2010 North American Mission Board Ministry Report

The North American Mission Board (NAMB) assists Southern Baptists in their task of fulfilling the Great Commission in the United States, Canada and their territories through a North American strategy for sharing Christ, starting churches and sending missionaries, in cooperation with Acts 1:8 Partners. Southern Baptist Convention Ministry Assignments to NAMB Appointment and Support of Missionaries Evangelism Establishment of New Congregations Christian Social Ministries Volunteer Missions Missions and Missions Education Communicating the Gospel Through Technology Strengthening Associations Disaster Relief

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Sharing Christ

258 million people in the United States and Canada are living (and dying) without a personal relationship with Christ. Where do you begin to impact such an overwhelming number with the gospel?

The North American Mission Board is a key partner with you in this task. As NAMB works with Baptist state conventions, associations, and churches, we are united in our desire to witness the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

The accomplishments below show some of the results of our efforts in 2009.

• Crossover Louisville, held prior to the 2009 annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention and coordinated by NAMB, resulted in 1,035 professions of faith. Approximately 3,000 volunteers participated in the event.
• CROSS and RELAY evangelism resources were completed in order to better equip Christians to share their faith.
• More than 5,400 evangelism resources were downloaded to support the annual Soul Winning Commitment Day, and 200,000 people committed to pray for the lost.
• The strategy of sharing Christ through Intentional Community/Urban Center Evangelism in major cities resulted in 1,211 salvations.
• There are 3,349 SBC-endorsed chaplains serving in military, hospital, professional, corporate, public safety, and institutional settings. Chaplains have access to places many Southern Baptists cannot go, giving them a vital role in helping reach North America for Christ.
• As part of World Hunger Funds given by Southern Baptists, NAMB received $1.2 million for domestic hunger. In North America, Southern Baptist hunger ministries fed 5 million meals and reported more than 36,000 professions of faith.
• Pregnancy resource ministries play a vital role in sharing Christ. There are 250 NAMB-affiliated pregnancy resource centers in the United States and Canada. Last year, center volunteers and staff shared the gospel as they ministered through more than 156,292 client visits, and rejoiced that 6,837 babies were saved from abortion.
• The Evangelism Response Center (ERC) now relates to 40 state conventions and 32 SBC and non-SBC agencies. A total of 525 new Telephone Encouragers and 108 Regional Facilitators were trained during 2009. All certified Telephone Encouragers and Internet Encouragers are required to give 30 hours of service per year. The average conversion rate through ERC ministry is 8+ percent. In 2009, ERC received 14,753 calls, an average of 1,229 per month. There were 1,133 people who accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior through ERC and its partnership ministries. In addition to these decisions, ERC referred more than 800 people to covenant churches. The ERC phone number will be placed on all God’s Plan for Sharing related initiates until 2020.

Starting Churches

Southern Baptists lead all denominations in starting new churches, more than 100 each month. Church plants must be healthy and ethnically diverse, with a Kingdom perspective, and evangelistic passion, and a multiplication mindset. In addition to the roughly 50,000 churches and church-type missions in the SBC today, research indicates that an additional 125,000 churches will be needed in the coming decade to touch just a fraction—10 percent—of the estimated 258 million people without Christ.

In partnership with state conventions, local associations, and churches, NAMB has seen the following results in church planting.

• Southern Baptists started more than 1,300 churches in 2009.
• Since NAMB’s formation in 1997, Southern Baptists have started more than 20,000 churches. That’s an average of more than 1,500 new churches every year, with a large percentage being ethnic or African-American.
• All six Southern Baptist seminaries and the Canadian Southern Baptist Theological Seminary have Nehemiah church planting professors in place. Since 1998, this partnership to mobilize new church planters has placed and worked with approximately 966 long-term church and 1,300 short-term planter interns.
• Working with the Canadian National Baptist Convention, NAMB shared its vision to start 1,000 churches in Canada by 2020.

Sending Missionaries

The key to reaching North America for Christ is God renewing the evangelistic soul of our churches. NAMB is committed to providing the resources and opportunities that will mobilize Christians to take the gospel to all peoples of North America. Through appointment of missions personnel and creating opportunities for volunteers to invest their time and talents on the North American mission field, NAMB witnessed the following results in 2009.

• There are 5,304 men and women who serve as North American Mission Board missionaries. Of this number, 3,666 are missionaries and their spouses operating under various levels of cooperative funding with state conventions and local associations, and another 1,638 are long-term Mission Service Corps missionaries. More than 1,200 of our missionaries are of ethnic (non-Anglo) origin.
• More than 350 new missionaries and chaplains were commissioned to serve in 2009.
• Answering God’s call to summer, sojourner, and semester missions, 1,491 high school and college students made 11,542 gospel presentations resulting in 1,121 professions of faith and 754 rededications. Many of these students will become our next generation of missionaries and missions advocates.
• To help those who have expressed an interest in pursuing ministry, NAMB created the KALEO Network. Now 2,800 strong, KALEO helps young people find opportunities for nurture and networking.
• In 2009, two Strategic Focus Cities emphases, “Embrace Baltimore” and “Vision San Diego” completed their final year of emphasis. During the emphases years, Embrace Baltimore conducted 444 evangelistic events and saw 2,309 professions of faith, with 761 baptisms recorded. Thirteen percent of churches with attendance of 70 or less grew in worship attendance a minumum of 40 percent, and one grew 300 percent in worship attendance. More than 9,398 volunteers were mobilized for evangelism from 25 states. There were also 14 new church plants which are located in inner-city Baltimore. Vision San Diego experienced a 23.5% increase in baptisms over the three years of the emphasis. At total of 9,236 volunteers, representing 135 partnering churches, were mobilized for evangelism. There were also 54 churches planted in San Diego.
• An estimated 125,000 Southern Baptists participated in short-term projects through NAMB last year. This number includes 734 Families on Mission participants representing 82 churches; 79,500 volunteers mobilized through The Bridge; and 25,521 World Changers and PowerPlant participants.
• World Changers celebrated its 20,000th house completed in summer 2009. A total of 23,614 participants, representing 1,208 groups, participated in 99 World Changer projects and recorded 814 professions of faith, with $180,278 given in offerings. PowerPlant participants numbered 1,907, representing 109 youth groups, and served in 16 projects. They recorded 211 professions of faith as they partnered with 95 churches and gave $14,228 in offerings back to local church planting needs.
• Southern Baptist Disaster Relief engaged in more than 172 disaster responses during 2009. More than 29,523 volunteer days produced 291,922 meals; completed 7,895 recovery jobs (clean-up following floods, fires, storms, and other types of disasters); made 12,137 ministry contacts; and recorded 661 professions of faith. More than 88,000 people have completed Disaster Relief training.

God’s Plan for Sharing – Fulfilling the Great Commission in North America by 2020.

Sharing Christ. Starting Churches. Sending Missionaries. A major emphasis that brings all of NAMB’s priorities together is “God’s Plan for Sharing” (GPS). In 2008, NAMB introduced this evangelism initiative, challenging all Southern Baptists to involvement in “every believer sharing, every person hearing, by 2020.” With as many as three out of four people dying in North America without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, we believe Scripture has provided a simple for change.

Four “mileposts” of the initiative are:

• Praying for lost people
• Equipping believers to be trained witnesses
• Sowing the gospel in people’s lives, using their heart language
• Celebrating the Harvesting of souls, as people come to salvation and are baptized

All 42 state conventions have joined in partnership to focus on GPS efforts in 2010 and beyond. While results of GPS will be seen most prominently following the launch year, pilot projects NAMB and its partners completed in 2009 indicate a strong measure of success will follow.

• Pilot project locations included Greater Philadelphia Baptist Association in Philadelphia, Pa.; Lubbock Area Baptist Association in Lubbock, Texas; Inland Empire Baptist Association in Riverside, Calif.; Stone Mountain Baptist Association in Atlanta, Ga.
• A total of 265 churches and 263 pastors were involved in these pilot projects.
• At least 10,500 volunteers/lay people participated.
• There were 270,000 homes touched through gospel distribution, with 660 known decisions.
• Media support undergirded efforts in each pilot area. Estimates of homes impacted from this avenue alone cannot be adequately measured.

Every other year, starting in 2010 and ending in 2020, there will be an emphasis theme for GPS. For 2010, the theme is “Across North America.” To learn more, visit www.gps2020.net.

Funding North American Missions

North American Mission Board 2009 Revenue/Expenses

"Giving to our North American Mission Board provides much needed help in starting language churches, helping needy people and sharing the gospel in a vast, unreached mission field. We have the capacity to impact the world and the field is right here where we live. We can do more corporately (churches working together) than any church can do on its own." — Rich Halcombe, North American missionary, Columbus, Ohio

Cooperative Program (36 percent of NAMB’s budgeted revenue)

The Southern Baptist worldwide missions enterprise is funded in large part through the unique, efficient, and equitable Cooperative Program. A portion of the undesignated tithes and offerings of individuals received by SBC churches becomes Cooperative Program dollars. In 2008, these churches sent more than $541 million through the Cooperative Program to their state conventions to support work within the state and the Southern Baptist Convention. As determined by messengers to the annual session of each state convention, a percentage of these Cooperative Program receipts is sent to the SBC Executive Committee for distribution to SBC entities. In 2008, an average of 63 percent of total Cooperative Program receipts was used for state convention ministries, and roughly 37 percent was forwarded to the SBC for national and worldwide ministries.

Annie Armstrong Easter Offering (45 percent of NAMB’s budgeted revenue)

In addition to Cooperative Program giving, an annual offering is received to benefit missions in North America. Named in honor of Annie Armstrong, a passionate advocate of missions who lived 1850-1938, the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering® is the primary funding channel for Southern Baptist mission work in the United States, Canada, and their territories. A special offering which churches historically collect during the spring (though it can be collected at any time during the year), all funds (100%) go to the support of North American missionaries and their work, primarily as salaries and ministry resources. Each penny given represents the trust that Southern Baptists place in our missionary force, and our missionaries are excellent stewards of these funds. In 2009, receipts to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering totaled more than $56.6 million. To learn more, visit www.anniearmstrong.com.

Looking Ahead

Drawing upon its heritage and the “great cloud of witnesses” who have gone before us, as well as uniting with our current Acts 1:8 partners to address the unique challenges of our day, NAMB looks toward a new decade filled with new avenues and opportunities to take the gospel into this vast mission field and see the transformation that comes when Christ is proclaimed to individuals and communities.

Believing that Jesus Christ is the Way for those who are lost, the Truth for those who are deceived, and the Light to those in darkness, NAMB will continue to strive to assist churches in their efforts to win North America to Christ, to the glory of God.

In the coming days and years, NAMB will work with our partners to give special focus to the following:

• Undergirding efforts for GPS (God’s Plan for Sharing)
• Reaching the more than 580 identified people groups in North America
• Reaching metropolitan areas and urban centers
• Creating missions strategy centers for leaders
• Multiplying the impact of collegiate ministries
• Partnering more closely with bi-vocational pastors
• Mobilizing lay people in ministry