COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) — Southern Baptists attending this summer’s Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Columbus, Ohio, may find it easier to get involved in SBC missions efforts thanks to a historic level of cooperation between the North American Mission Board and the International Mission Board.
NAMB and IMB are working together on a variety of joint ventures for the convention, including the Send North America Luncheon, a joint exhibit and a “Sending Celebration.” The cooperative efforts are designed to make it easier for Southern Baptists attending the convention to get their churches more involved in missions.
“Missions isn’t easy, but getting involved in missions should be,” said Dustin Willis, NAMB’s team leader for Send North America events. “When we work together, a church doesn’t have to run from one place to another to find out what they are going to do. Collectively, we can help mobilize churches together.”
The fifth annual Send North America Luncheon, to be held in the Battelle Grand Ballroom at the Columbus Convention Center at 12 p.m., June 15, will provide an opportunity for Southern Baptists to learn more about how the two entities’ closer cooperation will help better serve Southern Baptists in the coming months and years. Both NAMB President Kevin Ezell and IMB President David Platt will share about the future of Southern Baptist missions at the luncheon. The lunch is free but a ticket will be required. You can secure tickets at www.snaluncheon.com.
NAMB and the IMB will also share exhibit space with the SBC Executive Committee. Convention attendees can visit the exhibit to find out more about how to get their churches involved in reaching unreached people groups internationally and church planting in North America.
“The exhibit will be the function of what Kevin Ezell and David Platt will talk about in the luncheon,” Willis said. “In the luncheon they will share what it looks like for the church to live out its mission in their community, in North America and to the ends of the earth and how we can — as mission entities — make that process more streamlined and simple. At the exhibit, churches will have the opportunity to dig deeper into how they can get more involved in missions.”
The joint Sending Celebration will highlight 100 international and North American missionaries and the churches sending them to the field. Unlike previous commissioning services, this celebration will feature both missionaries and sending churches and will recognize the significant influence sending churches have on pushing back lostness around the world. The celebration will be held Wednesday morning, June 17, directly following NAMB’s report.
“These missionaries are going to cities across North America and to unreached people groups around the world,” Willis said. “We want to celebrate that, but we also want to celebrate the churches that are sending those missionaries.”
NAMB’s report begins at 8:50 a.m. on Wednesday. During this time Ezell will spotlight NAMB’s accomplishments in the past year and outline the entity’s plans to increase church planting effectiveness in the future.
For more information on tickets for the Send North America luncheon, visit www.snaluncheon.com.
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