Churches encouraged to observe George Liele missions emphasis
RICHMOND, Va. – Every year, churches across the Southern Baptist Convention honor the memory and legacy of George Liele and other African American and Black missionary pioneers.
Liele is widely acknowledged as the first overseas missionary from the United States. A freed Georgia slave, he used his freedom to take the good news of Jesus Christ to the nations. In 1782, Liele, his wife, Hannah, and their four children left Savannah and landed in Kingston, Jamaica.
The missionary couple worked faithfully and faced many trials. By 1814, there were approximately 8,000 Baptists in Jamaica, including enslaved people, freedmen, and some white Jamaicans. As a result of Liele’s ministry, that number had grown to more than 20,000 believers by 1832.
This year, George Liele Church Planting, Evangelism, and Missions Sunday is planned for Feb. 1, 2026. The annual Southern Baptist Convention emphasis celebrates Liele’s legacy and highlights others, including:
- Lott Carey, who organized African American missions in the 1800s.
- M. Lockridge, a faithful preacher of the gospel in the 20th century.
- Sid Smith, one of the first African American Southern Baptist denominational leaders in the modern era.
- Fred Luter, who was elected as the first African American president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
The International Mission Board encourages all Southern Baptist churches to honor the legacy of George Liele, and downloadable resources are now available.
Visit imb.org/georgeliele to find videos, a Black Church Missions brochure, information about Liele’s life and ministry, a missionary prayer guide, and additional resources.
The materials are intended to help churches reflect on Liele’s legacy and renew their commitment to gospel-centered missions at home and around the world.
Seminary Hill Press releases e-book on multicultural missions in Asia
By Michelle Workman
FORT WORTH, Texas – Seminary Hill Press (SHP), the publishing arm of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, announced today the release of the new e-book, Global Engagement in Mission and World Christianity: Asia Pacific, co-edited by Michael Copeland (’18), assistant professor of missions and associate director of the World Missions Center at Southwestern, and Will Brooks, provost and professor at a seminary in Asia.
Copeland said he and Brooks both have served in Asia among populations of Christians that were native to those cultures and have witnessed the issues that can arise as Western cultures send missionaries to areas that are represented by multiple cultures. Similarly, missionaries, such as those being trained at Southwestern, are themselves more frequently coming from a variety of cultures and backgrounds.
“The work highlights a major shift in the missionary movement: that Asian Christians are now becoming major senders of missionaries themselves,” the book description said of the current scenario faced by organizations such as the International Mission Board.
Copeland said he and Brooks came to the project with the goal of answering the questions, “How do we know what to do in this new world of multicultural mission sending? And how do we actually listen and engage brothers and sisters from all these multiple cultural backgrounds?”
Chapters of the e-book cover topics such as mobilization from multicultural backgrounds, multicultural ethics, dealing with team conflict when multiple cultures are involved, as well as the interpretation of Scriptures as influenced by cultural expectations. Some of the chapters provide case studies and all include discussion questions at the conclusion of each chapter.
Copeland says he plans to start using this book right away in some of his courses and hopes that it may become a series that would involve scholars from or familiar with other areas of the world as well, giving input on the different issues faced in their specific cultures, such as Africa or the Middle East.
The e-book will serve as a resource for students who are preparing to go into the mission field, and also for pastors and believers serving alongside missions teams or mobilizing their own people in the Asia Pacific nations.
“One of the greatest things about Southwestern is that we have students—whether in PhD or MDiv programs, or other graduate degrees, undergraduate even—from so many different cultural backgrounds, so many different nationalities,” Copeland said. “… I have all these different cultures in my classroom, whether Intro to Missiology or otherwise, that they want to go overseas. And this is specifically tailored so that they can get their mind around the multicultural environment that world Christianity has in missions now.”
Southwestern’s faithfulness “to be available and intentional and invest in missionaries from all kinds of cultural backgrounds makes this publication very exciting for me,” Copeland added.
Copeland said they decided to make it available as an e-book to make it affordable and “convenient and helpful to many of the students around the globe.”
Other contributors, including Jennifer Hu, Janeen Davis, Jane Chen*, Franklin Karong, and Jesse Carroll*, currently are or have been missionaries, teachers, pastors, and residents of Asia.
The e-book can be purchased here for $1.99.
*Names changed for security purposes
Related posts:
FROM THE SEMINARIES: Stetzer at SWBTS, Bingham at SBTS 
Pastors experience God’s timing in Ecuador 
IMB shares Southern Baptist missions history in 57 seconds 
Persecution persists as the Gospel spreads 
4 entity heads address messenger questions 
Cuba trip confirms SBC president’s call to prayer 
‘Together, we press toward the vision,’ Chitwood assures Southern Baptists 
FROM THE SEMINARIES: NOBTS Spanish program grows; SWJT announces book awards
