By STAFF, Alabama Baptist
For the third consecutive year, International Mission Board (IMB) trustees adopted a decreased budget from the previous year. They also appointed 57 new missionaries during their Nov. 10 meeting in Greensboro, N.C.
Trustees adopted a 2011 budget of $308.5 million, $9.1 million less than 2010’s budget. Though the IMB pulled $7.5 million from its reserves to balance the budget last year, the trustee finance committee was committed to not repeating that move.
“We continue to face very difficult economic times as a nation,” said Charles Fowler, a Tennessee trustee who chairs the finance committee.
“We’re grateful for Southern Baptist support of the Lord’s work that’s being accomplished around the world,” he added. “It truly is an amazing story of the grace of God at work.”
Personnel attrition
According to IMB officials, the mission board is sending about 30 percent fewer long-term personnel than would be sent if there were no financial constraints. The IMB still anticipates sending 300 new long-term personnel and 200 to 250 new short-term personnel in 2011.
With the 57 new long-term missionaries, the number of IMB personnel serving around the world now totals 5,189. Attrition through short-term personnel completing their two- and three-year terms, career personnel retirements and the routine resignation by about 5 percent of the force will cause that number to decline by the year’s end, combined with budget restraints that had already been put in place to lower the number of new personnel appointed.
The IMB also recently offered qualifying staff members in Richmond, Va., a voluntary retirement incentive to take effect by the end of 2010.
The overseas missionary force will be reduced to a goal of 5,000 from a high of 5,600, said Clyde Meador, interim president of IMB.
But “we are still sending new personnel, contrary to rumors that we sometimes hear,” he said. “We look forward to a day when financial support reaches the point when we can increase the number of new personnel being sent to the field each year.”
In other business, trustees heard a report of $2,063,474.46 released for hunger and general relief projects, including funds used by Baptist Global Response, a relief and development organization that partners with the IMB. The funds were used in many places such as earthquake recovery needs in Haiti and helping peoples in Central and South Asia.
Trustees also heard reports of spiritual victories led by Southern Baptist missionaries and Baptist partners on the field.
In 2009, IMB missionaries reported 360,876 baptisms, 29,237 new churches and 96 newly engaged people groups.
These new numbers usher in a more focused approach to reporting the IMB’s missionary work, Meador noted.
The organization’s annual report is now separated into two reports, with the numbers cited by Meador reflecting work by IMB missionaries and those with whom they directly relate.
Trustees also received a report from 133 overseas Baptist conventions that listed 136,422 baptisms and 2,151 new churches. This report could show some overlap with the IMB report.
“We are focusing more than ever on the work done specifically by our personnel and those with whom they work most closely, which will enable us to better understand how God is using us and how we can better serve,” he said.
The appointment service for the 57 new missionaries was broken into two separate events.
One was held Nov. 10 at Calvary Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, N.C. The other was Nov. 16 at Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee.
Reprinted with permission from The Alabama Baptist, compiled from four articles from Baptist Press.