CARY – Southern
Baptists’ International Mission Board will hold a commissioning service for
missionaries Nov. 11, during the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina’s 178th annual session in Greensboro.
The IMB commissioning service is a
time when missionaries and the churches from which they are sent gather for
worship, prayer, Bible reading and preaching in preparation for deployment to
their fields of service. Rarely are these services convened outside of
local churches, but at the request of North Carolina Baptist leadership, the
IMB approved the commissioning service to coincide with the state convention’s
annual meeting.
“This is a tremendous opportunity
for North Carolina Baptists,” said Milton A. Hollifield, Jr., BSCNC Executive
Director-treasurer. “This convention of churches resides in a strategic
partnership with the mission boards of the Southern Baptist Convention, and
this service of worship will dynamically reveal just how magnificent the work
of the International Mission Board truly is because of the faithful sacrifice
and investment of local Southern Baptist churches.”
“We are living in crucial times for
the proclamation of the gospel,” said Jerry Rankin, IMB president, “and it is
during moments like these when we come together as a family of Southern Baptist
churches where we thank God for His mighty power in calling out men and women
for missionary service. It’s a time to recommit our lives and our churches to
investing in the missionary imperative given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ.”
“We stand on the shoulders of giants
who have left us a legacy of faithfulness and zeal for the gospel that we dare
not abandon,” Hollifield said. “I am prayerfully anticipating that this service
of worship will be a time when all North Carolina Baptists come together
expecting a mighty move of God in our midst. I hope every church throughout the
Baptist State Convention of North Carolina will send a large delegation to
Greensboro to participate and display before a watching world the vital
connection between local churches, state conventions, and the national entities
of the Southern Baptist Convention. It is here we find our purpose as a
denomination – to go into all the world and preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ.”
The IMB Commissioning Service will
coincide with an entire evening focused on missions and mission partnerships
through the various outreaches of the Baptist State Convention of North
Carolina and the Southern Baptist Convention. A parade of flags representing
the SBC missionary presence in the world will highlight the vast engagement of
local churches and their impact through their gifts to the Cooperative Program
of the Southern Baptist Convention, the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for
International Missions, and the North Carolina Missions Offering.
The service will begin at 6:30
p.m. at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex in Greensboro, N.C.
To highlight the importance of both
the ongoing partnership between the BSCNC, the IMB and the Commissioning
Service, the BSCNC also released its latest podcast detailing the work of the
IMB and the role the Commissioning Service serves for missionaries, their
families, and their local churches.