Thursday, March 18, 2010

Global consultants to focus on developing theologically grounded church plants

3/18/2010

By Don Graham

RICHMOND, Va. (BP)--A newly identified team of missionaries from the International Mission Board (IMB) will focus on helping leaders of overseas church plants build solid theological foundations.

Four missionaries will serve as full-time area theological education consultants for the Americas, Asia, Africa and Europe. They will build relationships with overseas seminaries and Bible schools, developing programs for leadership training. They also intend to work with Southern Baptist seminaries to encourage and facilitate partnerships with national Baptist seminaries.

The team will be headed by Chuck Lawless, dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions and Evangelism at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. The IMB hired Lawless as its global consultant for theological education in 2008 to assess the status of theological education overseas and to identify areas where Southern Baptists can help ensure the development of theologically sound churches.

“We’ve been planting churches but not always doing the best job of discipling,” Lawless says. “My prayer is that these new consultants will be another step in helping ground national pastors and lay leaders in the Gospel.”

Other team members include Calvin Morris of Georgia, who has served in the Americas since 1988, and will be the theological education consultant for the Americas; Louisiana native and 16-year missionary Preston Pearce for Europe; and Missouri native Randy Arnett for Africa. IMB leadership is still working to identify the fourth consultant who will serve Asia.

Arnett, a former IMB regional leader for West Africa, has been heavily involved with theological education during his 20-plus year career on the field, teaching in situations ranging from formal, brick-and-mortar seminaries to oral, lay-leader training sessions in dusty African villages. Arnett compares the need for solid theological education to Jesus’ story in Luke 6 of the man who built his house upon the rock and says it must be part of the spiritual DNA of every believer and church.

“We talk a lot about the right DNA in a church or the right DNA in a believer, and a lot of the time we’re thinking about obedience-based discipleship,” he explains. “We also have to look at the theological components. What are those components of that healthy church or that healthy believer that we need to instill in that DNA?

“What happens all too often is that we come in and we blow the Gospel out there … and pop the question really quickly, ‘Will you trust Jesus?’ And the person may respond, but that DNA from the beginning is unhealthy. … We don’t want to see that believer or church fall away.”

Arnett has witnessed firsthand how dangerous a lack of theological training can be. While teaching at a seminary in Togo, West Africa, he started a church with a national Baptist partner. But Arnett didn’t realize this man, who was leading the new church, was mixing the Gospel with elements of African traditional religion — the worship of spirits in nature and of ancestors.

“When it came to dealing with people’s spiritual problems, he resorted to what he knew from his African traditional religion — beating people with brooms, hitting them on the heads with handkerchiefs — doing all sorts of strange stuff that was simply way out of line,” Arnett says. “We ended up shutting down that entire church start because it had already fallen into heresy.”

The four-person consultant team’s efforts will be combined with more than 140 IMB missionaries already engaged in both residential and nonresidential theological education.

Evangelism and church planting efforts must be grounded in solid theological foundations and leaders trained in those foundations to sustain growth, says Gordon Fort, IMB vice president for global strategy. “So the question is, ‘How do we best deliver the theological education in a way that helps us sustain our objective but also meets the needs of our Baptist partners?’

“This is where I think there’s been some misunderstanding on behalf of those who feel that because we focus on evangelism and church planting we don’t care about the seminaries, about theological education, which is not true. … What we’re trying to do is have a balance between those two where we don’t divert our energy and resources from that frontline growth.”

Fort adds that he’s particularly excited about seminary to seminary partnerships.

“I believe our seminaries in the States have much more capacity and capability to do theological education than the IMB,” he says. “They have the faculty, the resources, the experience and the history.”

Don Graham is a writer for the IMB.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Machete attacks on Christian villages kill 500-plus in Nigeria






















JOS, Nigeria (AFP) – UN chief Ban Ki-moon and Washington led calls for restraint on Monday after the slaughter of more than 500 Christians in Nigeria, as survivors told how the killers chopped down their victims.

Funerals took place for victims of the three-hour orgy of violence on Sunday in three Christian villages close to the northern city of Jos, blamed on members of the mainly Muslim Fulani ethnic group.

While troops were deployed to the villages to prevent new attacks, security forces detained 95 suspects but faced bitter criticism over how the killers were able to go on the rampage at a time when a curfew was meant to be in force.

Media reported that Muslim residents of the villages in Plateau state had been warned by phone text message, two days prior to the attack, so they could make good their escape before the exit points were sealed off.

Survivors said the attackers were able to separate the Fulanis from members of the rival Berom group by chanting 'nagge', the Fulani word for cattle. Those who failed to respond in the same language were hacked to death.

One local paper said the gangs shouted Allah Akhbar (God is Great) before breaking into homes and setting them alight in the early hours of Sunday. Churches were among the buildings that were burned down.


The Vatican led a wave of outrage with spokesman Federico Lombardi expressing the Roman Catholic Church's "sadness" at the "horrible acts of violence".

The UN chief told reporters he was "deeply concerned".

"I appeal to all concerned to exercise maximum restraint," he said.

"Nigeria's political and religious leaders should work together to address the underlying causes and to achieve a permanent solution to the crisis in Jos."

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged "all parties to exercise restraint", but also called on the Nigerian government to "make sure the perpetrators are brought to justice."

"The Nigerian government should ensure that the perpetrators of acts of violence are brought to justice under the rule of law and that human rights are respected as order is restored," the chief US diplomat said.

The death toll was initially put at a little over 100 but then shot up. The information ministry said pregnant women were among those killed and around 200 people were being treated in hospital.

"We have over 500 killed in three villages and the survivors are busy burying their dead," said state information commissioner Gregory Yenlong.

"People were attacked with axes, daggers and cutlasses -- many of them children, the aged and pregnant women."

Survivors wail as children, women buried in Nigeria

Much of the violence was centred around the village of Dogo Nahawa, where gangs set fire to straw-thatched mud huts as they went on their rampage.

The explosion of violence is the latest between rival ethnic and religious groups. In January 326 people died in clashes in and around Jos, according to police although rights activists put the overall toll at more than 550.

"The attack is yet another jihad and provocation," the Plateau State Christian Elders Consulatative Forum (PSCEF) said.

However the archbishop of the capital Abuja, John Onaiyekan, told Vatican Radio that the violence was rooted not in religion but in social, economic and tribal differences.

"It is a classic conflict between pastoralists and farmers, except that all the Fulani are Muslims and all the Berom are Christians," he said.

Fulani are mainly nomadic cattle rearers while Beroms are traditionally farmers.

A curfew imposed after January's unrest is supposed to be still in place but Christian leaders said the authorities did nothing to prevent the bloodshed.

The PSCEF said it took the army two hours to react from the time a distress call was put through and "the attackers had finished their job and left".

Witnesses said armed gangs had scared people out of their homes by firing into the air but most of the killings were the result of machete attacks.

"We were caught unawares ... and as we tried to escape, the Fulani who were already waiting, slaughtered many of us," said Dayop Gyang, of Dogo Nahawa.

Gbong Gwon Jos, a Muslim resident of Dogo Nahawa, told The Nation daily he received advanced warnings of the attacks.

"I got a text message about movement of the people."

Rights activists said the slaughter appeared to be revenge for the January attacks in which mainly Muslims were killed.

Locals said that the attacks on Sunday were the result of a feud which had been first ignited by a theft of cattle and then fuelled by deadly reprisals.

Acting President Goodluck Jonathan placed security services in Plateau and nearby states on red alert to contain the violence before he sacked his chief security advisor.

Convoluted Priorities By Jerry Rankin 3/8/2010



If there were any question about the need for a Great Commission Resurgence and a study of our structure and programs it has been dispelled in the convictions and positions that have surfaced from many prominent voices. It is evident where resistance will come to recommendations from the GCRTF at the convention in June.

Many will be pointing out how the recommended changes will impact what we are doing as a convention—but isn’t that exactly the point! Watch for those who stand to lose entitlements of a system that hasn’t been moving us toward effective engagement of the lost. Dr. Morris Chapman found a receptive audience in speaking to the winter meeting of State Executives last month in passionately pointing out that the purpose of our denomination is not the Great Commission but cooperation.

Apparently it doesn’t matter whether we impact a lost world or accomplish anything else as long as we cooperate together. In fact, it was said that the formula for Cooperative Program allocations must not change. I now understand why for 17 years I and my staff have been meeting with the budget workgroup of the Executive Committee, presenting our required report on funding needs, but nothing is ever done. It is just a meaningless exercise of denominational bureaucracy.

A mighty move of God could open the world for harvest with thousands of missionaries poised to be deployed to the nations, but we could not do anything about it as Southern Baptists. More important than actually reaching a lost world is every entity getting their share. The priority is reflecting our cooperative commitment to all our programs as if everything we do is of equal value.

The above scenario is not altogether hypothetical. God is using global events to open unprecedented doors of opportunity to penetrate previously restricted and unreached people groups with the gospel. War, political disruption, economic uncertainty and natural disasters are turning the hearts of people all over the world to a search for spiritual answers that only Jesus can provide. Thousands of missionary candidates are in the appointment process but cannot be sent.

What our convoluted priorities are practically saying is, “It is better to let the lost multitudes never hear the gospel and go to hell, than change the way our denomination functions.” It is too bad that we have a system in which only two percent of our resources are given to reach a lost world that Jesus died to save. It is unfortunate our denomination can channel only 17 percent of Cooperative Program allocations to international missions because we have to sustain everything else we are doing. We can’t expect to cease a valid ministry, compromise programs that serve ourselves and our own churches in order to provide resources to get the gospel to those who have never heard! That, in essence, is what is being communicated.

One of my exasperations in working cooperatively with other convention entities has been the difficulty in nailing down the purpose of what is being done. On Mission Celebrations, which used to be World Mission Conferences, is a mission event hosted by local associations. IMB, NAMB, WMU and State Conventions all send personnel to speak in the churches, report on what we are all doing in missions, supposedly to enhance mission awareness. Pressing to know if there is an outcome that is supposed to result from this event, I am usually told that the event is an end in itself. Nothing is done that actually enlists and equips the church for missions involvement once the week is over.

Participation in Jericho Weeks at Ridgecrest and Glorieta rapidly declined when it became obvious that this mission week was more about profiling the cooperation of IMB, NAMB, WMU and LifeWay than accomplishing anything that would significantly advance missions. What about annual state convention meetings and associational meetings? Is there any outcome that made a difference, or do we continue to expend time, energy and expense on just being who we are?

Cooperation is about us; it is self-centered, self-promoting and maintaining everything every entity is doing without any concern for priorities or results. The Great Commission is not about us, our programs and sustaining what we have always done; it is about others. It is about a lost world. It is about consolidating our resources and focusing our energies to proclaim the gospel to those who have never heard, to win the lost and see the kingdoms of the world become the kingdom of our Lord.

I wonder which is God’s priority. Yes, He is pleased with unity among God’s people. He is honored by anything we do cooperatively for His sake. But not to the neglect of His mission! Cooperation is the means through which we work together, not an end in itself. Why couldn’t our cooperation be for the purpose of fulfilling the Great Commission? Now that would be a quaint idea!

© Copyright 2010 Jerry Rankin Blog

Sickened By The Ugliness Of Their Own Sinfulness

Saturday, March 6, 2010

'Let us be found faithful,'

'Let us be found faithful,' Chitwood tells trustees

3/4/2010

By Mark Kelly

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (BP)--Paul Chitwood knelt with six other believers in an overseas province where all of the nearly 100 million inhabitants know little or nothing about salvation through Jesus Christ. They prayed God would send Southern Baptist workers to tell the people there about the Good News.

“Yet I flew back to America knowing how unlikely it would be that God would send an IMB missionary there because we are in the process of reducing our mission force by several hundred people,” Chitwood told trustees of the International Mission Board (IMB) during their March 3 business session in Memphis, Tenn.

His voice filled with emotion, Chitwood, chairman of the board of trustees and pastor of First Baptist Church in Mt. Washington, Ky., challenged his fellow board members to be passionate advocates for the Great Commission cause of taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

“To most of the world, how to know God is still a mystery. But we know the mystery has been solved,” Chitwood told the trustees, who were about to appoint 61 new missionaries in a service at nearby Bellevue Baptist Church. “Some have heard and not yet believed, but over a billion have not yet heard. Our labors and our struggles are so that all may hear. Thank God for those who are willing to go and share their lives among the nations that all may hear.

“God has given us a small piece of the greatest endeavor He has undertaken,” Chitwood added. “Let us be found faithful, doing our part.”

Chitwood’s impassioned plea closed out a two-day meeting in which trustees also heard an update on Southern Baptist relief efforts in Haiti and Chile, received an “over and above” check from a group of Texas Baptist churches and recognized the leadership of Lloyd Atkinson, who served in South America in the 1970s before having various leadership roles in the IMB’s personnel office.

‘AN INSPIRATION AND A BLESSING’

Atkinson, a senior consultant who served as the IMB’s vice president for mission personnel from 1999-2009, retires March 31.

“Lloyd and his staff have led in an era of growth beyond what anyone would have dared imagine a few years ago,” said IMB President Jerry Rankin. “Lloyd has demonstrated not only superb leadership skills as a team builder but also conscientious commitment to the values and policies of this board.” Speaking directly to Atkinson and his wife, Sue, Rankin added: “It has been a wonderful journey. You have been an inspiration and a blessing.”

“I am so optimistic about the future. God’s hand, I believe, is on this board,” Atkinson told the group. “God called all of us a long time ago to carry out the Great Commission and that Great Commission is still in our hearts. I’m looking forward to the days ahead even being greater than they are now.”

OVER AND ABOVE

The trustee board also received an “over and above” check from Bryon McWilliams, pastor of First Baptist Church in Odessa, Texas, and president of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. That state convention sends 55 percent of its Cooperative Program missions receipts to national and international missions causes — a percentage well above that of most state Baptist conventions. It also was the SBTC that presented an “over and above” check for $100,000 to the IMB during the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Louisville, Ky., in June 2009.

“I am thrilled to be part of a state convention that is so missionally minded,” McWilliams told the trustees. “Today it is my pleasure to represent the more than 2,000 Southern Baptist of Texas Convention churches and give another check for $100,000 … to the IMB.”

HAITI AND CHILE

Terry Lassiter, IMB strategist for the American peoples, reported on the entity’s relief efforts following major earthquakes in both Haiti and Chile. In Haiti, joint relief efforts with Baptist Global Response, Haitian Baptists, Florida Baptists and the North American Mission Board are focusing on food, shelter and medical needs, especially in areas being missed by the larger international relief effort, Lassiter said. A total of $1.8 million has been donated to the IMB for Haiti relief and $475,000 of that already has been targeted for specific projects.

In Chile, Southern Baptist missionaries in the country deployed only minutes after the Feb. 27 earthquake to begin assessing needs and ministering to survivors, Lassiter reported. Two missionary assessment teams are converging on Concepcion, the city most affected by the quake, to bring badly needed food, water and medicine. An initial release of $50,000 has been approved to launch that effort, which will be conducted in partnership with Chilean Baptist churches and Baptist Global Response.

MEGACITY MISSIONS

A project in a major North American city is helping Southern Baptist missionaries better understand how to evangelize the megacities in which they will be serving overseas, said Gordon Fort, the IMB’s vice president of global strategy.

The purpose of the project is to help new missionaries, many of whom grew up in relatively small communities, understand how to share the Gospel in the post-modern environment of an ethnically diverse megacity, Fort said.

The program, which completed its second four-month cycle in January, challenged its 13 participants to learn how to live in an apartment-dwelling, mass transportation environment and required them to engage the people they encountered with the Gospel, Fort said. Over the four months, a full 41 percent of the people engaged indicated they were not interested, yet three salvations were recorded, five home or Bible study groups were started and one church was planted.

It was exciting that “in a city like this — post-modern, with its ethnic diversity, many people as hardened to the Gospel as any place in the world — your missionaries in those four months found responsiveness that we will continue to build on ... ,” Fort said. “These excited, enthusiastic new missionaries were coming in, struggling with the city, trying to learn how to live in a city, adjusting themselves to the city, but coming to love the city.”

‘WHAT AFFECTS OUR MORALE’

Dramatic changes in IMB structure have occurred in recent months and people ask board leaders how the reorganization has affected morale among the missionaries, said a key leader for missions work among Central Asian peoples.

“By and large, the average worker on the frontlines is hardly aware that anything has happened. They are simply continuing to do what God called them to do,” said the leader, whose name is being withheld for security reasons. “Reorganization is not what affects the morale of our leadership team and keeps us awake at night. What affects us is lostness.

“We have overwhelming lostness facing us and we are being told we are going to have to address that lostness with fewer workers. That’s what keeps me awake at night,” the leader said. “What keeps me awake at night is getting calls from churches ... that have qualified people in the pipeline [to become missionaries] ... and having to tell them, ‘Slow down. We can’t take you this year. Maybe we can’t take you next year. We don’t know.’”

Deciding how to allocate scarce missionary resources among vast numbers of lost people is extremely difficult, the mission leader said.

“I’ve got somebody ready to go to that place, but I’m going to have to say no because we don’t have the money to send them,” he said. “How do we prioritize? It’s like asking which of your children you are going to save. ... That’s what breaks my heart.”

In other business, trustees:

— Adopted a resolution of appreciation for Robert E. Brown, a Masters missionary to sub-Saharan African peoples since 2004, who died of a heart attack Jan. 7 while on family leave in the United States.

— Heard a request from the chairman of the board’s presidential search committee that Southern Baptists set aside March 13 as a day of prayer and fasting to ask God to direct their path.

— Listened to the first reading of a temporary bylaws change that would save money by eliminating the January and July 2011 trustee meetings. Trustees will vote on the proposal during their May meeting in Chicago.

— Received a report about a medical missions mobilization summit set for July 8-10 at Warren Baptist Church in Augusta, Ga.

The next meeting of the trustees will be held May 4-5 in Chicago. Two appointment services will be held in conjunction with this board meeting. The first appointment service will be May 5 at Broadview Baptist Church, Chicago. The second appointment service will be held May 6 at First Baptist Church, Jackson, Miss.

Mark Kelly wrote this story on behalf of the IMB.

Friday, March 5, 2010

The 50% Myth


Churches send on average less than 7% of there total income to their State Agency. Then 14-57 % goes to the SBC where 50% goes to the IMB. So the 50% everyone talks about is 50% of 14-57% of only 7%. It is really less than 2% of Church Income!

Preliminary report of the Great Commission Resurgence (GCR) Task Force


Creativity, new paradigms needed to reach lost world, Rankin says

3/4/2010

By Mark Kelly

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (BP)––The Feb. 21 preliminary report of the Great Commission Resurgence (GCR) Task Force deals with some of the areas where Southern Baptists “are languishing in the task of the Great Commission,” International Mission Board (IMB) President Jerry Rankin told the entity’s trustees March 3.

While much more needs to be done to focus the denomination on evangelizing a lost world, Southern Baptists “must be creative and willing to explore new paradigms … for the sake of mobilizing the resources impacting a lost world,” Rankin said.

The comments, which came on the second day of the IMB’s two-day meeting in Memphis, Tenn., specifically addressed proposals to allow the IMB to work directly with unreached people groups present in the United States, to shift 1 percent of the SBC budget from the Executive Committee to the IMB and to create a new category of giving called “Great Commission Giving.”

NORTH AMERICAN MISSIONS

Rankin said he sees significance in the door being opened for the IMB to work directly with unreached people groups in the United States.

The geographic restriction in the IMB’s ministry assignment “has created a debilitating dichotomy in our denominational strategy,” Rankin said.

“Reaching these ethnic people groups, many of which are from areas that are closed or restricted to a Christian witness overseas, represents a potential for engaging their language and society with the Gospel as it invariably flows from those reached in America to relatives in their homeland,” Rankin told the trustees.

At the same time, however, such a change would not result in the IMB assigning missionary personnel to the United States, Rankin said. Pulling a missionary away from an unreached people group of 10 million people would not make sense just to engage a few of those people in an American city.

“If this recommendation is adopted by the convention, I anticipate we will organize to make a concerted effort to work with NAMB (North American Mission Board), state conventions, local associations and in response to requests of local churches, to identify unreached ethnic people groups and utilize our personnel and resources to train stateside entities to understand and witness to those with other cultural worldviews,” Rankin said.

BUDGET SHIFT

While Southern Baptists do need to be more effective in reaching their own country, evangelizing unchurched cities and reversing the decline in baptisms, the task force’s final report must give greater emphasis and channel more resources to reaching the thousands of unreached people groups around the world, Rankin said.

While he appreciates the additional $2 million in funding represented by shifting 1 percent of the Cooperative Program allocation budget to the IMB, Rankin said it is more significant that the barrier of allocating 50 percent of that budget to the IMB is being broken.

“Yes, we want to see baptisms increase and America evangelized, but that is comparing 6 billion people to [250 million] lost people at home where there are already 45,000 churches working and 97 percent of our financial resources are being applied,” Rankin said. “It comes down to a decision of whether or not Southern Baptists want to settle for sending and supporting 5,000 missionaries, or to provide the resources to do what it takes to be aligned with God in reaching the nations.”

The “Covenant for a New Century” reorganization of the SBC in 1997 eliminated several SBC entities and consolidated their functions into a more streamlined structure that was supposed to free up more money for missions, Rankin noted.

“What actually happened was a total reduction in the allocation to missions while the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and Executive Committee received increased funding,” Rankin said. “The reduced allocation of 1 percent to the Executive Committee will be a sizeable portion of its budget. However, like other areas of the convention, [the Executive Committee] has allowed its role to expand beyond providing administration and facilitating services to the convention to engage in ministry assignments such as Empowering Kingdom Growth and Global Evangelical Relations as well as Cooperative Program promotion.”

‘GREAT COMMISSION GIVING’

One of the more surprising recommendations in the GCR task force report was acknowledging designated gifts to convention entities at the state and national level as “Great Commission Giving” while affirming the Cooperative Program as the primary channel of support, Rankin said.

“Many strong mission-minded churches are being alienated and treated with condescension because of their level of giving to the CP,” Rankin said. “I plan to speak to this in the future –– not to criticize the Cooperative Program, but to suggest it needs to be re-created for the 21st century.

“We are the largest benefactor of CP, but it is floundering, putting our future in jeopardy,” Rankin added. “I suggest we could not only increase but double Cooperative Program receipts for the work of our convention and the Great Commission task by giving ownership and flexibility to the churches, removing the contradiction of connectionalism between the SBC and state convention and promoting it with transparency and integrity.”

Rankin said he would be blogging on that subject at rankinconnecting.com.

The trend of decline among Southern Baptists is evident and the consequences of not creating a new paradigm of Great Commission cooperation are disturbing, Rankin asserted.

Whether the task force recommendations are adopted or not, “it is a new day for Southern Baptists,” Rankin added.

“These initiatives cannot be put back in the can; they will be the incentives for new paradigms created by a new and younger generation of leadership,” Rankin said.

“…We must be creative and willing to explore new paradigms for serving Southern Baptists for the sake of mobilizing the resources impacting a lost world.”

Mark Kelly wrote this story on behalf of the IMB.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

61 New Missionaries


61 new missionaries sent out to tell others that 'Jesus is the answer'


3/4/2010

By Alan James

CORDOVA, Tenn. (BP)--As “Jennifer” held the hand of a dying man in the intensive care unit of a hospital, she knew God was calling her to a career in missions.

A nurse for the past five years, Jennifer had already felt God’s call to missions. As she watched that particular encounter with eternity, she realized that people are dying every day without a relationship with Jesus Christ. She is unable to share her real name because soon she will be traveling with her family to an area resistant to the Gospel.

“I knew it was now time to tell an unreached people about the Great Physician,” Jennifer told a crowd during an International Mission Board (IMB) missionary appointment service March 3 at Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tenn.

Jennifer and her husband were among 61 missionaries appointed that evening. The total number of IMB missionaries now stands at 5,413. And many like Jennifer and her husband are working in areas that are resistant to the Gospel.

“It’s our job to go to the world,” said Steve Gaines, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church.

“It’s not our job to tell the world to come to us.

“One day we’re going to make it to heaven and … we’re going to see people of every nationality, every tongue, every skin color, every kind of person you can imagine … so many different kinds of people and yet all people created in the image of God,” he continued.

One new appointee shared how her work with international students while attending college confirmed her heart for the nations — especially those in South Asia.

“They heard about Jesus for the first time,” said the woman. “I became burdened for all nations to know Him.”

Another shared how her trip to the gym in a Muslim country confirmed her call to career missions.

“While exercising, a woman approached me,” she said. “She whispered that she’d seen me in a dream, and God told her I could explain how to be saved. When she accepted Christ, God confirmed His call on my life to be a light.”

Many others around the world, like that Muslim woman in the gym, are discovering that God speaks their language, said Gordon Fort, IMB’s vice president of overseas operations.

Fort, who served 11 years in Botswana with his wife and children, told how some of the villagers reacted when they saw the JESUS film translated into the language of Setswana.

“Those people were startled and astounded that Jesus spoke their language,” he said.

“As people around the world discover that Jesus Christ died on the cross for every language, every people, every tribe, every nation, they are being transformed.”

Fort told about a Muslim-background believer in Bangladesh who was tortured by a group of Muslims and told to recant his faith or they’d cut off all his fingers.

The man replied, “You can cut my body into a thousand pieces, and every piece will cry out the name of Jesus.”

Fort asked, “Why would a man do this?

“Jesus spoke their language,” he added. “[God] knew their heart and their longing for spiritual truth, and they were putting their faith in Jesus Christ.”

During the past three years, IMB missionaries and their Baptist partners have baptized an average of 500,000 people a year, Fort said.

Jerry Rankin, IMB president, challenged those in the crowd to join God’s work overseas.

“The call to missions is not just for an elite few such as these sent by the International Mission Board,” Rankin said.

Too many people are not going to the mission field because they claim, God has not called me. The Great Commission was given to every church and every believer, Rankin said.

“Many times we have a stereotypical idea of what a missionary is — a pastor, church staff or seminary graduate,” he said. “Did you hear those testimonies tonight? … A businessman, doctor, teacher or coach.”

“How grateful we are that we’re able to send out these 61 new missionaries,” he added. “But how many more will it take? How many more until the whole world knows Jesus?”

Alan James is a writer for the IMB.

New Ministry

Please pray for the new ministry God has brought me to. A fellow student that is in his last trimester started working last year at a halfway house. This eventually led to a ministry where he began to disciple 6 men on Thursdays at a park downtown.

A few weeks ago he approached me about joining him in preparation of his leaving in April. I was very excited because if you know me Discipleship is my passion and this ministry would be great preparation for Mexico and allow me to practice my Spanish and hopefully allow God to use me to change the lives of these new believers.

Well after just one week, the leader of this ministry is in the States and I will be leading today. Is God stretching me or what? Pray for me and these men, and that God will prepare me by April to help this ministry flourish.