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Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

International Mission Board: Financial highs, missionary lows

By Will Hall, Baptist Message executive editor RICHMOND, Va. (LBM)—In a Feb. 3 press release, Paul Chitwood, president of the International Mission Board, celebrated “record-breaking offerings” and the appointment of 52 fully-funded missionaries. Chitwood cited improved giving through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering as well as the Cooperative Program as evidence that support for international missions is growing. According to the imb.org statement, for the first four months of the current fiscal year: -- LMCO gifts are up 16.1 percent compared to the same timeframe last year. -- CP gifts are up almost 10 percent for the same referenced period. -- Overall, combined revenue from all sources is running 13.6 percent ahead of the previous year’s pace. Despite the financial windfall, field missionary numbers continued to remain about the same as the 1985 tally of 3,597, although up from the nearly four decades low of 3,485 missionaries who were on board at the end of the first year of the pandemic. In reply to an inquiry from the Baptist Message, Julie McGown, IMB’s assistant vice president for communications, shared that there were “3,507 fully funded IMB field personnel” at the end of January … [Read more...]

IMB’s Chitwood calls Baptists to pray for Ukraine

RICHMOND, Va. (LBM)--“With the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, we join all those in Eastern Europe in praying for peace,” said Paul Chitwood, president of the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. His comments were forwarded to the Baptist Message by Leslie Caldwell, a managing editor for the organization. “We know that God is sovereign in all situations, and Scripture reminds us that He is close to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. We keep our focus on Him, asking for His protection of the innocent and trusting that His justice will prevail,” said Chitwood. “Pray with us that Jesus Christ would be glorified through the crisis in Eastern Europe, and that Southern Baptists would remain vigilant in meeting the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of those who are suffering.” Caldwell stated that security concerns prevented any discussion about possible impacts on deployed missionaries and that Chitwood’s comments “are the only statement we can make at this time.” There already was an existing humanitarian crisis in the Ukraine resulting from the 2014 invasion and ultimate absorption of the Crimean Peninsula of Ukraine (and it’s 2 million people) into the Russian … [Read more...]

NAMB dealt another legal setback in McRaney lawsuit

By Baptist Message staff ALPHARETTA, Ga. (LBM)—In January, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi denied the request of the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention for a summary judgment in its lawsuit with Will McRaney, the former executive director of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware. In his ruling, Senior Judge Glen H. Davidson said it was premature to decide the case ahead of the discovery process, the stage during which McRaney’s legal team would be allowed to depose NAMB leaders, staff and trustees under oath. Subsequently, in February, NAMB entered into a stipulation agreement with McRaney, pledging “it will not withhold any discovery responses on the basis of its First Amendment defenses or objections, including in response to discovery requests served by [McRaney] prior to the date of this Stipulation.” Judge Davidson’s decision is consistent with the instructions by a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (later affirmed by the full bench), who rejected NAMB’s request to dismiss the case, finding instead that “many of the relevant facts have yet to be developed” in the case. The federal circuit court sent the case back to the … [Read more...]