IM is quickly approaching 90 years of leading Free Will Baptists to labor with the Body of Christ to fulfill the Great Commission. Our 2024 theme is “Embracing the Legacy…Continuing the Mission.”
Embracing the Legacy means we acknowledge, value, and honor the people, traditions, and achievements from previous generations. We fully recognize the impact of our pioneer missionaries on today’s mission efforts.
Our legacy began in 1935 when the newly-established National Association of Free Will Baptists sent a single lady, Laura Belle Barnard, to India. Those early years saw other great pioneers, heroes of the faith, join the ranks. People like Pop and Mom Willey, Carlisle and Marie Hanna, Ken and Marvis Eagleton, Dr. and Mrs. LaVerne Miley, and many more stood tall and served faithfully — often at great personal sacrifice.
Many of our pioneers have gone to be with the Lord. However, their godly influence and impact extends beyond their active involvement in missions.
Working in the Present
We have substantial evidence the subsequent generations are embracing the legacy and continuing the mission. Our statistics from 2023 reveal much spiritual seed has been “planted and watered.” God has certainly given the increase. We believe 2024 will bring an even greater harvest.
From the outset, new IM missionaries are taught the IM mission statement: IM labors with the Body of Christ to fulfill the Great Commission. They are presented with six tasks directly focused on accomplishing this mission statement. It is vital to our existence and effectiveness for each one to commit to carrying out these six tasks.
Please allow me to review those six tasks and the results revealed in the 2023 field statistics. God is mightily at work!
1.Minister to people’s needs. This simply means to demonstrate God’s love for all people by meeting their real or felt needs. Our missionaries and partners engage in many creative ways to minister to needs. They use 155 ministry centers. These are not churches but locations where people’s felt needs are met. Ministry centers provide places for learning English, food distribution, addiction treatments, vocational training, computer classes, sports programs, etc.
In these centers, 54,737 people had needs met throughout the last year.
2.Share the gospel. We are called to share the transformational message of compassion and hope. Through the faithful witness of IM missionaries and national partners, 6,319 men, women, and children’s lives forever changed because they accepted Christ as Savior in 2023.
3.Disciple every new believer. Third, and perhaps most important, we commit ourselves to see every new believer discipled. This task, given by Christ Himself, is essential to seeing believers remain faithful and churches stay strong. One of the public demonstrations of one’s faith in Christ is to follow Him in baptism. In 2023, 2,732 baptisms bore witness to others of new commitments to Christ.
4.Plant churches. If the four previous tasks are carried out in a God-honoring manner, we believe Christ-centered, biblically-sound, and culturally relevant churches will emerge.
The year 2023 was exciting! Field workers saw:
49 new churches planted.
79 churches organized.
376 mission outreach locations established.
Our 2020-2025 goal was to increase the number of Free Will Baptist churches and mission works outside North America from 845 to 2,000. According to 2023 reports, we now have 1,130 churches overseas. We praise God for this amazing growth and sincerely believe we will reach the goal of 2,000 by the end of 2025.
5.Train leaders. It is imperative we focus on biblical qualifications as we train leaders. If they are to preach the truths of God’s Word, they must know these truths, believe them, and live them. In 2020, we set a five-year goal to see the number of Bible institutes increase from eight to 12 by the end of 2025. Today, 15 Bible institutes and training centers serve 499 students following various courses of study. Though this goal has been met, it does not erase the need for continued growth and establishing more training centers.
6.Partner with the Body of Christ. Our mission statement clearly indicates we are to “labor with the Body of Christ to fulfill the Great Commission.” We desire to plant Free Will Baptist churches that see themselves as a part of the greater Body of Christ. God has blessed IM with 28 partners.
Through these efforts, we have some level of outreach in 41 countries. Every one of these partnerships has a Free Will Baptist connection.
Consider the cumulative results of what God has done through the faithful ministries of our field missionaries, national believers, and partners. Perhaps you recall IM set a goal to see the number of Free Will Baptist believers outside of North America grow from 35,537 in 2020 to 50,000 by the end of 2025. In God’s eyes, even that number was too small. This is evidenced by the astounding fact the average Sunday attendance in Free Will Baptist churches outside of North America in 2023 was 57,417.
That should bring joy to our hearts and a hallelujah to our lips!
Looking Ahead and Setting Goals
The IM board challenged the IM leadership team to set new “impossible-to-reach” goals. That is, impossible to reach without a clear intervention of God. We like this kind of challenge. We prayed and asked God to give us some extreme goals for the next 10 years — goals we will strive to meet by the end of 2034.
For each goal we asked three questions:
Where are we at the present time?
What is the probability of this goal being realized?
What is our plan of action or POA?
We are still working through the details, but we are well on our way to pursuing these new goals.
Please allow me to share the EXTREME GOALS we established.
1.See our individual donor list grow from 3,609 to 7,000. We believe many Free Will Baptists are not giving to IM mission efforts. We should note 7,000 is still a small percentage of Free Will Baptists, which number close to 120,000.
2.Have 225 board-approved missionaries. Currently, 113 missionaries labor on our fields. Our five-year goal aims to have 125 IM missionaries before the end of 2025. To reach the goal of 225 by the end of 2034, God will have to work in a miraculous way. We are assuredly anticipating Him to work and us to walk with each candidate from application to the field and through their years of service.
3.See IM meet three major financial goals. We all know IM ministries, programs, and people must be supported financially. As we strive to meet these needs, we have set the following goals.
$1 million for the World Mission Offering (WMO). This annual offering averages $650,000.
$3 million for the GROW ENDOWMENT. The GROW ENDOWMENT helps provide seed money for new missionaries.
$10 million for the CORNERSTONE ENDOWMENT. This endowment’s purpose is to provide adequate income for the general fund.
4.Free Will Baptists share the gospel with one million people. We are commanded to take the gospel to the nations. To reach a million people with the gospel may seem impossible, but let’s remember, with our God, nothing is impossible.
5.Double the number of Free Will Baptist believers beyond North America. Presently, 118,123 Free Will Baptists worship weekly in North America, and 57,417 gather outside of North America. This goal is unobtainable without God’s help and our obedience.
Continuing the Mission
By valuing the legacy, establishing a solid foundation, and continuously working toward the mission with adaptability and empowerment, we can ensure the work of those who came before us endures and thrives. This approach not only honors their contributions but also sets the stage for future generations to make their mark and continue the journey with purpose and passion.
Undeniably, we have a legacy worthy of being embraced. Obedience to His command will inevitably prod us to lock our focus on the Great Commission. Therefore, it behooves us to be consumed with embracing the legacy and continuing to mission until His return.
About the Writer: Clint Morgan is director of IM, Inc. Learn more about how you can get involved in taking the gospel around the world: iminc.org.
