NASHVILLE (BP) – Later this month, for the first time, Southern Baptists will have a chance to adopt a budget that will send 51 percent of all Cooperative Program receipts to the foreign mission field. IMB President Paul Chitwood said the move shows global missions is a “first priority” for Southern Baptists.
The announcement earlier this year that the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee would complete an allocation process 16 years in the making also provided an example of cooperation among Southern Baptist Convention entities toward the goal of fulfilling the Great Commission.
In response to recommendations from the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force report, Southern Baptists voted in 2010 to reallocate 1 percentage point of Cooperative Program gifts designated for the Executive Committee to the International Mission Board, moving the IMB to 51 percent of all CP financial gifts. The vote called for the EC’s percentage to be reduced from 3.4 to 2.4. Over the next few years, it made it a little less than halfway.
The EC’s work is basically fiscal and advisory, receiving and distributing funds sent through the Cooperative Program while overseeing the SBC’s work outside of the annual meeting. It also manages CP promotion, operates Baptist Press and plans and operates the annual meeting, among other responsibilities.
What it means for the IMB
The 1-point reallocation is expected to generate approximately $593,000 more for the International Mission Board. It comes at a time when the entity has, as President Paul Chitwood told BP, “opened up every pathway” for more missionaries.
For starters, Journeyman missionaries are no longer required to have a college degree. A Masters missionary pathway has been relaunched for those nearing or in retirement – 55 and older. Work is increasing with global missionary partners, placing IMB teams alongside those from Baptist groups in Korea, Brazil, Colombia and elsewhere. The recently launched Project 3000 looks to create 300 “missionary explorer” roles to reach some 3,000 unreached and unengaged people groups (UUPGs).
Chitwood credited those efforts from the last five years in spurring a 500 percent increase in missionary applications since he started his role nearly eight years ago. It goes without saying that the reallocation fulfillment comes at a good time.
“I’m incredibly grateful to Jeff Iorg and his leadership and the Executive Committee for finishing what was started in 2010,” he said. “[The GCR vote] was a symbolic move on the part of the messengers, but also a generous move.”
According to IMB reports, the cost of sending an individual missionary to the field in 2018 was approximately $60,000. Rounded global averages of the annual cost for that support has increased to $87,000.
“It was symbolic in that it said global missions is our first priority, and Southern Baptists are going to give more than half of the national CP allocation,” Chitwood said. “It shows generosity toward the nations, to get those extra dollars to support missionaries and ensure the Gospel will be shared. That spirit is what brought Southern Baptists together in 1845, and I believe it still keeps us together today.”
The right time
The reallocation comes as Southern Baptists see gains in worship attendance, baptisms and small group involvement. Iorg noted them as signs that there is a hunger among churches to be on mission.
“Those are three leading indicators for me,” Iorg said. “They tell me that Southern Baptists are focused on our mission and want [leaders] to be more focused on our mission of sharing the Gospel, baptizing converts, making disciples and building healthy churches. They want us to be about it, and to do that globally as well.”
A former pastor like Iorg, Chitwood knows the importance of that focus.
“I think it makes Southern Baptists proud to know that more of those dollars are making it to the most lost places on the planet. Over 90 percent of our teams at the IMB work among unreached peoples. That’s a deep investment … and resonates with the heart of Southern Baptists.”
The reallocation fulfillment came about after other SBC entities also agreed to have their percentages lowered as well. Both Chitwood and Iorg pointed to that development as the result of a cooperative spirit among leaders that remains Gospel-focused.
“We’re grateful for every other SBC entity that was impacted,” said Chitwood. “It was a shared sacrifice on the part of all of the CP-funded entities. Everyone coming together really exemplifies what we always talk about in SBC life – that we’re stronger together and … that it’s not as much the amount as it is the sacrifice that each one makes.
“The IMB is grateful. I think it was the right thing to do because it was what Southern Baptists said they wanted done back in 2010. And while some steps have been made along the way, the job had not been finished. This budget represents the vision that Southern Baptists dreamed back in 2010 coming to fruition.”
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