Two weeks ago, Connie and I attended the International Mission Board missionary commissioning service held at North Phoenix Baptist Church in Phoenix, Ariz. Sixty-two of Southern Baptists’ best and brightest were sent out to the nations with the gospel. That is a really big deal.
The atmosphere for the evening gathering was celebratory and hope-filled. It was truly a night to remember as we heard testimonies of men and women called by God to take the gospel to the nations. These are the times when Southern Baptists are at their very best.
The first SBC missionary commissioning service I attended was at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky. I have attended others since then, but the response is always the same. By the time the service is over, I am wiping tears from my eyes and thanking God for the opportunity to be part of a missionary-sending convention of churches.
Here are seven things I love about seeing Christian missionaries, in our case Southern Baptist missionaries, sent to the nations:
1. We are part of the heavenly vision: Revelation 7:9 describes a scene at the throne of God that motivates our work. The verse reads, “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.” By God’s grace, the work we do together in sending and funding our state, national and international missionaries is contributing to this gathering of people from all over the world to worship the Lamb of God.
2. Men and women are answering the call: Dr. Paul Chitwood, president of the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, has been used by the Lord to highlight the pipeline problem with the international mission work of our convention. When Dr. Chitwood started with the IMB in 2018 there were not many men and women waiting to become SBC missionaries. Today, however, we see many of our brothers and sisters answering God’s call to take the gospel to far-off places, even to places with no gospel witness. These are exciting days for our network of churches.
3. Kentucky Baptists are all in: When a Kentucky Baptist church funds our mission work through the Cooperative Program or the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, then those SBC missionaries are your missionaries. You are funding their global gospel-advancing work. At the commissioning service in Phoenix, several of those 62 men and women being commissioned were Kentucky Baptists.
4. Our missionaries need our support: One of the most encouraging things about this particular gathering was the number of pastors and church members in attendance to support the missionaries being sent. Several Kentucky Baptist leaders flew to Phoenix to show these missionaries that they stood with them. They need the support now, but they will need it even more when they are experiencing the loneliness and spiritual warfare that may characterize their service on the field.
5. Proud to be part of a sending state: When I saw the names of the missionaries being introduced and the Kentucky Baptist churches that were sending them, I could not help but be filled with joy over the work of God in our churches. It is a great honor when God calls men and women out of a local church to go onto the mission field.
6. God is not finished with us yet: There are 8 billion people on earth and many of them have never heard the gospel. Dr. Chitwood reminded us that evening that the world’s greatest problem is lostness and that we have the solution to the world’s greatest problem — the gospel. Every time we commission gospel-advancing missionaries we are reminded that God is still using Southern Baptists.
7. Is God calling you? Those who led the service that evening extended the invitation to all in attendance to consider whether they were being called by God to personally take the gospel to the nations.
As the service was ending one of our Kentucky Baptist leaders came to me, leaned over, and said “This is why we cooperate.” I could not agree more.
Dr. Todd Gray 