Where will the next generation of missionaries come from?


★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ R


ather than taking a spectator’s role, the North American Mission Board is implementing an intentional process by which future missionaries and


church planters can not only arise but also thrive. Just like most players in baseball’s major leagues first played on “farm league” teams that helped prepare them for the majors, NAMB is forming its own “farm system.” Participants in NAMB’s farm system will serve in one or all of three roles:


Student Missionaries: These are students in their junior or senior years of high school and college or seminary students who are exploring God’s calling on their lives. They will serve in church plants, local churches or in an- other SBC ministry and be trained by those who are already doing the work.


Church Planting Interns: These are individuals serving in a local church setting as they discern their callings and future involvement in church planting. NAMB will be careful to place these individuals in churches that are actively involved in planting new churches so they can be prepared for future church planting roles.


Church Planting Apprentices: This category is for men who’ve been called to plant a church. These men will serve for up to a year in the church planting context under the guidance of an experienced church planter. Because the greatest need for churches in North America primarily lies in areas outside the South, church planting apprentices will serve in the West, Northeast, Midwest or Canada.


The goal is that church planters will emerge from the farm system developed and equipped to start churches in the most unreached areas of North America. To end up with 1,500 new church planters every year, NAMB will need to


start with much more than that number of student missionaries and church planting interns. It is to be expected that some will pursue callings other than church planting.


Although the formalized farm system recognizes three stages, there is a major


role prior to an individual’s entry into it. That “stage” finds its home in the local church. The local church, as it so often does, serves as the incubator for capturing the imagination of the next generation of missionaries. With ministry, missions and movements, the local church helps cast vision through LoveLoud, campus missionaries, community engagement and other avenues were members inten- tionally live out the gospel. As members discover God’s call to missions, the local church connects them with mentors and coaches to guide the future missionaries on their paths to mis- sion service. Resources and training are available to coaches and mentors through NAMB. To explore how your church can be even more intentional in discovering and developing the next generation of missionaries, visit namb.net/mobilize-me. OM


DISCOVERING TOMORROW’S MISSIONARIES


W


hen it comes to church planting ef- forts, Southern Baptists are, historically,


among the best in the world. The mere size of our denomination is a testimony to this. But in North America we are losing ground. We simply are not keeping up with the popula- tion growth. To start re-gaining the ground we have lost over the decades in Southern Baptist Convention church-to-population ratios, the North American Mission Board has set a net- gain goal of 5,000 SBC congregations by the year 2022. This means starting 1,500 new congrega- tions each year—that’s 15,000 churches in a decade—just to stay ahead of the number of churches we lose each year and to keep gain- ing ground. You don’t have to be real good with math


to know that if we need 1,500 new churches each year, we are going to need 1,500 church planters every year as well. We need to start investing right now in an


intentional, church-based “farm system” to develop young missionaries. Just like major league baseball’s farm


system helps pro baseball players develop and sharpen their skills, this farm system will prepare our next generation of missionaries for the front lines of the mission field. They’ll advance through three categories:


★Student Missionaries ★Church Planting Interns


★Church Planter Apprentices Of course, to end up with enough planters


and church planting team members, we will need to start with more than 1,500 missionaries and interns. Naturally some will pursue other callings. Your church can help discover and develop future missionary candidates. In the meantime, let’s pray for our next gen-


eration of missionaries, asking God what role He would have us play in the process.


Kevin Ezell is the president of the North American Mission Board.


ON MISSION • Winter 2013 B

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