Two years ago in his report to the Southern Baptist Convention, Paul Chitwood said the International Mission Board was planning to send out missionary explorers as pioneers into people groups with no gospel presence.
The effort was called Project 3000, “our intentional and strategic effort to ensure the remaining 3,000 unengaged people groups around the world are engaged with the gospel,” said Chitwood, IMB president.
And today (June 11) in his report, he had news to share. Those explorers have “engaged 109 of the unengaged people groups for the very first time,” he said.
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That’s something to celebrate on the 100th anniversary of the Cooperative Program, Southern Baptists’ avenue for funding missions, Chitwood said.
He said because of Southern Baptists working together, IMB’s missionary explorers and all other IMB missionaries get to keep going in a way missionaries with other sending organizations often aren’t able to.
“Half the missionaries who raise their own funds and are sent out end up back home before their first term comes to an end, most due to withering financial support,” Chitwood said. “Since I became IMB president, because of your generosity not one IMB missionary has come home due to financial need. Thank you.”
He also thanked Southern Baptists for their gifts to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering in 2024.
“Through your sacrificial generosity, we received a record-breaking $26.8 million,” Chitwood said. “Your prayers and generosity enable your missionaries to steadfastly remain present on the field fully funded.”
He said the average length of service now for IMB career missionaries is more than 14 years, which he said allows “deeper relationships and lasting gospel impact.”
Numbers
And more are going now too, he said. “The missionary applicant pool has grown by more than 500 percent since 2018, recently topping 1,600. And that’s not just a number; it’s your sons and daughters, your church members and friends who need our support.”
As IMB missionaries shared the hope of Jesus this year, 1.6 million people heard the gospel, 145,000 of them professed faith in Jesus and 68,000 were baptized as new believers, Chitwood said.
About 2,400 new churches were also planted around the world.
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“Please pray for 84,000 new leaders among the nations who are being trained by your missionaries in the work we do together,” he said.
Chitwood also reported that Southern Baptists had met people in their place of need in the midst of disaster, hunger, war and trauma.
“Through 471 relief projects and our partnership with Send Relief, you delivered tangible help and gospel hope to almost 2 million people around the world in 78 countries,” he said.
Chitwood thanked Southern Baptists for their support and said we “must not stop until the name of Jesus is exalted in every nation among all tribes and peoples and languages.”
He said the end goal is for the Great Commission to be completed and to be among the crowd at the throne.
“And might it be that as we stand and look out on that great multitude someday, we see the many who are there because as Southern Baptists we worked together and God allowed us to be a part of His great mission,” Chitwood said.
