Women On Mission - January 2024
International Mission Board...at a Glance...by Meghan Crawford Roy
- The mission of the International Mission Board (IMB) is to serve Southern Baptists in carrying out the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations.
- Since 1845, IMB has sent around 25,000 Southern Baptist missionaries to share the gospel in 185 countries.
- IMB was originally called the Foreign Mission Board. The name was changed in order to be more inclusive of all people. The term foreign insinuated that missionaries were natural but the people they were reaching were different or foreign. The word international implies that the gospel is accessible to every person in the world.
- IMB’s first missions field was China, where IMB appointed the first missionaries to serve in September 1845. Then, in 1873, IMB sent Lottie Moon to China. Her work would go on to impact international missions for more than a century and counting, which is why the annual international missions offering is named in her honor.
- Through the annual Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions, in 2022, IMB supported more than 3,400 missionaries who reached 67 new people groups and places, held 102,417 baptism, preached the gospel to 728,589 people, planted 21,231 churches, and saw 178,177 people turn to Christ.
- IMB has identified seven primary affinity groups (large groupings of related peoples that share similar origins, languages, and culture) to act as a lens through which to view lostness. These are American Peoples, Asian Pacific Rim Peoples, Central Asian Peoples, European Peoples, Northern African and Middle Eastern People, South Asian Peoples, and Sub-Saharan African Peoples.
- IMB also identifies an eighth affinity group - Deaf Peoples. Among the Deaf Peoples around the world who were reached in 2022, 2,261 heard the gospel for the first time, 122 became new believers in Christ, 97 were baptized, and 60 received leadership training. Additionally, 14 new Deaf churches were planted.
- There are 3,072 unengaged, unreached people groups in the world. IMB defines an unreached people group as one where there is no Indigenous community of believing Christians able to engage the people group with church planting. It identifies an unengaged people group as one where there is no church planting strategy, consistent with evangelical faith and practice, under way.
- The IMB Pray app provides updates with specific prayer requests from missionaries. IMB Pray lets you know how you can best pray for unreached people and places.
- The IMB Advance the Kingdom app enables churches to get their members involved with missions and find all the latest data about unreached places.
Women on Mission will not meet in January.