English
Korean
Spanish
LUBBOCK—Paul Chitwood was pastoring a small rural church in Kentucky while attending seminary when he was invited to a world missions conference featuring speakers from the North American Mission Board and the International Mission Board. It was his first real exposure to missions.
“My imagination and heart were captured by these people and what they were doing with their lives,” Chitwood said.
In 2002, while pastoring and teaching at seminary, Chitwood became an IMB trustee. It was another mile-marker moment in his life and ministry, he said, changing how he preached and taught.
Today, Chitwood serves as president of the IMB. Although he never served as a career missionary, he said he and his wife, Michelle, “feel called to do everything we can do to ensure that our missionaries have everything they need to do what God has called them to do.”
On Tuesday, Oct. 28—the final day of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Annual Meeting—Chitwood sat on a panel during the President’s Luncheon to share how the convention’s churches can engage with the IMB to do what God has called them to do. SBTC Missional Ministries Associate Colin Rayburn joined the panel, which was moderated by outgoing SBTC President Danny Forshee.
Mobilizing through M-Link, Reach Europe
Referring to Matthew 24:14—“This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come”—Forshee asked the panel how SBTC churches can partner with the IMB to evangelize the world so Christ’s return might be hastened.
Rayburn mentioned M-Link, a new online tool that matches churches that have needs with sister churches that can meet those needs. Those churches may not only include SBTC churches, but those that are part of the convention’s ministry partnerships in Nevada, Puerto Rico, and Europe.
Chitwood also referenced the latter partnership, known as Reach Europe, as a way SBTC churches can engage with the nations. Reach Europe is a partnership between the SBTC and IMB to bring the gospel to what has been described as one of the most lost continents on the planet. In addition to churches mobilizing toward those opportunities, Chitwood urged continued giving through the Cooperative Program, which marked its 100th anniversary this year.
“When you give a dollar to the Cooperative Program or the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, your church has a witness in 155 countries around the world,” he said. “They are your missionaries.”
Those missionaries are working hard daily to bring the gospel to the roughly 3,000 unreached, unengaged people groups—also known as UUPGs. Hundreds of people groups have been reached since the IMB’s Project 3000 launch a few years ago, but others have been discovered since. France, one of the countries included in the Reach Europe initiative, has 29 UUPGs, Chitwood noted.
A unique role
During a question-and-answer session, the panel conversation turned to the impact churches can have when they work together.
“The church working together is such a beautiful thing in SBC life,” Chitwood said, adding that missions might look different for a large church than it does at a smaller church.
“We are a large denomination of small churches,” Forshee added. He told the story of two pastors from smaller congregations who, after meeting with an indigenous IMB worker in South Asia, realized their churches could adopt a UUPG there for $250 per month— affordable for many congregations.
Rayburn said M-Link can help churches identify those kinds of opportunities, as well.
“Your church, no matter what size … [has] a unique role to play in the Great Commission,” he said.
