69 long-term candidates will be added to a group of 37 already slated for appointment in November.
“While our Lottie Moon receipts have not yet increased substantially because of these efforts, we have received many, many anecdotal reports of churches taking special Lottie Moon offerings over the past few weeks,” Steverson explained. “We don’t yet know the total we will receive … but we are convinced these funds are in the pipeline.
“We are grateful to Southern Baptists for their response to this challenge by stepping up and giving above and beyond what they would normally do,” Steverson said.
But he stressed that one-time gifts aren’t a long-term solution — Southern Baptists must continue to give sacrificially to sustain these additional representatives after they are sent, not to mention the more than 5,500 representatives already serving around the world.
“It is inexcusable that 16 million Southern Baptists cannot support 5,600 [representatives],” said Gordon Fort, IMB vice president of global strategy. “May God help us to send out a clarion call to Southern Baptists to return to their first love, back to the priority which is on the heart of God, that every language, every people, every tribe and every nation would have their witness.”
The IMB’s financial situation remains serious, Steverson reported. Calling the budget shortfall a “crisis,” he said the IMB would, for the first time in its history, be forced to dip into contingency funds in order to balance the budget.
“We have been able to cut out almost $19 million from the expenditure side of the budget we are currently drafting for 2010,” Steverson said. “Unfortunately … we are about $7.5 million away from a balanced budget.”
Steverson said the IMB will close the budget gap by drawing the $7.5 million from its contingency funds. He acknowledged this is not a long-term solution to decreased giving but said he believes the biggest economic crisis in U.S. history since the Great Depression warrants such action.
“Since we first established a contingency reserve some 60 years ago, this will be the first time we have used it for our benefit,” Steverson said. “We believe that demonstrates our commitment to living within our means but also to appropriately draw on our reserves in truly extraordinary circumstances.” (BP, IMB)
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