• FIRST-PERSON: I’m AskingDecember 5, 2024

  Because this year’s Lottie Moon Christmas Offering is the most important offering in the history of the International Mission Board, I am asking every church to give 10% more to the IMB this year than you gave last year. If every church raises their giving by just 10%, we can fully support our Southern Baptist missionaries already on the field and those who are in the application process.

  

  Let me explain why this offering is so important. 

  Before the end of January 2025, global population will cross 8.2 billion souls. And the number of those souls who will pass into eternity without hearing the gospel, or without believing the gospel they’ve heard, will be at an all-time high. Since lostness is growing, our mission force must grow as well. The gospel is the solution to every person’s greatest problem, but someone must proclaim it. 

  Thankfully, the number of Southern Baptist international missionaries is growing again, which is a huge turnaround from where we’ve been. Between 2008-18, because of waning financial support for IMB missionaries, the SBC overseas missionary force was reduced by more than 2,000 people, and by 2019 we saw only 300 new applicants in our sending pipeline. 

  But today we can rejoice that God has replenished and grown our missionary sending pipeline. Pastors are calling out the called and churches are sending missionaries through the IMB again. Currently, more than 1,450 Southern Baptists are in the application process to be IMB missionaries among the lost.

  Thankfully, the past three years of the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering have been our largest in history. Every penny of that offering funds missionaries and their mission work overseas. Those offerings have allowed us to sustain the work and presence of our more than 3,600 missionaries and their 3,000-plus children. With new applications topping 1,450 and expected soon to grow north of 1,500, the number of Southern Baptist missionaries serving overseas is finally growing again. The greater the lostness, the greater the need for the gospel, and we rejoice that the Great Commission work of Southern Baptists is resurging.

  https://vimeo.com/1033305220

  Now is the time to sacrificially support those we cooperatively send.

  I’ve often referenced a conversation I had with a Mississippi Baptist pastor when I first came to serve with the IMB six years ago. His words to me, passionately and positively spoken, were: “Mr. President, everything IMB needs—more missionaries and more money—is in our churches. But you’re going to have to ask for it.” Taking his challenge to heart, I’ve been asking. And Southern Baptists are responding. The candidate pipeline has increased nearly fivefold in the last few years while giving has also increased. 

  But a growing missionary force will require even greater generosity on the part of Southern Baptists. I’m certain that can happen. Let me tell you why. Southern Baptists are some of the most generous people on the planet and each year we give generously to the things we value, giving over $600 million through our cooperative missions offerings. 

  Southern Baptists also give more than $2 billion to overseas work outside of the denomination. 

  I regularly reassure our missionaries that Southern Baptists are not broke and we have not lost our heart for the nations. What the IMB lost were the relational connections that are vital for Southern Baptists to give their support. Those relationships are what the IMB has been working to rebuild. We’ve assigned every Southern Baptist church to one of their IMB missionaries who stays in contact with them and helps each church understand how God is using their generosity around the world. We are finding new and creative ways to engage churches in praying for the lost among the nations, innovative pathways for more Southern Baptists to serve overseas through their IMB, and better ways to care for our missionaries. 

  So let me repeat my ask of you, because the importance of this offering is greater than ever before. I am asking your church to give 10% more to the IMB this year than you gave last year. If every church raises their giving by just 10%, we can support both the missionaries already on the field and those who are in the application process. 

  Our Southern Baptist missionaries serving through the IMB have the most important job in the universe—to share the gift of eternal life with those who otherwise would not get the chance to hear and respond. With a multiplying number of lost people around the world and the growing number of Southern Baptists willing to answer God’s call to take the gospel to the nations, this year’s Lottie offering is the most important in our history.This Christmas season, I have a question for each Southern Baptist church:  Will we give generously so we can send and support those whom God is calling from our churches?

• Lostness impacted by largest Annie Armstrong, Lottie Moon offerings in SBC historyOctober 16, 2024

  Generosity among Southern Baptists remains strong as evidenced by the most recent Annie Armstrong Easter Offering® and Lottie Moon Christmas Offering^® totals. When the books closed on the SBC’s 2023-24 fiscal year Sept. 30, the Annie offering totaled $74.7 million, and the Lottie offering totaled $206.8 million — record highs for both.

  

  The openhanded giving through both the Annie and Lottie offerings demonstrates Southern Baptists’ enduring commitment to North American and international missions, SBC missions leaders said.

  “This extraordinary milestone reminds us of just how much Southern Baptists love their missionaries and how committed they are to seeing people in North America and around the world reached for Christ,” said Kevin Ezell, president of the North American Mission Board. “It also displays a willingness to look beyond their own needs and give generously and sacrificially to ministry that will reap an eternal harvest.”

  International Mission Board President Paul Chitwood emphasized that the generosity of givers to the annual offerings shows an enduring commitment to the Great Commission.

  “Together, Southern Baptists are taking on the world’s greatest problem — lostness — by sending and supporting missionaries to proclaim the gospel,” Chitwood said. “I praise God for these record-breaking offerings — proof that Southern Baptists are more committed than ever to pursuing the lost to the very ends of the earth.”

  Each year, the national goals for both the Lottie and Annie offerings are set in partnership with Woman’s Missionary Union, which created the offerings in 1888 and 1895, respectively. WMU has long championed the necessity of each offering for Southern Baptist missions endeavors.

  Sandy Wisdom-Martin, executive director/treasurer of national WMU, recently returned from Europe, where she was privileged to join IMB personnel in celebrating the 100th anniversary of a church planted a century ago because of sacrificial gifts to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.

  “Our heartbeat is missions,” Wisdom-Martin said. “How grateful I am that Southern Baptists of our generation are just as committed to the Great Commission as those who went before us. A hundred years from now, others will be able to celebrate lives transformed for the sake of the gospel because of our collective investment today.”

  She also noted that it has been WMU’s sacred privilege to keep faith with Southern Baptists in passionately promoting the offerings.

  “With great joy, we join the denominational family in celebrating another historic milestone,” she said. “We know God will take every gift and multiply it for His glory. The proclamation of the gospel hinges at the points of our prayers and faithful stewardship. Thank you, Southern Baptists.”

  The Annie Armstrong offering supports more than 3,000 Southern Baptist missionaries serving throughout North America. The Annie offering helps to fuel church planting efforts through NAMB’s Send Network. Since 2010, Southern Baptists have started more than 11,000 new churches.

  We will not rest until we have seen all unreached and unengaged people groups have access to the gospel.

  Paul Chitwood

  The Lottie Moon offering supports nearly 3,600 international missionaries and their families around the world. Total receipts include gifts to specific projects, often referred to as Lottie Moon challenges or Lottie giving projects. More than 90% of IMB missionary teams work directly with at least one unreached people group. This means they are serving among people who are less than 2% evangelical. Many of these groups are considered unengaged, with little-to-no gospel access.

  Missionaries serving with Send Relief, the collaborative compassion ministry through NAMB and IMB, also are funded through the two offerings.

  Every dollar given to the Annie Armstrong and Lottie Moon offerings goes directly to missionaries and resources on the mission field. This is only possible because Southern Baptists give faithfully to the Cooperative Program, which covers additional, vital ministry and support expenses. As few organizations can claim that 100% of giving reaches the mission field, thanks to the Cooperative Program, Southern Baptists have the assurance their Annie and Lottie offerings will be used by missionaries to reach the lost. IMB leadership hopes a growing offering each year will help the total missionary count top 4,000 soon.

  As spiritual needs in North America continue to grow, Southern Baptists have responded by giving record amounts to the Annie offering since 2017, except for the pandemic-impacted year of 2020. The increased giving has allowed NAMB to increase the quality of church planter assessment, coaching, training and care, resulting in a four-year survival rate that consistently hovers around 89 percent.

  As churches begin their campaigns for the 2024-25 Lottie Moon offering, often observed in the Christmas season, they can find free downloadable resources at lottiemoon.com. The new goal has been set at $205 million, but as Southern Baptists surpassed that this year, IMB leadership asks givers to prayerfully consider what more they might give toward the advance of the gospel among the lost.

  Chitwood reminded Southern Baptists of the vision of a great multitude which drives Southern Baptist missions: “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” (Revelation 7:9-10).

  “While we celebrate the record giving of Southern Baptists — who will not rest until we have seen all unreached and unengaged people groups have access to the gospel — we must remember our enemy also does not rest,” Chitwood said. “Lostness is growing every day. There are more people dying without the hope of the gospel than ever before. And this is why Southern Baptists, who are committed to the Great Commission, must strive to ensure the good news of the gospel is made available to all.”

  The Annie Armstrong Easter Offering® and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering® are registered trademarks of Woman’s Missionary Union.

• President’s Report: ‘We press forward because so much is at stake’September 26, 2024

  International Mission Board of Trustees | Richmond, Virginia

  Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for this opportunity to address the board. Thank you, Pastor Clint, Pillar Network, Kentucky Baptists, WMU, and other special guests for being with us this week.

  

  What a privilege last evening to be able to celebrate the sending of dozens more missionaries and the record giving of Southern Baptists through the Lottie Moon Offering to support them — and to do so in the church where Lottie Moon herself professed faith and was baptized!

  Who but God could have imagined when a young single lady stepped into the baptismal waters that she would also step onto a ship bound for Asia, take most of her life’s steps on the mission fields of China, and never step off the boat that was supposed to bring her home. Who but God could have imagined God’s plan to use her to inspire generations of missionaries to follow in her steps to take the gospel to the nations. And who but God could have imagined that one little girl from the hills of northwestern Virginia would inspire Southern Baptists to give more than $5½ billion to a foreign missions offering named in her honor? 

  God does indeed choose “the foolish things of the world to confound the wise … the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.”

  As we celebrate Lottie’s legacy, we do so during another record Lottie Offering year. With five days remaining in the fiscal year, and more donations in route, we look forward to hearing from Price Jett’s team in October about the official total that, combined with Cooperative Program gifts, will have met every ministry need of the IMB this year.

  A good offering is not all we have to celebrate at the IMB. We can also celebrate that we just graduated our largest class of missionaries from Field Personnel Orientation in more than a decade. We celebrate that our missionary application pipeline is higher than it’s been in more than 15 years. We can celebrate that the IMB brand is strong again and we are connecting with more churches than ever before in our 180-year history. We celebrate that the average tenure of service for long-term missionaries is higher than it’s been in many years. And we celebrate that Southern Baptist volunteers serving alongside of our overseas teams this year topped 11,600, an increase of nearly 20% over last year.

  We still have challenges. Inflation continues to present significant challenges here at home and around the world, and growing generosity is required to have a growing missionary force. Why is that so important? Because lostness is a growing problem. So we need even more missionary candidates in the application pipeline, and we need the Lottie Offering to grow at a quicker pace so we can send and fully support those missionaries. We press forward because so much is at stake, and God has shown His willingness to bless our efforts.

  On a recent trip to Zambia with my wife, Michelle, we were able to host a unique group of partners. Michelle was accompanied by Lynette Ezell, wife of the North American Mission Board president; the wives of state convention executive directors from Michigan and Missouri; church planter wives from Michigan; and the wife a pastor and IMB trustee, Lisa George, from Arkansas. Wes George and a longtime IMB donor from Texas accompanied me on the trip. Daren and Shawna Davis, who lead IMB work in Sub-Saharan Africa, along with our IMB missionaries in Zambia, were our hosts. It was an incredible opportunity to strengthen partnerships, deepen relationships, and see the hearts of these key leaders drawn to the gospel work that Southern Baptists steward.

  What we experienced was a great reminder of the lasting impact of IMB work around the world. Our work in Zambia began in 1960. Seven years later, that work included the opening of the Baptist Theological Seminary of Zambia. The first graduation was held in 1972 with 10 students receiving degrees. Over the decades, our missionary professors invested deeply in the lives of their students and mentored them as leaders. The administration of the seminary was gradually entrusted over the years to faithful Zambian Baptists. While we were there, we took the final and historic step of handing over ownership of the seminary to our Zambian brothers and sisters.

  In a part of Africa where theology and the gospel itself are perverted by Neo-Pentecostalism and prosperity gospel teaching, the seminary stands as a lighthouse of truth preparing and equipping Zambian pastors and missionaries to preach and teach the word of God and carry out a faithful ministry. Words cannot communicate the gratitude of Zambian Baptists for the gospel impact that Southern Baptists, through their IMB, have made over the decades and continue to make today. Zambia is just one among 155 countries where Southern Baptists sent and supported missionaries this year. We celebrate what God is allowing us to be a part of in His work around the world.

  Beating along for hours in a four-by-four into the African bush with our missionaries, joining them for river baptisms, sitting with them and their children in their makeshift homeschool classrooms, and hoping the electricity comes on long enough for a hot shower, was a good reminder of the dedication and sacrifice our missionaries make to obey God’s call upon their lives. And it was an opportunity for Michelle and me to renew our own commitment to God’s call upon our lives.

  Six years ago, we felt God calling us to the IMB for a very specific reason. Here’s how I communicate that to our missionaries:  We feel called into service with the IMB to do everything we can do to ensure they have everything they need to do what God has called them to do. I spend about a third of my days traveling, mostly across the US speaking, to encourage Southern Baptists to support their missionaries. Along with our team of stateside staff and field leaders, we invest time in building and strengthening support structures and systems to make sure that houses and cars and plane tickets and visas and medical care and TCK educational resources and Member Care and a hundred other things are in place for our missionaries. We do these things because this our part of getting the gospel to the nations. Some are called to go. The rest of us are called to hold the ropes.

  One of the areas we are striving to improve is in providing well-equipped, healthy leaders for our missionary teams. And we need to improve in this area. Our leadership pipeline was gutted by the downsizing that took place just before I became president. Leadership development has not had the attention it requires. And, in too many instances, the organization has been too patient with those who have poorly led. Our missionaries deserve better.

  So what are we going to do about it? Let me state more clearly the commitment I made during yesterday’s board forum. We are working and will continue to work to develop and equip healthy field leadership for our missionary teams. And we will hold accountable those who fail to care well for their team members. I won’t take the time to recount the dozen examples I shared yesterday of how we are intentionally address this issue, but I did want to circle back to it and give assurance to our board, our missionaries, and to Southern Baptists that our goal is to care for and support our missionaries with excellence, and we will not be satisfied with anything that falls short of that goal. Michelle and I feel called to this role to do everything we can do to make sure our missionaries have everything they need, including good leaders, so they do what God has called them to do. And we are grateful for the partnership of our board members and of Southern Baptists in that effort as, together, we address lostness as the world’s greatest problem with the only solution — the gospel — following the biblical model of sending missionaries to proclaim that gospel. As Pastor Clint reminded us last night, “How else will they hear?”

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