MISSISSIPPI (BP) -- Each night, International Mission Board missionary Ray Hodgins prayed for the Deaf. He saw their faces. He knew their names. He desired for the lost Deaf around him to know Jesus. "Who will tell these folks about Jesus if we don't?" he had asked. "Who?" Hodgins, 52, died of a heart attack on Jan. 18 while on stateside assignment in Mississippi. He often challenged those around him to share the Gospel. He trained and empowered Deaf believers in three different … [Read more...]
BREAKING: IMB announces final phase of organizational reset
RICHMOND, Va. – The International Mission Board is in a position, financially, where no missionaries will be required to leave the field as the organization wraps up its two-phase reset, IMB President David Platt announced Thursday, Jan. 14. In the second phase of the IMB’s plan to address revenue shortfalls and complete a reset of the organization, leadership also announced details of a Hand Raising Opportunity (HRO) during two town hall meetings. The HRO plan, leaders shared, … [Read more...]
Persecution fails to thwart gospel inroads
CENTRAL ASIA (BP) – Christian aid worker Gary Warrior* was sitting on the floor in a Central Asian village with a congregation of about 20 people several years ago, getting ready to share about “the cost of discipleship.” Someone made the suggestion to go around the room and share their testimonies. One woman simply said, “Oh, I’m just very blessed and I’m so thankful to be here.” Her friend elbowed her: “Explain to him your testimony, tell him what’s happening in your life with God.” But … [Read more...]
Clinton church raises $2.5 million for missions
CLINTON – Two-and-a-half million dollars seems like a lot of money. Many Missouri Baptist churches will not handle that kind of cash in several decades or a hundred years. But a western Missouri county seat town church has generated that much or more for funding missions efforts in the last decade. After a mission celebration which highlighted the need of missionary efforts, the First Baptist Church of Clinton began sending out mission teams and doing missions in their local community. … [Read more...]
Christian leaders raised up amid ‘ocean of idolatry’
SOUTH ASIA (BP) – Donald and Helen McKinney’s* outreach to South Asians started in North America. They first got to know a South Asian people group in their church’s backyard in New York state before becoming Christian workers on the other side of the world. Helen and her Sunday School teacher from Trinity Baptist Church in Niskayuna, N.Y., began visiting the homes of the church’s neighbors, several of whom were from South Asia. Each Thursday over tea, they formed friendships with the … [Read more...]
Six ways your church can support IMB missionaries who are returning to the U.S.
RICHMOND, Va. (BP) – With the International Mission Board expecting hundreds of missionaries to leave their positions in the coming months, the board has published a list of ways individuals and churches can support field personnel returning to the U.S. According to a Q&A posted on the IMB website and updated Nov. 18, at least 600 field personnel and stateside staff members are expected to resign as a result of a voluntary retirement incentive (VRI) offered to all personnel 50 and … [Read more...]
MBC’s Hess retiring at end of year: Missouri to Africa to Missouri and beyond
JEFFERSON CITY – It’s been a long, curvy road from Missouri to Kenya and back, and the next intersection is retirement for Ben Hess, who has served the Missouri Baptist Convention since 2003, most recently as the church planting team leader. “It has been a great adventure seeing how Jesus has sought out so many to become His disciples in Missouri through church planting,” he said. “I especially remember the different tribes of people or people groups Jesus has reached through church … [Read more...]
IMB trustees honor leaders, approve budget
NEW ORLEANS (BP) — International Mission Board trustees recognized four key leaders who represent IMB’s global engagement with the Gospel and unanimously approved the organization’s 2016 budget designed to enable IMB’s mission to make disciples and multiply churches among unreached people and places. The business was conducted during trustees’ quarterly business meeting Nov. 5-6. “God is working in all of this for the good of His people and the glory of His name,” IMB President David Platt … [Read more...]
35 new missionaries appointed by IMB
NEW ORLEANS (BP) – Joseph Somkhith* understands the plight of today’s 60 million refugees. He once lived as one. Somkhith was 10 years old when he and his brother fled Laos after a communist takeover in the mid-1970s. The two boys crossed the Mekong River into Thailand, facing what Somkhith described as “insecurity and violence” along the way. Nearly a year later, Somkhith’s family was reunited in a refugee camp in Thailand. “My family separated from each other for the sake of saving … [Read more...]
FBC O’Fallon puts global missions in the spotlight
O’FALLON – Though most new years begin in January, at First Baptist Church, O’Fallon, October kicks off the year for one of the suburban St. Louis congregation’s biggest ministry priorities. The church’s recent annual Global Missions Conference (GMC) celebrated activities the church accomplished in the last 12 months, and introduced mission partnerships and short-term trips for the coming year. The five-day emphasis involved 12 missionaries in multiple events, several dozen church … [Read more...]
Ripken: Persecuted Christians see miracle of everday U.S. churches
SPRINGFIELD – The International Mission Board’s Nik Ripken opened a window on the realities facing persecuted believers worldwide and on the way those believers view American Christianity during the Missouri Baptist Convention annual meeting, Oct. 28. “There is no free church and persecuted church,” Ripken said. “There is just the church. And it is always persecuted and it is always free. And when any part of your body is hurting and you’re not aware of it, and you’re not concerned about … [Read more...]
Robin D. Hadaway: Understanding IMB’s financial crisis
I met David Platt at a meeting in the Dominican Republic 13 months before he was elected as IMB President. During a break, I asked him, “What are you going to do when you become IMB president?” Now I understand and I like what he’s doing. As Southern Baptists seek to discern the magnitude and urgency of the current IMB financial crisis, I would like to share some thoughts. I led one of the IMB field administrative regions for over six years with about 325 missionaries under my charge. … [Read more...]
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