International Mission Board
Dear SBCV family, The International Mission Board of the SBC announced previously that a number of missionary personnel have been offered a voluntary retirement incentive. As a pastor or church you may be wondering what you can do to support these brethren as they seek the next step of mission and ministry service.
Chuck Lawless in a recent blog post gave some very thoughtful and helpful suggestions. Among those suggestions are to pray for our missionaries, provide a house for temporary residence, a car etc.
The International Mission Board has created a “Transition Team” to assist missionaries and to help connect with resources. Feel free to contact them as needed. The contact information at IMB is transitionteam@imb.org.
Here are a few additional thoughts…
Be open and sensitive to missionaries who may return home. Virginia is becoming an international mission field too, with many people groups living among us. Missionaries can be a huge benefit to a local church to serve and impact local ministry.
Will you pray for missionaries? Please pray for the many missionaries on the field. Recently I was at an appointment service with several new missionary families getting ready to deploy. Pray for missionaries who are retiring from the overseas field, but are ready to continue to serve where the Lord opens doors. Pray for missionary families.
Could your church consider increasing your missions giving through the Cooperative Program? The SBC of Virginia executive board in their meeting this week adopted our proposed Ministry Investment Plan and budget for 2016. More SBCV Cooperative Program resources are earmarked for national and international mission efforts for 2016. SBC President Ronnie Floyd is calling upon churches to consider giving more through our Cooperative Program in 2016. Please prayerfully consider this as you develop your church budget. SBC of Virginia is sending out the IMB Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and Prayer materials.
Thank you for the way the church you serve is a part of the Kingdom work through our SBC of Virginia partnership that works with our national partners like IMB and NAMB to reach the world for Christ.
Some important links:
http://dev.bpnews.net/45507/imb-transition-team-announced-for-missionary-retirees
http://chucklawless.com/2015/09/12-ways-to-assist-returning-southern-baptist-missionaries/
Your brother in Christ,
Brian