Missionaries tell their stories
A total of 52 International Mission Board missionaries stood on stage – several with identities hidden due to their location assignment – before messengers at IMB’s June 14 Sending Celebration. They shared their backgrounds as well as their calling to go to the nations.
“Today, amid sin and darkness, devastation and pain, many are focused on the worst of our Convention, we get to be reminded of why we, as believers … as Southern Baptists, exist,” IMB President Paul Chitwood said.
IMB trustees approved of the missionaries’ appointments at the board’s meeting in Orlando May 18-19.
CP allocation budget passed, current giving above budget
The Cooperative Program Allocation Budget and 2022-23 SBC Operating Budget were passed by messengers.
In his address to messengers, EC interim President and CEO Willie McLaurin thanked churches for an increase in CP giving in the short term, noting that CP giving is $11.3 million (8.89 percent) above budget for the first eight months of the 2021-2022 fiscal year. In the history of CP, Southern Baptists have given a cumulative $20 billion.
Litton points messengers to Jesus: The Center of It All
SBC President Ed Litton used his presidential sermon to focus on the convention’s theme – Jesus: The Center of It All.
“Lord Jesus, we need you. We need you to be the center of it all. We need you in this moment. Pass us not, oh blessed Savior,” Litton petitioned. “Lord, come. Come to our meeting. Take over our hearts. Rule and reign in us, Lord God. And let us be careful how we treat one another; this is our credibility to a lost world.”
Litton, pastor of Redemption Church in Saraland, Ala., focused on Matthew 9:35-38 to bring what he called a “gut punch” from Jesus that should lead Southern Baptists to a “gut check”.
“What do we hear from Jesus? He says you need to repent and you need to take action,” Litton said. “You need to stop seeing people as the object of your success, and you need to love like Jesus loves.”
Resolutions address sexual abuse, sanctity of life, injustice to Native peoples
The convention passed nine resolutions ranging dealing with issues such as the war in Ukraine, the prosperity gospel, and the need to reach rural America with the Gospel.
The convention brought a somber resolution calling for lament and repentance for sexual abuse in the SBC. The resolution included an apology to a number of sexual abuse survivors who agreed to have their names printed in the resolution.
