From the Great Commission to the Great Multitude, we unite in a Great Pursuit of those who have yet to hear the good news of the gospel. This year has been filled with stories of how Southern Baptists joined together to address lostness as the world’s greatest problem.
Let’s look through highlights of how God worked through International Mission Board missionaries in 2024:
Missionary Presence
New Missionaries: There’s nothing better than partnering with churches to send new missionaries. This year, Southern Baptists gathered four different times to send a total of 251 missionaries to the nations. Thank you, North Phoenix Baptist Church in Arizona, Southern Baptist Convention in Indianapolis, First Baptist Church Charlottesville in Virginia and New Vision in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, for hosting a Sending Celebration.
Read Sending Celebration story
Veteran Missionaries: Erica Patrick served in Asia for almost 16 years with her family. Then the unthinkable happened—her husband died unexpectedly. Facing grief and loss head on, Erica and her three children knew God wanted them to continue living on mission in Asia. Erica’s perspective on life and ministry was transformed by the experience. She now disciples and encourages women in Taiwan.
Southern Baptists’ continued generosity through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and Cooperative Program makes missionary presence around the world possible.
Meeting humanitarian needs in Jesus’ name
Global Health Strategies: Armenian pastors used medical teams to reach neighborhoods surrounding their churches and in new work areas. More than 50 medical professionals from the IMB, United States and Greece partnered with Armenian churches to share the good news in spiritually lost areas of the country.
Meeting people’s needs while sharing and showing Jesus’ love can have an eternal impact.
Gospel Access
Unengaged, unreached people groups: Some days June Estes pinches herself to make sure she isn’t dreaming. As an IMB missionary explorer, she experiences a lot of things she never imagined doing in her lifetime. Estes is part of an initiative called Project 3000. Her job is to find and research the culture and beliefs of unengaged people groups living at the edge of spiritual lostness. She took time out to answer questions about what this job is like.
Read Q&A with a missionary explorer
Diaspora peoples in U.S.: The call to reach all nations, people, languages and tribes with the gospel has always united Southern Baptists. Today that call includes reaching other nations that come to North American soil. With a renewed commitment to assist churches in connecting with internationals close by, the International Mission Board, North American Mission Board, Send Relief and Woman’s Missionary Union are uniting to better serve churches focusing on the missionary task in every community.
Read Southern Baptists unite to serve
Partnerships
Churches serve churches: For the first time, churches gathered to learn from each other about developing missionary training and pipelines from within their congregations. The Senders Summit included 124 participants. Churches shared how they intentionally developed and deployed members with a missionary calling. This pipeline of potential missionaries feeds into the IMB pipeline which currently has 1,456 in the application pipeline to serve.
Global Senders: It was historic! People from 76 countries gathered in one spot this year to talk about the greatest problem in the world—lostness. Unity in carrying out the Great Commission echoed throughout this first-ever Global Senders Forum. Most of these countries were once considered mission fields. Today, they unite to reach their own people and send missionaries to other countries.
Jesus Tchavango, an Angolan Baptist, leads worship at the 2024 Global Senders Forum in Asia. Tchavango told the crowd, “When Africans worship, we move!” He was recognized for traveling close to 100 hours to arrive in Asia from his home in Angola. His trip began with a 40-hour bus ride before he boarded his first flight. IMB Photo
Southern Baptist Convention – Indianapolis: Messengers gathered in Indianapolis and made memories together: racing pinewood derby cars and giving reports. The IMB shared stories that showed the world’s greatest problem—lostness—and highlighted those who are leading the effort in addressing it with the only solution—the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Your partnership continues to help make disciples who make disciples. Together, we will reach the nations.
Digital Engagement
Paris Olympics: The evolution of technology creates opportunities for greater gospel access. The IMB tested a new digital engagement strategy to reach the nations during the summer Paris Olympic games. Missionaries, volunteers and French churches used traditional trading pins with QR codes, social media ads, chat rooms and virtual reality. Southern Baptists around the world responded to a call for help to be virtual responders in many languages.
Read digital engagement results
Lifeline through Facebook ad: Digital engagement led to on-the-ground strategies for reaching people with the gospel. One example is Sara in South Africa. She was contemplating suicide when she saw our Olympic social media ad. She sent a message stating, “My hope is dying. I’m giving up now.” A volunteer digital responder in Indiana responded with a message of hope. Then, passed the baton to your IMB missionaries serving near Sara’s home. Now, the South African woman is thriving and being discipled by a local church.
Because of Southern Baptist’s faithfulness and support, there were 9 million opportunities during the Olympics for the Holy Spirit to move someone toward Christ.
Patti Irvin (pictured, left) and her husband, Doug (not pictured), IMB missionaries to South Africa, visit Sara (pictured, right) at her home in Johannesburg, after being connected by the IMB’s digital engagement team in Europe. Before Doug and Patti’s visit, Sara was desperate for human connection. IMB Photo
The work of the IMB is sustained through faithful giving of Southern Baptists through the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering®.
Some names changed for security
The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering® is a registered trademark of Woman’s Missionary Union.