Our largest and most important entity, The International Mission Board, has a five year plan, announced by President Paul Chitwood at the recent IMB trustee meeting.
The plan calls for a number of things but, most importantly, it calls for an additional 500 overseas field personnel. I assume that means a 500 net increase by the end of 2024 which would bring the total field personnel up to 4,119. These would be numbers which haven’t been seen since prior to the IMB’s retirement incentive program implemented by former IMB head David Platt.
Chitwood’s plan is modest. Platt’s approach called for “limitless” numbers, although to his credit he forcefully addressed the IMB’s poor financial practices that had accumulated prior to his tenure. I’m pleased that Chitwood’s plan calls for realistic numbers. Our main mission offering, the historic and mammoth Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions, was at $157.3 million for 2018-2019 which is around 59 percent of their total budget of $267.4 million. The Cooperative Program provides around 37% of IMB’s budget. (I acknowledge that the percentages may vary a bit based on non-comparable reporting periods, but I’m in a hurry. There’s no debate about how the most critical revenue stream for IMB is the LMCO).
To get to the additional 500 field personnel, Chitwood says that the LMCO must increase by $10 million per year. The LMCO is to be spent on overseas items, mostly personnel; thus, the call for additional LMCO giving. It is not said but needs saying that no one is calling for expecting any significant increases to the CP. If IMB were to plan any advance funded primarily or even in part by CP increases they would be back into the realm of fantasy. The CP is important but no entity head I know about is calling for or expecting churches to move their CP percentages up to any significant degree. On average, we’re well under five percent per church to CP. I’d bet most SBC leaders would be delighted to get back to five percent.
Chitwood pointedly said in his address to the trustees that the budget was not being balanced by sales of overseas property. Good. But I’d mark Dr. Chitwood down slightly for using the old and completely meaningless statement that the LMCO increase could be met if “every one of the 16 million Southern Baptists increase their Lottie Offering by $0.63 per year,” Er, ah, Paul. Drop the phantom number as a multiplier.
To his great credit he outlined a goal that “75 percent of Southern Baptist churches to pray for and financially support the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering by 2025.” Less than half of SBC churches support the LMCO presently. One wonders if there is any concrete plan in place to try and increase this percentage by half.
Details aside, I’m fully on board with the five year plan and will fully give IMB, our leaders and all personnel there, my full support.
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And, pastor. Did your church give anything to the LMCO this year? If not, how about any amount? Your church would do this if you ask. It’s the best investment of mission dollars a church can make.
Sir: In addition to the Lottie Moon Offering, churches and individual Baptists can and do team up with mission opportunities. My former church in Viginia has teamed up with a Baptist congregation in Romania. I was blessed to be able to participate a number of times. The same is true for Uruguay. I teamed up with a group from Ohio, and ministered there twice.
Let us do all we can to fund Lottie; let us support the IMB. Most of all, in my view, do as Jesus said, “Go into the whole world….”
William, thanks for posting this. Paul Chitwood is doing a great job as president of the IMB. The 500 missionaries would be a net increase. The missionaries included in this count are those who serve at least two years overseas. David Platt’s “limitless” missionary force was mainly tentmaking missionaries. In other words, bi-vocational missionaries who earned their financial support overseas but related to the IMB.
Hi. I liked the article. Very informative. I do have a question which I am hoping that one of you fine folks can answer. I did not grow up with any sort of SBC background. In fact I was 38 when I went to seminary (SWBTS). This means that there have always been things about the SBC which are surprises to me. The question at hand is this “What is the correct procedure for visiting with SBC missionaries?” See, I do lots of travel and I always love to spend time with other Christians. So I think it would be… Read more »
Mike, with the overwhelming fear of revealing names and fields of service, it has become very difficult to get names of missionaries and their field of service. Before Jerry Rankin became president you could just call the IMB and speak to the stateside representative for certain areas. When we retired in 2009 that was no longer possible. One suggestion is to contact the board of trustees for the IMB from your state and maybe he would be able to supply some information. Another thought is the Associational Missionary (I am so old and out of touch, I no longer know… Read more »
I’m not sure of the answer to that. Maybe former imb worker Mark Terry can help here.
I am aware, generally, that security concerns are paramount in many areas. Also, personnel may have constraints that make it difficult for direct, incountry contact.
Security will always be an issue for us in many of the places we serve. I think the best thing to do would be to write the IMB and get M’s to come and visit your church and speak. Once you know them you can visit them and get to know their teams. We have several partnerships with Churches who come and visit us and they are a great support to our work.
I would also point out that missionaries are incredibly busy people. What can be done here in the US with a phone call or online may take an entire day in different parts of the world. Between language study, disciple-making, team building, maintaining platforms, and taking care of family, time is a premium for many. For that reason, outside of a strategic purpose that furthers disciple-making among their people group, it can be difficult for missionaries to make time for a visit. Finally, security is a major concern even in open countries, and I appreciate the IMB office’s concern.
William, thank you for this posting. The IMB does need more field personnel, and soon. I remember Baker James Cauthen’s proposal for “Bold Mission Thrust” in 1976. This was that when we had over 2000 field personnel and the thrust was to have “5000 on the field by the year 2000. The original thought was career missionaries. Then it started including Associate Missionaries and Special Project. Then it included journeymen in the count. It was widely referred to as “Bold mission bust!” What happened was similar to what happens to single seminarians in their senior year … PANIC TIME. We… Read more »
Mike, I’m delighted that you want to meet missionaries. Strider answered you well. The IMB is really security conscious. About 70-75% of our missionaries serve in high security countries. Also, the IMB staff does not know you. Of course, there are countries, like Kenya and Brazil, that have religious freedom, and the missionaries there serve openly. If you traveled to those countries, it would not be hard to connect with a missionary. I suggest that you contact your state convention WMU, that office can tell you about the missionaries who are on stateside assignment (furlough) in your state. Once you… Read more »
I’m glad Chitwood is putting the emphasis back on full-time, fully-funded missionaries. The “limitless” idea sounded good, but I didn’t see it as very realistic. It is difficult to supervise people that you aren’t paying. This is coming from someone who has served with the IMB and as an independent (self-funded) missionary.
The missions professors from our SB seminaries had the same concern, and we shared that with the leadership of the IMB.