Have God’s heart for the nations, missions week audience challenged
RIDGECREST, N.C. (BP)–Knowing God intimately and having his heart for the nations should be top priorities for Southern Baptists, speakers said at the second annual International Missions Week at Ridgecrest, a LifeWay Conference Center, in North Carolina. The July 8-13 week was a potpourri of seminar tracks, missionary testimonies, dramas, special music and media presentations […]
Rankins relay 30-year perspective to 57 IMB missionary appointees
RIDGECREST, N.C. (BP)--The appointment of Southern Baptists' 57 newest international missionaries July 13 at Ridgecrest, a LifeWay Conference Center, provided an opportunity to look back 30 years when travel was more difficult and the world was so deeply divided that having a global vision for missions seemed impossible.
IMB trustees affirm ‘New Directions;’ policy focuses on world’s people groups
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (BP)--In their mid-July meeting at the Billy Graham Training Center near Asheville, N.C., International Mission Board trustees enthusiastically affirmed the agency's current overseas policies, known as "New Directions," as the best way to reach the whole world with the gospel of Christ.
New over-50 missionaries prove age no barrier to appointment
NORFOLK, Va. (BP)--Being over 50 is not a roadblock to overseas missionary service, eight of Southern Baptists' 43 newest international missionaries testified in May 21 services at First Baptist Church, Norfolk, Va.
IMB reviews ‘New Directions,’ breaks ground for MLC expansion
RICHMOND, Va. (BP)--International Mission Board trustees received a positive evaluation of the board's 1997 "New Directions" reorganization and heard reports of meetings with national Baptist leaders all over the world, during a May 18-20 meeting in Richmond, Va.
Witness at Brazil’s sin-laden ‘Carnaval’ stirs Patterson, other Baptist volunteers
SALVADOR, Brazil (BP)--Nobody walking past the street corner where he was preaching knew, or probably cared, that the speaker was president of the Southern Baptist Convention in the United States or that he was the president of a large seminary in North Carolina.
New missionaries recount God’s call in unusual to conventional settings
FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)–When she joined a volunteer missions project in Guatemala in 1997, LuSinda Haskins Ray of Oklahoma sensed God calling her to become a career missionary, but she struggled with how a young, widowed mother could possibly fulfill such a call. “God’s only response was, ‘Be obedient to what I have called you […]
Missionary resignations remain low, trustees told
FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)--International Mission Board trustees, during their March 30-April 1 board meeting, received a staff report showing only a slight increase in missionary resignations last year, disproving rumors that the IMB's "New Directions" emphasis is spawning a large increase in resignations.
New missionaries reflect growing ethnic diversity
AUBURN, Ala. (BP)–Southern Baptists’ 36 newest international missionaries reflect the growing influx of ethnics, older individuals and people of other diverse backgrounds into the Southern Baptist missionary force, which itself is increasing at an accelerating pace. The group appointed Jan. 10 at Lakeview Baptist Church in Auburn, Ala., was more ethnically diverse than usual, including […]
IMB OKs $23 million expansion of Missionary Learning Center
AUBURN, Ala. (BP)--International Mission Board trustees have approved an immediate $23 million expansion of its crowded Missionary Learning Center in Rockville, Va., to handle the rapidly escalating numbers of Southern Baptists coming forward for overseas missions service.
