International Mission Board trustees approved the appointment of 59 new missionaries to take the gospel to the nations during their first-ever virtual meeting May 13-14. Trustees also voted to approve Christy Roberson as vice president of human resources and elected Price Jett, vice president of finance, logistics and technology, as IMB treasurer. As a result of the COVID-19 global pandemic, trustees re-elected 2019-2020 officers to serve an additional year.

The 59 new missionaries will serve within each of IMB’s nine global affinities, which include the Americas, Central Asia, Deaf, East Asia, Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The group of 59, along with two other missionaries who were appointed in January, will be commissioned in a first-ever virtual Sending Celebration June 9 at 7 p.m. (EDT). The celebration will premiere live on IMB’s Facebook page and will also broadcast on IMB’s Vimeo channel and Twitter feed.

The Great Commission has not changed

J.D. Greear, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, addressed the trustees and thanked them for their service during the unprecedented season resulting from the COVID-19 global pandemic. Greear reminded trustees that at no point in Christian history has it been God’s intention for the Great Commission to go backwards. 

“God’s mission is always forward,” Greear said. “Times of uncertainty throughout history have been good for the church. During these moments, God multiplied the Great Commission for His purposes.”

The global pandemic allows the church to “lean in” and expect great things from God, Greear said. It also gives Christians the opportunity to share the hope they have in Christ as they move forward in reaching out to those who are suffering.

IMB President Paul Chitwood assured trustees that the work of IMB missionaries is continuing in spite of the global pandemic. Highlights of the work include:

• 994 missionary candidates are working toward appointment, up from 656 one year ago. Although a number of missionaries returned to the U.S. as a result of the global pandemic, the overwhelming majority of IMB personnel remain at their posts overseas, and those in the U.S. are looking forward to returning to their field of service as soon as possible.
• This past year, IMB personnel and national believers with whom they work shared the gospel more than 500,000 times. Of those, 89,325 people expressed repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. More than half of those — 47,929 people — were baptized, and 12,368 churches were planted. 
• Send Relief, a unique partnership with the North American Mission Board, launched in February and is designed to help Southern Baptists be involved in human needs ministries at home and abroad through their respective entities. Send Relief is already undertaking COVID-19 relief projects overseas. Through IMB missionaries, Send Relief is funding 237 projects in 53 countries. More than 350,000 people in 400 communities are receiving food and/or hygiene assistance. Personal protective and medical equipment have also been distributed to hospitals and clinics. 

Among a global population of more than 7.6 billion people, the number who die daily without Christ continues to increase, Chitwood said. 

“That number today stands at 154,937,” Chitwood said. “Today. And tomorrow, another 154,937 people will die apart from Christ. We thank God for what He, through Southern Baptists and their IMB, has done. But so much remains undone. We cannot, we must not, waiver in our determination nor slow in our efforts to share the gospel among all the peoples of the world.” 

Given the realities of the global pandemic, Cooperative Program and Lottie Moon Christmas Offering® revenue streams are suffering, Chitwood acknowledged. These trends are not unexpected “given the number of Americans out of work and churches unable to meet,” Chitwood said. “Yet, given how little IMB revenue has been impacted in light of these realities testifies to the sacrificial giving of Southern Baptists.” 

“What does the immediate future hold?” Chitwood asked. “I do not know. But I do know this: The King has called upon us to go and make disciples of all nations, to be His witnesses, not just close by, but to the very ends of the earth. His commission has not changed. His mandate has not been rescinded. And we remain committed.” 

The three essentials of mission work

In his address to the board of trustees, IMB chair Seth Polk reminded trustees of the great privilege they have to serve Southern Baptists and IMB missionaries, especially during the global pandemic. He expressed gratitude for “the steady leadership” of IMB President Paul Chitwood and for the essential service of the more than 3,600 missionaries “who are committed to reaching the nations for Jesus.” Polk also thanked God for continued provision to send and support these missionaries through the “faithful giving and prayers of His people.” 

Recounting Southern Baptists’ 175-year history of mission support and involvement, Polk focused on three essentials of effective mission work: reliance on Scripture, the gospel above all, and making disciples. Throughout the IMB’s 175-year history, these essentials have been and will continue to be accomplished “in dependence on our sovereign God” and through the prayers and support of God’s people, Polk said. 

Polk also encouraged trustees and all Southern Baptists to join IMB’s “175 days of prayer.” The emphasis, which began May 11, will culminate with Southern Baptist’s annual Week of Prayer for International Missions Nov. 29-Dec. 6. IMB is enlisting prayer advocates who will commit to pray for specific IMB requests. Each day features one request sent as a push notification from the IMB Pray app; accessed at imb.org/175/pray; through the Pray Daily newsletter; or seen through IMB’s social media channels. To register to pray, please visit imb.org/175pray.

“In a time of pandemic, we turn our hearts to praise and petition, and we invite Southern Baptists to join together with us in the International Mission Board emphasis on 175 Days of Prayer,” Polk said. 

“The measure of our faithfulness in the future, as redeemed people and as Southern Baptists, will correlate directly with our dependence on the Scripture as the Word of God, our fervor for sharing the gospel and our commitment to make disciples of all the nations for the glory of God,” Polk concluded.

Vice president of human resources elected

Trustees elected Christy Roberson to the position of vice president of human resources. Roberson most recently worked as vice president of People Operations at Goodwill of Central and Coastal Virginia, an $80 million organization with more than 1,500 associates in more than 60 locations. In this position, she led a team of human resource professionals responsible for human resources, leadership development, diversity and inclusion, and recruiting. 

She also worked nearly 18 years with Capital One Financial in progressive leadership roles. In 2016, Roberson was a B.I.G. (Business Impact at Goodwill) award recipient, and she is a three-time recipient of the Capital One President’s Award for outstanding leadership. Roberson is a credentialed Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) and an accredited Senior Certified Professional through the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM-SCP). She and her husband, Clyde, have two grown children, Alex (27) and Laura (23).

Clyde Meador, who served as IMB’s interim vice president for human resources, welcomed Roberson to her role. 

“Christy’s superior record as a human resources leader, coupled with her strong commitment to Christ, promises effective leadership for every aspect of our HR support, both on the mission field and among stateside staff, as well as for a significant contribution to the overall IMB leadership team,” Meador said. “I’m thankful she is bringing her expertise to serve at IMB.”

Other business

In other business, trustees voted to elect Price Jett, IMB’s vice president of finance, logistics and technology, as IMB treasurer. Using an electronic ballot, trustees also voted to re-elect officers from 2019-20. No new nominations were submitted, and there were no nominations from the floor. Seth Polk, lead pastor of Cross Lanes Baptist Church in Cross Lanes, West Virginia, was re-elected as trustee chairman; Chuck Pourciau, senior pastor of Broadmoor Baptist Church in Shreveport, Louisiana, was re-elected as first vice chair; Lisa Lovell, a member of First Baptist Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas, was re-elected as second vice chair; and Cheryl Wright, a member of Immanuel Baptist Church in Shawnee, Oklahoma, was re-elected as recording secretary.

With the cancellation of the 2020 SBC annual meeting, expiring terms of convention entity trustees depend on each entity’s individual charter. As a result, the expiring terms of Seth Polk, chair, and Cheryl Wright, recording secretary, were extended one year, which made them eligible to continue to serve as officers of the board. The expiring terms of Bobbi Ashford (North Carolina), Susan Bryant (Kentucky), Ken Burnham (Alabama), Will Payne (New York) and Cindy Snead (Arizona) were also extended for one year.

The next IMB trustee meeting is scheduled for Sept. 29-30 in Richmond, with a missionary Sending Celebration Sept. 30 at 6:30 p.m. (EDT) at Mount Vernon Baptist Church in Glen Allen, Virginia.

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Ann Lovell is editorial design manager for IMB.

FORT WORTH—“Ministry Now” is a new video series featuring interviews with faculty from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary designed to help ministers live their calling “in an ever-changing ministry landscape,” especially due to COVID-19, said host Katie McCoy, assistant professor of theology in women’s studies at Scarborough College, in the series’ premiere.

New episodes of the series air every Thursday at 10 a.m. CT on Facebook and YouTube, with the first episode premiering on May 14. The premiere featured dean of women Terri Stovall speaking on the topic “Leading from the Second Chair.”

A second-chair leader, Stovall explained, is one who has a significant leadership role but is nevertheless under the authority of a “first-chair leader.” First-chairs include the senior pastor of a church or the president of a seminary, while second-chairs include a church’s student minister and children’s minister or a seminary’s faculty and staff.

On navigating the tension of both leading and being led, Stovall said, “My primary goal to the people I’m leading is to give hope and assurance. My primary goal to my first-chair leader is to make him successful in carrying out the mission and vision that God has given him for our church or our organization.”

“So it starts with building those relationships,” says Stovall, who has served as minister of education and minister to women in multiple churches. “And then, as I communicate, my first role in communication is giving hope and assurance that God is still in control, that I trust our pastor or our leader at the top, and that, while I may not even know everything, I trust him, and therefore I can communicate that to the people I’m leading.”

Focusing the conversation on the global pandemic, McCoy noted that “every church, every ministry, every family is going through a time of unprecedented transition” because of the coronavirus.

She asked Stovall, “How do you lead your team through the transition and the uncertainty of coronavirus, when we’re trying to even figure out what our jobs and ministries are going to look like?”

Stovall began by noting the need to daily ensure “that my feet are grounded in the assurance that while change is constant, God is consistently constant.”

“I need to check in every day with the Lord, to know that he is still in control,” she said. “None of this has caught him by surprise.”

On a practical level, Stovall said she has “upped the number of check-ins” with her team. These comprise short meetings on Zoom or Microsoft Teams not only to check their productivity, but also to see how her team members are doing emotionally and physically. Furthermore, she makes efforts to “celebrate the small successes” and “lament the losses.”

“I don’t want us to shy away as leaders in speaking about the losses,” Stovall said. “There is a time of lament that’s going to come out of this.”

“But we do it with hope and with a view to the future to know that God can still do His work,” Stovall concluded. “And we put words to that.”

Future topics for “Ministry Now” include re-opening churches in a post-COVID-19 world (with Chris Osborne, professor of preaching and pastoral ministry) and ministering to people’s needs (with adjunct faculty member and former missionary Rebekah Naylor).

NACOGDOCHES—After months of COVID-19 social distancing ministry, Calvary Baptist Church in Nacogdoches is ready to “kick the tires” and gather in person once again.

“We are trying it this Sunday with one service at 11 a.m. and we will see how it goes,” said Paul Sevar, who has served as pastor at Calvary for 21 years. “I say, ‘kicking the tires,’ because it’s a test drive. We don’t know how many people will show up, but it’s our hope that they will come prepared to serve the Lord and worship Him,” referring to the reopening May 17.

Church staff and volunteers are making special preparations to receive those who come. Calvary, a longtime SBTC-affiliated church that averaged close to 400 people between two services before the pandemic halted large gatherings, will be taking several hygiene-related precautions in response to the guidelines suggested by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

First, they will be inviting attendees to their fellowship hall with available seating spaced six feet apart per family unit. They will also have three overflow spaces available; including the youth area for families with young children, the college classroom as a make-shift nursery, and the parlor for those who might be at a higher risk health-wise and so desire a little more separation.

“It’s going to be hard to do, but we are also asking people not to shake hands or hug each other,” Sevar said. “We are going to see how it goes, listen to feedback and adjust as we go along week by week. The Lord has made a way for us to open back up, but it’s important that as we move forward we do it graciously and respectfully with each other because we certainly don’t want to get somebody sick.”

Mario Martínez, pastor of Genesis Baptist Church in Odessa, might be even more excited than most about his church’s plans to regather.

“We were remodeling our sanctuary right when COVID-19 hit, so right now about 80 percent of our people have not seen the finished work,” he said. “It’s going to be double excitement for me and for them to enter into a renewed and remodeled space and to be reunited again.”

Instead of starting off with a Sunday service, their first regathering is set for Wednesday, May 20, and will include worship in the fellowship hall and then a time of prayer and dedication for their new auditorium.

“We want what Jesus wanted when he said, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’” he said. “It’s hard to imagine a greater need than a house of prayer right now.”

He said they are also planning to follow the guidelines regarding social distancing and thorough disinfecting between services. While they don’t have many senior adults who regularly attend, Martínez said they do have a lot of children and he is concerned about how that is going to work.

“It’s going to be a huge challenge because we are a family and handshakes and hugs are a big part of our church culture,” he said. “Our time together is going to look a lot different.”

While many churches are planning and anticipating what their regathering will look like, some churches like Fellowship Church, a 10,000 multisite church with a campus in several Texas cities including Grapevine, have already resumed in-person worship services at some locations.

Ed Young Jr., senior pastor of Fellowship Church, told Baptist Press that though it was clear people wanted to return, “You could feel the angst and the fear in people. You could see how pandemic fear is.”

In order to allow people to feel more comfortable and confident in their decision to attend church in person after weeks of isolation, Fellowship Church adopted extensive safety protocols.

They opted to limit attendance to 25 percent capacity, and so have asked churchgoers who want to attend to make reservations. People are greeted outside at designated entrances, are provided face coverings, and are escorted to their seats (six feet apart between family units) by ushers.

First Baptist Church in Premont has also started gathering again, though Pastor Rick Rice said their COVID-19 safety measures aren’t quite so extensive.

Before the pandemic began the church averaged right around 50 people, most of whom are senior adults. He said that they’ve met in-person all of May, while also continuing to stream online, and they have not had to make any major changes from what they did prior to the pandemic.

“The only thing we haven’t been doing is passing the offering plate,” Rice said. “We just designate a place in the back where they can give if they so choose. Also, since I am one of the youngest people in the church and I’m 72, we are asking everyone to wear masks and gloves and we give out hand sanitizer as an added precaution. I’m hoping we will continue to progress and we can get back to our Sunday night prayer meetings very soon. We are a close-knit group and I think we are going to be able to come through this without much, if any, loss.”

While Sevar said sustaining ministry through technology and expanding their church’s online presence has been great in a lot of ways, it doesn’t compare to what it means to look people in the eye and connect by traditional means.

“Our people are ready to be together,” he said. “Some are fearful but ‘Yea, though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil.’ We serve the light and the darkness cannot overtake us. I’m looking forward to seeing my people again.”

For guidance and resources detailing strategy options for regathering the church while adhering to COVID-19 recommendations visit sbtexas.com.

I watched the video. I shouldn’t have.
 
But I did. 
 
And it broke me.
 
A young man, the same age as many of my students, shot in the street because neighbors thought he might be a person who matched a vague description of a reported thief. 
 
He wasn’t armed. Nor was he carrying anything. He wasn’t even running at a pace to get away from anyone. He was simply jogging.
 
As he approached the truck parked in the middle of the street, he simply went around the truck and they shot at him. The altercation that followed could have been any man fighting for his very life. But there, on the video, Ahmaud Arbery is shot at point-blank range, and crumbles to the ground.
 
Dead.
 
No take-backs. No post-movie resurrection stories. Just the reality of a life ended. The reality of the utter disregard of a man’s life. 
 
It’s hard not to read this event in light of the last few weeks. We saw viral videos of High Schoolers joke, laugh, and make denigrating claims about our black brothers and sisters. We saw images of a man in a KKK hood shopping in the grocery store. We watched armed men overrun the capital building in Michigan to forcefully express their demands to re-open the economy while carrying nooses, swastikas and rebel flags. And on a street in Brunswick, Georgia—even before the quarantine happened—a young man was shot while jogging. 
 
All of these events carry unbelievable signals to minority communities. Are they men and women created in the image of God? Do their lives truly matter? Does justice matter? Does rule of law and common respect for fellow humans matter? 
 
The entire scriptures uphold a fundamental truth—humanity is formed in the image of God. That very nature as image bearers brings us to a place where life is valued from conception to grave. There is no person who is “less than” or “unworthy.” The entire moral code of Scripture is built from the standpoint of honoring God and therefore, honoring one another who are made in the image of God. We do not lie, we don’t take things that belong to others, and we do not kill. 
 
We don’t have to be reminded we live in a fallen and broken world. We work for justice, however imperfect this side of eternity. We work to uphold the law, however much it is a shadow of true ideals. We uplift the downtrodden, the weak and the poor because the Scriptures show us how Jesus did the same. And we do all this while we still understand that the ultimate answer for the brokenness of this world is found is the healing balm of the gospel. 
 
So we wait, clutch our sons and daughters closer to us and with broken hearts pray, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus.”