Skip to content
  • The Alabama Baptist
  • The Baptist Paper
  • The Alabama Baptist
  • The Baptist Paper
  • Log In
  • Subscribe
  • Renew
  • Donate
  • The Alabama Baptist
  • The Baptist Paper
  • The Alabama Baptist
  • The Baptist Paper
  • Log In
  • Subscribe
  • Renew
  • Donate
The Baptist Paper
Search
Close this search box.
The Baptist Paper
Search
Close this search box.
  • Latest News
  • Trending
  • Your state news
  • Classifieds
  • Request a free trial
  • Latest News
  • Trending
  • Your state news
  • Classifieds
  • Request a free trial

IMB celebrates 79 new missionaries, announces new ‘missionary explorer’ effort

  • June 13, 2023
  • Grace Thornton
  • International Mission Board, Latest News, Louisiana, SBC 2023
Donning a big baseball cap and showing off a matching uniform with “International Mission Board” emblazoned across the front, Paul Chitwood asks Southern Baptists to “keep cheering for the home team, which is the IMB” during his IMB report.
(Photo by Sam Evans/The Baptist Paper)

IMB celebrates 79 new missionaries, announces new ‘missionary explorer’ effort

During its report to Southern Baptists on June 13, the International Mission Board celebrated 79 new missionaries and announced a new effort to send “missionary explorers” to 3,000 people groups not yet engaged with the gospel.

Paul Chitwood, IMB president, explained the scope of Project 3000 after messengers heard the stories of the soon-to-be-sent missionaries during the Sending Celebration.

“As an expression of our commitment to pursue every people group on earth, the International Mission Board has identified the remaining 3,072 people groups that no one has been engaging with the gospel until now,” he said.

‘Key part of entry’

This week, IMB is launching Project 3000 to send out 300 new “missionary explorers,” each assigned to scout out 10 of those remaining groups.

“Each missionary explorer will find their assigned unengaged, unreached people group, research them, get to know them, find out where they live, learn their culture, discern their literacy, share the gospel with them and determine strategies,” Chitwood said.

The explorers will also become prayer warriors for the group and find national partners to work alongside them, he said.

“In so doing, these missionary explorers will play a key part of entry in the missionary task, cultivating gospel access among the least-reached peoples of the earth,” Chitwood said.

After that, IMB teams will continue the work, moving the group from unengaged to engaged and then reached.

IMB President Paul Chitwood gives the IMB Report during the Tuesday Morning session of the SBC Annual Meeting in New Orleans on June 13. (Photo by Van Payne/The Baptist Paper)

Chitwood said IMB plans to send out the first 100 missionaries through Project 3000 “this very year.”

They will often work in rugged places where they may only be able to go with a backpack and may not have resources like internet access, but their sacrifice is worth it to see the lost reached, he said. 

He challenged Southern Baptists to consider if they might be up to the task of going, or if they would be willing to support missionary explorers as a prayer partner and through financial generosity.

“Today more than half of the world’s population lives among the unreached peoples of the world,” Chitwood said. “In Matthew 28, God calls His people to action through the Great Commission. In Revelation, He gives a beautiful vision of the heavenly worship that will someday take place when that great multitude … will join together in worship.”

Today, Southern Baptists are living between the Great Commission and the great multitude, and their support of the mission is vital, he said.

It’s a “great work” that Southern Baptists were a part of in 2022 through record Lottie Moon Christmas Offering giving plus more than $100 million in Cooperative Program funds. Last year, IMB missionaries planted 21,000 churches in 122 countries and shared the gospel with 728,000 people, 178,000 of whom professed faith in Jesus, Chitwood said. More than 100,000 of those were baptized.

“Thank you for continuing to count the cause of those 3,500 missionaries and their 2,700 children as your own,” he said. “I hope you’ve been able to see our growing desire to serve you and your church. We want those missionaries to feel like they are your own because indeed they are.”

‘We need more’

Through the Church Connections effort this past year, every IMB missionary was given a list of churches to cultivate relationships with “in order to give your church a very up-close view of what is happening around the world through your missionaries,” he said. “We want the work that your church is doing to have a name, to have a face, to have a family.”

Chitwood challenged Southern Baptists to stay committed to supporting their missionaries as well as new IMB missionaries as they work toward the goal of Revelation 7:9.

Southern Baptists hold a Sending Celebration for IMB missionaries during the Tuesday morning session of the 2023 SBC Annual Meeting in New Orleans on June 13. (Photo by Sam Evans/The Baptist Paper)

“For 178 years, you have obeyed the Great Commission by sending missionaries overseas through your International Mission Board,” he said.

The 79 new missionaries who shared their stories during the Sending Celebration are part of that, coming from 44 churches in 19 states and heading to 33 countries.

“The need for gospel presence in the world is greater now than any other time in human history, and these brothers and sisters long to be that presence,” Chitwood said.

And, he added, “We need more.” 

Chitwood noted that in 1979 when the world’s population was 4.3 billion people, the IMB had a little more than 3,000 missionaries on the field. Now, with nearly double the world population, the number of IMB missionaries is only up 500.

“In a single decade, between 2008 and 2018, a total of 2,000 of your IMB missionaries came home never to be replaced because of the lack of financial support,” he said. 

Chitwood said he recognizes “there are countless other overseas sending organizations and groups that your church can support and partner with, and many of them we work with around the world, and we thank God for them and for their impact.”

But he reminded Southern Baptists that there is only one sending organization that belongs to them, ascribes to the Baptist Faith & Message and answers to the trustees from their churches and the messengers of the convention.

Southern Baptists applaud during the Sending Celebration for IMB missionaries during the Tuesday morning session of the 2023 SBC Annual Meeting in New Orleans on June 13. (Photo by Van Payne/The Baptist Paper)

Southern Baptists are investing more than $1 billion every year in shoeboxes, child sponsorships and other non-Baptist causes, Chitwood said.

Donning an oversized baseball cap and showing off a matching uniform with “International Mission Board” emblazoned across the front, he asked Southern Baptists to “keep cheering for the home team, which is the IMB.”

“We cannot tell our own sons and daughters ‘we can’t afford to send your beautiful feet to the nations to proclaim the gospel’ simply because a non-Baptist group spends more on marketing, while we are committed to spending more on the work,” he said.

For more information about Project 3000, visit imb.org/missionary-explorer.

To view more photos from the IMB report, click here.

To view more photos from the Sending Celebration, click here.

Share with others:

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Email

Latest News

  • Changed lives take time, ‘patience’ in historic Nevada town
    Changed lives take time, ‘patience’ in historic Nevada town
    September 28, 2023/
    0 Comments
  • First person: 10 guidelines when studying the Bible’s tough passages
    First person: 10 guidelines when studying the Bible’s tough passages
    September 27, 2023/
    0 Comments
  • ‘Fluid’ situation: Chinese human rights lawyer’s whereabouts uncertain
    ‘Fluid’ situation: Chinese human rights lawyer’s whereabouts uncertain
    September 27, 2023/
    0 Comments

Sign up for the Highlights

Get all latest content delivered to your email a few times a month.
Email is required Email is not valid
Thanks for your subscription.
Failed to subscribe, please contact admin.

Related Posts

Changed lives take time, ‘patience’ in historic Nevada town

“To reach people, it takes a lot of honesty, one-on-one conversations and consistency,” pastor Austin White told The Baptist Paper. He could have added “patience.”

white book on table

First person: 10 guidelines when studying the Bible’s tough passages

How do you deal with tough passages in Scripture, especially with those difficult passages that challenge such comforting doctrines as eternal security?

‘Fluid’ situation: Chinese human rights lawyer’s whereabouts uncertain

The exact whereabouts of human rights lawyer Lu Siwei, who was arrested in Laos in July, appear uncertain.

33rd annual See You at the Pole draws ‘wholehearted’ students for prayer

This morning (Sept. 27), students across the country gathered a little earlier than usual at their schools for the 33rd annual See You at the Pole student-led prayer event.

Want to receive news highlights throughout the week? Sign up here!

Email is required Email is not valid
Thanks for your subscription.
Failed to subscribe, please contact admin.

About

  • Our Story
  • Our Team
  • Our Partners
  • Advertise and Promote
  • Classifieds
  • Contact us
  • Our Story
  • Our Team
  • Our Partners
  • Advertise and Promote
  • Classifieds
  • Contact us

Explore

  • State-specific news
  • Archive
  • Opinion pieces
  • Sunday School lessons
  • Persecuted Church
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • State-specific news
  • Archive
  • Opinion pieces
  • Sunday School lessons
  • Persecuted Church
  • Podcasts
  • Videos

Submissions

  • Story suggestions
  • Your Voice/Letter to the Editor
  • Photos / Videos
  • Corrections/other
  • Submission Policy
  • Story suggestions
  • Your Voice/Letter to the Editor
  • Photos / Videos
  • Corrections/other
  • Submission Policy

Subscribe

  • Subscribe
  • Renew subscription
  • Gift a subscription
  • Start a new member subscription
  • Start a new group subscription
  • Start a new subscription at the group rate
  • Hosted Church
  • Manage your group
  • Manage your account
  • Request free trial
  • Subscribe
  • Renew subscription
  • Gift a subscription
  • Start a new member subscription
  • Start a new group subscription
  • Start a new subscription at the group rate
  • Hosted Church
  • Manage your group
  • Manage your account
  • Request free trial
The Baptist Paper
Address:
3310 Independence Dr.
Birmingham, AL 35209
Copyright © 2023 TAB Media Group
  • Privacy/Terms of Use
  • Help
  • FAQ
  • Privacy/Terms of Use
  • Help
  • FAQ

Email:
news@thebaptistpaper.org

  • Latest News
  • Trending
  • Editorials
  • Archive
  • Your state news
  • Opinions
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Persecuted Church
  • Submit your news
  • Photo Galleries
  • Latest News
  • Trending
  • Editorials
  • Archive
  • Your state news
  • Opinions
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Persecuted Church
  • Submit your news
  • Photo Galleries
  • Our Team
  • Manage your group
  • Manage your account
  • Manage Online Access Account
  • Subscribe
  • Start a new subscription at the group rate
  • Advertise and Promote
  • Classifieds
  • Hosted Church
  • Donate
  • Contact us
  • Our Team
  • Manage your group
  • Manage your account
  • Manage Online Access Account
  • Subscribe
  • Start a new subscription at the group rate
  • Advertise and Promote
  • Classifieds
  • Hosted Church
  • Donate
  • Contact us

Log Out?

Lost your password?

Log In

Lost your password?

Log in

Become a part of our community!
Forgot your password? Get help
Privacy/Terms of Use

Reset password

Recover your password
A password reset link will be e-mailed to you.
Privacy/Terms of Use
Back to
Login
×
Close Panel